06.24.08
Please hold, your call will be answered - NEVER
I ordered some resistors/capacitors from PartsStore Online, the purchase was made on eBay, the confirmation e-mail arrived from “orders@partstore.com” and the email said to contact another address, this time at “partsearch.com”. Oh, well.
The phone number on the e-mail was different from the ones on either website. Strange.
After a couple of days, everything else I ordered on the same day, from various other places, had already arrived. I contacted the store via e-mail, and inquired. A nice guy named Mike replied and explained that the order was forwarded by mistake to a warehouse without stock, and that other warehouses have plenty in stock. Those of you who have keen observation skillz have noticed by now that the order was placed on eBay, and have probably guessed that the auction was for on-stock items. ANYWAY, back to Mike, he was nice enough to make sure the order we rerouted and upgraded my shipping to 2nd-day. I was happy.
A day later - I get the following e-mail:
“…We have your part(s) on order, so you are in line to receive it as soon as it becomes available. Unfortunately, it is not in current stock. We apologize for the delay, but the part(s) you ordered is in high demand. We do our best to make sure that all orders are filled promptly. We will update you as soon as we receive more information.
You will not be charged for this order until the part is shipped. …”
As you have probably guessed, I have already paid (eBay, remember) - so not being charged is a blatant lie.
I decided to try and call them up.
Nice Jazz music on the line, good start.
30 seconds later… A calming voice stating that my call will be answered in approximately 1 minute, great!
1 minute later… Same voice, less calming this time, stating that my call will be answered in approximately 0 (zero) minutes, amusing.
I wonder if you can guess what happened next. Click here to listen (0:30)
* Edit *
In reply to Ethan: Yes, the eventually answered my call (when the counter hit negative 28 minutes). the guy who answered was Mike. The very same mike who e-mailed me. I’m either very lucky or they are very short on staff. I believe the minimum staff for running this kind of gig is 1 person. I’m waiting for him to call me back. Somehow I don’t think that is ever going to happen. or maybe he called me back before I ever called him.