honestly im not happy with tank guys anymore

[TankGuys]

The funniest thing about this is if I had just not said anything, *none* of this would have happened. People would have been blissfully ignorant to the fact that two of my suppliers are sending us to the cleaners, and nobody would be getting any chips this week.

Many people are upset by the idea that we didn't stipulate that we'd only buy from suppliers where we could make money. We didn't do this for two reasons: First, I've NEVER seen a distributor do this before. Second, I would assume this is a foregone conclusion.... isnt' it? It's a business we're running. How could I run a business where I buy chips for one price, and then sell them for less? That's just not an option, I'm sorry if that upsets people

In any case, since sending the e-mail, I've had a huge rash of cancellations and it's costing us dearly. On the flip side, it has allowed me to actually get allocation for a few people willing to pay more today, which has in turn opened up a new supply of "cheaper" processors again, allowing me to send those to early people in line who won't pay more. So while many people were extremely upset, for various reasons, this has ultimately helped most people, which was the whole point... I just didn't explain it well, or people just didn't get it. Oh well...

 

[TankGuys]

Originally posted by: Frackal

In this case however I just believe it was not handled fairly. Nowhere in the pre-order info was it mentioned that we are not protected from price-increases, that we would have to simply wait not until it was possible for TG to order stock, but until the price on their end was "right."

It's a shame you feel that way, and I either did a terrible job of explaining, or you didn't understand the point of what we did

What I did was the most "fair" option that I could come up with. If we were most stores, do you know what you guys would have heard last night? NOTHING. Crickets maybe Everyone would have been left wondering about an ETA.

Instead, since I value you guys as customers and wanted to help out, offered to let you guys pay more so I could buy from a more expensive supplier who happened to have them available. This gave people a simple choice to pay more, or not, and it only affected those who DID want to pay more, while having a wonderful side benefit of also speeding up allocation to those who did not want to pay.

In all honesty, can you think of a more "fair" solution? I know many people will say we should have just eaten the cost on those chips, but financially, I simply can't do that, bottom line. Just waiving the cancellation fee has already completely destroyed any hope I have of making even a single dollar off this entire Conroe fiasco.
















[/quote]

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: Frackal

Originally posted by: Thor86
I've ordered twice from TG and both times were pre-orders, and have always never charged first, and asked Ben to charge after, as he offers that option. Why in hell would anyone do otherwise?

Because they strongly recommended that you do otherwise to get your order as fast as possible.

It's your damn stupidity for not reading what your are getting yourself into, and then blaming the vendor? These people run a business to make money/profit, and not waste time/money to go bankrupt. And if you don't understand overhead and 5% CC charges, you've never run a business, and have no damn right to start scolding vendors who are offering their services for YOU.

'Nuff said.

This is a stupid set of statements.

Why, because you don't understand any of it?

 

[Polish3d]

Originally posted by: TankGuys

Originally posted by: Frackal

In this case however I just believe it was not handled fairly. Nowhere in the pre-order info was it mentioned that we are not protected from price-increases, that we would have to simply wait not until it was possible for TG to order stock, but until the price on their end was "right."

It's a shame you feel that way, and I either did a terrible job of explaining, or you didn't understand the point of what we did

What I did was the most "fair" option that I could come up with. If we were most stores, do you know what you guys would have heard last night? NOTHING. Crickets maybe Everyone would have been left wondering about an ETA.

Instead, since I value you guys as customers and wanted to help out, offered to let you guys pay more so I could buy from a more expensive supplier who happened to have them available. This gave people a simple choice to pay more, or not, and it only affected those who DID want to pay more, while having a wonderful side benefit of also speeding up allocation to those who did not want to pay.

In all honesty, can you think of a more "fair" solution? I know many people will say we should have just eaten the cost on those chips, but financially, I simply can't do that, bottom line. Just waiving the cancellation fee has already completely destroyed any hope I have of making even a single dollar off this entire Conroe fiasco.

[/quote]



I understand what was taking place, and your continued honesty and attention to our needs is why I have tried to order from you first when possible. I too have taken a loss of both time and money because of what has occurred here.


