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From: kyt@cs.columbia.edu (Kok-Yong Tan)
Subject: Re: Mail Order horror/hero stories
In-Reply-To: picard@milton.u.washington.edu's message of 24 Apr 91 19:32:20 GMT
Message-ID: <KYT.91Apr24203724@spruce.cs.columbia.edu>
Sender: news@cs.columbia.edu (The Daily News)
Organization: Columbia University Department of Computer Science
References: <1991Apr24.193220.19013@milton.u.washington.edu>
Distribution: usa
Date: 24 Apr 91 20:37:24

Yes, here are two horror stories about MacWarehouse:

The first time I ordered a SCSI cable from MacWarehouse.  They sent me a
defective cable.  I had mentioned to their order taker that it was urgent and I
needed a working cable ASAP.  They told me that it was no problem that as soon
as they received the defective cable (they got AirBorne Express to pick it up
at their expense, as it should be), they would despatch a new one.  Total
turnaround time: 3 days tops (or so they assured me).  Five days later (over a
weekend, so it was actually 3 working days), still no cable.  I call them up
and they claim they'd never received a cable.  I call AirBorne who then
provides me with the airbill number, the name of the person who received it at
MacWarehouse and the time of receipt (all received the very next day after
AirBorne had picked it up from my place.)  I call MacWarehouse and ask for the
same person I had spoken to earlier.  Same denials.  I told them of the
information I had obtained from AirBorne and I hear some tapping of a keyboard
in the background.  Then they acknowledge that "they had received it and still
hadn't processed it."  I told them I needed the cable urgently but they were
adamant that "until we process the return, we can't send you another cable."
They refused to even give me an estimate as when they could send me the new
SCSI cable.  In fury, I called MacConnection and received a working cable the
next day.  Three working days after that (for a total of 7 working days in
all--approximately 10 days in all since there was a holiday), I got a
replacement SCSI cable from MacWarehouse which I no longer needed.  I sent them
a nasty letter and got a phone call direct from the CEO, who apologized
profusely and said that they would credit my VISA account for $25 (the cost of
the cable) and the reason they had to process all returns was because some
people had been falsely claiming defective merchandise, getting replacements
and not sending the original orders back.  He also said it wouldn't happen
again. All over $25 worth of goods (see below for hero story to understand why
I was so peeved.)

Like a fool, I believed the CEO and ordered a faxmodem from them since
MacConnection was out of stock.  This time, instead of the "Next Day Air"
promise, after 3 working days, I still hadn't received my shipment.  Another
delay, especially after I had asked them if they had it in stock and if they
could get the order to me the next day since I needed it urgently.  I had
ordered two items separately but within 15 minutes of each other and charged
them to the same credit card.  They had some braindead security measure which
required them to wait 24 hours to make sure that it was really "me" who made
the purchases.  (How does this help determine authenticity?)  Well, okay but
that still leaves one day unaccounted for.  I raised Hell with the CEO and only
then, did my shipment get expedited and I receive it on the 4th working day.

(Note that I DON'T include the day I place the order in my experiences above.)

Here's a hero story about MacConnection:

I'd ordered 4th Dimension by ACIUS from MacConnection.  It arrived the next
day, shrink-wrapped and all.  On opening the shrink-wrap, I find that Acius had
forgotten to include the program with the manuals in the box.  I called
MacConnection and outlined my problem.  They said that they would ship out a
complete set immediately and that I could send the defective set back to them
at my leisure and at their expense.  I told them that since I had a concierge,
I could leave the defective set with him and he could do an on-the-spot swap
when AirBorne Express arrived: defective set for complete set, thus making the
return to MacConnection that much easier.  It was done and I was up and running
on day 4.  Technically, since it was ACIUS that screwed up, MacConnection
didn't really have to do this and pay for the cost of retrieving the package.
They could have insisted that I rant and rave at ACIUS to get the product.
However, they did me the courtesy of retrieving it at their expense and I will
never forget it.

Now, MacConnection was willing to do this with a $465 program and MacWarehouse
was not with a mere $25 cable.  Furthermore, since I was using a credit card to
pay for my purchases, if I had not returned the defective item, MacWarehouse
could have just charged my card again and produced paperwork to justify the
charge.  It goes without saying I will never deal with MacWarehouse again.  All
my future purchases shall be through MacConnection.


--
Kok-Yong Tan can be reached at:      | "Labra lege."
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