terryl@tekchips.UUCP () (12/13/84)
Well, the old adage "You get what you pay for" has rung true again. I ordered an NEC Beta Hi-Fi unit from Best Price Video, a mail order outfit somewhere in New York. As per their name, they did have the best price I've found($639 for the NEC V739-E Beta Hi-Fi). After receipt of your cashier's check, whatever you order will be shipped out within 48 hours. Well, being the trusty soul I am, I sent them my check on Oct. 27. Allowing one week for the check to arrive to them, plus the one week it takes UPS to ship it from New York to Oregon, plus an extra week just for good measure, I did not receive my VCR. I called the order desk again(unfortunately on a weekend) they informed me I have to get in touch with their "Customer Service" people, and of course, they only take calls during the week day. Well, still being a trusty soul (but definitely a little less trusting when I found out you can only call "Customer Service" from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Eastern time). I gave them a call. I could not get through to them. I was always getting a busy signal. Well, I called the order desk back and said they would relay my message to "Customer Service" and "Customer Service" would call me back. Well, I got a call back the NEXT DAY, and I was informed that "Customer Service" could not find ANY records of my order. Well, this is getting very close to Thanksgiving, so I gave them a call the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, again not getting through, but they graciously gave me a call back that day and informed me that they still could not find any record of my order. Well, I'm getting a little miffed, but "Customer Service" assured me that they would give me a call the day after Thanksgiving. Well, I wait all day, and still no call. I got a hold of another sales person who probably gave me the best service yet(he actually went over to the desk of the original sales person I ordered the VCR from and found some evidence of my order in a log book). So, on Monday, still not being able to get through to "Customer Service", but getting a call back from them that day, I informed them of the information the second sales person found on Friday. Well, it took them a WEEK after that to find out that my name was incorrectly spelled when the order was put in the computer. It took them TWO WEEKS to find this out. I was also informed that the order was shipped out Nov. 7, which sounds about right (if I could believe them). Well, they put a tracer on the order thru UPS and found that UPS didn't have any record of it being shipped (I'm not really sure of this last point). So they said they will ship me another unit, so I said fine. I just got another call from "Customer Service" (in case you're wondering, the reason I put customer service in quotes is because I don't really believe that one could call their customer service department by that name, because I sure didn't get any satisfactory service from them) saying that they were now out of stock on that particular model, and it was being discontinued because NEC was coming out with another model (for about another $100, but they never really asked me if I wanted to get the other model). Well, as soon as I cool off, I'm going to send a letter to the company telling them what I thought of their shabby service and their "Cust- omer Service" department, but I thought I might save someone out there a little grief by telling them to avoid Best Price Video at all costs. They are definitely not worth the hassle. BTW, I originally saw an ad for them on ESPN(and I only saw it once; I never saw it again, which probably should have told me something.....) Terry Laskodi of Tektronix
tjs@cbdkc1.UUCP ( Tom Stanions) (12/17/84)
I bought a video camera from Best Price Video about 8 months ago. I choose them on the advice of a friend who had bought a whole system from them. I experienced only minor dificulties (you forgot to mention that customer service is not avaliable during lunch hour). The order was late comming through (something about being shipped to the wrong place) and the carrying case was the wrong color (they did exchange it). But the price was great and saved me about $150. To make my point, I agree that you get what you pay for. If you are willing to put up with the hassles of buying mail order you can get a product for a better price. If the service was great the price would not be. I found Best Price Video an acceptable mail order house and will use them again when I am ready. Some advice - if you buy from a mail order house always use a credit card. You can stop payment easily and you can refuse the order if they should send it anyway. I have never had any trouble unless I sent out cash. Best Price does charge 2% extra if you use a card but it is well worth it. cbdkc1!tjs
dss00@amdahl.UUCP (12/20/84)
> > Some advice - if you buy from a mail order house always use a > credit card. You can stop payment easily and you can refuse the order > if they should send it anyway. I have never had any trouble unless I > sent out cash. Best Price does charge 2% extra if you use a card but > it is well worth it. > > cbdkc1!tjs Watch out about the credit card protection. Usually you can dispute payment to the credit card company only if the merchandize was valued at over $50.00 (not a problem generally) and the business was located "in your state or 50 miles from where you live". -- Deepak S. Sabnis ...!{ihnp4,hplabs,amd,nsc}!amdahl!dss00 (408) 746-6058 Science and Technology donot pollute or kill people; greedy businessmen and hungry politicians do.... (Opinions expressed above are strictly my own :-| )