I cannot possibly describe this experience in 15 words or less...
Written: Nov 27 '05
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Oh how can I put my shopping experience into dignified words?? I checked out epinions before ordering my Nikon Coolpix 7900 7 Megapixel Digital Camera and Nikon WP-CP4 Waterproof Case for Nikon Coolpix 5900/7900 Cameras. Although there were some pretty bad reviews there were just as many glowing ones.
I recently became SCUBA certified and was primarily looking for a small camera that had a waterproof casing with high megapixels. After checking what seemed like hundreds of sites I found the camera I wanted at the price I wanted. Best Buy had the same camera for about $20 more (Abesofmaine.com has the camera for $309.99 and the case for $249.00) but will not ship to APO addresses. Rather then have them ship it to my mom in the states and waiting for her to mail it to me, I decided to take a chance with Abes so I could get it sooner. How silly. That was the 24th of October.
The online sale was as easy as could be. Their website was easy to navigate and they offer tracking for their shipments. A lot of the negative reviews have to do with getting phone calls trying to force more items on shoppers; however, living overseas I knew the cost of this phone call wouldn’t even be worth it for them to try to upsell me! I also noticed that they are members of the BBB which made me feel a little better. I placed my order and the shipping came out to $24.35 for priority mail. Seemed reasonable and again, with a majority of the complaints on epinions.com being about excessive shipping charges, I breathed even easier.
On the 15th of November, I noticed that my order still said, “processed” with no tracking on the shipment yet. I saw their website guarantees they will answer emails within 24 hours so I sent them a polite email asking if there was a tracking number for my camera. I wasn’t too worried yet as shipping over here can be slow sometimes and a lot of companies won’t give out tracking info to APO addresses. I received no reply. On the 20th I called their ֿ-800-992-2237 operators are standing by” number.
When a man picked up the phone simply by saying, “How can I help you?” I responded with, “Is this Abes of Maine?” “Yes. How may I help you?”, he answered kinda curtly. But whatever, one rude guy does not ruin a store…I began to tell him that I ordered something almost a month ago and-“let me connect you to customer service” Ring…Another “How may I help you?” I (after being in the military for 5 years and working in customer service before that, I cannot believe that they don’t state the company name or even their own name for that matter…is this company being operated by stay-at-home mom’s earning some extra cash or do they actually work for this store??) began to tell HER about how my order online still says “processed”. She politely informed me that my camera and its casing are on backorder. Now I became a little irritated and told her that no where on their site does it say this is on backorder! I asked her when the items were supposed to be in and she stated it could be days or weeks. She informed me that their site may be slow to update and it will probably show up that way later. When I explained that I ordered the camera exactly a month ago and the site certainly hasn’t been down that long, she asked me if I could call back at 5:30pm eastern time as that would be when the site would update.
I hung up the phone and wrote a rather mean email:
“Your website says, "Abesofmaine.com answers all e-mails within 24 hours!" However, I emailed you several days ago and still have not gotten a response. My email was in regards to an order that I placed a month ago and still have not received. When I called tonight to inquire about my order, after being put on hold several times and getting transferred several times by people who answer the phone by simply saying, "how may I help you?" and not their name or even the name of the store, I was told that my order is on backorder. No where on the website does it say that my order is on backorder. The woman who answered told me that maybe the website hadn't been updated in several days. However, I placed my order on the 24th of October...nearly a month ago. In addition, she stated that you do not know when my order will be coming in or if it is even expected to be in the near future. I really wanted this camera and the camera casing but I am beginning to wonder if I could've bought it locally and had it a month ago without any of these problems.
In addition, according to my bank, I was charged the full amount of my order in October. If you do not have the products and no date of anticipation for them, why have I paid you already? I could've been earning interest on this money in my bank account or I could've taken out the money and bought the camera from someone else...please get back to me as soon as possible on options for this sale...can I expect the camera and casing in the near future or have I purchased a product that doesn't exist?”
THREE DAYS LATER the response I got was, “Dear Mam, Please contact our tracking department at 1-800-992-2237 or 718-6450-0900 press option 2 on the main menu.
Thank you”
I called back thinking maybe option 2 would get me a supervisor or something. Obviously they read my email and have some answers right? No. The phone was picked up by someone who learned phone etiquette at the same place as the previous employees. I began to tell my story only to be cut off and forwarded again. When the second woman answered the phone this time I TRIED to be polite. I was pretty P.O.d but I know it is not HER fault that this company is giving me the runaround. I explained that I received an email asking me to call this number to discuss my order. She checked their database and informed me that my camera and casing had been shipped on the 31st of October!! I told her that I had JUST been told that it was on backorder and that there still is no tracking for the shipment online. She stated that their website has not updated for the day yet and asked me to call back at 5:30pm eastern time. When I called back I got a message stating they were closed for the weekend. I just sent them the following email:
“I did call again and was told that my camera shipped on the 31st of October. When I told the woman that I was JUST told the night before that my order was delayed, she said the computers were down and asked me to call back...
I frequent epinions.com and read several reviews of the store. Although there were bad ones I hoped for the best and went with the more positive reviews…I am starting to feel pretty foolish for not having listened to the negative ones…I normally am very understanding of problems existing with ordering stuff online, however, the runaround I am getting concerning my order is MUCH worse then the 5 weeks I have been waiting for my camera…”
I WANTED to wait to write my review. I wanted to wait until I received the camera and casing so I could comment on the packing, timeliness, etc…instead I am commenting on the lack of.
As an interesting side note. When I checked these online reviews again, I noticed that a majority of the positive ones were INCREDIBLY glowing with first lines like, “Abe's is an authorized and reputable dealer that delivers.” And “Great prices - great service!” and, “Everything went fine (This is not a scam company - read on)”. Becoming a little suspicious of how defensive these sounded, I clicked on the top of the page to sort by rating. Out of the top 25 ratings received, only TWO people have written more then this one review. I am not saying that all these reviews were written under sneaky circumstances…but I DO find it ironic that the only people who LOVE Abes of Maine have not decided to write another review on anything else on epinions.com…something to think about…
I am sorry I do not have more information on shopping with them. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on anything other then poor customer service and an easy enough to navigate website. Although considering their own “employees” can’t seem to get any updated information, maybe the ease of navigation is due to there being nothing new ever placed on customers tracking pages…
I hope to be able to update this within 24 hours when I receive the response to the email that I am guaranteed to receive by then. If not, sorry but this is all I have to offer you. If you would like to call me long distance from overseas at 5:30pm eastern time for the next few days I will be sure..........
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Nikon Coolpix 7900 7 Megapixel Digital Camera and WP-CP4 case
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Epinions.com ID:
erikausaf
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Location: Military base in the far east
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 3 members
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