This all started back on Dec 17th when I placed an order for a client who needed a system built and delivered to him by Jan 12th.

My order was for a P4 1.8GHz (128KB). Right away I should have had enough sense to know there was no such thing, but I didn't as I was trying to keep as low of a budget as possible.

I also special ordered a Sony 32x CD RW per the clients request. No cheap stuff here.

When the system arrived I put in all the extra parts, booted it up and to my surprised I was greeted with a "Intel Celeron 1.8Ghz".

Upon futher checking they had sent a GENERIC 48X CD RW instead of the Sony!! :angry:

I called them and they tried to BS me "Oh, you just try that CDRW it's much faster than the Sony. You'll love it." I explained to him that I ordered the drive because it WAS Sony and I WANTED a Sony drive because my client requested a Sony drive specifically.

I finally kept him on the line long enough to offer to ship me the Sony, but when I hit him up about why they sell a Celeron as a P4 he had no answer and offered to ship the P4 for a EXTRA $68.

Abusurd!

I told him that woudln't work and to send me a shipping lable because they could take then stupid thing back if they can't deliver what they sell. He explained "We no have shipping lables." I told him to go to UPS.com and print one. He had no comment.

The "supervisor" is supposed to call me back but I doubt he will.

Am I in the right for doing a chargeback since I have an invoice that says "P4 1.8GHz 128KB" yet what I got is NOT a P4? Same with the CDRW I paid for a Sony but they sent a GENERIC brand.

I am utterly pissed at the moment, now I've got to go ahead and get the parts elsewhere and deal with getting my $800 back from these idiots later.

Any suggestions?

I would say give them 48 hours to comply then if they dont chargeback there ass.. Nothing worse than a crook.. The thing is they have prob been doing it for a while and either the people who install them dont know the difference in a P4 and a Celeron or just don't want to be bothered so they usually dont get caught, but if you have now caught them and they refuse to refund/replace then thats what chargebacks are for, they are not for pissed of hosting customers who think they got "ripped" because the support ticket they opened 20 minutes ago is not yet answered.

Unfortunately I have wholesalers/importers that try this all the time with me. Luckily I buy all my C.O.D. so if the wrong item turns up I simply refuse to take delivery, secondly I never buy pre built I buy every single piece and assemble it myself.

In your situation I would do the charge back, once I had my money back I would return the two incorrect items back with a note asking for a new invoice with the two items deducted. I would also make them wait a while before I actually paid the new invoice.

Doc

There was an article on Dateline or some similar show a few weeks back regarding retail computer stores that do this. The "Bait and Switch" I believe it was called. They would always advertise these great computers with name brand components, but when you got to the store the salesmen would inform you they are on backorder or some other crap and show you another system that they said was even better for about the same price.

The fact of the matter was, they almost never had the computer they advertised, and basically home built the computers themselves with the cheapest components and since most people didn't want to wait or research, they ended up buying it. Probably the same thing a ton of these online stores do. Advertise something, and ship cheaper components assuming most people won't catch it, or like you on the phone try to tell you it is even better pretending they actually "helped" you out.

thats sucks , sorry to hear about that . I myself would just chargeback .. and take my business elsewhere . As far as the sony drive goes , they make many cdr products , alot of them dont signify that they are a sony , yet they are (it may be OEM too) . Its kinda like liteon (my fav brand for cd/dvd drives), they make drives for everyone , others cobrand it with thier name...Sony also makes dell monitors too ....but it doesnt say sony on it

Originally posted by sonichost
My order was for a P4 1.8GHz (128KB). Right away I should have had enough sense to know there was no such thing, but I didn't as I was trying to keep as low of a budget as possible.

Not trying to defend the company you purchased from but even Intel calls the s478 Celerons "P4 based" Regardless, they should have been more clear.

Not trying to defend the company you purchased from but even Intel calls the s478 Celerons "P4 based" Regardless, they should have been more clear.

Agreed but if they'd put the word CELERON in the title I wouldn't have ordered it. I continually explained to them that NO WHERE on my invoce or order did it say Celeron.

I tried to bargain with them to overnight me the P4 1.8GHz and the Sony CD RW and pay for shipping back on their other 2 parts.

They refused but agreed to take the system back and pay for shipping. Now whether or not I actually ever get paid for the shipping will be a different story....

Any tips on how I can make SURE they credit me for what it costs to ship the POS back to them?

They also tried to continually explain to me that the Generic 48X was better and "nobody used those old 32x any more anyway." My guess is they only stock the cheap ones and use those no matter what brand you order, then switch them w/o consent.

I'll also be reporting it to the BB. :angry:

what company was this want to share ?

Yea, that's a really bad way to describe that chip. Although technically acurate. And the CDR thing is bad also. Pack everything back up and ship it to them. Enclose a letter asking for a refund and keep a copy for yourself along with the shipping reciept. Give them a week and then chargeback. It will make your case stronger.

Aaron

If at all possible I try to avoid all online dealers (unless of course its like a Future Shop etc..) It's no different than buying from Ebay and gettin screwed. I need to see the hardware myself before I put any money down, plus I only build my own box - I never buy prebuilt whitebox models. Too much "mystery" involved with those no matter who you buy em from.

