Customer is always.... well... you know.

[jonnyGURU]

The other day, a gentleman bought a video card for $112.

Two days after the video card was charged to his credit card and the card had shipped, the price dropped to $99.

The customer called wanting to know what his option were.

We explained to him that since stock rotates every two days on such product, partially BECAUSE prices are so volatile in this industry, and that retail price is of low margin and based on an actual wholesale price, that the actual wholesale price of his particular video card would yield no profit if sold at the new price (we are not ashamed of being frank on these matters. You give stuff away... look what happened to Value America!).

He asked what would happen if he returned the card. We told him that he would only be credited back at current market value ($99) because we could no longer sell the card for $112 and refuse to take the loss.

The customer then decided to refuse the package and included a note stating that he's contacted his credit card company to dispute the charges.

Now, we went ahead and gave him full credit minus freight (we DID have to pay to ship the thing, of course) because to fight this would really be childish and it's certainly not worth stooping to this guy's level. Of course we know that you can't VERBALLY dispute a charge with your credit card company and that there's forms to fill out, but it's really not worth getting this hot head any madder than he is.

The reason why I'm "ranting" about the guy is two things: First, he states in his letter that he doesn't need our card for $113 because he bought it somewhere else for $99. Well, DUH! That's what WE sell it for NOW! He didn't buy it NOW he bought it BEFORE the price dropped and it SHIPPED BEFORE the price drop! The second thing is that he quotes our customer service statement as if it addressed his particular issue.

Umm... Sir. We DO want to make sure you're happy and too bad it didn't result in your savig $13 and keeping the card, but we ARE giving you "a" refund. But no where in our customer satisfaction statement does it say that "if you live in Bum Fsck Egypt and it takes twenty days to get a package to you from our location and the price drops $13 while the package sits in Iceland waiting for the next plane to Luxemberg, you will be reimbursed the difference." I fail to see that anywhere. Really.

Is the guy worth $13 to keep as a customer? Well, yes and no. $13 isn't much. But that $13 credit is not fair to the guy that bought the card full price that got it two days ahead of time or to the guy who bought it two days earlier or the guy that picked the video card up at the will call counter and paid the full price... AND if we did such credits for EVERYONE that wanted price protection, those $13 would add up VERY QUICKLY.

Think about it: Typical mark up on small parts in PC industry is 15%. This would mean that AFTER price protection on an item, who's price drop is BEYOND OUR CONTROL, we would make $2 off of that customer and that hardly pays for the time it takes to pay for the guy who answered the phone on OUR TOLL FREE LINE to tell the customer, "yes sir, we're going to refund you that $13."

You want price protection? Buy a VCR or a bicycle. Don't even thinkn about price protection on an OEM packaged $113 video card. Please.

Am I narrow minded here or am I right? I want to know what you guys think.

 

[Spoooon]

Well, I would only return an item if there was something wrong with it, not to try and save a few bucks. However, if there was something wrong with it and I wanted a refund, I would expect to be refunded the amount I paid, not the current value. Or an exchange of course.

 

[AMDJunkie]

Should of told him to take his business to CompUSA.

 

[Napalm381]

<< Customer is always.... well... you know. >>

A twit?

 

[Total Refected Power]

Most people feel they have 14-30 days to return an item at the price they paid.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Reasonable. Sure.

But, there was nothing wrong with it, though. He never even opened the package and refused it at the door.

The whole issue was the price drop during transit.

 

[Viper GTS]

This is essentially what happened with Untamo &amp; his GF2 GTS's. People who paid the $172, or whatever it was, were pissed when the prices dropped to $158. I paid $188 shipped for mine, so if I'd waited a few months I could have saved $30. Big friggin' deal. The computer industry isn't exactly known for it's price stability, buying parts is taking a gamble. You never know when the bottom of the market will fall out &amp; the price will drop like a rock.

Tell your customer to STFU &amp; get a life.

Err... Maybe not quite THAT way...



Viper GTS

 

[Optimus]

Ha! You know, I have a feeling that guy is probably in Hot Deals posting about his terrible experience - after all, that $13 would have chopped his profit when he returned it without a reciept to Comp USA!


I have a customer demanding we document something in our programming language that _NOBODY_ can or will (not Microsoft, not IBM... nobody). I told him it would be next to impossible, which is why nobody does it.

His reply?


Well, he thinks that if WE started, MS and others would copy us and follow suit!

 

[jonnyGURU]

TRP: Sorry to have missed your post. Guess we posted at the same time.

Although it's fair to &quot;expect&quot; full refund, let me give you some defense on why that's not such a wise business decision.

Customer buys product.

Wholesale price drops.

Retail price drops.

Customer returns DEFECTIVE product for refund.

Retailer returns product to wholesaler.

Wholesale price drops AGAIN in the interim.

Wholesaler exchanges product.

Retailer receives replacement product.

Question: What on Earth does retailer sell product for? Certainly not for any amount that would make a profit. That's certainly out the window.

Computers suck.

Hmm.... Feels like new jonnyguru.com content.