The Customer is Always Wrong (apparently)
I purchased an external 2.5″ drive from a company online, which is basically a Yahoo! store behind it. The drive enclosure I received wasn’t exactly what I had ordered. I wanted the IEEE1394a (Firewire 400) model, and received the IEEE1394b (Firewire 800) model. Since I don’t have fw800 ports, I’d have to use the usb2 connection. The problem there, is that Linux doesn’t support the Oxford 922 chipset on this drive. I mentioned this in a previous entry.
I went out and purchased a bilingual cable to make the drive work, and it did, though it was not bus-powered, as the original product spec sheet indicated. It doesn’t work with USB bus power or with Firewire bus power. After about a week, the power supply on the external enclosure just stopped working outright. It takes a lot of weird twisting and turning of the power cable and the drive enclosure itself to find the exact position that lets it power up. I should just be able to plug it in and not worry about it.
I received an email this morning from Yahoo! asking me to rate the vendor that sold me this drive. . I rated them with an “F”. Their customer service is non-existant, their entire website has zero contact information, there is no customer service number, there is no information on their privacy or returns policy, and many other shady things.
5 minutes after I submitted the review, I get a phone call from someone representing the company. He basically asserted that I was “an IDIOT“, and that I couldn’t read, and many other interesting and colorful profane phrases. Instead of finding out why I rated him with an “F”, he just proceeded to try to insult my intelligence with slander and libel. I calmly tried to explain that the device wasn’t what I thought I was getting (bus-powered, IEEE1394a), and that the PSU had died on the unit.
After several more insults and swears from this individual, I asked if he knew what slander was, and he said he did, and basically suggested I “go ahead and sue” or something to that effect. Then he tells me he is recording the whole conversation (also illegal, since he did not notify me of this at the beginning of the call, which is required by law. He wasn’t recording anyway, another series of lies).
Then he breaks down and tells me to send the drive enclosure back to him for a full refund, because “…he doesn’t want to do business with people like me.” I’m not sure if he was being discriminatory there or just ignorant, but these things didn’t bolster his side of the case.
We terminate the call and then I see in my email, a copy of a message he apparently sent to several others, calling me a “fucking idiot“, and then states “As posted on our checkout page prior to any purchase we do not do business with IDIOTS” (obviously their checkout page says no such thing, another lie on his part). I’ve made a local copy of their entire website, just in case they try to get smart and change what it says.
Here is a copy of the relevant parts of that email (maybe it wasn’t supposed to go to me?)
Date Wed Apr 6 09:18:56 PDT 2005 Mark Reason Other (every pages has our policy, and our checkout page is very clear what a fucking idiot!) It seems that you must not know how to READ, please try to read your invoice and send item back for refund. As posted on our checkout page prior to any purchase we do not do business with IDIOTS TKS
I’m sure if I was to send him the enclosure back (I will be anyway, certified mail, through the USPS, not Fedex or UPS, since it is defective) that he would just keep it, and my money, and not refund anything. The Better Business Bureau in Clearwater, FL has already been notified, as has my local BBB in CT.
I don’t tolerate or appreciate lies, deceit, insults, slander and libel being wrongfully directed at me. This person has absolutely no idea who he is dealing with.
In any case, if you are online looking for peripherals, avoid this company as much as you can. They’re shady, and they clearly don’t care about their customers.