terryl@tekcrl.UUCP () (02/14/85)
As we left the protaganist in the last chapter, he was promised a refund
from the manager of customer service......
Well, that was Dec. 12. I left for vacation on Dec. 19, and hadn't
received a check yet. Figuring since it was so close to Christmas, the check
must still be in the mail, right??? WRONG!!!!When I got back from vacation on
Jan. 13, no check!!!I called them up the next day, and true to form I couldn't
get through to their customer service number, so I left a message with the
order desk in not too plain language that I was really PO'ed at them and I had
better get a call back that day. Well, I didn't get a call back that day or the
next, so I called the order desk the next day after, and in a politer tone of
voice told them I didn't get my refund check yet. Still no call back that day
or the next. I was really getting PO'ed by this time, so I went to the the
local Better Business Bureau and got a complaint form for mail order businesses.
I filled it out, sent the original to the company and the first copy to the
BBB, and lo and behold, 12 days after I sent the form I got my refund check!!!
The check was dated eight days after I had sent them the form, and it took four
days to get here in the mail, according to the post mark.
Well, I just wanted to share my experiences and what I learned with anyone
out there contemplating doing business with a mail order place:
1) DO NOT PAY WITH ANYTHING EXCEPT A CREDIT CARD. DEFINETLY DO NOT PAY
WITH A CASHIER'S CHECK OR A MONEY ORDER. At the time, I did not have
a credit card, but now I do. If I had paid with a credit card, I could
have just called up my bank and have them stop payment due to non-
receival of goods.
2) Trying to clear up the mess by phone is fine, AS LONG AS YOU GET A
QUICK SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEM. Give them a couple of weeks if you
want, but then write a letter to the company and say in the letter
you're sending a copy of the letter to some consumer agency like the
BBB. Better still, the BBB has a complaint form just for mail order
businesses. I used it and it worked like a charm.
3) Seriously consider having the goods shipped by air freight instead of
land freight. It costs just a little more, but I think it is a good
investment because then you can get the ball rolling quicker if any
problems do crop up.
4) I was told this, but don't really know if it's true, but it sounds
reasonable. If you do pay with a credit card, find out when your
cutoff date for the billing cycle is, i.e. the day which all charges
charged to your card is billed in the next month's billing, and order
just after the cutoff date. This will also supposedly give you a little
more time to stop payment with your bank.
Well, even though my experiences with Best Price Video took three months
to come to a resolution, I wasn't totally bummed out with mail order places.
So, after waiting to make sure their refund check cleared, I went out and
bought a video magazine and looked through the mail ads for other mail order
outlets. I ended up buying the new NEC Beta Hi-Fi (model VCN-70EU) from a
place in Florida called Nationwide Video Distributors, and my experiences
with them were totally opposite from Best Price Video. I ordered the vcr
10:00 AM on a Monday morning, and surprise, surprise, I got a call from them
that afternoon wanting to verify the order. Well, that raised my hopes up a
little. I had it shipped UPS Blue Label, which cost $35.00, instead of $20.00
for normal shipping, and it arrived at my house the Friday of that week. So
I think the extra $15.00 was worth it to get the goods here quicker.
Terry Laskodi
of
Tektronix