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Lessons in Bad Customer Service ecost.com

I am not usually one to get so mad that I would write a post that thousands of people will read about a company’s lousy customer services but ecost.com takes the cake. If you have ever thought about buying from this company please pray that you get the right product when you order or it may take 50 phone calls, letters to the CEO and more before you, if your lucky get it fixed.

Like most people out there my digital collection of photos and video is getting quiet large causing backup to be an issue. I had researched several online backup companies but my data was just to large. After short research I came across the Buffalo Media NAS. I searched high and low and found that ecost.com a place I hardly ever shop at had one refurbished at a hard to believe price of 76.00. I couldn’t help it and ordered the product and paid for standard shipping which was for 8-10 days.

ecost.com bad customer service

 

The order came in just fine after only a few days and I was so excited, I opened the box and was ready to run connect it to my network and this is where the fun begins. No NAS. I looked for a second and they had sent me the wrong drive. So I do what is expected and call customer service to get a RMA number so I can send it back for the right drive.

 

Ring Ring.

Welcome to ecost.com Enter number. 2 for sales and billing etc.

Person answers and says nicely how can I help you. I explain what has happened give them the information and they say I should hear back from ecost.com technical group shortly. Awesome. Or so I thought. Then I get the email.

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your recent inquiry. However, the picture and specification shows that it has the LAN connector. If you may, please contact Buffalo at 512-794-8533 for troubleshooting.

If you have any further questions, please contact a Customer Service Specialist at 1-877-888-2678.

We appreciate your business and hope we can hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Customer Care Specialist

ecost.Com

I then call customer service again and explain that the vendor cannot help me because they sent me the wrong product. They sent me the version that has no NAS. They say ok I should hear back from the technical group again. Fingers Crossed.

Dear Ecost.com Valued Customer

Thank you for your recent inquiry in regards to your order. Please contact our customer service center at 1-877-888-2678 and one of our agents will be more than happy to assist you.

Thank You

Customer Service

Just in case you are wondering this is my third call to customer service. I call again and talk to yet another person explain the information again and they say they can’t find the product I am talking about on the site and can I send the information. Pissed by now I sent the information again now with screen shots from their own site showing the wrong model they sent and the one I purchased including serial number etc.

You sent me the wrong version. You sent me the

ecost.com is the worst

I order the

ecost.com bad customer service

SO buffalo cannot help me. On the back of the drive the serial is 695281170823057 Model HD-HC500-U2-R

So now I hope that I have everything squared away and await my RMA number then I get this email.

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding your order. We have reviewed your order and it shows that issues have already been addressed. We do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused; notes have already been taken down regarding issues in order to serve you better with your future purchase.

We want to provide you the best service possible and we do apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you. If you may, please call CustomerService Center at 1-877-888-2678 for future inquiries and assistance.

We appreciate your business and hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Customer Care Specialist

ecost.Com

So now I pick up the phone yet again and call rant, scream, yell, etc. and They tell me that they need a picture of the item that they sent. So I send it yet again with a photo I took of the drive with my phone.

 

ecost.com bad customer service

 

I call customer service again, I have lost count and they say they cannot open the JPG image I sent, so I sent it again and now they say that I should get a call from a manager today with the RMA number. No call as of 4:00 PM. I am not holding my breath. So the moral of the story is if the price sounds to good to be true, don’t buy, because if their is an issue, your time on the phone with customer service may cost 10 times more than the product from bestbuy, microcenter, or circuitcity down the road.

This is How the Call should have went.

Ecost how can I help you.

I ordered a product from you a few days ago and you sent me the wrong version.

No Problem. Can you give me the model and serial number of the product you received.

Yes it is .   ############# and ##########

I am sorry this happened sir. Here is your RMA number. We can expedite your RMA by sending you the right product secured now with a creditcard. This way you don’t have to wait for the complete process to have the product your ordered. We will credit your card when the product you received is checked back in.

Sounds great. I will ship the product back today and look forward to getting the new product. Thanks for your time.

So easy it’s stupid right….

