eCost Customer Service Sucks (eCost Responds In Comments)
Dammit.
I ordered some memory stuff from eCost.com a few days ago, used paypal, no problems. Yesterday I bought a couple of Jawbone bluetooth headsets as gifts, and I used a different shipping address (obviously). Unfortunately, Paypal and eCost have their wires crossed, because my billing address was the same as the shipping address, which is incorrect. I tried to fix this, but couldn’t, then figured, “what the hell, it’s Paypal, they don’t need my correct home address anyway.”
So, I was wrong.
I got an email:
Dear Valued Customer:
Thank you for your recent on-line order. We appreciate your business!
We are experiencing an issue processing your recent order and need your assistance. Please contact us by calling [redacted]. We look forward to hearing from you.
Please note that if we do not hear from you within 48 hours of this message, we will assume that you are no longer interested in this order and will suspend further processing of your order.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
It sounds a bit scammy, so I checked the web for the number given in the email, and it leads to eCost, so I give them a ringy-ding. I have my first encounter with an extremely chipper Indian girl. Indian customer service is rarely chipper, so extremely chipper is unexpected. We don’t understand each other very well, so the call went on longer than it should, and I had to make sure we were talking about the same order (remember, the memory order earlier… heh, I made a funny), but I think I understand that she wants me to log into my account and change the incorrect billing address. Fine, I can do that.
I log in (after searching the web for a way to log into my account on eCost, because there are no direct links), see that I can’t change my billing address, and figure I’ll shoot off an email with my billing address as well as explaining the situation, and all will be well.
Yeah, you’re right. I wouldn’t be writing this if all went well.
I get an almost exact replica of the original email as a reply, saying there’s a problem with my order and I should call their number. Shit.
Dear Ecost.com Valued Customer,
Thank you for your recent inquiry. After reviewing your order I see that there is some more information that we must verify with you. We do apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you.
If you would, please contact our customer contact center at [redacted] and one of our agents will be more than happy to assist you.
Thank you for visiting eCOST.com,
Customer Service Specialist
Further, they sent another email saying that my order had been canceled per my request. Well no, I didn’t request that, so I reply to that email and say so.
Are you quicker than me in figuring out what kind of response I got to that email? Yup, you guessed it.
Dear Ecost.com Valued Customer,
Thank you for your recent inquiry. After reviewing your order I see that there is some more information that we must verify with you. We do apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you.
If you would, please contact our customer contact center at [redacted] and one of our agents will be more than happy to assist you.
Thank you for visiting eCOST.com,
Customer Service Specialist
So I sent emails canceling the order and I’m done. Here’s their response to my request to cancel the order:
Dear Ecost.com Valued Customer,
Thank you for your recent inquiry. Unfortunately, according to our records your order was cancelled. We do apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you.
Thank you for visiting eCOST.com,
Customer Service Specialist
Original Message Follows: ————————
Please cancel my order. I will take my business elsewhere.Thank you.
Not so unfortunate. Yeah… so skip eCost.com if you can. Their customer service sucks.
Roger Wojahn – Oh No You Didn’t
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I just wanted to introduce myself to you. My name is Linda Potter and I have been with eCOST.com for 10 years. I would love to be your one stop solution for all of your computer needs. You may call me at 800-555-3613 ext 4127. I hope to win your business back. Please let me know what I can do to help you.
Linda Potter
eCOST.com
Linda,
Thanks for commenting on this, it’s appreciated.
I already did what I said I’d do and took my business to another eTailer for my jawbone headsets order. However, because of your attention to my issue and the ability to contact you if there is a future problem, I will keep eCost.com in mind when making future purchases.
Thank you for your time and I hope we can do business again soon.
You’re very welcome. I work really hard for my money and I know you do too. When I decide to spend it with a company, I want nothing but the best. That is what I will give you, nothing but the best. I will treat you like family. Take care and thank you for keeping us in mind. Also I can be reached on my cell phone at 310-218-6741. Have a great day
I purchased software from eCost.com, and they have not sent it, they sent something not even close to what I ordered, and do not respond to contact regarding refunds. And PayPal? Forget them! I filed a dispute with PayPal, and they said because I received SOMETHING from eCost.com, I can’t claim that I never received my product! Oh, great, I got a cheap software program in a beat-up box marked “Academic” (by the way, the program is also FREE on the internet – Snagit, it’s called), vs. Paint Shop Pro, and PayPal says I’m supposed to live with it. I have filed complaints with the Postal Inspector, Federal Trade Commission, and Better Business Bureau Online, and judging from the many others, maybe we’ll have a class-action suit pretty soon….
