40 réponses à ce sujet

[SIim Charles]

Here is the situation: 40+ days ago, I ordered 5 lithographs (4/20/10) from the Bioware store. The site would not allow me to check out more than one item at a time, so I ended up paying $35 shipping for the total order. A week later, the items appeared to have not been shipped yet, and I finally got an email from Bioware (4/27/10) asking me to clarify a few things. I did so, and a very helpful rep told me that my lithos would be shipping out right away and that they could refund part of my shipping cost because they could ship the items together. Everything is going good a this point, I am a little irritated that it took them a full week to clear my order for shipment, but I feel good about being offered a partial shipping refund.

Finally my order ships (5/4/10), a full week after they said they would "ship ASAP". I received the item a few days later and immediately noticed a nasty gouge in the spine of the packaging and a large crease running across the top. Unsurprisingly, the lithos were all pretty severely damaged  I filed a complaint and submitted pictures of the damage and expected everything to be corrected.

Meanwhile, I ordered another 4 lithos (5/11/10) and again had the trouble with not being allowed to order together, I sent a message to Bioware asking both if they could give me a partial refund on these shipping cost and asking if the previously promised shipping refund was going to be sent out. I got an irritable rep who told me it was my own fault for ordering them separately and ignored my other question, I shot back that I COULD NOT order them together and got no response for more than 3 weeks.

At this point, I am pretty annoyed, I got an idiot for a rep who blew off my completely justified question over whether or not a promised refund was ever going to be given and became irritated when I tried to explain why I needed another one. It had now been a week since I submitted my pictures of the damaged lithos and I sent a message asking if there were any updates yet (no response). Then (5/29/10) I get an email telling me the 4 lithos I had ordered more than 2 WEEKS before were cancelled. I got very annoyed and shot a strongly worded (but in no way vulgar or obscene by ANY standrard) email expressing my irritation at the cancellations. The order was for the Minute Man, Omega, Afterlife, and Illusive Man lithos. All 4 are very difficult to come by and I assumed it would be my last chance to get them for under $120 a piece on ebay. I think you can all understand my frustration.

My emails on the matter were never responded to. Over a 17 day period I sent 8 emails; none were returned. At the peak of irritation I send a message that to the best of my recollection asked "Are you guys on vacation or something? None of my recent emails have been returned."

Today I finally get an email back with this jaw-dropping comment in it:

<i>"Since its clear that we don't provide the service that you need and you seem to have trouble interacting with people in a professional or courteous manner we will not be accepting any orders from you at any of our stores going forward."</i>

Are you kidding me? Please tell me I am not the only one who finds this absolutely appalling. I sent a couple irritated messages, but none contained obscenities, and none were sent without a weeks worth of frustration at unreturned emails behind them. I responded, and hopefully this is just a single moron in their department that happened to handle my case. But, if I don't get an apology or news that this idiot has been fired, I am going to do my darndest to keep people from buying from their store. Just an awful situation.

[SIim Charles]

At that point, the customer service had not been all that bad. Plus, I really wanted the lithos and it was going to save me a ton of money as opposed to buying on ebay and getting gouged.

[Outamyhead]

I would have not ordered anything else either, why give money to someone that can't get it right the first time?

[SIim Charles]

I figured that the worst case scenario was that I would get my money back and get to keep the damaged lithos. I had hoped for an exchange, but was doubtful as I didn't think think they could, or even would replace 4 Citadel lithos. I had received a litho in perfect shape a couple months beforehand and was willing to take the risk. Unfortunately, it turned out that the WCS was wayyy worse than expected.

[SIim Charles]

Ok, I got an email from Treehouse rep, but he asks me for my phone number, and I will have no phone access for at least a month because I am out of the country. Regardless, I am getting a nasty feeling this guy is going to lecture me, and I don't want to hear it.

[Dethateer]

MessyPossum wrote...

I read the whole thing and from your point of view it's understandable to be upset but here is where you went wrong. "Meanwhile, I ordered another 4 lithos (5/11/10)." Don't ever reward bad customer service by continuing to be a customer. Just my take on things. I do hope you find a resolution to the matter.

Eh, sometimes that's not really possible. Case in point, the site I buy my games from refuses to update my contact info, so now I have to jump through hoops to get each game, but I can't go to another one since this one has (usually) the best prices.

[Stanley Woo]

Moved from Off-Topic.