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Post Words: AfterAfter, BuffaloBuffalo, MediaMedia, WelcomeWelcome, EnterEnter, PersonPerson, AwesomeAwesome, ValuedValued, CustomerCustomer, ThankThank

This entry was posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Feature Marketing Article, Full Marketing BLOG. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Lessons in Bad Customer Service ecost.com”

  1. I train companies in customer service and frequently hear about how nasty some customers are. I am pretty sure that many of the customers are “nasty” because of treatment like you just described. I’m usually very polite to customer service representatives, but when I get the kind of horrible customer service you describe, I get upset and cease to be polite. I don’t use foul language, but I’m not willing to put up with that kind of service.

    I hope you can find the did find that CEO to write to. Keep posting about this company and maybe you’ll stop other people from shopping with them. If you used a credit card for your purchase, you could call the credit card company and have them reverse the charges and give you a credit. They are usually very good about doing that, especially American Express. When a credit card company charges something back to a company, I believe they charge the company additional fees. And at least you’ll get your money back. Good luck.

  2. Thank you for posting this. I have been with eCOST.com for 10 years and I am more than happy to assist you. If this problem is still an open issue, I can resolve it quickly for you. I do apologize for the frustration we have caused you. If you have any questions, please call me at 877-888-2678 ext 4127 or my cell phone number 310-218-6741. I will be more than happy to be your one stop contact here. You are a valued customer and I hope that I can win your business back. Thank you for taking the time to read my comments.

    Linda Potter
    eCOST.com Manager

  3. Dear ecost Manager. I appreciate your offer to help me. All ecost ended up doing is crediting me for the transaction so I could start the purchase process all over again. So, I will not shop at your store anymore. I do hope that you implement simple straight forward processes so that any new customers have a great experience if they ever need to return something.

    Mark Ferguson
    President True You Marketing

  4. I have been a long time customer of eCost.com and have never had a problem until now. On December 8th I “bought” the Platinium membership ($39.95). On December 9th, I ordered 2 items from the Outrageous Deals”.
    Verbatim 16x LightScribe DVD+RDiscs in Cases – 20 Pack 3ea @ $1.99
    Netgear Rangemax Wireless USB2.0 Range Extender ( WPN111 )
    1 ea @ 10.99

    Today I received the Netgear Rangemax but not the DVDs. I checked the online status and it showed that the DVD order was cancelled. NOT BY ME!!
    I called and was told the item was cancelled because it was backordered. They would reorder the item for a price of $22.99.
    After 54 minutes on the phone ( I requested a supervisor 3 times)
    (I never got a supervisor) I was last told the the $1.99 price was posted in error. Bullshit!!!
    I doubt I will ever shop eCost again.

  5. I also ordered from ecost.com, and got something other than what I ordered, and have followed the process through Customer Service, phone calls, emails, etc. I filed a dispute with PayPal and they said that since eCost.com sent me SOMETHING, I couldn’t dispute the claim on the basis of NOT receiving what I ordered (oh great, a $5 program vs. a $80 program – makes a lot of sense, there PayPal). Hey, since I have found so many numerous other complaints about eCost.com in this same situation, maybe PayPal and eCost.com are in cahoots, eh?

  6. i’m currently going through a similar problem with them. Did you ever get the contact information for their CEO?

  7. these folks are bad bad bad… watch for the deceptive advertising. They got me to sign up for a ‘platinum service’ with the hook of getting an IPOd for cheap – only to find out that the IPODS (all five of them) were all gone within seconds of the email going out. THEN when I contacted their customer service to say I did not want the ‘platinum service’ I got no where (‘already processed’ in less than 10 minutes) – so they can have a poor rating on as many siteas as I can access.

  8. ecost.com is a big FRAUD company. I have ordered panasonic DECT phone KX-TG9344T and and when I received the packet, I found that the handsets are are of a different old model and base station is even more old model. There is no plastic wrap arround the items, they just threw some old crab into the box and shipped me. How can they do that.

    Its like robbing the customers. NEVER NEVER EVER buy from ecost.com.

    Beleive me, there are hundreds and thousands of negative reviews in the internet on ecost.com. these people are cheating the American Public.

    how to reach the ceo of this company? any contact details are appreciated.

    I will try my best to spread this news about ecost.com. these folks are cheats. One day people should realize and shutdown the company

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