I hope you get this resolved to your satisfaction, Laurie. Thanks for sharing your story on my blog, and hopefully Linda — who posted her phone number above — will actually do something about it. Please let me know of further developments with your situation!
I just ordered a couple items from Ecost. And I recieved a box with one of the items in it. And the packing slip had multiple on it. I am hoping this will be resolved easily. But indian customer service is difficult to work with at times.
Andy,
Make sure to use that number Linda gave, and whether it works out or not, update us here in the comments. I’d like to know if they’re living up to their promises.
As for Indian customer support, don’t get me started. They talk as fast as New Yorkers, and the accent is just as hard to decipher sometimes! lol
I finally did get a refund from eCost, but it was scary and difficult….scary – because I can’t afford to lose $75.00, and it didn’t look like I was going to get it back; and difficult, like you can’t believe. The person who seemed to finally respond to my refund requests was Linda Potter, however.
Laurie,
Thanks for the update! Glad to hear you did get the problem resolved, even if it was a pain in the tush. Few of us can throw away $75, me included, so yes, it’s a big deal. When you have to budget your money wisely to purchase something new, having to deal with a company that doesn’t seem to care makes the experience even worse. The fact that eCost’s Linda Potter’s phone number worked for you is very encouraging.
Good Morning, I hope all of your issues have been resolved, but if not, please call my cell phone at 310-218-6741 and I will be more than happy to assist. Please try my office first at 800-555-3613 ext 4127. If it is more convenient for you, please email me at lindap@ecost.com and I will respond asap. Your business is very valuable to us and I would personally love to provide you with world class customer service. Have a great day!
Linda Potter
eCOST.com
After finding this thread, I called Linda directly and she took care of me. I’ve gotta say that I’m very glad I found this thread and that Linda promptly and professionally helped me. There was NO dispute in my issue, the customer service “reps” and their managers simply refused to acknowledge that “OEM Packaging” does NOT mean “incomplete product.” It’s unfortunate that customer service is not given the training to properly do these jobs and take care of the customer, so hopefully more people will find this thread, call Linda, and pressure can be exerted on her management to ensure customer service provides just that, SERVICE.
Additionally, for those doing a web search, ECost is now owned by PFSWeb – http://www.pfsweb.com/ who’s President and CEO is Mark C. Layton. However when I mentioned to Linda that if she didn’t answer (or was no longer at eCost), my next call would be to Mark, she commented that he would transfer it to her, so I would start with her first.
Thank you Linda.
Shazam,
Glad to hear Linda helped you out and that this blog facilitated that help. I love it when things work out well. :>
I had a number of terrible experiences with eCOST. Stupid me for going back to them more than once.
The last time was the last straw and I want to prevent others from going through what I did. I created http://www.ecost-sucks.com.
Drop by and let me us know of your issues with eCOST.
Thinking about canceling my order with them – first sign of something really off is I received a bogus shipping confirm but they never shipped the item when I asked shipper (FedEx) – they hit the credit card and took the money, printed a label but never physically shipped – should have put a hold on the card – not collect prior to passage of title FOB shipping point. Just spoke to Visa – no viable confirmation of shipment or immediate reimbursements to my CC I will talk to Visa fraud department by tomorrow night as this smells fishy. I think this is not only a violation of Visa rules but also illegal – my firm has a PA attorney I can find out.
Seems like a truly mixed bag for eCost… some like it, some don’t, but far too many people seem unsatisfied with eCost for it to continue as a decent business. Why should eCost have so much trouble where many other stores don’t have nearly as much trouble?
Peder, I hope things work out well for you.
Good Morning,
Peder,
I would love the opportunity to assist you. Would you kindly email me your order number and a brief summary? I am confident we will be able to resolve this for you. My email address is lindap@ecost.com.
Theidel,
I would love to hear your experience with our company. Would you mind emailing me at lindap@ecost.com as well? Would you also provide me your phone number. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Linda,
Is there a Twitter account people can go to where they can reach you with any problems they have with eCost? What about a Facebook page? I’m sure posting that info here would help a few people.
Thank you for your response. We have a facebook page and here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/ecost [donk edited link so it worked]
Unfortunately we do not have a twitter account. We will look into getting one though.
