honestly im not happy with tank guys anymore

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TankGuys

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2005
1,080
0
0
I sent out a mass e-mail to everyone about the fee being waived for 72 hours, and I've completely taken down the Conroes from our site, so as not to run into any more ugliness. From the start, I've been working my absolute best to get as many chips, as quickly and for as low a price as possible, and will continue to do so to fill all existing orders.
 

fbrdphreak

Lifer
Apr 17, 2004
17,555
1
0
Originally posted by: TankGuys
I sent out a mass e-mail to everyone about the fee being waived for 72 hours, and I've completely taken down the Conroes from our site, so as not to run into any more ugliness. From the start, I've been working my absolute best to get as many chips, as quickly and for as low a price as possible, and will continue to do so to fill all existing orders.
Good to hear, sounds like the right way to handle things to me. :)
 

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
May 16, 2002
26,050
15,191
136
Intel ugliness continues.....

Sorry Tankguys, you haven't lost my future business, thanks for trying your best. I will stay with AMD for now until all this crap blows over.
 

TankGuys

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2005
1,080
0
0
The sad thing about this is that my ENTIRE purpose was to help everyone out. Boy did it backfire - people are convinced I was trying to "extort" more money or whatever... no good deed goes unpunished I guess :(
 

imported_inspire

Senior member
Jun 29, 2006
986
0
0
Originally posted by: TankGuys
I sent out a mass e-mail to everyone about the fee being waived for 72 hours, and I've completely taken down the Conroes from our site, so as not to run into any more ugliness. From the start, I've been working my absolute best to get as many chips, as quickly and for as low a price as possible, and will continue to do so to fill all existing orders.

I find the fact that TG answers customer concerns via the web on not only it's own site, but others, as well, very nice. I mean that in all sincerity.
 

GuitarDaddy

Lifer
Nov 9, 2004
11,465
1
0
I admire Tankguys for there support on the forums, and their tireless resolve to make things right. But they missed it on this one, ordering and selling processors at a higher price while leaving preorders unfilled is just bad business.

You wanted sales bad enough to set a price and take preorders for a product that you had no firm commitment from your suppliers. Then when your gamble doesn't pan out you won't take the loss, but instead punish the poor folks who preordered by forcing them to get leap frogged in line or pay more than they agreed to:(

Learn a lesson for the future
1. Don't take preorders (ala newegg)
or
2. Take it like a man, when you screw up
 

TankGuys

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2005
1,080
0
0
Originally posted by: GuitarDaddy
I admire Tankguys for there support on the forums, and their tireless resolve to make things right. But they missed it on this one, ordering and selling processors at a higher price while leaving preorders unfilled is just bad business.

You wanted sales bad enough to set a price and take preorders for a product that you had no firm commitment from your suppliers. Then when your gamble doesn't pan out you won't take the loss, but instead punish the poor folks who preordered by forcing them to get leap frogged in line or pay more than they agreed to:(

Learn a lesson for the future
1. Don't take preorders (ala newegg)
or
2. Take it like a man, when you screw up

Your points make sense, but you're missing the key fact, like a lot of people:

We did NOT say we weren't going to fill the orders.


What I said was, I could fill them earlier, for some people, if they were willing to pay a bit extra. That's it. There was not mention of cancelling orders, or forcing people to pay, anything like that.

I will still fill the orders. We're doing the best we can, but many people seem to be under the impression that I'm refusing to fill any more of the "cheap" pre-orders. That's not the point in any way, shape, or form.


 

Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
16,986
1
0
The whole "pre order" nonsense is garbage anyway. I'm not speaking specifically about TG, this goes for the lot of the others who did the same thing.

And increasing the price "on the fly" for a product you haven't even shipped seems ridiculous. I don't get a refund at the gas pump if the price happens to go down an hour later.

With all the bitching and moaning about Newegg we've seen here the last month, at least one can say they deliver the product, at the price you agreed to.

By selling product you do not have in stock, you are taking a risk. The price MAY increase between the time you "sell" the product and the time you are actually able to deliver it to the customer. That's called the price of doing business.

I won't be doing any business with TG, that's for sure. And that 5% cancellation fee is BS too.
 

