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

[William Sutton]

Getting into this even later myself...

Having been a regular at the Wake Forest Rd Intrex, if memory serves, Mark 
is the red headed guy with the pony tail....

On the subject of comparative service, so far my worst experience (and 
also my best experience) has been with a company called mwave.com, so you 
can't always judge based on one experience with one employee.  And I don't 
find Best Buy to be particularly helpful.  When I do try to get help from 
them, I end up having to drive to the store because the phone rings off 
the hook...and when I get to the store there's never anyone who knows what 
they are doing.

I'd rather have Intrex, where I know I'm supporting a local company with 
decent stock and friendly people.

William, who has since moved from Raleigh

On Sun, 16 May 2004, Aaron Joyner wrote:

> 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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