I’m a little ticked at NewEgg right now

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury) 01/20/2020 at 22:43 • Filed to: None

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Last month I ordered this watch for $19.99. The reviews weren’t great, but I liked the mostly analog nature of it, and figured it would be fine for me if I just got notification of incoming calls and texts since we weren’t allowed to look at our phones whilst on duty. I figured that the app might be a little better than what you get with the cheap Chinese semi-smart watches. I would have preferred a black band over the brown one it came with, but I jumped at this given the low price without looking to see if it was available with a different band.

As was somewhat expected for an HP refurb , it didn’t work. I sent it back for a replacement but that took forever since they freaked out that I had sent two RMAs in the same box, clearly labeled as such on the outside of the box; the heavy item (this watch) was prepaid and the lightweight item was at my expense, but they were going to exactly the same location so I put them in the same box - so sue me...

I got the refund on the lightweight item. They said they’d send me another watch, but today I received a message saying that they were out of stock and would be sending me a refund. They were out of stock on the one with the brown band but still have stock on the ones with the black band so I asked them to send me one of those instead. Their answer?

Nope, sorry, company policy - can’t change items.

So what if it has a different SKU - it’s the same watch at the same price, but with a different band. Do you really want to piss off a customer that has literally spent several thousand dollars with you over the last few decades over a $20 watch? I’m not asking for anything free, just a working version of what I bought. I wouldn’t care if it had a neon yellow or a pink band - just send me the watch.

Am I asking for too much here? Or is this just the standard response of a low-level CS drone that is unable to think outside of the limitations of their job? And why am I not surprised that there isn’t an email option to communicate with someone in authority that can make what should be a simple override. You sold me defective merchandise. I want the item I ordered, even if the cosmetics are slightly different. Hell, when Target ran out of the $39 vacuum that I came in to buy they gave me the $58 one for the same price. I didn’t ask for that - they just offered it. And when Wendy’s ran out of chili seasoning they offered me a free cup of chili on my next visit,  but instead comped my entire meal, a totally unexpected surprise. I just want one $20 HP watch in place of another $20 HP watch - nothing free or extra.

You’re probably asking why I don’t just place an order for the same thing? Well, they raised the price on both from $19.99 to $87.99, so I can’t just take my refund a re-order, and I’m certainly not going to pay a cent over $20 for this watch.

Some places need to re-think their attitudes. There is one place online where I used to buy a lot of Mac equipment, but they dicked me around when it came to replacing an item under warranty after offering to help and so I now shop elsewhere. And there was a town near me that I used to go to frequently for food, shopping and entertainment, but their overzealous police enforcement and artificially low speed limits has caused me to bypass that area entirely, even if it means a longer drive. Lots of lost tax revenue, and let me tell you, I have no plans to look for real estate anywhere near there now. Save a nickel but lose a dollar (although not a cent in NewEgg’s case) - if these places are incapable of seeing the bigger picture, well, fuck ‘em and let them go out of business...

smobgirl > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/20/2020 at 23:52

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We had a local m all start charging for parking. It’s about half an hour from my house, same as every other mall in this city, so I just don’t go there anymore.

(Yes, they should just swap for the black band one, that’s fucking ridiculous. But also not unexpected.)

Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/21/2020 at 00:03

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I stopped using NewEgg when they wanted me to pay $8 to ship back a DOA $12 CD drive. They eventually just gave me a refund, but their return policies were so arcane I just stopped using them. I do still use their website to pick out all the hardware.... and then buy it on Amazon .

Yes, they should swap you out for the black band.

GLiddy > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/21/2020 at 00:23

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You’re getting off lucky. A few years ago I bought some ‘gift’ cards from Newegg. I bought 5 cards for $20 each for the same restaurant. About a week after receiving them, I used 1 of the cards to buy lunch. No problem. The next week I went back to the same restaurant and when I went to use the card, it had zero balance. I tried the other 4 cards and they were also zero balance.

I called Newegg customer service and explained what had happened and they acted very nice about it and apologized for the problem, but they said they would have to contact the card issuer to resolve it and get back to me after 5 business days. On the 6th day I called and they informed me that I used all the cards that first time I bought lunch on one of them. I argued that it was incredibly silly of them to imagine that I used all 5 cards essentially at the same time. They said they would not help me.

