This whole penny auction business is turning into a larger problem than I had originally imagined. Incase you missed the last post, here is a small recap:
- Bought a laptop from a penny auction site named Quibids for $535.
- They sent me the wrong laptop.
- The laptop they sent me was total crap.
- Sent them an email on 2/17 telling them I was unhappy.
Well, Quibids has emailed me twice since that time. Here is what is going on. I received an email on 2/21 which basically said that everything was going to be okay, and that they were processing an RMA for me asap. I then got an email on 2/22 with an RMA number and telling me that I should receive a shipping label in the next couple of days. It also said that if I did not receive a shipping label, then I should just mail the item to the address provided, pay for shipping, then be reimbursed by them in bids! That is total bull shit. I am not letting them reimburse me for shipping in bids.
I still have yet to receive a shipping label or further contact, so I sent them this email:
It has been 28 hours since your last email and I have not yet received a shipping label. Unfortunately I will be unable to accept reimbursement for shipping in bids. I do consider the bids worthless as I will no longer be participating in Quibids auctions. This mishap has tainted your reputation with me enough to forego further business in the foreseeable future.
Here is what I would like:
(Option A)
1. $535 refund to my credit card upon receipt of delivery on returned item (I will cover shipping).
OR
(Option B)
1. An overnight shipping label for the return from me, paid by Quibids or Beach Camera.
2. Overnight shipping for the correct item to me, paid by Quibids or Beach Camera.
3. Tracking numbers for each.
I understand that this was probably a mistake made by the vendor (Beach Camera), but as this is a vendor that Quibids has chosen and approved it reflects terribly on Quibids. I also understand that you probably don’t care, but I would like to inform you that I have an article pending with The Consumerist, and will file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau if this matter is not resolved expeditiously.
Please Advise.
Hopefully this gets taken somewhat seriously by Quibids. I really do not want to be stuck with a bad laptop that I did not order.
[EDIT] :: Update is here.
A couple weeks ago I told you about how I had started participating in an online auction site called Quibids. I talked about how I made some mistakes in bidding strategy but that I thought it was an alright site. My views have now changed. Just a recap of the last post about quibids: I started bidding, got engulfed in it, spent $400 in bids, then paid the difference and bought a Lenovo ThinkPad x100e. Here is what happened next…
A package arrived at my house on Thursday Feb 17, expecting this new laptop from Quibids, I unwrapped it excitedly. To my surprise, there was a laptop inside, but definitely not the laptop I had ordered. The laptop inside was an Acer AO721-3574. Even though the specs were almost identical as far as the hardware goes, I don’t like receiving something different than what I ordered. Before I started bidding on the Lenovo machine, I read reviews about it to make sure that it would work for what I needed it for. One of the biggest sellers for me is keyboard quality. CNET rated the Lenovo x100e as being equipped with one of the best keyboards they had ever tested. This was really exciting. So I decided to unwrap and open the Acer machine anyway to see if it suit my needs. There were a whole slew of problems with the Acer machine. Here is a list:
- They keyboard felt wretched.
- The touchpad responsiveness was terrible (coming from a MacBook Pro, I kind of expected that).
- Battery life was pitiful.
- It couldn’t come back from sleep in Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
- It didn’t have one of those old style laptop mouse things, which the x100e does have.
- The machine was ugly.
I’m all around unhappy with the computer they sent me, so I decide to tell them about it and see if they will send me the one I ordered. I sent them an email on Thursday, February 17, and still have yet to receive a response. Overall my rating of Quibids has gone from Decent to Poor. They will not have any more of my business. If this issue isn’t handled expeditiously and to my liking (e.g. a full refund of $535 or overnight shipping to get me the laptop that I actually ordered) then the BBB (which they seem to take seriously) will be hearing about it.
Has anyone else had problems like this?
^^Part of my hypothetical fall schedule.
I’m in a bit of a pickle right now. I just registered 12 credits in fall semester (which is still about 3 months away). Following my usual habit, i lay everything out on a calendar thinking of everything normal that I will need to do every week. I lay out all of my classes including room numbers, sleep times, study times, work times, etc. Then I do some math about income, macro schedule (how long it’s going to take me to finish my degree, etc), and micro schedule (daily timing). I have pretty much narrowed it down to three major issues that need to be planned out before the fall semester ever starts: Money, Time, and Sanity.
My goal is to retain full time school status, and hopefully full time work status, but this will be difficult on the time and sanity requirement. After I laid everything out on the calendar, I came out with about 3 hrs of down time on school days, and about 45 minutes of down time on work days. That isn’t very much, even by swamped college student standards. This crazy busy schedule gets time and money out of the way, but I’m worried my sanity would go out the window after a few weeks of this. Not to mention, this all hinges on my work giving me the schedule that I need to even take these classes. Right now I have Sundays and Mondays off, but in order to even take some of the classes that I require, I would NEED to have Tuesdays and Thursdays off, so the Time aspect in this situation isn’t fully resolved yet.
Some would say that the answer to all of these problems is easy, get a part time job, sell your car, and focus on school. I did entertain this idea in my head for a bit. The problem is that I have a sought after, hard to get job, in my field of interest. Right now I’m getting experience in the same field as my degree, which means that I will graduate with real life experience on my resume, that is HUGE in today’s world. No company wants to hire someone with no experience; factoring in that the job market is terrible right now, and that it doesn’t look like it’s going to get much better for a while, it is probably in my best interest to stick with the job that I have right now. Time and Sanity and sanity are still both a problem though. If I did choose to get a part time job, that would take care of time and sanity, but money would become an even bigger issue. I would need to sell my car in order to stay afloat (and I just purchased it about a month ag0), and I would need to continue to live with my parents; even then, things would be tight. I would also lose the experience I’m getting as well, which could end up costing me jobs in the future. ugh, there are so many options.
I did some math and found that with my 71 credits left, taking 9 credits per semester (part time), would take me about 8 semesters to finish. There are 3 semesters per year, so that comes out to about 2.5 years to finish my degree. Taking 15 credits per semester (full time), would take me about 5 semesters to finish, so about 1.5 years. I guess what it really comes down to is, what is the worth of that extra year. Is it worth it to give up experience in order to finish school 1 year faster? At the moment, I’m leaning more towards sticking with my current job and working scheduling out with them somehow. I’m curious to know what someone else thinks though.
-Eric