Anogar

Member
Aug 7, 2006
102
0
0
TankGuys, I've never bought from you, but I will in the future. Anyone who doesn't understand your intentions isn't thinking the situation through properly. Keep up the good work.
 

n19htmare

Senior member
Jan 12, 2005
275
0
0
I think everyone knew the price is subject to change. That might not have been the problem here. The problem is charging people to cancel their order because YOU goofed up. It's a business, you lose some, you gain some. But you try your best to cut losses in any way possible, this does not mean that you go out and start charging people for YOUR mistakes.

You had an agreement that the people who were inline first, will get them first. REGARDLESS OF WHEN YOU GET EM.... If you tell me that i'm first in line, i expect to be the first in line.
If you break the agreement by allowing other peeps to "CUT" in front of me because they are paying more, you have TERMINATED the agreement we had and thus i have the right to cancel my order at no cost to me.

The point is you don't do this, it just makes a business look bad. I run a business, make the customer happy, once the customer is happy he will come back for more business and you will make up the loss eventually.
take your loss now, keep the customers happy and you will get their and other people's business later.
If you piss off a customer, you'll loose their and other's business. so NEVER piss a customer off, they are your income.

But glad to hear you took care of the problem. and now that you did, I'm a potential buyer, If you hadn't resolved the issue, i would have never bought from you guys.

 

TankGuys

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2005
1,080
0
0
Originally posted by: Pabster
...And increasing the price "on the fly" for a product you haven't even shipped seems ridiculous. I don't get a refund at the gas pump if the price happens to go down an hour later.

Nobody was forced to pay more, we are still going to fill orders at the lower price.

As for the gas/rebate thing, of course not. However, if anyone read the message itself, it clearly states that when I am able to buy the processors at the lower price, then nobody would pay extra. Furthermore, nobody pays any extra until I had a chip in hand, ready to ship to them, and even at that, only if they wanted to.

Originally posted by: Pabster
with all the bitching and moaning about Newegg we've seen here the last month, at least one can say they deliver the product, at the price you agreed to.

So have we - MANY of them, at the lower price. We'll continue to fill them as well, at the lower price, but once again, I gave people the OPTION to pay more to get them a bit sooner. Think of it like paying for express shipping service.

Originally posted by: Pabster
By selling product you do not have in stock, you are taking a risk. The price MAY increase between the time you "sell" the product and the time you are actually able to deliver it to the customer. That's called the price of doing business.

Of course. That's why we never promised a ship date. I told people we'd fill the orders as soon as we could, which is exactly what we are trying to do, while also offering other options to people.

Originally posted by: Pabster
I won't be doing any business with TG, that's for sure. And that 5% cancellation fee is BS too.

That's a shame, but that's your decision. As for the cancellation fee, that was also made absolutely clear to everyone who pre-ordered, and I've explained why it was required, AND we're waiving it right now.

 

Avalon

Diamond Member
Jul 16, 2001
7,567
156
106
Originally posted by: Pabster
The whole "pre order" nonsense is garbage anyway. I'm not speaking specifically about TG, this goes for the lot of the others who did the same thing.

And increasing the price "on the fly" for a product you haven't even shipped seems ridiculous. I don't get a refund at the gas pump if the price happens to go down an hour later.

With all the bitching and moaning about Newegg we've seen here the last month, at least one can say they deliver the product, at the price you agreed to.

By selling product you do not have in stock, you are taking a risk. The price MAY increase between the time you "sell" the product and the time you are actually able to deliver it to the customer. That's called the price of doing business.

I won't be doing any business with TG, that's for sure. And that 5% cancellation fee is BS too.

Where does it say anywhere that TG has increased the price on the pre-orders?
 

TankGuys

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2005
1,080
0
0
Originally posted by: n19htmare
I think everyone knew the price is subject to change. That might not have been the problem here. The problem is charging people to cancel their order because YOU goofed up. It's a business, you lose some, you gain some. But you try your best to cut losses in any way possible, this does not mean that you go out and start charging people for YOUR mistakes.

You had an agreement that the people who were inline first, will get them first. REGARDLESS OF WHEN YOU GET EM.... If you tell me that i'm first in line, i expect to be the first in line.
If you break the agreement by allowing other peeps to "CUT" in front of me because they are paying more, you have TERMINATED the agreement we had and thus i have the right to cancel my order at no cost to me.

