Advice needed from those in the retail buisiness

**Sniper** · 3rd May 2006, 17:04

Short and curlies of it goes.....

I went into a small PC store and bought a spindle (50) of DVD-R's for a rather good price I must admit. Anyway, after trying to burn and getting error messages on 2 disks, I tried a third disk on a friends PC which has a different DVD burner and software and he also got an error message.

Checking with with manafacturer of said disks confirmed that my writer would be fine with the disks as was the firmware. Ditto with the mates PC.

Now I have 47 unusable disks sitting at home collecting dust. So I flicked off a rather polite email to the company telling them I had reason to believe that I had a faulty set of disks and I would like to come in and exchange (and pay difference) on a set of different manafacturers disks. All I got in the reply was

Originally Posted by People

Im sorry we do not accept opened packets of disks. It looks to be user error and we cannot account for the fact that you may not know how to burn disks correctly.

Now that got me a little bit annoyed as I paid them money, was planning an spending a few grand more through the company on upgrading our computers throughout the company and the guy I dealt with seemed OK. Anyway, so I flicked them a nice email back telling them what I did, what the manafacturer told me and what my intentions were of spending money with them. And what I got back was

Its your fault that the disks won't work. Maybe you need to have someone help you set your computer up to burn DVD's. Remeber, these are DVD disks and not CD disks, you did know when you bought them didn't you?

So instead of emailing back, I emailed the head of the company who so graciously left his email in the open on a website

And what I got back from him was

According to my staff, they say you admit to using an incompatible burner to burn the DVD's

That just pissed me off. Now Im not in the habit of getting pissed off over the small things, but Im seriously thinking about having a friend in the law buisiness emailing them and quoting a few bits and pieces of the Consumers Guarantee Act.

Would this be worthwile or should I just let sleeping dogs lie over $35 of disks?

**Blairos** · 3rd May 2006, 17:07

Nope - stand up for your principles here - and start sending them emails about your Rights under the CGA, and if that brings no joy, the prospect of legal action under the fair trading act... That tends to shake them into forgoing the $35 and replacing the obviously faulty goods

**Meanie** · 3rd May 2006, 17:11

Hell no screw them
why should they get away with that and call you a lier
tell them if you dont get satisfaction you are going to fair go that should scare them into submission
Take the discs there and ask them to write something on them
Dont let them get away with it

**Flyingpony** · 3rd May 2006, 17:21

Have you taken the DVD disk spindle back to there shop and asked if they were successful in burning onto them?
Obviously if they too can't burn onto those DVD's, then there isn't user error but faulty goods.

Also, the fine print on media like that says that they're covered against any manufacturing faults. You therefore should be able to get them replaced.

They're also not fit for their intended purpose, unless you're seeking to have 50 flash coffee cup mats.

**RantyDave** · 3rd May 2006, 17:21

Originally Posted by Sniper

was planning an spending a few grand more through the company on upgrading our computers throughout the company and the guy I dealt with seemed OK.

Well, there's your answer then. Phone the sales guy who has been trying to get you to drop $manyK's on a pile of new boxes and tell him no thanks. You've just been involved with the company's customer service on an unrelated matter and they pissed you off thoroughly. If this is the grief you get over a spindle of DVD's, the grief you're going to get from an office full of whiteboxes is a hundred times worse. It's simply not worth it. Don't forget to use the word "Dell" in your answer.

Part 2 - the disks. Fuckit. Small price to pay compared to having them hose the office network.

Dave

**GR81** · 3rd May 2006, 17:23

Sniper: PM me the name of the company and ill see what i can do.
chances are they will be one of our customers.

**Drunken Monkey** · 3rd May 2006, 17:37

If you were one of my customers, I'd just give you 50 new ones from a different brand, no extra, say sorry for the hassle and be done with it. But then, we make nothing on hardware anyway, it's all in support and service.

**BuFfY** · 3rd May 2006, 17:44

I work in retail.... and I deal with ALOT of angry customers about faulty goods. Although I do not work in an electronics shop, and work in a clothing shop, most of the same principles apply. We are told two rules for dealing with customers:
1. The customer is always right.
2. If the customer is wrong, refer to rule #1.

Honestly if you make enough fuss you will get what you want! But doing it through email is not the way to go (in my opinion), go down to the shop with the goods, your receipt and a hard attitude and you should get your money back.

If you do that and get treated like shit, call their head office and talk to them. They wont want their company getting a bad name. And if you tell the retailer if you are unsuccessful, they may change their mind as they could get into shit about not changing it.

Electronic shops wont give you a refund unless they know it is faulty, when I was younger I got a computer game for christmas which was faulty.... mum went in and complained in person and we got a full refund.

Good luck!

**pyrocam** · 3rd May 2006, 19:06

I did 3 years at ole dick smith (some time in sales some in IT support) anyway. the customer service you received is frankly appalling, It actually angers me to hear what they have said. I would continue to reply to the boss man and politely inform him that you do know what you are doing and that you find the quality of response quite ignorant.

if he does anything other than co-operate, I would highly recommend posting his email address.

I'm sure myself and a few others will write a polite
'Hi there, never using your services and telling everyone I know your a bunch of homo fagots
xxxx
pyrocam'
type letter
(pls people if he does dont call him a homo fagot, its hetrosexually limited)

edit: sample letter to the boss man

dear mr fagot boss man
I'm sorry but your response appears to show me you have little respect for customer satisfaction, I am an IT professional and am quite aware what the difference between a CD and a DVD is. I would be quite happy to send the remaining disks in for your staff to test the stack and prove me wrong. If how ever you find that the batch of disks I have received is faulty then please apologise and refund my purchase so I may take my business to another company.

if you do not comply I will use the power of INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY to post your contact details onto the WORLD WIDE WEB as well as a transcript of our ELECTRONIC MAIL conversations.

love and kisses
customer

**Storm** · 3rd May 2006, 19:30

Bloody oath you should stick it to them. Fair enought if you were some misguided newbie numpty, but you are the mighty 10'000 post master and an regular IT geek. They're being prick and should have thier name dragged through the mud and so forth for being so blatantly a) rude, b) unhelpful and c) dishonest

In summary:
give them hell

**Smorg** · 3rd May 2006, 20:24

Its definately a user issuse I cant help you..........(standard telecom reply)

sorry i work for telecom im not much help when it comes to customer service,

as far as im concerned I am always right and the customer is most definately

wrong

**GR81** · 3rd May 2006, 20:33

Originally Posted by Smorgen

Its definately a user issuse I cant help you..........(standard telecom reply)

we get the... "it'll be your router, contact the importers helpdesk!"
i reply with "i am the frikken helpdesk@#$!#$@$"

stupidass's!

**sAsLEX** · 3rd May 2006, 20:40

Originally Posted by Smorgen

Its definately a user issuse I cant help you..........(standard telecom reply)

sorry i work for telecom im not much help when it comes to customer service,

as far as im concerned I am always right and the customer is most definately

wrong

customer got some teeth today!

**Hitcher** · 3rd May 2006, 21:23

The customer may not always be right, but there is no credit to be had from "winning" an argument with them. Word of mouth is a powerful communications medium -- positively and negatively.

Tony's Tyre Service understands this. All staff are empowered to spend whatever it takes to resolve a customer's concerns. While this sounds like a potentially huge area of exposure, in reality it's a policy that costs that company very little. They understand the value of repeat business and the contribution that customer satisfaction makes to this.

If on your next communication you, in the words of the prophet St Michael, "Don't get no satisfaction", I would strongly recommend naming and shaming. That way some risk-averse product manager may get their botty kicked from above.