More praise for Newegg, one of those rare retailers with an exceptional customer service record. Andrea bought an Astar Electronics HDMI Player with DIVX and sent off her rebate request, but never received the promised rebate.
She asked Newegg for help:
I sent two inquiries to the address they supply–rebate@astarelectronics.com–and still have yet to receive any response. Is there any way you guys could try to get their attention? I have copies of my submission, and it’s done correctly. I have no idea why they won’t get back to me. I’m hoping maybe they would pay attention to Newegg since you guys are their buyer.
It turns out Astar is out of business and apparently not responding to any communications. Newegg promptly responded with something that at first sounds like another impersonal form letter, but turns out to be pretty sweet:
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. All rebates are issued through the manufacturers directly. However, as you are our valued customer, we have made an exception and credited you $20.00 back onto your original payment method since the ASTAR was bank up. Please allow your account approximately 3-5 business days to finalize the transaction and make the funds available. We thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation.
Andrea writes, “As promised, days later I had a rebate-refund.”
(Thanks to Andrea!)
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i bought a mouse off newegg when paypal was offering 20% cash back (after a month) on purchases with select vendors. either the promotion was mislabelled by newegg as having an end-of-business-day cutoff or paypal had a mid-day cutoff that it didn’t make clear, and a bunch of people got stiffed on the 20% back.
newegg followed up and refunded the 20% to all customers who qualified for the promotion and placed their orders before the end of the business day. there’s a reason i’m willing to keep going back to newegg even if i find the same item for a slightly cheaper price elsewhere, and this is great customer service.
@Sidecutter: I can’t say you are wrong, but as a customer accustomed to getting a copy of Nero locked to the DVD player I just bought (from NewEgg), it was a suprise not to get it. Now I have to buy $80 software? Forget it. (Windows build-in DVD burning sticks with the drive.)
I have also gotten the cables when the description did not mention them. Should I feel lucky? Because I don’t. That makes me believe I will get the required (cheap) parts to set up a drive. If I have to go to the store for cables anyway, forget it. (I don’t want to get THEM from newegg, because they *might* be in the box.)
Also, just because BestBuy charges restocking doesn’t mean it’s right.
So, what this group *should* be saying is, for the general consumerist, do not use newegg because it is for IT departments and hard-core hobbyist. And you won’t get service once you’ve been “suckered.”
I <3 Newegg. Despite their minimum $25 shipping to hawaii (just like everyone except amazon) their prices are great and delivery is fast.
I ordered a $400 video card from Newegg. Several months later, it started displaying some pretty severe artifacts. Talked to the manufacturer, and they said “Yep, sounds like a bad card.” It was still under warranty, but Newegg also lets you RMA stuff rather than deal with the manufacturer, so I got an RMA number from Newegg and shipped them the dead card. Got an email back that says I didn’t include the manuals and driver disc like I’m supposed to. Checked the RMA page and, yep, I was supposed to do that. I looked for the stuff, and couldn’t find it. Asked Newegg “Look, I can’t find a driver disc and manual that I never used from a product I bought 4 months ago. It’s a video card. You plug it in, download the Nvidia drivers, and you’re good to go, I have no idea what I did with the drivers and manual.”
They shipped me a replacement card in 2 days. Newegg uber alles.
@doodaddy:
OEM components are for OEMs who already have OEM copies of the OEM software they are going to be including with the OEM systems that they are, presumably, the OEM for.
They *ALSO* happen to be available for people who want cheap parts with no frills.
The OEM copy of Nero/etc was simply a *courtesy*, not a *component*. The reason Newegg shipped you a cable with some of the drives is because OEM agreements require you to purchase components (such as cables) in order to qualify as an OEM. Newegg simply includes the components to “show” the companies they contract with that they are holding up their end of the deal. Sometimes they don’t include cables. Sometimes they include a power Y-adapter instead of a drive cable. They basically just throw a component in the box with your stuff.
@lax2prg:
Manufacturer, not Newegg.
The company is in no way required to accept the return if you’ve violated the terms of the warranty.
The usual reason they add that in is the voltage differences. They don’t want someone taking the iPod to Russia, using a plug-adapter instead of a voltage converter, and then returning it.
I have dealt with Newegg on many occasions and have nothing but good things to say about them. I purchased a case from them once and two days later the price dropped on their site by $10. I sent an email to their customer service department and within a week was refunded $10. I didn’t expect it since prices fluctuate all of the time but figured it was worth a try. I once bought a video card from them that died within 2 weeks and that same card was no longer available when I looked for a replacement and they stepped up and allowed me to upgrade my card by just paying the difference in price between the two cards and they shipped my replacement back to me for free along with some nice newegg gifts for my troubles and saying some nice things about their customer service in my emails to them. Newegg is a company that puts customer service on the top of their list of priorities and I will always use them and recommend them to anyone looking to buy electronics at great prices.