The point is you don't do this, it just makes a business look bad. I run a business, make the customer happy, once the customer is happy he will come back for more business and you will make up the loss eventually.
take your loss now, keep the customers happy and you will get their and other people's business later.
If you piss off a customer, you'll loose their and other's business. so NEVER piss a customer off, they are your income.

But glad to hear you took care of the problem. and now that you did, I'm a potential buyer, If you hadn't resolved the issue, i would have never bought from you guys.

I also understand your points, but you too, are missing they key fact:

If I didn't offer people to pay more to ship sooner, I would have *never* bought the processors at the higher price. Therefore, NOBODY would get those processors, so they were never available to people who were "first" in line anyway. By offering people to pay more, people near the front who don't want to pay absolutely, positively, do not have any negative reprecussions on thier spot in line. In fact, everyone gains, since now there's 20 more processors, filling 20 more orders, and clearing out that many more people, that would have never happened in the first place, had we not made the offer.

 

Old Hippie

Diamond Member
Oct 8, 2005
6,361
1
0
TankGuys, I've never bought from you, but I will in the future. Anyone who doesn't understand your intentions isn't thinking the situation through properly. Keep up the good work.
:thumbsup: That makes two of us. I will purchase from Tank Guys in the future.
 

Pabster

Lifer
Apr 15, 2001
16,986
1
0
Originally posted by: TankGuys
So have we - MANY of them, at the lower price. We'll continue to fill them as well, at the lower price, but once again, I gave people the OPTION to pay more to get them a bit sooner. Think of it like paying for express shipping service.

Then you should have made that clear BEFORE taking pre-orders. Kind of like how Newegg offers you a "Rush Processing" option BEFORE you place the order?

If I ordered a product and the vendor called me and said "For a few more bucks I'll get this to you sooner" I'd tell 'em to take a hike. That's bad business practice.
 

Dravic

Senior member
May 18, 2000
892
0
76
Originally posted by: TankGuys
The sad thing about this is that my ENTIRE purpose was to help everyone out. Boy did it backfire - people are convinced I was trying to "extort" more money or whatever... no good deed goes unpunished I guess :(



just a quick lesson to be learned ... just dont take payment for a pre-order, it might be more work in the end to complete the transactions, but you will never run into this again.

give an estimate of the price, when it becomes available offer the product at the now going rate.

Now your out money for cancellation fees these guys were informed about, and those who dont(or refuse to) understand the supplier issue are whining loudly...

if there was a $10-15 dollar bump from the supplier and nobody had layed out any cash, i think you still would probably have had at least a %75 pecent transaction completion rate, and no complaints or money lost on cancellations.
 

TankGuys

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2005
1,080
0
0
Originally posted by: Pabster
Originally posted by: TankGuys
So have we - MANY of them, at the lower price. We'll continue to fill them as well, at the lower price, but once again, I gave people the OPTION to pay more to get them a bit sooner. Think of it like paying for express shipping service.

Then you should have made that clear BEFORE taking pre-orders. Kind of like how Newegg offers you a "Rush Processing" option BEFORE you place the order?

If I ordered a product and the vendor called me and said "For a few more bucks I'll get this to you sooner" I'd tell 'em to take a hike. That's bad business practice.

Do you want to know why I offered it?

On our forum, I had people specifically ASK for that option. Many people said, "Hey, if you can get these any sooner, I will pay more if I have to." In fact, I've got close to 100 e-mails from people THANKING me for offering it, and are more than willing to do it. Mind you, I have no intention of charging them more unless I absolutely have to, and I will most certainly not sacrifice people ahead of them in line, if I can get chips at the lower price.

So when one of my suppliers calls me up and says, "I have 20 of these for you, but they are $350 each" I see an opportunity. I see a way to not only help clear 20 people out of the order queue, but to do so on the terms they are specifically asking for, all while not harming others who do not wish to pay, and all while avoiding any negative effect on people unwilling to pay the difference.

I thought boy, that sounds like a great deal - everyone is a bit better off. Then I think that it seems a bit unfair to only offer it to people on our forum, so I send out an e-mail.

