[TriLUG] OT:<rant>Intrex just lost a customer</rant>

[Aaron Joyner]

Yes, someone from Intrex reads this list.  No, it is not my job as an 
Intrex employee to do this, and I am in no way compensated for doing so 
by Intrex.  But since I am rather fond of both organizations, I do 
often find myself serving as a bit of a lizaon.  I'm posting a bit far 
into the thread (I've read what's been posted up to this point), but 
I'm a bit slow on the uptake as I'm out of town in Dayton, OH at the 
Hamvention for the weekend.

My first question would be, you talked to Mark at the Wake Forest Road 
(Raleigh) Intrex store - I would hope that you didn't make it out of 
the store with out talking to Brad (or Brad), the Manager and Assistant 
manager are both named Brad.  :)  I don't know everyone in the 
company's name, and I can't identify who Mark is off the top of my 
head.  Generally, speaking, it is Intrex's policy that if an item has 
physical damage (i.e. has been tampered with), you can not return it.  
You say that there was a friend resistor on the part - if my memory of 
our product line is correct you may have purchased either an internal 
or external card reader.  I'll address them separately for clarity.

If you purchased an internal card reader, which has an exposed circuit 
board, it would be clearly evident what the problem was when it 
happened.  On the flip side, it is not unreasonable that either by 
static electricity or inadvertantly shorting something against the PCB 
you *MAY* have caused the damage yourself.  I want to be clear that I'm 
not accusing you of having done so, but simply stating that it's 
technically possible, and not beyond the realm of possibility.  Because 
of this, it is the manager's discretion (and his alone) to determine if 
he wants to accept the part for return.  I can not say what his 
response would be, but at the least you should speak to one of the 
Brads and give them the opportunity to make a decision.

As for the external card reader, it is a closed plastic box with space 
for cards and a usb cable to be inserted.  If you purchased this device 
and took it home, it did not work, and then you chose to crack the case 
to attempt to determine the problem -- this is a whole different story. 
  In that case, if you took the steps to take apart the case (likely 
breaking plastic bits of the case) and begin sub-component diagnostics, 
I'm pretty sure that we won't take it back.  Again, it is the manager's 
discretion as to wether we will accept the return, but general policy 
is anything that's clearly been tampered with we can not accept for 
return.  The reason for that is simple, when we take that part in, we 
also RMA it to the manufacturer.  If they won't accept the part for RMA 
from us, we *probably* won't accept it from you.  There are of course 
exceptions - if we find a particular product has a semi-common problem, 
we are very likely to be more leniant with our return policies than 
usual.  It's also very likely that we'll stop carrying that product, 
maybe even phase it out.  I don't believe that's the case with either 
of our card readers, but as I don't work in the store and I am not 
involved directly in the retail side of things, I can't really say.

So Bottom line, if you haven't talked to a manager, please be sure to 
do that before you consider the book closed.  I think you will find the 
results to be satisfactory, or at least you will get a reasonable 
explanation of our policies.

As an aside, I can appreciate that I am known as an employee of Intrex, 
but as I stated at the beginning of this email - I am not the 
appropriate contact for Intrex, for this type of problem.  I have no 
authority to rectify your situation, and at best I can only bring it to 
the attention of someone who might.  In this case, the appropriate 
contact would be to talk to the manager, and email feedback at intrex.net. 
  The Feedback address *really* does go right to someone in upper 
management who can address the problem directly.  Intrex would love to 
hear more feedback from us, in terms of quality of service, so that we 
can improve our service.  Personally, I am of the opinon that we do a 
pretty darn good job.  But as everyone is aware, the minority of times 
there is a problem, is when the majority of noise is made.  :)

I am headed out of the hotel now to return to the Hamvention, and can 
not continue to comment further.  If I get a chance when I get home 
tongiht, I'll touch on the rest of the topics mentioned in this thread 
- particularly what products we do and don't carry.  In brief - come to 
next month's meeting (which we will be sponsoring) and let us know what 
you want us to carry!  :)

Aaron S. Joyner
Intrex.Net
System Administrator


On May 15, 2004, at 6:50 PM, Dave Sorenson wrote:

> I'm posting this for 2 reasons 1: caveat emptor to the rest of 
> Tri-Lug'ers
> and 2: I know some of those at Intrex reads this list so you'll know 
> why
> I'll choose to go 5 miles out of my way to not shop at any of your 
> stores
> ever again.
>
> Well, I didn't believe it when I heard about other peoples bad 
> experiences,
> but Intrex just lost me forever as a customer. I buy a memory card 
> reader
> from the Wake Forest store, get it home hooked up and working. A few 
> minutes
> later it stops working. I remove it from the boxen and find it fried a
> resistor. I take it back and explain what happened and Mark tells me 
> they
> can't take it back because it has "physical damage" (the fried 
> resistor)
> they say my only option is to try to get help from the vendor. Note: 
> vendor
> is a small New York based outfit. We are talking $19.95 here.. It's 
> going to
> cost me more to ship certified insured as required by the manufacturer 
> than
> the thing was to buy..
>
> I'm EXTREMELY disappointed in Intrex, They COULD have stepped up and
> replaced the defective unit. In fact, I was ready to spend MORE money 
> to
> replace the defective reader with one that was $10 more. Now Intrex 
> will not
> see that $10, nor will see any additional patronage from me ever. They
> CHOOSE not to help the customer, this customer now chooses not to shop 
> at
> Intrex. With "customer service like this, it's no wonder that stores 
> like
> Intrex find it harder and harder to compete against Best Buy, Tiger 
> Direct,
> Circuit City Et. All.. From now on I'll pay a little more not to have 
> this
> kind of hassle.
>
>
> Dave S
>
>
>
>
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