lubell@soleil.cs.umd.edu (Josh Lubell) (01/22/91)
The following account describes my dealings with Hard Drives International. This message has two purposes. First, I would like to know if anyone has had a similar experience in the past, either with Hard Drives or with someone else, and was able to get results by complaining to the right person. Second, I want to make others who are about to purchase a disk drive aware of what happended to me so they can choose their vendor accordingly. My problems began back in November when my Macintosh SE/30 started having problems booting off of its hard disk, an 80 MB internal Quantum drive from Hard Drives International. My dealer ran some tests and determined that the disk drive was the problem. Since my Mac dealer was not responsible for fixing the hard disk, he returned my computer with the disk drive removed. I then called Hard Drives International and spoke to Norm Edgar, the salesman who sold me the drive back in June. He told me to send my drive back for a replacement according to the terms of my warranty. I then asked if he would let me upgrade from an internal to an external drive so that I could install the replacement drive myself without involving my Mac dealer or voiding my Mac's warranty. Mr. Edgar agreed to this, and told me to enclose $100 for the upgrade with my broken disk drive and address the package to his attention. I then asked him how long I would have to wait for my replacement drive. He said that if I enclosed the $100 in the form of a money order, Hard Drives International could process my order in 48 hours since they would not have to wait for a check to clear. On November 21, I sent my broken disk drive along with a copy of my original invoice and $100 to Hard Drives International via UPS. Since I wanted to get my replacement drive as soon as possible, I paid the $100 in the form of a money order. UPS told me that my package would take up to 5 working days to get to Hard Drives International. Therefore, allowing for the Thanksgiving holiday, I expected my package to be received on the 29th or the 30th. Starting the end of November, I called Hard Drives International daily to ask them if they had received my package. Every time I called, they looked my name up on their computer and informed me that that they had no record of any transaction with me except my original purchase back in June. Then they would ask me when I sent my package. When I told them, they expressed surprise that it did not appear in their records, since they process incoming orders within 48 hours. They suggested that UPS had lost my package and advised me to have them trace it. I followed Hard Drive International's advice and had UPS trace my package. By this time, I had already been without a working hard disk drive for two weeks (not including the time my Mac was at the dealer's), and I desperately needed one in order to be productive. After ascertaining from UPS that if my package was lost and I had to file an insurance claim, it would take another 10 working days before I received any payment, I decided that I could not wait any longer. On December 7, I ordered a disk drive from another company. I received it at my home on December 11th. On the same day, I got the result of UPS's shipper trace in the mail, showing that my package was signed for by Hard Drives International on a shipper's sheet dated 11/29 at the bottom. In other words, assuming UPS's records were correct, Hard Drives International had my broken drive for for more than a week, yet they repeatedly told me over the phone that they never got it! Needless to say, I was furious. I decided at that point that I would call Hard Drives International and demand a refund for the original purchase price of the drive ($600) plus the $100 I sent them for the upgrade, plus postage I had to pay in sending it back to them. On December 12, I called Hard Drives International and asked to speak to Norm Edgar. When I told him I wanted my money back and why, he immediately transferred me to Greg Phillips, the Customer Service Supervisor. Mr. Phillips refused to give me my money back. He told me that my upgraded replacement drive had just been sent to me via Federal Express. He also asked me to fax him my shipper trace from UPS so he could investigate the situation. I told him I still wanted my money back and that I would refuse the upgraded drive when it was delivered to my home. I immediately faxed him the UPS trace, as he requested. Although Mr. Phillips promised to get back to me the same day, I did not hear from him. Late in the afternoon, I called to find out what was happening, and a woman who answered the phone told me that he was still investigating and would contact me the next day. On December 13, I called Mr. Phillips and asked him what happened. He said he had contacted UPS as well as talked with Mr. Hill, the employee who signed for my package when UPS delivered. He told me that he was skeptical about the accuracy of UPS's records and pointed out some apparent inconsistencies on the shipper trace to back up his assertion. I acknowledged that, given these irregularities, the fault might lie with UPS and not Hard Drives International, as I originally thought. Mr. Phillips promised me that he would look into the situation some more. I said I would do the same. On December 14, I called UPS and told them that Hard Drives International was questioning the accuracy of their shipper trace. They said they would do a driver trace and that I would get the results within five working days. Also on December 14, the upgraded disk drive from Hard Drives International arrived. I refused it. On December 18, I got the result of UPS's driver trace. It confirmed that Hard Drives International received and signed for my broken disk drive on November 29. On December 19, I called Greg Phillips and told him the results of UPS's driver trace. This time he did not question UPS's records. He said he would talk with Rick Rickert, the General Manager of Hard Drives International, and that he would