I got burned by Circuit City for a game I bought with the same thing. I bought it and put it down and went out of town. Then when I came back I found out the box was empty - just the cardboard and they gave me problems in returning the item because they said that I should have come back immediately (now I just open packages routinely before I leave the store :). I actually wrote to Circuit City's online customer service explaining the problem and they gave me a contact person at the store who fixed the problem for me.
I suspect that if you let them know that you are the Gearbits.com editor and are prepared to highlight your experience as part of a story you're researching, they would see fit to work with you. I suspect that if they know that you have an audience of Treo users the same thing. On 9/26/07, Craig Froehle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 9/26/07, Jeffrey Kaplan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I've had nothing but good service from TreoCentral and wouldn't > > hesitate to recommend them. I find the selection at MyTreo.net to be > > lacking. > > Well, here's my story. I gave TreoCentral plenty of opportunity to do > the right thing, but since they have essentially ignored me now for > nearly a month, I think it's safe to say that there's nothing I can > say _to_ them that will change the outcome. I may post a longer > version on GearBits, but here's a quick summary: > > About three months ago, I ordered a battery/cradle kit consisting of a > new stock Palm Treo 700p battery, a cradle charger, and a slipcase. > When I got the kit, I hooked up the cradle, popped in the battery in > the charger to fill 'er up. But then I left town for a week and then > it sat on my desk for another two weeks before I realized I hadn't > even tried the battery (the cradle worked fine). After about a few > days of using the new battery, it seemed like it didn't have the same > capacity as my older battery -- it would be at 40% at the end of a day > whereas my original battery would usually be at 60-65%. I thought > maybe the battery needed some breaking in to reach full capacity, and > used it for another week. By the end of that week, I realized the > battery just did not work very well. I then closely examined the > battery and realized it said "PalmOne" on it -- that tipped me off > that the battery was fairly old (Palm hadn't used that name in well > over a year) and probably not even capable of taking a full charge > anymore. At that point, I emailed TreoCentral and asked if they could > replace this battery with one that was actually "new" (per the > advertisement). They wrote me back and said that since I was out of > the 30-day return period (it had been 35 days), they would exchange > the battery if I paid for shipping both directions. Well, this is a > $20 battery and shipping would have cost at least $12. I wrote them > back and politely explained that I thought that wasn't fair and hadn't > contacted them within the 30 days because I was trying to make sure > that the battery was NOT defective before contacting them (I didn't > even know about the 30-day policy) and offered to pay for shipping to > get the defective battery back to them but that they should send me > the new battery on their dime; I really did try to compromise. They > said, "sorry...that's our policy." I then explained that strictly > adhering to their arbitrary "policy" of 30 days was a bad decision > because while they would save $6 in shipping, I would never, ever buy > anything from them again (and I buy Treo stuff pretty regularly...both > my wife and I use them) and to let me know if they would reconsider > the option of splitting the shipping costs. They never responded. > > Now I realize that not every company is chock full of people who score > high on the "customer service orientation" scale (I research customer > service as my profession, so I've seen lots of examples, good and > bad), but facing such a simple decision and making the wrong choice > just doesn't give me a lot of confidence in the company. And I'm not > even talking about doing the "right" thing...I'm talking about doing > the _smart_ thing, which would have been to eat $6 in order to > solidify a relationship with a customer who spends an average of $50 a > year. Taking care of repeat customers is just good business...ask any > experienced bartender! > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > -- ============================== War Eagle