Have a great day.
Linda
Thanks for the update, Linda. Greatly appreciated!
Let’s see what Linda come up with and what pull she has – I think she is assigned damage control – I think these guys have a mess operationally on their hands and a frustrated CS department dealing with it. Problem is that this usually puts companies out of business as it eats up their cash and kills customer loyalties which are imperative for long term health. I give them 24 hours to fix my issue or I go to Visa fraud and the Atty general for PA and CA as they are collecting funds from a CC prior to passage of title FOB shipping point – clear violation of their own TOC’s and I believe the law in most states. I think I can convince Visa as well that they are a high risk merchant and with present events should have increased reserves with their payment processor to cover their default risks.
Peder,
Did you call Linda on the phone number she provided above? 800-555-3613 ext 4127
Other people seem to have been helped by her, and hopefully you’ll get your problems resolved by her, too.
What I truly believe is that eCost tries to get away with what it can, and they send Linda to soothe the ruffled feathers that might cause serious trouble. I am sure there are many others who just don’t want to go through the hassle of fighting for their refund, etc., because eCost doesn’t make it easy, and eCost profits from that.
No not yet – running the company I manage currently – spoke to CS and the warehouse today – a Susana I believe her name was. Yesterday she told me that the item had not shipped but that she would give me a response today, Fedex had confirmed that this is the case – label printed but not shipped. Spoke to Susana about 90 minutes ago and told me that FedEx forgot to scan the item but it had shipped – which is BS – that mistake FedEx would have corrected on the cross docking in the shipment process – done too much business with FedEx in the past. Today the warehouse told me they would ship and provide a valid Fedex number by e-mail – non received yet. I will give Linda a call tomorrow after I check on the story of the day from the warehouse if I cannot see anything moving at FedEx to confirm what I am being told at that point. I gave Linda pertinent details by e-mail – interesting to see a company with such potential is so poorly managed. I will give them 2 chances to do this right, after that I stop being nice. My main issue is the circumvention of internal controls to generate payment by Visa and getting paid for something prior to passage of title FOB shipping point which is pretty bad from a legal standpoint and a violation fof their own TOC’s which they have provided to their payment processor to do business with Visa. If I was the CEO of this company I would be looking for a COO and Controller before they are all looking for jobs.
Their FedEx pickup should have occurred today so let me check FedEx and see whats up on their shipment logs to my address.
Saw the post above mine – yes I think she is damage control but they need a new management team – damage control can only do so much – people like me run companies like this from a senior management level and are brought in to fix the core issues – in the past I have been hired on numerous occasions to fix these messes even to what I think was a competitor of theirs a couple of years back – this instance I am not sure if it is incompetent management circumventing internal controls to come up with numbers or just plain that the company is almost out of business and is doing what it can to survive – that is my concern personally that I get stuck trying to resolve an issue with a bankrupt company. Not sure – its one or the other that I am sure of.
Laurie,
You could be right, because other businesses run on that model, like mail-in rebates. Personally, I hope eCost isn’t that shady, and the fact that there are people like Linda out there to smooth over ruffled feathers is actually a good sign. I didn’t seek out Linda, Linda found me after I wrote about my bad experience with eCost. She was a bit late to help me, but she tried, and that’s more than I’ve seen from other companies about whom I’ve had complaints.
Peder,
I agree, if you can’t get satisfaction, then you should pursue every recourse available to you. I’m sure your business experience will help you a lot in dealing with such matters. Good luck, and please tell us how things turn out.
Hi Peder, Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. It was determined that this was not an eCOST.com order, but it was ordered through costcentral.com. Thank you for allowing me to conference call them with you. If you’d like to call me back in 4 days, I will be more than happy to conference call them with you to check status of your refund.
Please note that eCOST.com has no affilliation with costcentral.com. I just care about people and wanted to help you. Take Care and have a great day
Linda Potter
Linda is very good – I run an e-commerce company I would hire her. This ended up some how being a CostCentral order – see how the refund goes. I hope eCost gets its act together as it appears to be a good business model.
Thanks for the update, Peder. Now I don’t know whether your issue is resolved or not, but I suppose that your problem with eCost is resolved. Linda may be winning some converts. :>
Linda,
Thanks for keeping us abreast of the situation and for making Peder’s experience a good one. It’s always great to see someone come out of a situation better off than when they went in. It sounds like you were a great help to him.