Just received an empty box from J&R instead of Senn 650s...

[LTUCCI1924]

Got my 650 this morning. The 650 is just awesome sounding.
I got the price by calling back after I ordered and ask for a supervisor and ask for a lower price and he said OK 285.00.

 

[DougGreenberg]

It's six days since I issued my complaint to J&R, and absolutely NOTHING has happened, i.e., no call from UPS, no recontact from J&R regarding "progress," no apology, and no guarantee, really, that they ever will make things right. It appears to me that they are more interested in covering their metaphorical rear ends here than in providing assurances to good customers who have gotten screwed, quite possibly due to their own internal problems. I'm NOT a happy camper at this point.

 

[vapman]

@ltucci- good to hear you finally got it.

@doug- if i were you, if i didn't hear by tomorrow i'd contact some higher authorities.

 

[tomjonesrocks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougGreenberg It's six days since I issued my complaint to J&R, and absolutely NOTHING has happened, i.e., no call from UPS, no recontact from J&R regarding "progress," no apology, and no guarantee, really, that they ever will make things right. It appears to me that they are more interested in covering their metaphorical rear ends here than in providing assurances to good customers who have gotten screwed, quite possibly due to their own internal problems. I'm NOT a happy camper at this point.

I guess we're really dependent on the customer service reps, which in any company are hit and miss--and from my direct experience J&R is NOT an exception. I guess if I were you I'd start asking for other supervisors and whatnot though. The guy I've dealt with Greg seems good so far (although I don't know how this will turn out and I am definitely annoyed having to wait for an investigation). Also, apparently the guy LTUCCI1924 dealt with resolved things for him. I do get the feeling this is something you have to call every damn day on though.

If this drags on though I'll go to the max disputing this on my card, complaining to the BBB, etc. etc. etc. None of those things are fast though, and would take months to get to the end of.

I don't see how J&R's reputation here doesn't take a hit though. I generally won't deal with companies based in New York--but thought J&R was on par with amazon.com reputation-wise. Should have stuck to my rule.

And agree with the comments though that issues like this completely destroy the fun of a purchase like this. Really regret that I didn't just decide 650s were out of the budget. Now not only do I have a $300 charge sitting on my credit card, but I have nothing to show for it and a big project to babysit to even get these things. I'm still stewing from "Grace"s uselessness over there (even if "Greg" sort of attempted to undo that) at J&R--who needs that anger and frustration when spending this kind of money? If I'd have known in advance I definitely wouldn't have done it.

Even if this all does turn out later it will take awhile to get over the bad taste of this whole deal. But so far I'm with you--I wouldn't say I've received *promises* this would be resolved--and certainly haven't been offered any compensation for my troubles.

 

[twc5964]

After what I had to contend with J&R back in 1991 I have since never done business with them again.

 

[mbriant]

While I completely understand your frustration, in all fairness to J&R, or any retailer for that matter, you can't honestly expect them to blindly accept your complaint about receiving an empty box, and immediately drop everything and replace a $300 item, without first investigating the situation. With the huge amount of fraud and misrepresentation that goes on, they'd have to be complete suckers to do so. For all they know, you could be attempting to scam them out of a second set of headphones. Let's face it, them receiving, then shipping, then you receiving an empty box, while something that can and does occur from time to time, isn't exactly a common problem.

Also, 2 of the 6 days that have passed are weekend days, where companies don't always have 100% staff on duty...especially clerical support staff. Most people and businesses do not count weekends in response time equations. So 4 business days, while perhaps an eternity to you, to a company that probably has hundreds of transactions going on at any given moment, and doesn't necessarily have a team of customer service reps standing by to immediately delve into your particular situation, wouldn't really be that out of line ... if at all. UPS, the post office, or any other couriers always work with a very long time period when dealing with claims as well. If they become part of the investigation, and I imagine one of them will, you can count on considerable delays.

Again, your frustration and disappointment is understandable, but you still have to be fair and reasonable in your expectations with the retailer.

 

[tomjonesrocks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbriant While I completely understand your frustration, in all fairness to J&R, or any retailer for that matter, you can't honestly expect them to blindly accept your complaint about receiving an empty box, and immediately drop everything and replace a $300 item, without first investigating the situation.

I think the problem is there's no way I can *prove* my innocence here, nor can J&R prove its innocence, nor UPS or Sennheiser prove their innocence. There is a chance they could find absolute fault, but there's a higher chance they won't. All these weight numbers here can be cooked one way or the other, I'm assuming, before I ever received this and no one would know who did the cooking.

