Posted by The Instructional Team at DiversDiscount.com on March 19, 2003 at 09:06:26:
In Reply to: Horrible Experience @ Diver's Discount.com posted by Newport1 on March 18, 2003 at 21:39:05:
This was not a good situation from the beginning and I am sorry for the trouble that we caused you. Each of us bears the bruises to prove it.
Here is the scoop for curious minds: this customer came into our store on Sunday, March 16th and placed a special order for a product we do not carry. We have the exact same item by the exact same manufacturer in a more popular configuration, but he wanted this item to be ordered. He also requested that we match the price with a gray market dealer who cannot offer a manufacturer's warranty. No problem on that score.
We ordered the product the next business day, March 17th, Monday.
Tuesday, March 18th, We sent a truck down to pick it up earlier than usual as this was one item in a large weekely order, but we were trying to accomodate this customer.
The same day, the customer called several times asking if we had it, and he was advised that as soon as our truck rolled in we would call him to advise to save him a possible wasted trip from Newport. He did not wait, he came in, and was as upset as we were to learn that this configuration is not available from the manufacturer for one month. He asked what we were going to do for him due to his hassle and the only option at hand was to suggest the in-stock configuration which was not an option that he found agreeable so he left angry.
The bottom line is this: he was trying to tend to the details of his vacation and he had a bad experience with us. I believe we tried to accomodate him but it is tricky business when it comes to items we do not even have sku's for. We have lots of disclosure for this situation but obviously, now we will have more, or maybe even consider discontinuing special orders. We are debating this now.
During this process of several calls from this customer, he spoke with experienced dive instructors. Even our webmasters are at least open water divers, some are divemasters.
Also, we are a full service dive facility with in house repairs Monday-Friday and we fill cylinders up to and including the new 4350's. We use trace analytics to ensure the highest quality of air and we have many on staff dive instructors available to answer questions, toll free or in our store. I don't intend to make a commercial, I just wanted to point out that we ARE a real dive store, owned and operated by dive instructors and we are in the business of selling dive equipment. If we could have accomodated this customer, we would have and I believe we went to great lengths trying.
This said, it doesn't make the experience any more pleasant for him, and for that, we are truly sorry.