#Disreputable distributor
20 messages in this thread
I recommend to all Amiga users that they avoid doing business with
Sideline Software, of Ft. Lauderdale, FL. I discovered this mail-order
company through its advertisement in AmigaWorld magazine, and I would like
to describe my experiences with it.
On June 6, 1994, I ordered by telephone a computer software product,
from Sideline Software, asking that the order be sent to my home in Los
Angeles, and that the cost be charged to my credit card. I was told.
"We'll send it right out."
I therefore expected delivery of my order within a few days, and when
it had not arrived after a week, I called (June 13) to inquire. I was
told, "We sent it last Friday."
Well, although a five-day delay was not my idea of sending something
"right out", I nevertheless thanked Sideline Software for the information,
and I continued to await delivery.
Another week went by, and my order still had not arrived. So I called
(June 20) to inquire again. This time, I was told, "We sent it last
Friday."
I complained that I had been told a week earlier that my order had been
sent out the Friday before that, but the company representative merely
repeated his statement.
I waited another week. And still, my order did not arrive. I called
(June 27) to inquire for the third time. And I was told, "We sent it
late last week."
Sideline Software, evidently, is either dishonest or stupid. Either
company representatives have continually lied to me, or the company has
continually sent me the same package – which was not delivered.
Of course, it may be that the company has lied once, and sent the
package twice; or lied twice, and sent the package once; or lied three
times, and sent the package never; or lied not at all, and sent the
package three times. Or maybe it has lied twice, and still sent the
package twice; or…
What fun it is to consider all the possible permutations, all of which
matter…not at all! My order hasn't been delivered, while Sideline
Software has, apparently, charged my credit card (on June 20).
Amiga software purchasers, I shall henceforth disregard Sideline
Software as a potential distributor. And it might be that you will benefit
from doing likewise. David Fox #75126,741
David,
When doing business with a mail-order company ( or any company for that
matter), if you are having shipping problems, you need to be more business-like
in dealing with them. By this I mean don't just say "when did you ship?" and
then accept their answer. Demand exact details of the shipping method. If they
shipped by UPS, demand that they obtain a copy of the UPS proof of delivery and
have them FAX it to you. If they can't do this, then you are within your rights
to ask your credit card company to back out any charge they have made to your
card. It is always best to have a shipment made to a place of business where
there will always be someone there to sign for packages so you can get valid
proof of delivery. Never allow shipment by Parcel post. Always ship via either
an air freight service or by Ups to a business address. That way the shipper
can always trace the package quickly. It is best to ship via UPS 2nd day or 1st
day air, then you know exactly when any package shipped should have arrived. It
is worth the slight extra cost.
If you don't have a business adress where you can receive packages yourself,
have it shipped to a friend at their place of business. If you have UPS shipped
to your home address, UPS usually will just leave the package outside your door
without obtaining a signature. I'm not sure what they do about proof of
delivery in such cases. I think their policy for this depends on the security
of the neighborhood or perhaps the driver's discretion. For example, if you
live in an appartment complex, they probably would not leave the package.
Perhaps you can leave a note on your door "ATTN UPS: do not leave packages
without obtaining signature, if no one is at home, try delivering to …. <some
friend's appartment or home where there is likely to be someone at home during
the day>"
It is of course possible as you have suggested, that this dealer is
unreliable/screwed up/lying to you but if you take the proper precautions
relative to shipment, you will find that you will have fewer problems of this
sort. Just some suggestions from a business point of view.
Robert,
There is always UPS Three day select and GroundTrac. This is UPS ground
with tracking. The very minimum I would suggest for large and heavy
parcels. If the package is shipped you only have to give them a tracking
number to find out the problem. (If the problem is with UPS) I have found
that 98% of the problems are with the shipper and not the carrier when
dealing with UPS, and FED EX.
If a shipper will not give you the package tracking number it is obvious
they have not shipped any product…
I have found that if there is a problem with either the shipper or the
carrier you can put the charge into contest until things are sorted out.
This way, if the product is time sensitive to you, you can cancel the and
purchase somewhere else.
//
Gary Vander Mei on Auto-Pilot \X/
David–
I will forward a copy of your complaint to AmigaWorld Advertising.
Tim
On that note, what happened to the little "fine print" line in AW that
actually LISTED seedy or unreliable advertisers? I noticed that it's been
gone for awhile. That was a pretty nice little safety measure for us MO
consumers…
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
Virus Scan: MS-Windows Detected. Delete (y/Y)?
I think they realized they didn't have enough room to print it and/or that
it was redundant. Big 🙂
Dale L. Larson Intangible Assets Manufacturing
(info@iam.com)
"That's the best part about being crazy. You see things no one else can see."
What was the product that you ordered from Sideline? I have not had a problem
with them but am still suspect of them….
A company called "The Grapevine Group" is another one to be avoided at all
costs! I ordered something and was told it would be shipped that day, after 5
weeks of being told ship- ment was happening the next day I cancelled the
order. Lo and behold if it did not show up at my house 4 months later, of
course by this time I no longer needed the equipment but had it and the charge
on my credit card.
I sent the merchandise back after getting a "RMA" from Grapevine and now we are
fighting about them taking the charge off of my credit card. To say that I
think their service sucks would be an understatement.
