Unsatisfied. From "Great Deal!" to "Awful Purchase."
Written: Nov 22 '06
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SNAPSHOT
Left us disappointed and frustrated, with product shipped significantly different than product ordered. Customer Service did little to help and further cemented our negative impression.
PRICE
It looked great at the start, but we were deceived. It was a good price for the bundle of camera accessories advertised, a nice mix of products with brands and model numbers identified. The problem? Abe’s of Maine shipped a bundle loaded with a lesser set of obscure brands and mismatched sizes. The price for the lesser product shipped was a BAD deal.
ORDERING/SHIPPING/SERVICE
Abe's of Maine online seemed pleasant enough. The Web site appeared clear about products, pricing, and availability. A few clicks later, and it looked like the order was on its way. Abe’s of Maine followed this up a day later with a phone call to verify our order. We found this call more annoying than necessary, especially because the caller tried repeatedly to convince us we wanted to order something more expensive.
The order arrived via ground shipping ten days later, but Abe’s of Maine had changed the order. Only one of the six bundle items, the memory card, was what was advertised. The brand name battery was replaced with an inexpensive generic one. A proper camera case was replaced with a ridiculously large one. The UV filter and screen protectors were swapped out for lesser brands that did not fit the camera. Even the cleaning kit was a more obscure brand. We would have been okay with a cleaning kit change, but we valued a good camera match for the rest of the order. We had done our research, and we wanted the advertised products.
They claim “Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back!” but…
We called Abe’s of Maine Customer Service to try to reverse the errors. The Customer Care agent insisted we should consider the changes “upgrades” and that the order was filled based on someone in the shipping department filling the order “according to what he wants to ship.” Online, Abe’s of Maine advertised the bundle as “AVAILABLE” and stated they would contact us via email if there were any issues with the order. We were informed after the shipment arrived that “any issues” only applied if none of the bundle was available and did not apply if items were changed based on stock-on-hand for, in this customer’s view, inferior items. No mention of at-will substitutions was given prior to delivery.
The agent refused our request for a complete refund including shipping. The agent agreed that we could exchange the shipped items for those originally advertised but explained that a replacement of the five would not be shipped until all the correct items had been gathered together and indicated this could take a long time. The agent also warned us that once an item is exchanged, even if it is to match the original agreement, the customer can never exchange again. As an example, he cautioned that if we exchanged the camera case from the unwieldy one to the contracted one, no second exchange for the item could happen “when the zipper breaks” (perhaps an odd indication of Abe’s of Maine low confidence in the goods it provides). The agent mentioned we had been on the phone 22 minutes discussing the order and that he could not spend that much time trying to satisfy a customer.
We exchanged only the battery due to a time crunch, and Abe’s of Maine even refunded the shipping cost we incurred to ship the battery back. This partial fix is the only positive we recall.
CONCLUSION
Because we prefer to receive the product we order, and because we prefer to be satisfied customers, we will not shop here again. Abe’s of Maine offered us a good price on a product we wanted, but the good price became bad when Abe’s of Maine failed to provide that product. We suggest you look elsewhere if you want assurance that you will receive what you order and if you want to leave satisfied.
Recommended?
No way. Not even close.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Camera accessory bundle
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Epinions.com ID:
simpleshopper
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Reviews written: 1
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