call me back. Later that day, Mr. Phillips called me back (this was the only instance in all of my dealings with Mr. Phillips where he kept his promise to call me back) and told me Mr. Rickert would not give me my money back. He said he would deliver the upgraded replacement drive to me again that I refused. He also said that if I was still dissatisfied, I could write to him, Mr. Rickert, and anyone else I chose. Since Hard Drives International was unwilling to refund my money and I had no other choice, I agreed to this. On December 31, almost a month and a half after my troubles began, I received and accepted the replacement drive. Although I was happy with the drive I bought from another company (when I thought UPS had lost the broken drive I returned to Hard Drives International), I had to return it, since it had a 30 day money back guarantee, and Hard Drives was unwilling to give me my money back. I think that Hard Drives International should reimburse me for the original price of my drive plus $100 for the upgrade plus postage expenses incurred in buying and returning the drive I ordered on December 7 from another company, payable upon receipt of my upgraded drive. I believe that I am entitled to compensation for the following reasons: 1. Norm Edgar told me that my replacement drive would be shipped out to me within 48 hours after they received my broken drive. However, according to UPS's records, Hard Drives International had my broken drive for two weeks before sending out my replacement. 2. Although I called Hard Drives International daily to check on the whereabouts of of my package, nobody I spoke with offered to look for it. Instead, they told me that they never got it and suggested that I have UPS trace it, when in fact they actually had it all along. If they disagree with UPS, then it is their responsibility to prove UPS make the mistake and not them. 3. Although they question the truthfulness of UPS, Hard Drives International has not proven that Mr. Hill did not receive and sign for my broken disk drive on November 29. 4. Since Hard Drives International has not lived up to its obligations, I should be free to buy my disk drive from another company. Thanks for your attention (and patience in reading this long article). I would appreciate any pointers regarding who to contact with this problem. I have already sent letters to Rick Rickert at Hard Drives and the consumer complaints departments of MacUser and MacWorld magazines along with copies of my invoices, UPS traces, etc. -Josh
scjones@thor.UUCP (Larry Jones) (01/23/91)
In article <29407@mimsy.umd.edu>, lubell@soleil.cs.umd.edu (Josh Lubell) writes: > [ a long sad story ] Sorry, but I think you're being unreasonable. You bought a drive that worked fine for 5 months and then developed trouble. The dealer honored the warranty and even allowed you to switch from an internal to external drive for a small fee, which they were under no obligation to do. It is unfortunate that you didn't get the replacement as quickly as you would have liked, but it is a fact of life that mixups sometimes occur. Certainly you can't expect a full refund -- can you imagine buying a lawnmower, having it break after 5 months, and then demanding a full refund because you bought a different lawnmower since you had to cut your grass and getting it fixed was taking too long? They'd laugh you right out of the store! Did you send the drive to the salesman's attention like he told you to? If so, when you called to inquire about the status, why didn't you call him? It seems to me that it is quite likely that he was out of the office and the disk sat on his desk the whole time. This would certainly explain why there was no record of it in their computer system. Did you ever indicate to them that you considered this to be time critical? If you were in that big of a hurry, why didn't you offer to pay for the new drive and have them send it right away and then issue a credit when they received your old drive? This is a fairly common practice and I suspect they would have suggested it if they knew you needed it quickly. ---- Larry Jones, SDRC, 2000 Eastman Dr., Milford, OH 45150-2789 513-576-2070 Domain: scjones@thor.UUCP Path: uunet!sdrc!thor!scjones Santa's gonna skip this block for years. -- Calvin
arie@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Arie Covrigaru) (01/26/91)
I can't offer you help, but I sympathize with your cause, and it was right for you to post it on the net. I had similar problems with a MacBottom hard drive from PCPC, and they had my drive fo 7 (seven) months, without ever returning my calls, notifying me of the status of my drive or compensating me for the period I had no hard disk, and all this under the warranty agreement. -- ============================================================================= Arie Covrigaru | Internet: arie@eecs.umich.edu University of Michigan AI Lab | 1101 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109 =============================================================================
wcarroll@encore.com (Mr. New Dad) (01/29/91)
From article <132@thor.UUCP>, by scjones@thor.UUCP (Larry Jones): > lubell@soleil.cs.umd.edu (Josh Lubell) writes: >> [ a long sad story ] > > Sorry, but I think you're being unreasonable. Sorry, but I don't. If I had a business that depended on the use of that drive, was promised a 48-hour turnaround, and lost 2 weeks of business because the vendor screwed up, I sure as hell would want some kind of remuneration. Yes, there were other ways the situation could have been handled, but the basic fact is that the vendor screwed up and wasn't willing to do anything other than say "Oops!" There are too many companies out there that care about their customers to spend one second having to deal with those that don't. -- William R. Carroll (Encore Computer Corp., Ft. Lauderdale FL) wcarroll@encore.com uunet!gould!wcarroll "This comment without commentary is not the view of the staff or management of WKPX, the Broward County School Board, ... or even me." - KZ