Derek
The Grapevine scares me. I called them once and some scary woman answered the
phone and said they never had the item that was listed in their own magazine.
Hmmm.
Jim
I ordered from them them once and they delivered a defective product, on
time. When I called to ask them about it they said "oops, we've herad
those were defective", I returned the product, they sent me a new one, in
a timely fashion. It worked. I didn't think that that was out of line.
Robb
Grapevine (in my encounters) struck me as the type of company that suffers
from multiple personalities. It depends on who takes your order, and who
helps you if you have a problem.
I ordered a 16mhz 68000 from them, and after it had been 2 weeks late, I
called to check on it and the person I talked too said they had been out
of those for about 3 months, and whoever it was I ordered from, shouldn't
have let me order.
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
Virus Scan: MS-Windows Detected. Delete (y/Y)?
Derek,
The Grapevine Group has been good to me. They have bbeen very helpfull.
"Long Live The Amiga" //
Robert \X/
In the past few years I have had great succes with The Grapevine. HOWEVER, in
the past few months (presumably in the quake of C= 's demise) they have
litterally fallen apart. They've stopped advertising. Disconnected their
toll-free number. The one line they do have is understaffed (always busy). I
ordered some merchandise from them which was "in stock"–never shipped then
later I was told it was on backorder. I cancelled the order, but they had
charged my credit card immediately. BTW…Discover did a great job of backing
out the charge and IMMEDIATELY crediting my account. For those of you in
similar situations…credit card companies can back out charges up to 180 DAYS
after the purchase. Even if you've already paid for the charge.
Later, Jim
I've dealt with grapevine… No problems.
Bob Comer — AmigaDOS and OS/2, the only way to compute!
Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
This sounds like a recent experience I had with an order from overseas,
except that no one ever responded to my faxes and email inquiring about
the order, nor answered the voice phone I was calling, and they apparently
ignored my two cancellation faxes, sending product months later.
If you are "fighting" with Grapevine, take it to your credit card people
as a disputed amount. Tell them that the vendor is uncooperative and
unreasonable, make a copy of your notes from your phone conversations and
send them to your credit card people. They should put a hold on the
disputed amount and perform their own investigation.
Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing
"Are you f'ing crazy?" "No, I'm just marking my territory." – Wolf
When I heard C= was going under, I immediately ordered one of their chip
replacement sets with the ECS Denise… got the order in a week (which is
about par for Hawaii), but no Denise, not even the old Denise. Of course,
I called them, and the telephone rep said she'd check into it… called
them the next day, same story… the NEXT day, she sounded rather
apologetic – said she couldn't get a straight, coherent answer out of the
guy who handled shipping, so she said she'd make sure I got my Denise
ASAP. 2 days later (REALLY good for Hawaii), I got my ECS Denise via UPS
at no extra charge.
Learned my lesson – stick to my local dealer, even if it means a few extra
$. I called my dealer within the same month to see if he had an SCSI-2
card… the dealer said he didn't have them on hand, but would see if he
could get one from his distributor. Called me back an hour later to say I
could pick up the card in two days… which I did. He didn't even ask for
pre-payment – told me to pay when the card showed up! Jeez, I _wish_
mail-order would let me pay when _their_ products reached my door… I
guess I owe the dealer a little favor – his shop is the Software Dungeon
in Honolulu. Only Amiga dealer left in Hawaii, I understand… only one I
need, though!
Garry Nelson
And, on the 67th day, Amiga Shall Rise From The Grave…
I worked for MCS in Michigan for about a week, and left for that very
reason. I had a guy call me with a defective GoldStar monitor, and we
wouldn't accept it without an RA, which had to be given by one of the
owner/managers. While that particular O/M was always in the office, he
constantly dodged this guys call to the point that I ended up telling the
caller what was going on. I then quit (finished the whole week tho), and
went back home to WV.
So I can sympathize with apologetic sales/customer reps. The companies
still piss me off tho! <g>
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
Virus Scan: MS-Windows Detected. Delete (y/Y)?
Same thing happened to me, except that we're not fighting (yet) over a credit.
I'd ordered a Denise chip and an analog joystick adapter. Needed the Denise
_bad_. After three weeks with no product, they told me the adapter was on
backorder. I told them to cancel the adapter and ship the Denise, which they
did. Three months later, I received the adapter and a charge to my credit
card.
Regards, Phil Combs
We had the same problem with Grapevine. Ordered a floppy drive on Dec. 9,
1993, they sent the money order to the bank four days later and we did not
receieve the drive until the end of April! This in spite of 5 phone calls and
two letters. Also sent a letter to Amiga World trying to resolve the
problem..no response from them either.
I think Grapevine is doing something illegial…using the present money
received to pay for past orders.
David Bamford
I had a problem with Grapevine. They charged my credit card for an order
I hadn't received. I called them and they said the item was no longer in
stock so they'd chargeback. Other items on that same order were never
received. I was calling from Texas, so I figured they were just mad
because the Cowboys beat the Giants to win the division. But since, I've
heard (through the grapevine, of course) several horror stories from other
ex-customers. Hope your situation gets worked out.
jf – lamplight productions
~~~sailing on autopilot~~~