So what this wait on my end conveys to me is that they're some chance they'll find *me* to blame and won't send me a new pair. That representative "Grace" I dealt with only would seem to reinforce that notion. Reading between the lines, are they saying if the weight numbers are "accurate" all the way through J&R and UPS I'm screwed? If that's the case, I'll never stop disputing this, ever, for obvious reasons. I'll build websites telling my story and advising people to never shop J&R, I'll dispute my credit card, I'll report them to the BBB and not close my case until they reimburse me--it will never end until I either get the headphones or my money back. I know I'm not losing $300 here. So I guess the investigation J&R is doing is of NO interest to me and the delay only gives me the impression there's a chance this won't be handled to my liking.

So as in the end, as there's no possible way you can actually put absolute blame on any specific party, wouldn't it be in the best interests of the company, odds-wise, that they just take the *customer's* word? By making me wait for an "investigation", that makes me a far too active part in this process than I want to be. All I know right now is they have my money and I don't have the merchandise--and I don't (yet) have firm confirmation they're sending another one.

IMO, frankly, whatever is happening here this sort of issue should be part of the cost of doing business for them and I don't feel I should be made a part of any of this. They should ship this out immediately.

 

[LTUCCI1924]

This will be my last response to this thread. On my empty box the ups label states 4 lbs. On my new box the label states 5 lbs.
On my ups tracking the weight states old # 3.50 lbs and new tracking weight # states 4.40 lbs.

It seems very obvious to me that they can see right away that there is something wrong with the shipping from J&R.

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomjonesrocks . I'll build websites telling my story and advising people to never shop J&R, I'll dispute my credit card, I'll report them to the BBB and not close my case until they reimburse me--it will never end until I either get the headphones or my money back. I know I'm not losing $300 here. So I guess the investigation J&R is doing is of NO interest to me and the delay only gives me the impression there's a chance this won't be handled to my liking.

I think J&R is handling it no differently than any other decent retailer would have handled it, and I wouldn't expect them to send me out a replacement if it was me in your situation.

I know how you feel. I had an iPod lost ordered from Apple.com, and it took months to resolve. I wanted Apple to send me a replacement right away too while this was under investigation but they never did.

So I think this is always some risk you take in ordering anything online, there is no 100% guarantee something won't go wrong, and there will be some problems along the way.

 

[mbriant]

Quote:

IMO, frankly, whatever is happening here this sort of issue should be part of the cost of doing business for them and I don't feel I should be made a part of any of this. They should ship this out immediately.

If you had sold and shipped a pair of headphones to someone you didn't know, and they contacted you saying they received an empty box, would you immediately refund their money? Wouldn't you want to look into it a little?

 

[The Monkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbriant If you had sold and shipped a pair of headphones to someone you didn't know, and they contacted you saying they received an empty box, would you immediately refund their money? Wouldn't you want to look into it a little?

C'mon. Completely different scenario.

 

[The Monkey]

Isn't the other option here to let your credit card company handle it? has anyone tried that? Amex tends to be very good about this stuff. Just curious.

 

[DougGreenberg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Monkey Isn't the other option here to let your credit card company handle it? has anyone tried that? Amex tends to be very good about this stuff. Just curious.

Credit card companies expect you to make "every effort" to resolve the matter with the merchant before they will intervene. It's a matter of timing.

I'll add that the cases we are considering here involve supposedly sealed boxes having been pilfered somewhere in the packing and delivery process. That's not the same as a courier/delivery service messing up by delivering a parcel to the wrong address. In this kind of case, the merchant should know full well that it is very likely to be at fault. At the very least their "investigation" should be carried out as quickly as possible, and that sure isn't happening in my case.

 

[DougGreenberg]

I've done a little bit of research on these kinds of cases (hardly exhaustive). The truth is that the first step is always for the shipper to conduct an "investigation." So J&R probably is correct that they (and we) have to wait for UPS to get this task accomplished. UPS itself says this takes "up to ten days."
So I guess I/we will wait a little longer.

 

[DougGreenberg]

Ok, update:
J&R has informed me that they will ship out a replacement iPod "within 1-2 days." This without UPS ever having contacted me as part of an "investigation."

Fair's fair: overall, given how this system apparently works (see previous post), J&R's handling of this mess has been reasonable, aside from perhaps a slight lack of communicativeness. At this point, the only remaining issue is whether or not I need to return what's left of the pilfered iPod parcel (i.e., the earbuds, software cd's, USB cable, and box).

As I have said previously, I have a certain sympathy with J&R in this matter, as I'm confident at their end they are upset about these thefts and they realize fully this will hurt their reputation and future business. I ordered from them because I have bought a long series of items from them previously with absolutely no problems. Up until this episode I would have ranked them up with B&H Photovideo as a first-rate merchant.

But the truth is, this will make me reluctant to buy from them again, at least for a while. There are just too many other reputable merchants out there and this has been a real bummer of an experience.