Also, asking some questions from people who might be in the know on my end. Please note that the Online Store is not run directly by us BioWarians or from our location here in Edmonton, but I agree that that's not a great response from any company unless the dude was swearing up a storm and uttering threats. Which it doesn't sound like Charles was doing.



Anyway, Charles, check your PM.

[SIim Charles]

I'll admit I wasn't behaving like Mother Theresa, but I didn't say anything inappropriate in the least bit. Certainly nothing to warrant that kind of response. The worst things I said were pretty much to the effect of "I can't believe how bad your customer service is?", and given the situation, I honestly couldn't. I even went back through all of my emails, and I didn't even start being rude in the least bit until my 2nd batch of orders started to get canceled. I half expected to go back through and find one or two where I was actually overly-rude, but aren't any.



I am currently waiting for the Treehouse guy to get back to me, that should shed some light. If he is an idiot about the situation, I'll go to the BBB. If he is apologetic, I will be willing to let it go, but only if he kisses my feet a few times.

[Dan Matrix]

Lets try and break down some of it if you want,  were the first 5 you ordered Afterlife/Collectors/Illusive/Citadel?  For that release they did 2 one week and released the other 2 the next week but had them all up at the same time and 2 of them stated pre-order.  I can understand if you tried too order those all at once that it would not let you since 2 of them were pre-orders and would not ship until atleast a week later.

That could also explain why it took them a week too ship it after you sorted things out.  As for damages, it is in no way Biowares fault they were damaged an is only out of their kindness and good business practices that they replace damaged lithos.  In no way should you expect anything from them, all you can do is ask kindly and if they decide not too for whatever reason then thats that.

There was an incident where Minuteman/Omega/Afterlife/Illusive man and possibly Citadel were posted back on the store accidently by a new employee.  There was a number of people who placed orders and all of them were cancelled because the stock simply did not exist.

As for the rest I can't comment on why Bioware support decided too ignore you.  In my opinion it is because of all the trouble and money you caused them.  For them too have to reshuffle your orders, refund money etc. costs them time and money.  I have never had a problem ordering all lithos at once and I have yet too see any post aside from you of someone having troubles like this.  After dealing with your order problem, you then come too them with damaged lithos which would cost them ALOT of money too replace whe it is of no fault of theirs. I can understand if they decided not too do anything about it because of the cost.  Then after that you cause them more problems with whatever is going on when your ordering the next batch. 

The fault is not all theirs, there was obviously communication problems between both of you and by what you said Bioware decided they had enough.

Modifié par Dan Matrix, 01 juin 2010 - 11:37 .

[Fexelea]

I recommend that you make public the whole exchange. Gaming blogs can be a real pain for their tendency to report on cases like this, getting bad pr for the gaming company in question, which often triggers internal investigations on issues the company was previously not aware of. Also, have you contacted EA about this?

Modifié par Fexelea, 01 juin 2010 - 11:41 .

[SIim Charles]

I understand that mistakes happen, but it took them 20 days to cancel and refund my second set of orders.



I have to run, but I will try and respond to the rest of your post later.

[Dan Matrix]

If you paid through Paypal(don't know if this applies to credit cards aswell) they secure the funds when you place an order and it shows as pending.  They don't withdraw the funds from Paypal until shipment.  I had a problem where I accidently placed 2 orders, they closed one but my money was not showing up so I contacted them.  They stated that theres nothing they can do to pending funds and I had too simply wait for the pending funds too expire before they show back on your card.  I don't remember exactly how long it took but it was atleast a week.   If you had multiple orders like this I could see how it would take them some time too get to each one.

Modifié par Dan Matrix, 02 juin 2010 - 12:12 .

[Beocat]

Almost all of my interactions have been good so far... However, it does tend to take a day or two for them to get back to you on things and not everytime will you have a happy ending. I had one rep though that was awesome. Changed my address for me and then checked in as to why my package wasn't shipped when I never got my shipping confirmation email (and she had said they'd ship the next day a week before). I guess each one is different.

Best of luck with your case. Try not to get even more frustrated over it. It will only come off badly on your end if you do.

Modifié par Beocat, 02 juin 2010 - 12:50 .

[Dsurian]

SIim Charles wrote...
If he is an idiot about the situation, I'll go to the BBB. If he is apologetic, I will be willing to let it go, but only if he kisses my feet a few times.