If it means an extra $50 to buy from a local or very well known dealer i'll pay it - for the peace of mind later when my computer doesn't crash cause I bought a frankenstein system. :D

To follow on from what Hostkookster was saying (all good points) the other consideration when purchasing hardware is .. support and replacement. .. If you can't get what you want to start with then how are you going to get replacements if needed.
:eek:

What Hosthookster said exactly. I'll either buy the parts and build it myself, or go to a local dealer I know will deliver and has good aftercare. Saves a lot of time on the collect and return too, as he mostly has spare and replacement parts on hand.

Originally posted by sonichost


Am I in the right for doing a chargeback since I have an invoice that says "P4 1.8GHz 128KB" yet what I got is NOT a P4? Same with the CDRW I paid for a Sony but they sent a GENERIC brand.

I am utterly pissed at the moment, now I've got to go ahead and get the parts elsewhere and deal with getting my $800 back from these idiots later.



Write a letter to your credit card company explaining what happened and asking for the chargeback. Include a copy of the invoice and point out that charging for a higher priced item while providing a lower priced one is fraud and that's the basis for your claim.
Send a copy of the letter to the president/ceo of the company you bought the computer from, pointing out that their action is fraud in the eyes of the law and you will pursue it if you are not completely reimbursed, including shipping and that the reimbursement is to be made in no less than seven days.
Keep the letter firm and a statement of facts.
Look up the state government on line where they do business and see if there is a site for filing consumer complaints online. Many have them and it's a painless process.
What they did is illegal. Treat it that way.

Write a letter to your credit card company explaining what happened and asking for the chargeback. Include a copy of the invoice and point out that charging for a higher priced item while providing a lower priced one is fraud and that's the basis for your claim.

Your advice is the best I've got so far. I'll be sending them an invoice for the shipping charges to make sure they pay those also.

If I don't get a refund I will be giving my CC company a call. I've never done a chargeback and I certainly don't want to do one now.

I talked to the "supervisor" who yelled at me "You got what you paid for! We didn't cheat you!" and he later told me "Did you really expect a P4 for $85??" "What you got is a P4 board and the chip is a P4 1.8GHz Celeron." Yet no where on my description does it mention Celeron. :rolleyes:

I should have known better. He had absolutely NO excuses for swapping a BioStar CD RW in place of the Sony without even asking me before doing so.

I'm on my way now looking for a local place or the BB to file a complaint against them.

I've also just ordered up all the parts individually from a company I've used in the past and I know won't treat me like that. :mad:

Thanks for letting me vent and giving me input guys. :)

That's a good one.
"Did you really expect a P4 for $85??"
Yes, I'd expect one for $10 if that's what you advertised.

Isn't it funny how crooks get mad at you for busting their chops?

First I'd do what you already have done, attempt to at least work the problem out with the store. Its quite simple really, they immediatly refund transactions, send shipping labels to mail the items back. They then reinvoice you and ship the new items. If they don't agree to that then:

1) Charge back full amount
2) Contact BBB, Law Enforcement (bait & switch and/or shipping a different item than you paid for is against the law)
3) Hold the items in your posession until they provide return shipping labels or until law enforcement asks you to turn them over
4) Contact Visa/Mast/Amex (whichever type of card you used) and report the merchants practices. These practices are certainly against any agreement they have and are grounds for immediate termination of their merchant account.

By the way... it may help to let them know what you intend to do if they don't follow through properly. Don't harass them about it but you do have a right to mention your intentions. They may just change their mind when they find you really mean business.

I have unfortunately had to use some of these options before... usually the BBB is enough and the company will suddenly "realize" they made a mistake. Note: I always include in my BBB submissions a request that not only the money portion be resolved, but also that I receive a hand printed letter of apology containing specific statements admitting the companies guilt also signed in pen ink by the companies ceo, president, vp, whoever's names I can get a hold of high up in the company. That letter of actual apology from a big shot can be just the satisfaction needed to make the situation all worth it:)

Yay my 500th post :o

Thanks for the replies guys. I thought I would update this since it seems to be better than some of the flame war posts going on.

I was writing down S/N's off all the parts. Came across the modem which was supposed to be a US Robotics..

While I know USR doesn't make the modems, they do make the chipsets if I recall correctly.

Instead they gave me:

A-Tech ATS-273B
Chipset: Agere 1648C-TV5S2GV-0210S

While I've never seen this brand there was no reference of USRobotics on any of the chips, nor did anything USR related show in the control panel.

My assumption is you can pick these up off pricewatch for less than $4 each. :angry: Yet another bait+switch.

My associate who buys and sells a ton of stuff on ebay, has only been burned twice. One of them was a computer.
Because the deal was a bit too good to be true, he actually took the case off and inspected the components. The MoBo, Vid card, and something else, were not the advertised items.
He emailed the guy who tried to say "something" was better, ect, but my associate stuck to his guns, and the guy had to mail him the right hardware. My friend was supposed to return the other hardware once he recieved what he was suposed to get. Did he? No, because he said he will probably find something else not right later on. He was right. He didn't notice the HD.
He later bought a factory one from Dell, and sold me the PC. (infected with stuff because he never listens to me about security) I was the one who noticed the HD wasn't a 40 gig 7200 rpm, (30 gig 5400 rpm) so that was never remedied. That's OK I bought a 60 gig 7200 rpm for it like I wanted anyway.
If I were you, I would simply return the whole darn thing. My friend said he learned his lesson, and would never buy a PC in this mannor again.