The issue is that when I pre-ordered from you, I expected you were going to get the chips as soon as they became available to you. It seemed reasonable to assume that once other vendors began selling them, smaller and larger, the order I had paid for well in advance would at least ship by the second week or so of the processor showing up at various locations. The purpose of a pre-order was not for me to sit and look at other vendors having the chip in stock and ready to ship but be unable to buy it unless I was willing to take a 20 dollar loss, which I ultimately did. What if it takes 3 more weeks for a vendor to offer it to you at a price that is amiable to you? If my example is repeated, it means customers who put a pre-order in with you in good faith will end up getting their chips will be looking at another vendor with that product in stock, wishing to order but being stuck in this +/-20$ fee.


People pre-order to save money and to get a product early. In this case I lost money and got it a couple weeks later than had I not. That's why the frustration. Everyone has difficulties, you need to make a profit, I need to get my PC built before my semester begins and sell my X2 et al before the resale value plummets further. I lost money as well for both these reasons, only I'm not asking you guys to eat those costs on my end. That's the inequity of it.

Yes, you didn't have to tell anyone about the ability to get some in, but at the same time, once the situation got to a point where the product was available at other vendors for comparable prices, I think releasing us from the pre-order penalties would have been the appropriate choice.

 

[Polish3d]

Originally posted by: Thor86

Originally posted by: Frackal

Originally posted by: Thor86
I've ordered twice from TG and both times were pre-orders, and have always never charged first, and asked Ben to charge after, as he offers that option. Why in hell would anyone do otherwise?

Because they strongly recommended that you do otherwise to get your order as fast as possible.

It's your damn stupidity for not reading what your are getting yourself into, and then blaming the vendor? These people run a business to make money/profit, and not waste time/money to go bankrupt. And if you don't understand overhead and 5% CC charges, you've never run a business, and have no damn right to start scolding vendors who are offering their services for YOU.

'Nuff said.

This is a stupid set of statements.

Why, because you don't understand any of it?

Next time I do business somewhere I'll ask them to send me a product in advance and then lecture them about how I cannot pay right away because my car broke down, gas prices went up, and then ask them to eat part of those costs for me. I suspect they will not agree.

 

[Ranulf]

Originally posted by: TankGuys

Originally posted by: LMR
...this fiasco is no one but Tankguys' fault...

Interesting way to start Can people assign blame to us? Sure. But to imply it's COMPLETELY our fault isn't quite fair. I can't control the supply chain, wholesale prices, or any of that... I'm just doing the best I can within the constraints that I have to work.

[LMR
1. Like others mentioned, people place pre-order to get products early, without going through the hassle of price-gouging. (Think XBOX360)

Agreed, which is why we were not cancelling earlier orders. We had been filling them, just slowly. This option was to help speed the process, it was not to exclude those not willing to do so. Furthermore, a lot of people have already gotten processors from us, so it is not like we hadn't shipped anything and were holding everyone hostage - we were filling orders as quickly as we can.

[LMR
2. For all intents and purposes, 5% cancelation charge on unfulfilled orders cannot be justified. When you sign up with whatever agent that does credit card transaction, I'm sure you're told the policy. There are prices to pay using credit card transaction service and it's most likely already reflected in the listed prices. If you do not want to pay fees, then you shouldn't take credit card payment. You can still get paid by money orders or checks, etc. which doesn't involving "fees" you have to pay. But you still choose to use credit card companies because you know otherwise you can't do this online business. On top of that I don't think any credit card company would let you take 5% fee for a unfullfiled (for almost month and a half?) order. It's like you asking customers to pay for your sales tax. And you hold the money during that time. Don't forget that customers also pay fees (interest) to the credit card companies. Depending on one's billing cycle, that could be 2 billing cycles and depending on the APR, the interest one should pay might even be bigger than the fees you have to pay.

