Wow - it turns out I'm not alone: http://bit.ly/s92SeH
I was told that they increased their prices and my coupon was no longer honored: http://imgur.com/Hxfb4 - And after _half_of_a MONTH_ of waiting the only options they gave me (with attitude) was to either cough up the extra money or go ahead and cancel. They even suggested that the new higher price was their actual cost... Their pricing is a total bait-and-switch scam no different than a sleazy used car salesman at a used car lot. Nobody believes the car salesmen when they tell you its their cost - its a total sales tactic. Furthermore, my customer service message was ignored for 16 hours but my complaints on Facebook and Twitter were responded to immediately and then was told to email customer service instead. The the facebook comments were deleted to hide them. Terrible customer communication - complete lack of empathy. This was my 2nd $700+ order form them, and now I will never buy from them again nor will I ever recommend them to anyone. I can only imagine how bad things would have been if I actually had a problem with an order - their extensive "policy" most likely ensures customer dissatisfaction - AVOID AT ALL COST.
Meanwhile I simply took the rational step and canceled my order, and ordered another unit elsewhere http://bit.ly/demUK8 and they honored the coupon I used without hesitation, shipped it immediately, and threw in expedited Saturday shipping as a bonus... these other guys get it and do it happily.
The most sad thing about this whole thing, is that its all about their abusive tone in their communications and the bait-and-switch tactics in their dealings - and they believe I'm trying to get preferential treatment. What sort of preferential treatment they believe I want totally escapes me since I've sourced my item elsewhere for far better price and far better experience. My intent it to expose the "policies" that they stand behind so there will be no more victims.
In this market, the companies who bend over backwards for their customers will win the business... these guys just stand behind their "policies" and blame the customer for not reading them. Sounds like an airline or phone company - that's not a business style anyone enjoys. I'm sure none of us can remember the last time a hotel, department store, or even a restaurant stood behind "policy" or fine-print to deny people great customer service. Don't be fooled by the sheep who think the these guys are awesome - Alternative sellers include http://bit.ly/demUK8, http://bit.ly/xFf8B, http://bit.ly/rQvMC6, http://bit.ly/rzYHxt, etc... there's nothing special about these guys - vote with your wallet and shop elsewhere.
There are many other companies who share the vision of great customer service. Ryan Negri and his small shop is not one of them. Instead of accepting their failure and trying to learn and improve, they continue to blame their customers for "not reading policy" or suggesting people are "_difficult customers_" and otherwise dismissing them. They also seem quite proud of their actions as well - http://imgur.com/GZ406 Although it makes sense why I am voicing my dissatisfaction with the company, nobody understands why they have decided to attack me personally. Its unclear to anyone why denial, name-calling, and personal attacks make for great customer service. Perhaps its just some "policy" we haven't all seen?
In his quest to attack me personally, Ryan points out a few of one of my companies past mistakes - the key difference is they accept the error and make it right - at all and any cost - even at a loss. Customer service is expensive and only the best and committed can do it right. Its a testament that great customer service requires focus and hard work and is not something you can just claim and expect to happen automatically nor can you just expect to it continue on its own without continued TLC. Clearly Ryan hasn't studied nor made service a focus at his organization. Their actions speak louder than their claims or promises. Their hope is that it will all just go away. Again - there are many other retailers out there - this is not the one you're looking for - perhaps in a few more seasons they won't be around anyways.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Thank you for the opportunity to post our reply to these false accusations. As you are reading this you must know that we do come across what is known as a “difficult customer”. These are not avoided, but are given the attention deserved to come to a logical and equally beneficial agreement. Unfortunately with Mr Yoo this was not possible. My Yoo placed a pre-order for one of the most anticipated devices of the year, the Galaxy Nexus by Samsung. When placing this pre-order Mr Yoo was well aware of the store polices that state:
PRE-ORDER/BACK ORDER ITEMS: If an item is not yet released, you will see a Pre-order, Backorder or Order On Request button next to the item. Even though this item is not in stock, you are able to order the item; your card WILL NOT BE charged unless your item is in stock or is shipping same or next day. Generally the pre-order price is accurate, however there will be times when it is higher than the actual price you will pay once the item is shipped. When the actual price is determined your card will be charged and the overpayment amount will be refunded to your card or other method of payment. We do this to avoid having to be recharge your card in order to get your item shipped immediately to you. Also we do not save your credit card information, so automatically recharging your card is not an option. On rare occasions the pre-order price will be less than the actual sale price when the item is in stock. If the final selling price is higher than the pre-order price that amount will be due prior to shipping. We will send a payment request for the balance due so your item can ship immediately. If you see a tag of "Coming Soon" and/or a price of .99 cents or less, this is the pre-order price for an item where a final price has yet to be determined. In this case you can reserve your device with a pre-order and then the balance will be do prior to shipping. You can choose to pay the balance or request a refund when this is determined. You are able to cancel your pre-order up to 5 days prior to the item being released. (It is very important that the card you use will be able to be charged when the order becomes available, if we are unable to charge the card we will not be able to ship your order and you will lose your position in the pre-order order queue.)
