tmyers@athena.mit.edu (Tracy S Myers) (04/13/90)
I ordered a 386-33 computer from Northgate on the 28th of March. The sales rep, Tom Lally, said that the 200meg drive I ordered was backordered, but that they were getting them in the following week and that my computer would be shipped no later than April 13th. I explained that I needed the computer as soon as possible, and that the 13th was acceptable as a limit on when the machine would ship. He said it would probably ship before the 13th, but he had to give me that date which included some error margin. He said he would be able to give me the actual shipping date, if I called him on Monday, April 9th. On the following day by express mail I sent Norhtgate a bank check for the price of the machine including the cost of 2nd day air shipment. I called on the 9th, and Tom was unable to determine the status of my order. He said their computer system was down, and asked me to call him back on Tuesday the 10th. I called again, and again he was unable to determine the shipping date of my system. This time he asked me to call another person at a particular time during the daytime business hours (Tom works in the evenings). I called Mike Paradise as asked, and left 3 messages prior to getting through to him on the 4th try 4 hours later. Unable to determine the status of my order at that time, he said he would run a trace on my order to find out where it was which would take a couple hours. I called him again several hours later and was told that he had not heard back regarding my order. I told him I would call him back again this morning (Thursday). Well, he had indeed determined the shipping date of my system, Wednesday April 18th! Four days later than the orginal upper limit I had been given. The reason for the delay according to Mike Paradise was the hard disk was still backordered and they had just received them. I told him that I bought the system from him in the first place because of their reputation for high-quality customer service and their ability to ship the machine quickly. He offered to upgrade my shipping to next day air at their expense. Now I am not an unreasonable person. I understand that delays can occur for various reasons beyond their control. What I find unacceptable is that I wasted a so much of my time over the course of 4 days trying to get a simple question answered. I told the sales rep on two seperate occasions exactly when I would call back and exactly what information I would want at that time. Never when I called had they acted on my previous calls. Each time I had to start over explaining the problem from the beginning. There is no excuse for having to waste some much of my time trying to get a definite shipping date. Also, this reflects poorly on those companies which claim to have 24 hour/day service. What is the point when you can only get an answer during business hours? I am posting this experience for the benefit of others considering a Norhtgate computer. I have heard many complementary things about both their service and their equipment, and this is only one episode. Have I just fallen through the cracks of their operation? Or, have others had similar experiences? Given the number of recent threads discussing mail order problems I am beginning to reconsider the wisdom of buying directly. I could get this kind of run-around at a local computer dealer. Please e-mail resposes, and I will post a summary if interest dictates. Tracy Myers