All of which are legitimate points, but the cancellation fee was made very explicit, and I had explained the purpose of it from day one. Furthermore, we gave every single customer the option of NOT paying right away. I did not, in any way, force anyone to pay right away. They were told, correctly, that if they wanted to pay early, it would speed things up a bit since I wouldn't have to track them down later, but with that deal came the downside of a cancellation fee and a long wait. None of this was hidden from our customers... and yes, the CC companies would, in fact, stand by it for me in this case, as it was made clear, and we did not "force" people to accept it.

Hmm, well this answered my questions on the 5% cancel fee. I'd have never agreed to that as a customer and its folks own fault for agreeing to that now. I sympathize with tankguys as a small business but still, I think its a crappy thing for a business to do. Hindsight being 20/20 of course, I wonder how you could've thought the whole thing made good business sense. Odds are against it IMHO in the tech business. Good luck with this tankguys, you're gonna need it.

 

[xtknight]

People are just angry that they signed an agreement and now don't want to deal with the consequences. I learned not to tell people anything quite a while ago. They always take it out of context and spread it. That said, it's good the cancellation fee was waived.

What people are upset about is the fact that others can get their CPUs earlier by paying more. They thought "preordering" guaranteed them to be the first in line. From what I understand, no where did you say it did. You only said you'd give it to them when you could. With no cancellation fee, why are people complaining? Just order somewhere else this time then. People shouldn't preorder if they don't understand the consequences, nuff said. I myself have never preordered because crap happens. I also haven't ordered anything from TankGuys yet.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: Frackal
Next time I do business somewhere I'll ask them to send me a product in advance and then lecture them about how I cannot pay right away because my car broke down, gas prices went up, and then ask them to eat part of those costs for me. I suspect they will not agree.

Yep, which kinda goes back to my point.

Let's say I go to a supplier now and agree to purchase 1,000 gallons of fuel. Let's say the cost is 3.00 per gallon. I pay up-front ($3000). 2 weeks later when the price is down to $2.60 per gallon, is that supplier going to issue me a refund check for $400? I don't think so.

TankGuys can make all the excuses they wish. There are costs to business, there are risks. They took a big gamble and LOST, as prices have increased.

 

[Some1ne]

I know many people will say we should have just eaten the cost on those chips, but financially, I simply can't do that, bottom line. Just waiving the cancellation fee has already completely destroyed any hope I have of making even a single dollar off this entire Conroe fiasco.

That is unfortunate, especially since even though it doesn't seem like much, that $15 per chip does add up if there are 1,000 order or so. However, there are a couple of points:

1. As people have said, that is the risk inherent in allowing pre-orders, for both the customer and the vendor. If prices plummet at launch, the vendor wins because they can still collect the full pre-order price, if on the other hand they go up, the vendor is faced with a difficult choice (and really the customer is supposed to win, by getting a part for less than it was actually worth, which is why at least some people pre-order, I would think), in that they either have to eat the loss in some shape or form, or risk infuriating their customers by no longer honoring the pre-order price because they cannot turn a profit at that rate (which is arguably still a loss due to damaged PR).

2. Although waiving the fee has caused a short-term loss, its value in terms of PR damage control over the long run will probably easily offset that cost. At least now there should be fewer outraged customers, and the ones that remain have far fewer justifications for feeling outraged, and the ones who supported you through the whole thing have yet another reason to continue their support and generating positive word of mouth. It's like +10 charisma points, or something.

 

[Polish3d]

Right. It was a gamble in which they would benefit by allowing pre-orders, which if successful would net them more profit, but that meant they'd have to risk people canceling, and (apparently) distributors raising supply cost.

They decided to cover the chance of loss on the cancellation side by making the customer pay those fees.

Then they decided to cover the loss on the supply cost side by just waiting until prices went down to a point that was amiable, and all the customers were locked in with this 5% fee.

That's unfair to the consumer, and was not listed in the pre-order FAQ.

A reasonable expectation of a pre-order is that you'll get the product when they begin to become available everywhere, which means as soon as TG could get these chips they should have done so and shipped them out in order of first come, first serve. It's not my responsibility to make sure the distributors don't raise prices on TG, that's their responsibility.