Now in summary this policy states that the pre-order price could possibly be increased. We sent an email to all customers who pre-ordered at the first listed price and let them know kindly that we need to collect a little more to get these shipped out on time, as our supplier raised the price prior to release. The blog post (which was identical to the email) can be viewed with this link http://bit.ly/vLYnYK
Mr Yoo refused to pay the price difference. He was asking why his coupon wasn’t honored. When in fact the coupon was honored, however the price was $35 higher than what he paid – which was equal to his coupon code. We feel he misunderstood the entire proposal and felt that he was the only one which was required to pay more. Mr Yoo sent an email to our support staff after hours. In the AM our Marketing department who handles Facebook and Twitter was able to reply to him, however our support staff did not get to his email until 9am. He felt as if he was being ignored for “16 hours” as he claims above. In fact there are different departments that handle these issues. The support emails do not reach our marketing personnel. Mr Yoo felt that he should be sold the device at the price he paid regardless of our policies. We were unable to honor his request because each and every person that pre-ordered the device at the lower price had already paid the difference and were eagerly awaiting their device. Mr Yoo felt that he deserved preferential treatment and that the price he paid was valid. He also felt he was above our store policies. We needed to be fair and honest in our dealings so we were unable to honor Mr Yoos request and he then requested for his order to be cancelled which we did for him immediately. Mr Yoo then purchased a device from another seller and began to contact our customers on Twitter requesting that they cancel their order with us, and buy from the seller he made his purchase with. Mr Yoo began to post links to negative reviews for Negri Electronics to try to sway customers to purchase elsewhere.
If you read through Mr Yoo’s report there is never an example of what he claims to be “abusive tone”. However there are links to other sellers where this device is available. It’s unfortunate that this post is used to solicit sales to other vendors instead of focus on the problem that Mr Yoo had with Negri Electronics, which is somewhat unclear.
As you can see in the blog we were very sincere in our wording, and thankful that we have the opportunity to deliver this device to our great customers. We are always thankful for our great customers and it’s unfortunate that sometimes we encounter a customer such as Mr Yoo that can not be pleased regardless of what we do.
We are not perfect, but we certainly try to be. We have dealt with over 27, 000 individual customers in our 6 years of shipping devices and in doing so we are prone to many customers that feel they deserve something “more”. We promise to remain honest and fair in all of our transactions and hope that you as our current or future customer can understand this.
Thank you for your time. We wish for you to view our other reviews from customers who placed legitimate orders from our store. You can get a better idea about how we deal with customers by reading these.
Google Checkout - http://bit.ly/fdr2bv
Reseller Ratings - http://bit.ly/qWj34t
If you people are not perfect then why the hell are you in business? sold me used device by saying that as new. I will post your fraud on every forum, every thread and everywhere so people could stay away from you cheaters