From: Ted Hils (tedhils@cyber-south.com)
Date: Mon Mar 08 2004 - 12:51:40 PST
Everybody wants to hear the dirt on GL. A satisfied customer will tell
three people. A dissatisfied one will tell ten. Here it is, by popular
demand....
Basically, what happened was:
I faxed in my new credit card information for payment of an invoice. It
was sent before the deadline as indicated on their email to me. I have my
fax log showing that it was sent (50 second transmission time which is a
typical send/receive time) before the deadline. They said they never
received it. Since I have seldom had any problem with a fax going through
(to ANYBODY) if there was no indication of a problem on my machine, I did
not think it was necessary to follow up with a confirmation phone call.
And, if it was garbled, their machines should log phone numbers like every
fax machine I've ever seen, right? All they would have to do is retrieve
the information off their log, and fax me back to explain there was a
problem.
A couple of days later, I try to access my GL account to print out my
invoice and arrange to pickup of some of the items. No go.... "User Account
Suspended". I called to talk to the customer service reps. and explained
that I had sent the fax and had the log, etc.. No luck. I ask if I can
talk to there supervisor or someone higher up on the chain. The rep. said,
"No, they wouldn't be able to do any more than I can." At this point, I
haven't decided if I just quit buying from GL, or what.
A couple of days after that, I saw on the list that GL had a new (to me,
anyway) guy, Hunter, in charge of PR. I figure, what have I got to lose....
I'll call him and see if he can help me. He passes me on to a Higher Up,
Tim Hill. Tim checks things out with the Even Higher Ups and informs me
that the EHPs will not do anything. They said that, "THEY HAVE NO WAY OF
KNOWING THAT WHAT I FAXED WAS THE ACTUAL PAYMENT INFORMATION." In other
words, they would have to take me at my word. Good grief. What else am I
going to fax them 40 minutes before the deadline? Would I go to those lengt
hs to scam them? To what end? And WOW, in order to believe me, they would
have to accept my WORD. I wonder.... maybe if you know lots of people that
do lots of dishonest things, it is about impossible to trust someone that
you don't know. I don't know about this. I was brought up to be honest and
treat everyone as if they were too, until proven differently.
Now, even though I was not at fault, I decided to go ahead and pay the
25% ($344.36) default penalty so I could bid on some items that were due
that day. THEN, I find out that payment must be by SECURED FUNDS, aka MO,
cashier's check or wire transfer, but NO CREDIT CARDS. THAT'S IT.... they
finally got on my last nerve! Not only was I supposed to pay money for a
transgression of which I was innocent, but I would not be able to pay
quickly and would not be able to bid on the items. I changed my mind in a
heartbeat. I DID NOT and WILL NOT pay them one thin dime, and will NOT be
doing any business with them in the future unless their procedures change.
If it had been my screw up, I would just have paid the money and chalked
it up as business expense. However, I did everything within the deadline
that they set. It's not the amount of money that irritates me. It's the
principle of the thing. They do not run a responsible program.
Oh, some of you guys think that it is real hard for GL to make a profit
because of the % of aquisition cost that they have to pay on the high priced
items. It is my understanding that they have the OPTION of accepting
something to sell or not. If their cost is more than they can sell it for,
they don't have to take it. When you consider that, the extra sales tax,
the 10% buyer's premium, and the abandonment/default fees, etc. that they
sneak in, they undoubtedly do quite well. Their set-up is another example
of why the phrase "license to steal" was coined.
Ted
Ted Hils
Ted's Trucks 'N Stuff
1181 County Road 560
Midland City, AL 36350
334-983-1092
Mon-Fri, 8-5 CST
http://www.stores.ebay.com/tedstrucksnstuff
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