List of Traders/Vendors who are good or poor communicators - Page 4

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosgr63 

List was updated.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles Aaron.

Thanks mate,

An update, the package has now arrived and I've been using it for 1 day now. While I still believe that Craig handled the whole situation terribly, it was USPS's fault, and I'll never know what happened or why it was so delayed. But bottom line, it's all here now. And in the end Craig did get in contact with me and tried to make it all right. For me it was all a little too late. But in the interest of full disclosure, he did say he was on holiday's and did get in contact with me and stayed in contact until we had an agreement. But I'm not sure if it was the threat of paypal action or me mentioning it here that got his attention. Either way. All is resolved now and the product is in perfect condition.

Ah, first world problems.  I'm going to take on a HF sacred cow here and nominate ALO Audio as poor bordering on very poor customer service and communication.

Long story short: I ordered a cables for my HE-500s as a part of a larger order back in the first week of November and paid via Paypal.  It's now February and I still do not have a functioning cable. And I have to chase ALO for any details about what to do.

ALO:

* waited until the whole order was ready before shipping in the first week of December (I don't have a problem with this necessarily)

* sent me an invoice with an incorrect shipping address on 2 Dec.  I immediately sent them a response with the corrected shipping address. (my order was placed via email and not through the website, so the incorrect shipping address data on file was entered into the system by ALO personnel, not by me via their online order page)

* shipment was received but the cables were terminated for Audez'es.  ALO usually terminates its cables for Audez'e with HE-500s available as a special request and I got an email from Ken at ALO in November telling me that HE-500s were no problem and he would make it happen.

ALO later blamed the mix up on an order taking system which does not allow entry of HiFi Man terminations as an option on the cable order page, since they usually sell the cables with the HE-500s as a package deal only.

* I emailed ALO asking for either a credit for the cost of shipping to be applied to future purchases from ALO or as a refund (maybe keep the cables as I was thinking about getting some LCD-3s) or to return the cables for correct HE-500 cables and for ALO to pay for shipping both ways (back to ALO for retermination and then back to me).

* It took a week (from 13 Dec to 20 Dec) to even get a response from ALO about my options, with ALO initially committing only to pay for shipping one way.

* Another day later, ALO finally agreed to reimburse for shipping both ways.

* I had to wait another 2 days to get a RGA number (23 Dec)

* I paid for shipping back to ALO (for later reimbursement) and returned the cable during the week between Christmas and New Year's and got a response from Customer Service that they received the cables and would email me when they were ready to be shipped back.

* I emailed ALO on 27 January asking what was the status.

* I emailed ALO again on 2 February repeating the 27 Jan email

* Today I got a response that the package was sent to me (without the notifying email or Commercial Invoice as had been promised before by Customer Service) and returned back to ALO as undeliverable and could I please update my shipping address.  What, like I did back in December?  And why did I have to chase after ALO to find this out?  Why weren't they emailing me asking what was happening?

Summary:   ALO

* has poor data entry 

* has limited flexibility in its online and in-house ordering systems, so even if there are products that are on available on their website, you may not be actually able to order them.  If you place a special request, the Sales/Delivery Order system doesn't seem to have the ability to note the request, so there's no guarantee of what will be shipped.

* do not check email accounts despite the claims that they answer emails within 48 hours.  On two separate occasions I had a week pass before I would get a response, and only after I took initiative to send a 2nd prompting email asking what was going on.

* do not have systems or procedures in place to update customer information like shipping addresses.

* do not follow up with notification emails as promised.

Any one can have a bad day.  I get that.  This is not a bad day.  This appears to be bad systems and no sense of ownership by any one person within ALO to make things right.  If I didn't chase after ALO on several occasions, I believe I still would be waiting for someone to respond to an email.

Since I paid for the return shipping with the promise of ALO to reimburse me once I send them my credit card statement with the shipping charges on it (which I have not received from my company yet, as shipping occurred just after the last billing cycle closed), I am now out the cost of the cables plus shipping with a 3+ month wait continuing.

Now since I still do not have my cables, I wonder if posting this will mean I never will and will have to file a Paypal dispute? I will update this (provided I am not banned) as I hear from ALO.

edit: Feb 6th cables received.  They are quite nice, but I the "effort vs. reward" payout ratio remains to be seen.

I have had a little trouble with both J&R and Audeze. However they both got worked out. Audeze ignored me at first, but then was very nice and helpful when they finally got back to me.

J&R's customer service was a bit dumb. I had a problem with a shelving unit. One of the glass shelves was badly scratched. They tried telling me multiple times that I would have to pack the entire thing back up and return it. They were quick to communicate, but slow to solve a problem.

Whiplash Audio I would give a very poor rating to. I send them an ipod to mod. I think they had it over 6 months. Then they did not know if the work had been done, or not or if I had even paid. If there is a category for beyond unreasonably slow and incompetent I would put them in it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rosgr63 

Justin's response to emails.

Or lack thereof.

Toxic Cables - excellent customer service.

ALOAUDIO are also a top organisation from top to bottom.