8204 discontinued, or MWave just lying?

Hi all

Just placed an order for the 8204WLMi with extended warranty and accidental damage cover, plus the MediaBay battery. After eight hours of wasted time getting orders places, credit card charges accepted, etc. I received an email telling me that the 8204WLMi had been discontinued, although the website clearly stated the item was in stock, and they had even tried to charge me before confirming they had stock.

First things first - I advise everybody, DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH MWAVE.

Secondly, here's the email I received:

Can anybody confirm whether Acer has already discontinued the 8204WLMi, or are MWave just lying so as to get out of honoring their published price?

 

mwave.com isnt too bad. just make sure you call. sometimes their sales and inventory dont communicate. ive walked into their store for in-store pick up. its not bad, so long as its in stock. they also issues refunds, in the case that they did charge you.

 

We obviously have a difference in opinions about what constitutes "not too bad".

* I don't agree that lying about stock to get a customer on the phone so you can bait and switch them to another product is "not too bad". If you don't have stock of an item and are just ordering or drop-shipping from your distributor when you get a customer order, you don't list an item as "in stock", you list it as "on order".

* I don't agree that charging a customer's credit card for an item you don't even have (and cannot even get) is "not too bad". It would hardly be difficult for MWave to confirm they had stock before charging the card. As is, I'll probably have to wait days for the credit card hold to expire, preventing me buying the machine elsewhere because I can't afford to put almost $5000 on my credit card. By the time this is done, MWave's lies will probably have delayed me a week, unless I can get my credit card company to cancel the hold - and even if I can, I'll have wasted several hours on the phone.

MWave are liars, and don't deserve your money when they're hardly any cheaper than reputable retailers.

 

Hi,

I went to purchase a 8204 on the 30th of May but was advised by Acer Malaysia to hold on till the 15th of June when their new stock of 8204 arrives from Taiwan. In Malaysia, the older stock came with 100GB HDD while the new spots 120GB. All other specs remained unchanged. This model has not been discontinued, at least over here. I dont expect that will happen till Core Duo 2 processors hit the market.

Cheers

 

That was actually my first thought - is Acer selling through existing stock of the 8204 in preparation for Core 2 Duo or perhaps the Ferrari 5000 shipping?

Anybody hearing anything on Core 2 Duo release dates?

 

I believe the email says discontinued from their website, meaning they don't intend on stocking it any longer, not that Acer is discontinuing it.

 

"Unfortunately, we are not anticipating any further shipments to arrive."

That doesn't say "we're not going to bother to order any further shipments", does it? It implies that they can't *get* any more.

So - are they lying? That's what I want to know, so I don't order somewhere else just to go through this rigamarole again, or find that two days later a new model comes out.

 

Hmmm, I agree with Chuchutrain. Next to Newegg, I gave most of my electronics business to Multiwave. They've always been above board with me. One time they even sent me a replacement SDRAM stick BEFORE I even sent the slower (wrong speed) one back. That was the only "semi" bad experience I've ever had with them. I'd check with other online sites that sell that particular model and see if THEY have it in stock and if so, whether or not they know if it will be discontinued.

 

So you see nothing wrong with a site lying and stating they have a product in stock, when they don't?

And you see nothing wrong with them charging your credit card for a product that they know they don't, and won't have to sell you?

If you say you don't see anything wrong with that, you're saying you won't be upset if it happens to you on your next order with them. I don't believe you.

Hence, why support them with your business, when you know they pull this rubbish?

Edit: Incidentally, it gets worse. They didn't just put a hold on my funds. Looking at my credit card, they have actually charged me almost $2400 for a product (plus related accessory) that they knew they didn't have.

 

did you actually call them up to clear the issue?
I only see you basing your opinions on an email..

every time you order online, it goes through an automated process..
and it looks like there was a mistake in that process

which can be fixed by calling them up,

I have deal with them in the past and I dont have any complains

instead of making this thread, the first thing you should have done is calling them to know whats up, we are not running their company.

 

How about instead of sticking your arrogant nose in where it doesn't belong, you don't reply when you don't know what you're talking about?

I've spent half my damned day on the phone with them and the credit card company, and if I want my money back I'm going to have to wait quite possibly days for the charges to get reversed. That's charges that were placed on a card when they didn't have (and never had) a product that they claimed to have.