I called my credit card issuer and put a contest on the charge, and successfully got a chargeback . A couple months later, I tried to order from Newegg again and it seemed my account was locked. I called them and they said that since I had put a chargeback on the purchase, that they would no longer do business with me. The CSR said they would be happy to unlock my account if I paid them the $100.

In the end, I just opened a new account with a different first name and different email address, but I don’t buy nearly as much from them as I did before this fiasco. It was probably a year before I bought anything from them again, and its probably been 2 years since I bought anything from them last. They are way down the list of companies I want to do business with.

DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back > GLiddy 01/21/2020 at 00:37

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Newegg got purchased in 2016 by a Chinese company, and since then their customer service has gone into the shitter.

You’re not the only one with horror story experiences. At least I’m lucky enough to have a micro center nearby. 

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/21/2020 at 00:41

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All the comments here make me want to not do business with Newegg again. I guess Amazon or Memory Express it is. Although it's not like Bezos needs any more of my money.

DipodomysDeserti > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/21/2020 at 00:54

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Spending several thousand dollars over a decade doesn’t give you a whole lot of sway with a company, especially when you’re buying $20 watches.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > DipodomysDeserti 01/21/2020 at 01:16

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You do have a point, but it’s more about the bigger picture. I’m just one person, but I can’t be the only one dissatisfied with their crappy customer service, and I won’t be the only one that decides to go elsewhere because of it. If they treat me like this on a small purchase, what are the odds they’ll do it again on a larger purchase? And what if I’m in a position to spend serious coin, say if I had purchase authority like I did when I was a network engineer? Do I want my professional reputation ruined by buying from a company that’s known to play petty little games, like they’re doing with this watch or with GLiddy’s gift cards? I wouldn’t take the risk and instead go with a vendor that’s a little more professional and understanding whether it be $20 or $20,000. Word gets around, and if you’re not careful   your reputation is toast.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo 01/21/2020 at 01:29

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Amazon needs to get with the times and start providing better ways for sellers to tag their items.

That, and fix the miscategorized crap, because a dress sure as hell does not have 802.11AC and Bluetooth.

facw > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/21/2020 at 03:39

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I had a Newegg return in December for a mis-advertised product that went fine. Last year though I had this whole mess where I returned a defective video card and there was this whole mess where it took over an hour to get someone anytime I tried to use their customer support chat, some chats were dropped, and then they tried to bill me the (inflated) MSRP for the pack in games which I hadn’t activated, and indeed had no way to activate after returning the card. They eventually got it sorted out, but it was time consuming and stressful, not at all what you’d get from someone like Amazon (in general, I did have a bit of weirdness where Amazon failed to deliver an item, and their tracking acknowledged that, and the first CSR I chatted with demanded that I call their distribution center. I chatted again the next morning and they sent out a replacement right away, so I don’t know what was up with that).

I’ve been a Newegg user since 2001, and their product images, metadata, and filtering is way better than Amazon’s but I do find myself more hesitant to shop there unless they have a really good price on something.

DipodomysDeserti > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/21/2020 at 09:19

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You’re buying products off the internet, there is no “bigger picture”. You’re buying from the absolute cheapest seller. I would encourage you to pay more and buy from a local business.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/21/2020 at 09:51

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It’s not that they’re unable to think outside the limitations of their job, it’s that they’re literally not allowed to. I can guarantee that if you were able to convin ce them to break policy, they would have been caught and seen some blowback for it. Don’t be angry at a low-level rep for following the rules they are given.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 01/21/2020 at 12:49

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Can I trust a company that doesn’t trust it’s employees to do the right thing by their customers? How do I escalate this to someone who can make the customer happy? Or do I just take my $20 and STFU?

jminer > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. 01/22/2020 at 00:35

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I used to religiously buy everything compute related for work and personal from newegg. Literally 10s of thousands of dollars over the last 15 years. I did place a couple orders this year through them but both their service and selection has gotten way worse the last few years. You especially have to be careful to not buy something from a third party seller on newegg.

I f it’s hardware I buy  it at the local micro center, if its more consumer related I get it from Best Buy or amazon, eBay for all the random other tech stuff.