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What they need is a post-mortem and a transparent analysis of the situation posted on their website, similar to what Heroku did with their outage. If they can

What they need is a post-mortem and a transparent analysis of the situation posted on their website, similar to what Heroku did with their outage. If they can show that the reason why this occurred was because of a break in a process, and this process was fixed, then I wouldn't have any problems with Newegg. If the refund was a one-off situation to quiet the public outcry, and they don't care about fixing their general problem, then why would I purchase something from a company that I lack confidence in? I regularly buy things from Amazon even if it's a little bit more expensive because I've been using them since their inception, and I have 100% complete confidence in them.

incongruity 14y ago
Are you sure it's a "general problem"? Just as much as fixes can be "one-off"s, so can problems. Is there a repeated pattern that I missed? If not, I'm not quite sure how one makes the leap to the generalization of this problem.
- Udo 14y ago
  It's an issue if you're sending in your stuff to RMA and you have to rely on your luck as to whether they exchange it or not. As a customer I would want to know what the policy actually is. This issue comes at a delicate time where a lot of people feel they are stripped of simple ownership rights for their digital devices, left completely at the mercy of huge companies who have a vested interest in being unhelpful.
  - incongruity 14y ago
    But that's just it – why do you jump to the conclusion that one must rely on luck? One mistake doesn't necessarily indicate a pattern. I challenge you to name one retailer or other customer-facing that has never had a single problematic interaction with a customer. The good companies are the ones that don't make it a pattern and the good companies are the ones that fix problems directly.
    - Udo 14y ago
      That's not the point, I think you're misunderstanding my post. Either there is an official policy in place regarding custom OS installs (=certainty) or not (=randomness). It's not about whether a shop has problematic interactions and unfortunate screw-ups happening, because that's a given. The issue at hand is more specific than that.
      - incongruity 14y ago
        Ah, yes, I was misunderstanding. Thanks for humoring me. I see your point (now =) and maybe this is a central enough issue that they should specifically state it as a affirmative clause or whatever, but their policy was pretty specific about the causes for returns being rejected and thus anything outside of that would be accepted, one would presume.
    - kamjam 14y ago
      That's exactly what I was thinking. People appear to be making mountains out of mole hills! Looks like a one off, even I make the odd mistake every once in a while :D
  - zbuc 14y ago
    The policy is listed and clear. They didn't honor the policy as it was written for whatever reason(bad/new support person?) and corrected the problem and upheld their policy, which doesn't forbid RMA if you install a different OS.
DanielStraight 14y ago
Why? Why is "we made a mistake, we're offering to fix it" not enough? What more could they say? Do you want the name of the rep who made the mistake? Do you want them fired? Neither one of these seems remotely reasonable, but I'm not sure what else you could want. It was a simple human error. Customer service agent was wrong about the policy. It happens.
- fdr 14y ago
  I agree that things happen, but I think people are often suspicious that a vendor is making life more difficult than necessary systematically on the supposition that "de jure" need not match "de facto". Just a brief statement of intent and mechanism of the mistake would help in a public forum.
- wtvanhest 14y ago
  What more could they say? Do you want the name of the rep who made the mistake? Do you want them fired? Neither one of these seems remotely reasonable, but I'm not sure what else you could want. It was a simple human error. Customer service agent was wrong about the policy. It happens. You are making an assumption that it was human error. If it in fact was human error, they could state that and say that they also searched their database for the words Linux to make sure this hadn't happened with other reps. [Added]: They could then make a public statement about the amount of times it had happened and the total refund they issued. If it happened to 100 users at $1,000/per user, then they could issue $100,000 in total refunds. Further they could state that installing another operating system does not ever void the warranty.
- papsosouid 14y ago
  >Why is "we made a mistake, we're offering to fix it" not enough? Because I don't want to have to waste my time trying to drum up media attention when it happens to me. >What more could they say? Explain how this mistake happened in the first place, and what they are doing to prevent it from happening again. It doesn't help me that I may be able to publicly shame them into giving me an RMA. I want to know that I will, 100% for certain get an RMA without having to jump through hoops. >It was a simple human error. Customer service agent was wrong about the policy How do you know this? Who says it isn't policy to reject RMAs when another OS has been installed, and they only back down if someone creates a scene? Given those two possibilities, they need to demonstrate that it really was just a mistake, and that they are training their staff so it doesn't happen again. It isn't like this is an easy mistake to make.
zitterbewegung 14y ago
Do you forget that Amazon basically deleted books from your Kindle (1984) ? It was ironic and it was in the news and they had pretty much the same response (we were sorry). For newegg its probably going to be the same way. People forget if its a one in a while.
- vidarh 14y ago
  I don't know about him, but for me that's one of the reasons why I still have no interest in a Kindle, or any DRM'd ebook platform. I give Amazon lots of money for other types of goods (~100-120 orders a year according to my invoice history... yikes), but not much for books any more.
larrys 14y ago
"then I wouldn't have any problems with Newegg." You sound like the person threatening to not fly an particular airline because of the surly behavior of the ticketing agent. Fact is you will fly the airline if the price is significantly cheaper than what competitors are offering or the schedule works for you etc. Companies are in the business of making money. They don't need you they need everyone. The effect this will have on newegg is nominal. News flash: In order to give low prices something has to give. While there may be a few outlier exceptions you can't be all things to all people. Price quality speed pick any two. It's not just a cliche. HN readers seem to be very polarized in how they view things. Things are good or bad. Either you bogu to their every needs or they make a big fuss and want to be catered to. Lastly, Heroku and newegg are two different companies catering to two different markets and customers although there is overlap.
brianobush 14y ago
[post-mortem and a transparent analysis of the situation] talk about overboard. they apologized, is all, move one.

incongruity 14y ago

Are you sure it's a "general problem"? Just as much as fixes can be "one-off"s, so can problems. Is there a repeated pattern that I missed? If not, I'm not quite sure how one makes the leap to the generalization of this problem.