Tada, and now we're here :(
 

imported_inspire

Senior member
Jun 29, 2006
986
0
0
I'm curious as to what TG is doing to make sure they won't be getting the short end of the stick with their supplier again. I would be none too happy if my supplier pulled such shenanigans...
 

oscar6

Member
Dec 23, 2004
122
0
0
TG, You did a good thing. Unfortunately, the world is full of people not willing to take the time to understand a written message. These people also seem to lack common sense.. because after they read, they still whine and complain. I applaud you for your efforts to do good business. In the future, maybe you should only offer this deal to the people that emailed you directly first and that are intelligent enough understand the concepts that you subsequently presented in your email.

GL
 

jg0001

Member
Aug 8, 2006
69
0
0
The problem is, you still do not have the chips for the lower priced gang who're waiting. If I wanted to pay $599 for an e6700, I wouldn't have had to take a risk on you with a cancellation fee, I could have bought it from newegg 10x over by now. Hell, even if I wanted to pay more for the chip, you still may not have it. Why wouldn't I just go elsewhere and pay more from someone that has it in stock for sure?

By your logic, ANYONE could make money if they did business this way.

Hell, I could setup a store selling PlayStation3's right now. Here's the deal:
(1) everyone pay me $650 now to "get in line" on a pre-order
(2) there's a 5% cancellation charge

however, *not stated in original contract*
(3) I'll do "my best" to get them as soon as possible on release; it's a tough marketplace you know... no guarantees
(4) I'll only sell them to you WHEN I can both get them (at all) and get them at a price I can make a profit on them

Now, NO ONE is going to take me up on this offer unless they have been given some expectation that I'll actually be able to get them before they could have found it on their own. Point #4 insures that I'll make money. Do I really care if I get 10 pre-orders or 100 or 1000? Hell, of course I'd take as many as possible -- what's my loss potential? Zero! Eventually, I can get 1000 of them, though it may take months -- meanwhile, that cancellation policy will keep you all waiting a bit more than you would have otherwise.

Now, I know tankguys has costs, and I believe they aren't profiteering here.. regardless, do I really care if their business practice costs them money if I want out when they've failed to deliver despite product now showing up elsewhere at similar prices? No. That's their choice to charge the $ when they do. If they want the BENEFIT of customers lining up to buy a product, there also comes the risk that they don't profit as much as they hoped.
 

Polish3d

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2005
5,500
0
0
Yeah, the only frustration I experienced was seeing the product I pre-ordered (in order to get it earlier and presumably protect myself from price increases) sitting in stock at another vendor but not being able to buy it becuase I didn't want to pay 17.50 to cancel. I've always liked TG for their involvement with the enthusiast community and so I try to order from them whenever possible.
 

tylerw13

Senior member
Aug 9, 2006
220
0
0
Originally posted by: Frackal
Yeah, the only frustration I experienced was seeing the product I pre-ordered (in order to get it earlier and presumably protect myself from price increases) sitting in stock at another vendor but not being able to buy it becuase I didn't want to pay 17.50 to cancel. I've always liked TG for their involvement with the enthusiast community and so I try to order from them whenever possible.




amen...that is all i can say and have to say was my furstration
 

Markbnj

Elite Member <br>Moderator Emeritus
Moderator
Sep 16, 2005
15,682
14
81
www.markbetz.net
The big point many people are missing is that we NEVER promised a ship date. Not once. Never, ever. Every single customer ordered the chip at that price, knowing that there was the cancellation fee, and that we did not know when we'd be able to fill the order.

That's the "contract" (as others are calling it) that people signed up for.

I would guess that most people would assume you would fill a pre-order when chips became available, not when chips became available at a price you could make money on. I understand how you feel, and I certainly wouldn't ask you to take a loss, but on the other hand you did solicit preorders. What's wrong with the old "first come first served when the product is in stock" approach?

I take back what I said about not doing business with you based on this. I would do business with you just because you come here and answer questions head on.

So what place do you shop at that has never made a single mistake?

The 5% cancellation fee seems to be waived, btw (this is addressed to everyone in general).

Well, look how it appears to someone who hasn't done business with them: you preorder, the price goes up, they tell you that you can pay more, or wait until it drops, or cancel and pay a 5% fee. Now if the fee is waived that's straight up, but that wasn't apparent from the letter, and overall it isn't a picture that most people would paste a gold star on.