It is not reasonable to be locked into a situation where TG is waiting to get good prices for them, while other vendors have the chip available, so TG consumers who placed a pre-order in good faith now have to choose between waiting .... for... how long? Or paying a cancellation fee that is not a small one. A pre-order is supposed to result in faster arrival of the chip, not slower. It's not unreasonable to have been displeased with these circumstances.

 

[BladeVenom]

I'm sorry your supplier screwed you, but if you let people jump ahead in line by paying more then they might as well just buy from ebay. Pre-order is suppose to guarauntee your place in line for the agreed upon price, if it doesn't then there is no reason to pre-order from you.

You're right you shouldn't have said anything. You wound up in a bad situation and you decide to tell your customer the problem and let them sort it out. To me that just doesn't sound like the way it should be done.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

And how long will they hold the preorders waiting for the prices to drop? What if the demand stays high and the prices don't drop?

 

[tennesota]

TankGuys,

I am not a current customer; I cannot vouch for your history of good customer satisfaction; but it is clearly obvious you have a loyal fan base.

I did visit your web site for the first time about three weeks ago based on good comments from folks in the "AT Hot Deals" forum. The glowing comments were enough to convince me to bookmark your web site in my list of VENDORS; whenever I am looking to purchase a hardware component your web site will be considered.

I have read the comments in this thread; some are good, some are bad.
I have read your rebuttals.

What I don't understand is why you are adamant about not selling processors at a loss to satisfy your pre-orders.

Why won't you sell the processors at a loss to clear your pre-order line up?

After filling your pre-orders [even at a loss] to clear your back log you can price your future processor sales accordingly to be competitive and possibly make up some of your losses. If you cannot make up the loss on future processor sales then mark up something else to help offset the losses.

Even if you are unable to fully recover from potential losses you may lessen the pain somewhat for your business and more importantly for your customer base. Your good reputation is only as good as your last sale; upset enough of your customers to the point of damaging your good reputation you might find it an uphill battle to get them to come back.

I find it admirable that you care enough to post here [and elsewhere] to defend your business decisions but you should not hide behind the "I cannot afford to lose money" excuse. Running a business has its risks, losing money from time-to-time is one of those risks.

Jacques

 

[Eternalsin]

Tankguys didn't have to oblige and tell his customers that he could get the chips at a higher price. If he didn't do that, he wouldn't have this problem. The fact that he did, means that he cared enough about his customers, that he is willing to buy those C2D at a higher price to satisfy the customers who want the C2D right away. I feel that Tankguys tried to do the right thing but the customers didn't understand and it's a pretty much a lose lose situation for Tankguys. I don't think you will find any kind of customer service anywhere that Tankguys give.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: tennesota
TankGuys,

I am not a current customer; I cannot vouch for your history of good customer satisfaction; but it is clearly obvious you have a loyal fan base.

I did visit your web site for the first time about three weeks ago based on good comments from folks in the "AT Hot Deals" forum. The glowing comments were enough to convince me to bookmark your web site in my list of VENDORS; whenever I am looking to purchase a hardware component your web site will be considered.

I have read the comments in this thread; some are good, some are bad.
I have read your rebuttals.

What I don't understand is why you are adamant about not selling processors at a loss to satisfy your pre-orders.

Why won't you sell the processors at a loss to clear your pre-order line up?

After filling your pre-orders [even at a loss] to clear your back log you can price your future processor sales accordingly to be competitive and possibly make up some of your losses. If you cannot make up the loss on future processor sales then mark up something else to help offset the losses.

Even if you are unable to fully recover from potential losses you may lessen the pain somewhat for your business and more importantly for your customer base. Your good reputation is only as good as your last sale; upset enough of your customers to the point of damaging your good reputation you might find it an uphill battle to get them to come back.

I find it admirable that you care enough to post here [and elsewhere] to defend your business decisions but you should not hide behind the "I cannot afford to lose money" excuse. Running a business has its risks, losing money from time-to-time is one of those risks.

Jacques

:thumbsup:

 

[wilki24]

The bottom line is that if a company offers X product as a pre-order for X price, then they should honor that price and ship the product to the people who pre-ordered starting with the 1st guy to pre-order.