Udo 14y ago
It's an issue if you're sending in your stuff to RMA and you have to rely on your luck as to whether they exchange it or not. As a customer I would want to know what the policy actually is. This issue comes at a delicate time where a lot of people feel they are stripped of simple ownership rights for their digital devices, left completely at the mercy of huge companies who have a vested interest in being unhelpful.
- incongruity 14y ago
  But that's just it – why do you jump to the conclusion that one must rely on luck? One mistake doesn't necessarily indicate a pattern. I challenge you to name one retailer or other customer-facing that has never had a single problematic interaction with a customer. The good companies are the ones that don't make it a pattern and the good companies are the ones that fix problems directly.
  - Udo 14y ago
    That's not the point, I think you're misunderstanding my post. Either there is an official policy in place regarding custom OS installs (=certainty) or not (=randomness). It's not about whether a shop has problematic interactions and unfortunate screw-ups happening, because that's a given. The issue at hand is more specific than that.
    - incongruity 14y ago
      Ah, yes, I was misunderstanding. Thanks for humoring me. I see your point (now =) and maybe this is a central enough issue that they should specifically state it as a affirmative clause or whatever, but their policy was pretty specific about the causes for returns being rejected and thus anything outside of that would be accepted, one would presume.
  - kamjam 14y ago
    That's exactly what I was thinking. People appear to be making mountains out of mole hills! Looks like a one off, even I make the odd mistake every once in a while :D
- zbuc 14y ago
  The policy is listed and clear. They didn't honor the policy as it was written for whatever reason(bad/new support person?) and corrected the problem and upheld their policy, which doesn't forbid RMA if you install a different OS.

DanielStraight 14y ago

Why? Why is "we made a mistake, we're offering to fix it" not enough? What more could they say? Do you want the name of the rep who made the mistake? Do you want them fired? Neither one of these seems remotely reasonable, but I'm not sure what else you could want. It was a simple human error. Customer service agent was wrong about the policy. It happens.

fdr 14y ago
I agree that things happen, but I think people are often suspicious that a vendor is making life more difficult than necessary systematically on the supposition that "de jure" need not match "de facto". Just a brief statement of intent and mechanism of the mistake would help in a public forum.
wtvanhest 14y ago
What more could they say? Do you want the name of the rep who made the mistake? Do you want them fired? Neither one of these seems remotely reasonable, but I'm not sure what else you could want. It was a simple human error. Customer service agent was wrong about the policy. It happens. You are making an assumption that it was human error. If it in fact was human error, they could state that and say that they also searched their database for the words Linux to make sure this hadn't happened with other reps. [Added]: They could then make a public statement about the amount of times it had happened and the total refund they issued. If it happened to 100 users at $1,000/per user, then they could issue $100,000 in total refunds. Further they could state that installing another operating system does not ever void the warranty.
papsosouid 14y ago
>Why is "we made a mistake, we're offering to fix it" not enough? Because I don't want to have to waste my time trying to drum up media attention when it happens to me. >What more could they say? Explain how this mistake happened in the first place, and what they are doing to prevent it from happening again. It doesn't help me that I may be able to publicly shame them into giving me an RMA. I want to know that I will, 100% for certain get an RMA without having to jump through hoops. >It was a simple human error. Customer service agent was wrong about the policy How do you know this? Who says it isn't policy to reject RMAs when another OS has been installed, and they only back down if someone creates a scene? Given those two possibilities, they need to demonstrate that it really was just a mistake, and that they are training their staff so it doesn't happen again. It isn't like this is an easy mistake to make.

zitterbewegung 14y ago

Do you forget that Amazon basically deleted books from your Kindle (1984) ? It was ironic and it was in the news and they had pretty much the same response (we were sorry). For newegg its probably going to be the same way. People forget if its a one in a while.

vidarh 14y ago
I don't know about him, but for me that's one of the reasons why I still have no interest in a Kindle, or any DRM'd ebook platform. I give Amazon lots of money for other types of goods (~100-120 orders a year according to my invoice history... yikes), but not much for books any more.

larrys 14y ago

"then I wouldn't have any problems with Newegg." You sound like the person threatening to not fly an particular airline because of the surly behavior of the ticketing agent. Fact is you will fly the airline if the price is significantly cheaper than what competitors are offering or the schedule works for you etc. Companies are in the business of making money. They don't need you they need everyone. The effect this will have on newegg is nominal. News flash: In order to give low prices something has to give. While there may be a few outlier exceptions you can't be all things to all people. Price quality speed pick any two. It's not just a cliche. HN readers seem to be very polarized in how they view things. Things are good or bad. Either you bogu to their every needs or they make a big fuss and want to be catered to. Lastly, Heroku and newegg are two different companies catering to two different markets and customers although there is overlap.

brianobush 14y ago

[post-mortem and a transparent analysis of the situation] talk about overboard. they apologized, is all, move one.