hardie@herald.usask.ca (Peter Hardie) (08/23/90)
Many moons ago I thought I'd save myself some bucks and order the Insider board for my AMIGA 1000 from GO AMIGO. I already had 512K of 256K chips and had a line on another 1Meg so that I could easily fill the board. The local amiga store wanted almost double the U.S. cost for the board. (I'm in Canada). I had previously ordered the Manx compiler from GO AMIGO with no problems so I ordered the the board from them too on my VISA. When the box arrived, it did not have an Insider board ... it was the AMEGA board, and it's totally useless to me because with 256K chips it'll only hold 512Kb or you gotta get 1Meg chips. After being put on hold several times I finally got through to GO AMIGO (this is a long distance call from SASK,CANADA to California! )and they said to mail the board back (giving me a Returned Merchandise Authorization number for it). I was also given the choice of waiting for that board to get back to them and then they send me the correct one, or creating a new order so I could get the Insider much faster. They would then credit me on the first order when the board arrived. I went for the latter option. A week or so later the Insider board arrived in the mail. SO far so good. I installed the Insider board and it worked fine (at the time I had 1Meg of chips). A day later the mailman delivered me ANOTHER Insider board from GO AMIGO. After many busy numbers and being on hold over and over again, I finally talked to someone who gave me an RMA number for the extra board and said I should just mail it back and they'd issue a credit (NOTE that they BILLED me for a board I didn't order!). They explained that someone there must have seen the RMA for the return of the previous board and thought it was an order. It appears that their RMA numbers and order numbers are the same thing. Several weeks later with no reply on the first board, I mailed them a letter asking what was going on and where was the credit on the first board. About 3 or 4 weeks later with no explanatory letter I received credit notification from GO-AMIGO for the first board. (i.e. the AMEGA). After letting some time pass to be sure the second board had to have arrived there, I wrote to them again asking for a credit for the second board. I have NEVER received the credit for the second board and NEVER received a reply. So I finally called VISA to complain, but by this time it was beyond the six month period that they will normally handle complaints. But they apparently tried with the same results as I had. Extreme difficulty getting to talk to anyone on the phone and also (according to the person at VISA) a very rude manager at GO AMIGO. I made several mistakes. 1. Ordering from GO AMIGO on my VISA in the first place (despite the fact I had previously ordered MANX 3.6a from them with no problem). 2. Using VISA for a cross-border order. 3. I did NOT write down the RMA# for the second Insider Board, I only wrote it on the package and mailed it back so I don't have it. 4. TRUSTING that GO AMIGO would settle this thing with no hassle. 4. I did not obtain any proof from the post office that I had returned the second board. By that time I was getting really P'd off and didn't think it should be me paying all this extra money to look after a board that I had never ordered. 4. I did not call VISA to complain until after the 6 monts were up. I had assumed that the two letters I sent to GO AMIGO would straighten things out. VISA tried to recover the money but they got absolutely nowhere with GO AMIGO having problems with busy lines, being put on hold, and dealing with an unpleasant manager there who claimed I had never sent them ANY letters and that I had never returned a board to them. So I have paid for, but do not possess, an extra Insider board. GO AMIGO deny that they have ever received the board. Apart from having paid for two boards and possessing only one, it has cost me roughly an extra $70 in phone calls and mailing costs to correct THEIR mistake. There's a moral (actually several) in here for you all. For my part I will NEVER order from GO AMIGO again even if they are the last store on earth to carry amiga stuff. And I hope to hell they go broke tomorrow morning. Pete Hardie hardie@skyfox.usask.ca