If something changes behind the scenes, it's not the customer's fault. The guy who preordered 1st should get the 1st CPU for the exact price he pre-ordered it at, especially since he's probably already paid.

I don't think TG's meant for this to happen, but they got ahead of themselves and if I were TG's, I'd either let people cancel for free and eat the loss for the rest of the pre-ordered CPU's. That's the ONLY fair thing to do for the customer. I see Ben talking about how the suppliers are screwing him over, but why does he think it's any better for him to turn around and do the same to his (once) loyal customers?

I *almost* bought from TG, but I'm glad I didn't. Newegg will get my money, as I know that when I pay for something there, I'll get it for that price and that my place in "line" won't change because of some "pay more now and jump ahead of everyone else" scheme, and it'll be at my door when they say it will.

One thing I don't think TG is thinking of.... the loss of reputation is going to cost them a lot more than the amount they'd have to eat if they kept their word. Why people who run businesses are so short-sighted is beyond me... *sigh*

 

[wilki24]

What I don't understand is why you are adamant about not selling processors at a loss to satisfy your pre-orders.

Why won't you sell the processors at a loss to clear your pre-order line up?

That's what I'd do if I was trying to build a business. Newegg got to where they are by bending over backwards for their customers. e.g., I once bought a video card, then decided I wanted a different one, but I had it too long to RMA. So, I sold it via ebay to some guy in Hawaii. He did something to it so that it didn't work right, and then wanted his money back from me. I called newegg, explained the situation, and they authorized HIM RMA'ing the card from Hawaii, and they quickly sent out a brand new replacement.

They didn't have to do that at all, but they did. Probably took a loss on it.

That is what customer service is about, and over the years, I've easily given them 20k or more of business through myself and friends.

 

[sil0nt]

I've never purchased from TankGuys before, but after reading this, I probably will, although not for a pre-order. It's clear that they go the extra step to help customers. Maybe they shoot themselves in the foot by saying too much and going too far, but to me, that proves they truely care.

With regards to the specifics of this situation, people are deluding themselves if they think they are getting the short end of any stick. A preorder is a gamble, essentially. With TankGuys, you had 5% on the line, with other vendors, you had 0% on the line. I had two preorders with bigger vendors that charged no penalty. I considered TankGuys, but I quickly decided that I gained nothing by risking that 5%.

In the end, I bought a E6600 from MicroCenter B&M and cancelled both pre-orders. I've had my chip for nearly two weeks. If having a CPU quickly is so important to some people, you'd think they would reassess their priorities. Instead they make poor decisions and complain. Or blame others.

 

[darkhorror]

Originally posted by: TankGuys
The funniest thing about this is if I had just not said anything, *none* of this would have happened. People would have been blissfully ignorant to the fact that two of my suppliers are sending us to the cleaners, and nobody would be getting any chips this week.

Many people are upset by the idea that we didn't stipulate that we'd only buy from suppliers where we could make money. We didn't do this for two reasons: First, I've NEVER seen a distributor do this before. Second, I would assume this is a foregone conclusion.... isnt' it? It's a business we're running. How could I run a business where I buy chips for one price, and then sell them for less? That's just not an option, I'm sorry if that upsets people

In any case, since sending the e-mail, I've had a huge rash of cancellations and it's costing us dearly. On the flip side, it has allowed me to actually get allocation for a few people willing to pay more today, which has in turn opened up a new supply of "cheaper" processors again, allowing me to send those to early people in line who won't pay more. So while many people were extremely upset, for various reasons, this has ultimately helped most people, which was the whole point... I just didn't explain it well, or people just didn't get it. Oh well...

Selling for a loss when something like this happens is a great option, people do it all the time, here is why.

people still get there chips in order.
you don't have to eat the fee's which are more than it would cost you to send out the chips at a loss.
You get happy customers who would most likely be willing to transact with you in the future. Sure you may have lost some money now but you may very well make it up in the future.

so lets say instead of doing what you did you sold some of the processors for a loss. You get the processors out to the first people who pre-ordered the quickest. Which in turns opens up a new supply of cheaper processors, which you can continue to sell. No loss of orders, or loss of cash due to eating the fee. You do lose some money, but from what it sounds like it's not much more if any more than what you would have lost just taking a hit on the processors. Plus you wouldn't lose customers, and have bad reviews of what happened.

