Here’s the story of two online purchases – one from Stan and one from Amazon.com. In the middle of April, I was in need of a textbook for a university course (yup, uni at 40!) and a present for my wife’s birthday on May 15th. Living in Taiwan has its perks but accessibility to American products is not one of them. I found the textbook I needed on Amazon and ordered it and then found a two-tone Rolex that Stan was selling on RepGeek. The transaction with Stan went smoothly and a few days later the watch was on its way. I was happy to receive the book and the watch on the last day of April; that was until I opened both packages. First, the book had somehow suffered water damage and was in poor shape. Then to my surprise, I found that the watch had deep scratches in the crystal! I promptly emailed both vendors and waited. A representative from Amazon contacted me within 11 hours and told me to send the book back (at their expense) and the purchase price would be refunded in full. But there was a problem, the course had started and I couldn’t wait to have another book shipped to me. Upon hearing this, the representative informed me that my money had already been refunded and that I should use the book until I finished the course and then send it back (again at their expense!). WOW, I thought. What great customer service.
A few days later Stan emailed me saying that there couldn’t possible be scratches in the crystal as it was sapphire, he actually said it was probably glue! I informed him that there were indeed scratches (as the pictures I emailed showed) and that they must have happened before shipping as the package was in pristine condition when it arrived (To protect myself from fraud, I video myself unwrapping all online purchases). At this point, he told me to send it back (at my expense) and his watchsmith would replace the crystal and then he would send it back. I was disappointed with because I knew that the watch was definitely not going to be back in time for my wife’s birthday. I asked him if he could just give me a refund and I could buy something else for her, but he said he would not because it was a “sale†item. The watch I am talking about was $85us and the shipping was $17us. I pointed out that he was going to have to spend another $17 to ship it back to me when instead he could sell the watch in the CONUS and not be out of pocket so much, but he wasn’t interested. I then sent the watch back to him as requested. And that is when the communication stopped. I emailed him numerous times asking if he received the watch and about its status, but I got nothing in reply. My wife’s birthday came and went and I lost some serious points for not having some bling for her. Then two weeks later the watch showed up, without even a note inside. Not once did Stan apologize for the trouble he caused me. I feel he wasted my time and money because he did not quality check the watch well enough before shipping. We are not talking about drop shipping here. He used his own two hands to put it in the box. There were very obvious flaws with the watch that he overlooked and because of that my wife didn’t have her watch and I had to waste my time and money at the post office. In the end I paid $35us shipping for an 85 buck watch! Disappointing to say the least.
Some of you will probably say that Amazon is a huge company and can afford it, but the money isn’t what this is about for me. It’s about customer service. With the time frames involved both of these situations were “outside the box†and needed “outside the box†solutions… Amazon came up with one, Stan did not. Amazon apologized and Stan did not. Apologies are free (even in today’s economy).
Some of you will probably say that sh!t happens in the rep game and there’s nothing that can be done. Well, there is something that can be done… I will only be buying from one of these vendors again; can you guess which one? I’m sure Stan is a great guy and I know that he and his watches have made a lot of people happy, I’m just not one of them.
A few days later Stan emailed me saying that there couldn’t possible be scratches in the crystal as it was sapphire, he actually said it was probably glue! I informed him that there were indeed scratches (as the pictures I emailed showed) and that they must have happened before shipping as the package was in pristine condition when it arrived (To protect myself from fraud, I video myself unwrapping all online purchases). At this point, he told me to send it back (at my expense) and his watchsmith would replace the crystal and then he would send it back. I was disappointed with because I knew that the watch was definitely not going to be back in time for my wife’s birthday. I asked him if he could just give me a refund and I could buy something else for her, but he said he would not because it was a “sale†item. The watch I am talking about was $85us and the shipping was $17us. I pointed out that he was going to have to spend another $17 to ship it back to me when instead he could sell the watch in the CONUS and not be out of pocket so much, but he wasn’t interested. I then sent the watch back to him as requested. And that is when the communication stopped. I emailed him numerous times asking if he received the watch and about its status, but I got nothing in reply. My wife’s birthday came and went and I lost some serious points for not having some bling for her. Then two weeks later the watch showed up, without even a note inside. Not once did Stan apologize for the trouble he caused me. I feel he wasted my time and money because he did not quality check the watch well enough before shipping. We are not talking about drop shipping here. He used his own two hands to put it in the box. There were very obvious flaws with the watch that he overlooked and because of that my wife didn’t have her watch and I had to waste my time and money at the post office. In the end I paid $35us shipping for an 85 buck watch! Disappointing to say the least.
Some of you will probably say that Amazon is a huge company and can afford it, but the money isn’t what this is about for me. It’s about customer service. With the time frames involved both of these situations were “outside the box†and needed “outside the box†solutions… Amazon came up with one, Stan did not. Amazon apologized and Stan did not. Apologies are free (even in today’s economy).
Some of you will probably say that sh!t happens in the rep game and there’s nothing that can be done. Well, there is something that can be done… I will only be buying from one of these vendors again; can you guess which one? I’m sure Stan is a great guy and I know that he and his watches have made a lot of people happy, I’m just not one of them.
