Almost two weeks ago now, I ordered a pair of items for Ivan. One of the items was from NewEgg and the other was from Axiontech. Both were in stock, both were approximately $200, and both were shipped to the credit card billing address. Sounds like there'd be no problem, right?
Wrong.
The problems started when I found out that a hold had been put on my credit card account. It's been a while since I ordered more than $75 worth of stuff online and that seemed to have set off some alarms. Both transactions were initially accepted, confirmation emails were sent, but then the transactions were rejected and the differences began. NewEgg informed me within an hour or two and I simply used a different card. No harm, no foul, life continued as usual. I checked with Axiontech and everything still appeared normal.
Fast foward three days and I'm opening the order from NewEgg and everything is just fine as expected. Nothing from Axiontech, but no worries. Then the next day, I was on a customer site, so I didn't miss the box until I got home. It was already too late to call them (8pm EDT, 6pm their time), so I had to wait until morning. Then I double checked their hours… their customer “service” line opens at 10am their time or noon EDT. So I finally get through to them.
The Customer “Service” lady simply said that my card was rejected and that they called me for another card. I asked when they called – I had listed my cellphone which is rarely away from me – and she backed away from that said they should have called. Big difference. So I informed her that it'd already been a week since I placed the order and asked what she was going to do to fix the situation.
Her: “We can upgrade you to 3 day shipping”
Me: “Instead of the current 4 day?”
Her: “Yes”
Me: “So how much is this going to cost?”
Her: “Nothing extra.”
Me: “But you're going to charge me for the original shipping?”
Her: “Yes.”
Me: “So you're charging me for 4 day shipping, giving me 3 day shipping, but after the weekend, it will actually be 2 week shipping. Is that right?”
Then – to top it all off – when I finally get the item this week, I look at the invoice which lists a school district in Tennessee's Missouri's three mice. I had that moment “oh no”, but luckily the item itself was correct.
I haven't received customer service this poor since… well, my realtor. I gave the customer service representative the opportunity to try something… anything… but it was trivial at best. How do other people deal with companies and people like this?