Basicly you are paying 17.5+ per canceld unit, instead of 15 for some higher priced pre-orders.

 

[MrPickins]

Originally posted by: tennesota
TankGuys,

I am not a current customer; I cannot vouch for your history of good customer satisfaction; but it is clearly obvious you have a loyal fan base.

I did visit your web site for the first time about three weeks ago based on good comments from folks in the "AT Hot Deals" forum. The glowing comments were enough to convince me to bookmark your web site in my list of VENDORS; whenever I am looking to purchase a hardware component your web site will be considered.

I have read the comments in this thread; some are good, some are bad.
I have read your rebuttals.

What I don't understand is why you are adamant about not selling processors at a loss to satisfy your pre-orders.

Why won't you sell the processors at a loss to clear your pre-order line up?

After filling your pre-orders [even at a loss] to clear your back log you can price your future processor sales accordingly to be competitive and possibly make up some of your losses. If you cannot make up the loss on future processor sales then mark up something else to help offset the losses.

Even if you are unable to fully recover from potential losses you may lessen the pain somewhat for your business and more importantly for your customer base. Your good reputation is only as good as your last sale; upset enough of your customers to the point of damaging your good reputation you might find it an uphill battle to get them to come back.

I find it admirable that you care enough to post here [and elsewhere] to defend your business decisions but you should not hide behind the "I cannot afford to lose money" excuse. Running a business has its risks, losing money from time-to-time is one of those risks.

Jacques

I read the entire thread with an open mind, and this post mirrors my senitments exactly, but much more eloquent than I could have done.

I have never shopped Tankguys, but based on what I have seen today I would order from ya'll in the future. I actually believe you care about your customers, and it really sucks that you will take a PR hit even though you were only trying to help.

Given that it had been a few weeks since launch and the preorders still had not shipped, you did have to make some sort of announcement, but IMO you went the wrong direction.
I would have written an email stating that the wholesale price had increased, and you were going to sell at a loss. Explaining, of course that your initial shipments would be small due to this.

You would take a $15 hit per cpu, but the PR boost would be nice, and eventually either the wholesale price would drop, or as stated above, after you clear your backlog you can increase price.

I have the feeling that this thread will actually attract more customers. The general consensus seems to be that this is the first issue they have had with Tankguys.

Good Luck!

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: wilki24
The bottom line is that if a company offers X product as a pre-order for X price, then they should honor that price and ship the product to the people who pre-ordered starting with the 1st guy to pre-order.

If something changes behind the scenes, it's not the customer's fault. The guy who preordered 1st should get the 1st CPU for the exact price he pre-ordered it at, especially since he's probably already paid.

I don't think TG's meant for this to happen, but they got ahead of themselves and if I were TG's, I'd either let people cancel for free and eat the loss for the rest of the pre-ordered CPU's. That's the ONLY fair thing to do for the customer. I see Ben talking about how the suppliers are screwing him over, but why does he think it's any better for him to turn around and do the same to his (once) loyal customers?

I *almost* bought from TG, but I'm glad I didn't. Newegg will get my money, as I know that when I pay for something there, I'll get it for that price and that my place in "line" won't change because of some "pay more now and jump ahead of everyone else" scheme, and it'll be at my door when they say it will.

One thing I don't think TG is thinking of.... the loss of reputation is going to cost them a lot more than the amount they'd have to eat if they kept their word. Why people who run businesses are so short-sighted is beyond me... *sigh*

I somewhat agree regarding your initial points. The customer should still be given their chips on a first come, first serve situation. However, the part I bolded above baffless me, and I continue to see similar sentiment.

This wasn't a scheme, it wasn't a dirty trick, and upsetting customers is not something TG aims for, as you can tell from their RR. It was a lone mistake, which Ben is trying to fix. He's allowing you guys to cancel without a fee, and he's not going to pre-order this way again so the problem doesn't re-occur.

