Newegg is the pits in my book
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
So in response to my twitter post I got many messages about why I will never buy from newegg.com again so here is my story.
I have been looking for the past month or so for a new desktop computer. I was looking for an inexpensive quad-core machine mainly for CAD, but more importantly to last for a while. I had been finding these refurbished computers which had really good specs and we inexpensive, but I still wasn’t sure yet. Well about a week ago my desktop decided to die which really forced the issue. I looked things over and decided on this system. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883113052 A few things that sucked for me was that I live in TN so I had to pay tax but I was still saving like $50+ from other vendors.
So I place the order and everything goes smooth I get the machine today. Well the first thing I did when I took it out of the box was do an inventory in order to be sure that everything was there. So I find that my windows media PC remote control and a s-video to composite adapter are missing. So I figure no big deal I will call newegg and they will take care of it. Now here is where the fun begins.
I get on the phone with a customer service representative named Marie and explain my problem to her. She then goes on to tell me that for refurbished products they don’t guarantee any of the accessories that may come with the machine. WHAT!? so basically newegg can advertise that you are going to get all these great things with the computer, but never actually deliver the product? This really gets me upset because in a machine which costs 700 a remote control (while not important to the function of the machine but a nice to have accessory) which would normally cost about 40 bucks factors into my value of the system I am purchasing. There were a bunch of other machines which were close in specs but this one added up to be the best value.
So we go back and forth about false advertising and how if it says something on their website in the product description that they should deliver. I mean how would you feel if you bought a car with a cd/mp3 player and then on delivery was told “sorry we don’t guarantee accessories so you don’t get any radio” ummm hello?! is anyone alive in Newegg thinking land, what the hell kind of policy is this. She even agreed with me that she would be upset if something she purchased was not as advertised. Anyway she offered me a $25 credit back on my account; which is a nice gesture but it still doesn’t address the real issue of their backwards policy and false advertising.
I ask for her manager at this point and get the response ” I will get the manager but he will need to know what you want as a result” hmmmmm…let me think I want what I paid for! come on woman use that muscle in between your ears. So she puts me on hold for 10 mins and when that time is up she picks up the phone again. Basically the manager won’t talk to me so she is going to relay information to me. Their compromise is one of the best parts of this story. Now on referb machines newegg has a no-refund policy (they have alot of these policy things) so they decided to “make an exception in this case and allow me to RMA the machine minus the restocking fee of 15%” Are they freaking serious? do they really think I am going to return this machine only to loose more value than the item I wanted replaced. What the hell are they smoking to come up with that as my exception.
At this point I have been on the phone for 45+ mins and I have just about had enough. With Marie on the phone I tell her I am going to do 3 things. 1) I want her name 2) I want the $25 credit and 3) I want her to check out blogs later because I am going to talk about my experience.
Basically for me this isn’t about the remote, but it is more of the principal of the thing. I know it seems like a whole lot of trouble for a minor thing, yet I am not happy with the outcome. It doesn’t seem right for one of the leading online retailers to put someone in a big fuss over a 40 product. Also as a responsible reseller when they put something on their site for sale it should be what customers get when they place an order. This kind of negligence is not forgivable in a marketplace where there is lots of competition and the main thing that separates stores is how they handle their customers.
I have a letter drafted that I am going to send to their CEO, to express my feelings as I have found that many times upper management at large companies are totally disconnected from the real issues at hand. If nothing else comes of this I just wanted people to know my feelings and as far as I am concerned I am not going to look to newegg for any future products, because hell who wants to take a gamble that they may or may not get what they purchase.