I'm sure you're frustrated and mad - honestly, I would be too if i were in your shoes...but working in the customer service world,  and notably not being affiliated with Treehouse or Bioware, I can't help but to make something very clear.

Many corporations who rely on the customer tend to have to go by the rule that the 'customer is always right'.  This is an infant-like philosophy - the idea that you (the global, general consumer 'you') can scream and whine and cry till you get whatever it is you want (unjust or not).  Now I'm not saying that thats what you're doing, Charles...I'm also not saying that if you are, that you're not doing so unjustly, since it certainly seems like you have a understandable motive behind your actions - but making statements like the above quote is significantly pushing the limit, despite your obvious troubles.  So just to be clear, (and I'm hoping you didn't actually mean this, but...) your implying that all of Treehouse is likely idiotic and they should bend to your customer-frenzied will and 'kiss your feet' or else suffer the consequences; the threat to report their devious actions to the Bureau.  Now, IF i were affiliated with Treehouse and had the power, i would be very tempted to go through with the implied action of the last message emailed to you (after all this is rectified, of course) and ban you from their stores to prevent any similar situation from happening - and it would be done souly because of the above quote...

But once again, i do 'feel your pain' so to speak.  But since many people, including myself and others who have already posted, have had excellent experiences with Biowares store, your story brings some ill repute to a company name that has obviously been held in high regard - so to the best of luck in getting everything worked out.  And for future reference, if anything isn't working correctly (for instance, you having a limit of only 1 item in your shopping cart at a time) it would behoove you to find a fix - either a different ISP or browser...if neither of them is the problem, then posting in this forum (much sooner then you did) would have been wise.

Modifié par Dsurian, 02 juin 2010 - 06:33 .

[Crjans]

SIim Charles wrote...

I figured that the worst case scenario was that I would get my money back and get to keep the damaged lithos. I had hoped for an exchange, but was doubtful as I didn't think think they could, or even would replace 4 Citadel lithos.

ok this is a little off point but since you mentioned in another post that you don't want to be gouged by ebayers in order to get other lithos I have to ask what exactly do you need 4 citadel lithos for? are these in hopes of future trades or are you turning around and gouging others right back....

[SIim Charles]

One was for myself, one was for a friend, and the other two I had hoped to trade. I didn't buy them with the intent of selling them, but it remains a last resort if I can't work out some deals.



I find that most people have no problems with most retailers until complicated scenarios come up. I had absolutely no problem with Amazon for years, then out of the blue a difficult situation popped up and they were so incompetent that I swore of the site forever. Most sites are usually on top of things for buyers (they wouldn't be in business long otherwise), but I can't think of any that don't have their own horror stories.



And, I think my outrage at the situation was perfectly justified. "Kiss my feet" was meant as a joke, but I do need an apology of some kind. And I was referring to the one person I talked to as an idiot, I even said in my post that this may just be a single moron who is dragging the site down in this scenario. The BBB exists for this reason, to prevent retailers from doing business in this way. I never threatened them directly, I just said on this board that it is an option if they keep up this nonsense.

[stardazzled]

.

Modifié par stardazzled, 16 mars 2011 - 10:18 .

[Stanley Woo]

Careful, Charles. Regardless of your experience, name-calling and bashing are not appreciated, especially when we are actively trying to help you resolve your issue. Let's all try to keep it civil and mature, please. Thank you.

[SIim Charles]

Sorry, but this rep is really grinding my gears and I would hate to think that he/she alone is giving a bad name to a seemingly otherwise respectable retailer.



And I received a long and well-worded apology from a member of the Treehouse company for their numerous lapses in customer service on the subject. I do not know if this came as a direct result of your investigating, but, either way, I appreciate your concern on the matter.

[Beocat]

I must have been really sleepy last night to have missed the "4 citadels". I feel no pity for you now. I'm not sure I can really believe in needing an extra 2 for maybe trading.

[SIim Charles]

Trading is the best way to get the sold out lithos and The Citadel is the best bargaining chip outside of maybe Ilium to get what you want.



Speaking of trading, I am looking to trade mine. The damage is noticeable, but is completely on the white border. If you were to frame it, it would look perfect. PM offers if you're interested.

[SIim Charles]

......ok?

Modifié par SIim Charles, 02 juin 2010 - 08:49 .

[Beocat]

LOL.... I think I remember that episode.