I bought this nice new 19" LCD from Newegg about a year ago. On the scheduled day my monitor was supposed to arrive at my house, I double checked my tracking number just to see it say that it was on the truck. Instead, it said the package was recalled and being returned to the sender.

I called UPS to find out why it was being sent back when it was on the truck to be delivered to me that day. They told me they didn't know and to call Newegg, so I did. Newegg told me to call UPS. So I did. After telling UPS that Newegg just redirected me back to them, they gave me a name of the person who authorized the return.

I managed to get in contact with said person over at Newegg, who said they recalled my monitor because they sent me the wrong model. So, I asked them if they were going to send me the correct one. They said no, and that they were going to refund my money. I protested, and they offered me a $15 coupon that they were going to email me, which was good enough for me.

Except, that I never received it. I also checked the monitor on Newegg after being told I would receive a coupon, and noticed that they raised the price of the monitor by $40 or so. I emailed Newegg about 5-6 times over the course of 1.5 weeks, without any response. I left a negative review on RR, and was contacted by a rep rather quickly. They finally took care of me.

So should I say I can't trust Newegg with my money and that I'll never get things I buy from them at the price upon ordering? Because clearly, they didn't want to sell it to me at the price listed when I purchased it. However, they took care of it, and weren't trying to just rip me off. That is my point. I still buy from them fairly often. I think this is somewhat similar to the bolded reference, minus the whole pre-order thing.

 

[Jules]

Glad i didnt buy from tankguys

 

[aggressor]

Preordering in general is pretty damn stupid. You just know you'll have the opportunity to buy it some where else before your preorder comes in.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: Thor86
I've ordered twice from TG and both times were pre-orders, and have always never charged first, and asked Ben to charge after, as he offers that option. Why in hell would anyone do otherwise? It's your damn stupidity for not reading what your are getting yourself into, and then blaming the vendor? These people run a business to make money/profit, and not waste time/money to go bankrupt. And if you don't understand overhead and 5% CC charges, you've never run a business, and have no damn right to start scolding vendors who are offering their services for YOU.

'Nuff said.

Thor, please don't tell me that you think that all of the companies in America (or the world, for that matter) are in business for my benefit. Nobody's that dumb, are they?

 

[wilki24]

This wasn't a scheme, it wasn't a dirty trick, and upsetting customers is not something TG aims for, as you can tell from their RR. It was a lone mistake, which Ben is trying to fix. He's allowing you guys to cancel without a fee, and he's not going to pre-order this way again so the problem doesn't re-occur.

I knew I should've used a different word than scheme, but I was about to leave work to go see Snakes on a Plane and was in a hurry.

To be clear, I've never done business with Tankguys. I almost preordered there, but decided to wait for the whole situation to settle down some. I'm glad I made that choice, as I think I'll end up with a better deal and probably a better cpu/mobo combo that I'll be happy with for a year or two.

Now, if Ben is letting people cancel without a fee, then kudos to him. In his place, I would've done that in the first place (well, honestly, I wouldn't charge people fees at all for cancelling a pre-order, it's just a cost of doing business IMHO) just to make the best impression possible on my potential and current customers.

The bottom line is that Tankguys took a gamble by offering up the pre-order and then giving estimates for availability when they didn't really know what was going to happen, knowing the whole time that many of the people pre-ordering were doing so with the intention of getting a 6600 early and for a decent price. If that gamble paid off, then Tankguys would've profited, but since it didn't, I don't think they should then turn around and put the onus on the customer.

The gamble shouldn't be either the business wins or the customer loses. The business took the gamble, and thus should bear the cost of losing.

I do understand where they're coming from, and if you look at things in a simple profit/loss manner, then it makes sense. But anything short of giving the cpu's to the people who pre-ordered them in the order they pre-ordered for the advertised price just isn't right.

While no "promises" were made, there certainly were expectations created. Now, they can tell all those upset customers that they're in the wrong, or they can make those customers happy.

Guess which path leads to long-term success?