Bad Product worse customer service

[2 dogs]

My wife bought me an Ott natural light lamp for tieing flies and using when I make lures and such and paid $139 for it. Was great for few weeks then flickered, short in socket but the company inisisted it was bulb so afer 3 replacement bulbs finaly agreed to have me return it plus 10 bucks to repair or replace under warranty. Today they tell me that lamp had been misused and abused so warranty void, end of story. How do you abuse or misuse a lamp? Plus really naty little bugger on phone with an attitude. Any ideas on what I can do? If  this is an inappropriate question for the site please advise and will pull it but the store said sportsmen love it for close work with natural light for the colors.

[Oldfart]

Pay for everything on a credit card, even if you have the money up front. I use a Capital One Visa. If anything like that happens to me, I notify the credit card customer help people, and they go for the throat for you! Merchents really dont like the big dog credit card people looking into how they conduct buissness. You get fast refunds on ripoffs.

[billditrite]

it might not hurt to let them know there are 10,000 people waiting to see how they handled it   similar thing happened here http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=14361.0

[2 dogs]

I purchased it directly from the Ott Light company via telephone order, will check out the credit card complaint procedure as used a CC to buy it, Thanks for the tip and should have thought of it myself as read the topic on the reel complaint earlier when originally posted. This site is great source of help, love it.

[FishDaddy09]

2 dogs  I'd call the BBB and the State Att General's office. Hey they screwed you time for some pay back!

[2 dogs]

I am amazed   I took buildrite, old fart  and fishdaddy's tip and made one last call, told them had postedi it where 10,00 fishing types would see it, was gonna contact the BBB and State Attorney General and the credit card company. They reconsidered and are sending me a new lamp today. I have been fighting with them on this since April!
Thanks so much for the help, I really appreciate it guys.

[billditrite]

we are just tying up all the loose ends before icefishing officially begins.

[Fat Boy]

I am amazed   I took buildrite, old fart  and fishdaddy's tip and made one last call, told them had posted it where 10,00 fishing types would see it, was gonna contact the BBB and State Attorney General and the credit card company. They reconsidered and are sending me a new lamp today. I have been fighting with them on this since April!
Thanks so much for the help, I really appreciate it guys.

Excellent.  Glad that they finally came around.  The power of the internet strikes once again.  Iceshanty has a lot of influence.  We are a family and the outside world knows it!  So this and the other company have received their warnings.  Do we still do business with them  given that they had to be threatened first?  I'd say that technically they honored their commitment albeit late for good reason too...they got scared.  And rightfully so.  So yes, we have to honor our commitment too.  I would encourage anyone that is interested in either product to continue to do business with those companies.  We have to assume that they've learned their lesson.  Still, I'd make sure that when you contact them that you remind them that you are an Iceshanty member.  Just maybe from now on those businesses will treat us right.

[Minim]

I suggest everyone of us log onto iflyshop.com and let them know how we feel about this shoddy business practice.  I sent them a email asking them to send the paid for product to the customer.

[buzzbomb]

Ditto, feels good!

[Phoenix]

  Do we still do business with them  given that they had to be threatened first?  I'd say that technically they honored their commitment albeit late for good reason too...they got scared.  And rightfully so.  So yes, we have to honor our commitment too.  I would encourage anyone that is interested in either product to continue to do business with those companies.  We have to assume that they've learned their lesson. 

I must respectfully disagree Mr. Fat Boy, these companies only corrected the situation after being threatened that a significant block of potential consumers might be a little irked at their business practices. Who knows how many other smucks were not so lucky as to belong to such a great forum as IS? I say let's do business with more reputable people.

[Fat Boy]

I must respectfully disagree Mr. Fat Boy, these companies only corrected the situation after being threatened that a significant block of potential consumers might be a little irked at their business practices. Who knows how many other smucks were not so lucky as to belong to such a great forum as IS? I say let's do business with more reputable people.

Good point.  I don't have a lot of sympathy for those that have poor business practices.  Yet, I wonder if sometimes during the hustle and bustle that sometimes the smaller business just plain make a simple mistake.  The owner of that business might have had a manager that was either new or a problem and maybe this was the reason that he might have to get rid of the problem.  One person makes a mistake but it may not be the actual policy that the owner wants in his shop.  I think that every case is unique.  So, with that in mind in the two cases that came up recently I think that we could consider these two companies as potential problems and to avoid them.  Having said that, those businesses have every right to come on and defend themselves on here (within the rules of the site of course) and maybe offer us the issue of how they solved the problem and how they will improve in the future.  Also, I'd be interested if any other members have had problems with these folks or good experiences.  The next IS member that calls them might get the gold treatment! 

Heck, I don't know.  I'm just laying my thoughts out here.  Personally, they'd have to prove to me some way or another that they wouldn't treat me like that before I spend my money on their products.

[JigAwhopper]

I think that any business is bound to make some mistakes, just on the fact that they do so many transactions every day.  That's no big deal.  What distinquishes good ones from the crumy ones is the customer service and the damage control they do after they mess up.  I want them to go above and beyond when I call with a problem, like wrong item shipped, damaged product or defective one,  just because they inconvinienced me and wasted my time.  And I would like to see something extra because of that.  It's very competetive out there,  prices are just about the same everywhere and the only thing that matters anymore is the service.  Cabelas is a great example and I will always shop there,  and BassPro would be not so great example,  because they're much slower in shipping their products. And I go there when I have to.  Just my 2 cents.                                J

[FishDaddy09]

There is no doubt that Cabelas is the "KING"  when it comes to service. but i've been treated well by Bass Pro too. As for the 2 companies that had to be leaned on I would say only shop there if you felt that you really had to have their product, but first i would look elsewhere.

[Fish Monger]

Knock on wood.
I have had good luck with all my fishing equipment. My auger has run just fine. My store bought traps are great. My merchandise has arrived through mailorder correct and undamaged.
I once bought an Eagle fishfinder in which I was missing the transducer bracket. Since it was on clearance and the last one I was unable to exchange it at the store. I called the company and they sent me all the parts and cables, everything but the screen and actual transducer.
We order replacement parts for our ice traps and parts to build them from scratch. The company waits to bill us after we receive the merchandise to ensure that we received what we wanted.
I guess we have just had good luck.

[buzzbomb]

Ditto, feels good!

I got an e-mail from iflyshop.com saying they were trying to get Trevor's reel on backorder, that the lack of communication was due to permissions in his spam filter, and they they weren't by any means practising fraud and they'd even give him the reel for free when they got them in!   They've been in business since 1997 and didn't want a bad rep. etc.  So it looks good for him.

[bud]

i called cabela's to tell them this very thing last yr!  they are very good with backordered stuff to.  bass pro has gotten better, but they are not even close!

[2 dogs]

Great news   my new lamp came today, set it up, plugged it and and it works. Thanks for the good advice and to Ice Shanty for the site that provides us all with so much help, information and entertainment.

[reubenpa]

Excellent. Glad that they finally came around. The power of the internet strikes once again. Iceshanty has a lot of influence.

ICESHANTY MFF DHF are the BEST   Thanks Scott