Vendor Rant, sort of

[John R]

i ordered a replacement satellite dish for a client from the local office of a national company, overnight. i was told the dish had to ship from new york and freight was to be $$, i gave my credit card as the form of payment. done deal(?) i come home the next day(after business hours) to a cod slip from ups for the dish. i call the vendor and express my displeasure and he offers to try to get ups to drop it off at the local ups store without the cod amount. great, call me with a confirmation. no call. i go to the ups store to get the dish and they're looking at me like i'm telling them i just got off the phone with john lennon. get home to day 2's cod slip. i call vendor next am, and tell them it looks like the only way i'm going to get the dish is if i leave the check for mr ups.

call them today, and salesgirl offers "your still talking to us?" sure, of course, they still have stuff in their book that i can utilize(the dish was my second transaction with them), but i'm looking for a credit for the freight. she says she'll call me back. calls me back and says that since ups attempted to deliver and no one was there, that the dish did actually show up next day i agree, that ups fulfilled their contract with my vendor to deliver the next day. i also state that vendor did not fulfill contract with me, due to the fact that i gave my credit card as the form of (pre)payment and not cod. she doesn't see the light and we go back and forth a couple of minutes before she hands me over to the gm.

i explain my argument to him and he begrudgingly offers the credit, i say great, i'll use the credit on account. no, he wants to cut a check, thank you, talk to you later, goodbye.

i was a purchaser for a hotel chain for years, also responsible for shipping and receiving of everything in and out of the building. if a guest so much as questioned something, we had an entire checklist for backup and if we didn't meet all the criteria, we'd offer complete refund of their freight. this shouldn't be so hard for them to grasp.

i sent him this email after our conversation:

XXXX, thanks for offering to refund the credit for the overnight freight. I realize it was a snafu, but I honestly don't believe I should be the one to pay for it. I would like to meet in the middle though. Since I did recieve the dish on the third day, how about the difference between first and third day frieght as the credit. And, as I stated, I would use the credit on my account instead of you having to go through the process of having to cut a check. There are items in your catalog that I would easily use the credit against. Let me know.


thoughts?


jr

 

[ktschris]

John R...I feel your pain, I too had a problem with a national satelite company. After we moved, they sent mailing cartons, so we could send back their boxes. But they sent the cartons to our old address. It took almost a month to get these mailing cartons to our new address. In the mean time, they charged $400 to our credit card for the boxes. After the mailing cartons were received, I sent the boxes back, they went to two different address in two different states. It took me 4 months for them to credit back my account. A month after they did...they sent me a bill for $400. I called and they told me it was an oversight and to ignore the bill. Which I did, now I'm fighting with them AND a collection agency!!! I moved last June and I'm still fighting with these people today!!

opps, sorry to RANT on your parade