A mistake in an automated process? You're talking complete rubbish. The charge was processed by a human being. I know. I talked to the person who passed my credit card info through to them. That person charged my card without bothering to check if they actually had the item. They also listed the item as in stock when they didn't have it in stock. I've worked in tech, retail and warehouse-related businesses myself. They *know* if they have stock of a high-ticket item like this.

They knew they didn't have stock because either their distributor is drop-shipping for them, or they buy off the distributor only once an order is received. They got caught with their pants down because their distributor cannot provide the item to them for some reason, and they don't publish the distributor's stock levels on their own website.

Unless you consider them telling me that I could either cancel the order they already charged me for, or buy a different computer than the one I ordered, to be "fixing" the problem - then no, it couldn't be fixed by calling them up. It couldn't be fixed by me turning up in person with a smile on my face and candy for everybody who worked at MWave, either.

They charged me for an item they didn't have, then tried to get me to buy a different item. There's a name for that. "Bait and switch".

My only solution other than to buy another item is to wait an unspecified amount of time to get my money back. (Based on past experience with chargebacks, it generally takes days, occasionally takes weeks, and in one case required me to contact the fraud department at my credit card company and have them take action).

That doesn't make them honest, it makes you lucky.

And instead of writing this reply, you shouldn't have - because I did call them multiple times today, whether you are aware of that fact or not.

 

LOL nice reply..
writting information I and the rest of us didnt know..

please provide more information when trying to make your point across..
you leave us here guessing

I made that post with what you provided and now you come up with a huge reply...

as for mwave here is their ratings

http://www.pricegrabber.com/rating_getreview.php/retid=113
http://www.bizrate.com/ratings_guide/cust_reviews__mid--18829.html

so I am not the only one lucky.. it seems that you got unlucky..

edit: by the way.. it was the mistake of a company worker, the representative you talk to, not the whole company..
so dont generalize that the whole company is lying

but yeah it is frustrating when they charge you and it takes a few days for you to get the refund back.. it has happened to me before like 2 times with other retailers..

 

I prefer to follow the code "Never blame on malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity," myself. But I can understand the fustration -- I had a similar "ordered -- ooops, its discontinnued" problem when buying furniture once. However, that case was just clear-cut stupidity on the vendor.

 

...and didn't care to find out - you just assumed...

Thank you for bringing *so* much to this discussion.

Not.

 

Oh, and by the way - you presumably don't know, but BizRate and PriceGrabber are *not* good sources of consumer opinion. They're heavily biased towards making stores sound better than they are, because they make money from referring you to those stores...

Take a look at the ratings they give to unquestionably poor stores like Electro Discounts and Page Computers, if you don't believe me. Page Computers scores a "Good" in every category on BizRate; Electro Discounts scores a "Good" in all but one. PriceGrabber gives Page Computers a 3.8 out of 5 when 43% of their reviews in the last 40 days have been negative, and they give Electro Discounts an astounding 4.2 out of 5 when ResellerRatings' shows them to have an extremely poor history (despite what looks to be their attempts to inflate their own ratings there).

 

You're bashing the company because of your single negative experience? Shouldn't you practice what you preach, gweilo?

 

jaad, might've known you'd stop by to troll.

There's a difference between a company knowingly lying about whether they even have a product, and knowingly charging you for a product they don't have, and a company making a product that (even if its detractors' claims are right) still meets 95% of its manufacturer's claims.

Of course, I wouldn't expect you to acknowledge that.

 

No, I think you have a right to be mad, I would be mad also, but it could be just a mistake... clerk's stupidity... whatever... Good luck, anyway...

 

please provide concrete evidence of what you are talking about, links?
I only see your opinion,
reselleratings has been going offline once in a while and I dont trust it anymore.. and I used to follow them.
now they have alot of advertisements.. how trustworthy is that?

so what you are going to say about the ratings with newegg and other stores that get high ratings in the sites I linked?
do they also get money from them?

I only see you trying to find something negative about the company because you had this experience..

I come from other hardware forums, and the record from those members is that they are pleased with Mwave.
just face the fact that it was a mistake.

 

Merchants pay BizRate and PriceGrabber for higher placement in searches, click throughs that result in a sale, etc. - and they have done for years. Read up:

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Finddealsonline/P36484.asp

Why would you trust their reviews when they're being paid by the very same people they're supposed to be providing impartial reviews of?

Believe me, there's no need to "try" to find something negative to say. What MWave did to me today is downright dishonest.

 

Dont see a point in letting this thread continue.

Closed.