Proportable.com rude to prospective customer

Hi,

Justin or Sean whomever this person is not curteous to prospective buyers. I am new to buying a laptop and have gone back and fourth with this person on questions that I had. While it is appreciated that this person (or persons), answered most of my questions, treatment of this type doesn't sit well with a prospective customer. I thought I'd share this with the rest of the forum:

Here is a copy of my email and Justin's response:

Hi,



I'm looking at a Laptop with the following:



ACIZ70VA

PROPortable Z70VA Centrino Notebook

0. Bluetooth : Internal Bluetooth 1.1

1. Intel® Pentium® M w/ 2MB Cache; 533MHz FSB : 760 - 2.0GHz; 533MHz FSB; w/ 2MB Cache -Standard

2. DDR2 533 so-Dimm : 2048 ddr2 533 (1024mb x 2) - Corsair

3. Hard Drives 2.5" ATA100 : Seagate Momentus 100GB 7200 RPM w/ 8MB Buffer

4. Optical Drive : 8x DVD Dual Layer / Dual Format Burner (+/- R/RW)

5. Internal Wireless Card (Required for Centrino) : Intel PRO/2915 Wireless 802.11a/b/g MiniPCI

6. Operating Systems : Microsoft Windows XP Professional w/ SP2 -Standard



Questions:



1. I am finding that most of the Laptop resellers are out of the Seagate Momentus 100GB 7200 RPM w/ 8MB Buffer. All of the major distribution channels appear to be out of it. Although, ISTNC is completely out of the Seagates. Powernotebooks is also out of the Seagates, but still appear to offer them through their Crown computer line only. Although, unfortunately, I am not big on dealing with the extended warranty companies, which is the only warranty they offer with those units. ISTNC says Synnex Distribution shows stock around December 23. Can you confirm to me that in house, at your location that you have this drive in stock?



2. I am having trouble deciding whom to buy my Laptop from because Proportable doesn't use AC5 on the CPU. ISTNC and Poewernotbooks.com both use AC5 on their 3 year warranty cpus. They deny the claim (as far as they know) that they will void the warranty. Also, I can't really see this being a problem, since I was told by one reseller that Intel supplys a thermal paste of their own. I can see Intel denying a 13 year old gamer/overclocker a cpu replacement, but not to a Premier Seller. Have you ever had a problem with this? I believe that AC5 is important, because thermal pads are not bridging full contact between the CPU and Heatsink. AC5 fills in the cracks and forms a heatsink between cpu and metal heatsink. A few degrees is substantial in the warm to hot running systems of this day. Not to mention that every cooling procedure taking adds up unto
a cooler inernal enviroment. Also, its something that I would probaly eventually have done, and would sort of like to take care of it now.



3. The Proportable Warranty. This is the first warranty that I have seen that says that your warranty is voided is damage to the unit is found, don't you still fix whatever is need under the warranty and then charge for the damage part (or parts)? Do you then void the warranty altogether?



Furthermore, I don't think you replied to my last e-mail with questions. Could you try and get back to me soon?



Thanks,



Justins Reply:




Please find somewhere else to pick this up… I’m sort sick of answering the same questions a dozen times for you and that’s one good reason why I stopped answering you.



1.Yes we have and there’s a good reason no one else does….. we bought an entire lot when these came out and that’s why no one else has them

2. why don’t you call intel?

3. For instance, if a laptop is dropped, the damage to the outside of the system certainly is going to be all that’s wrong….. hard drives, ram, optical drives are most likely going to be broken… and that’s not covered.


Justin

In my defense:

I didn't ask the same questions over and over (not on purpose anyways). I simply wanted clarification and reasoning behind opinions and policies that Proportable.com had.

Thanks,

AC

 

I got a copy of every email that you sent over to sales (10 in the matter of a couple days). Each one asked basically the same questions and each one was answered the same way. The reason I started getting copies of them was becasue you wanted our sales guys to compare the Z81sp and Z70va in basically every detail. To say that's a waste of time would be a lie. Every potential customer gets the same treatment.... it's when those questions continue to be ridiculously stupid and start to be a waste of time. If other companies are answering your questions, then get answers from them. Don't come to us and then reask the questions you asked them... that is when you become a waste of time.

Today, you email me directly and emailed me an exact copy of the email you sent to sales. In your email, which is nicely stated up above..... I don't care who said they don't have certain drives... or what thermal grease they use and say doesn't void their warranty........ We're not them, and we're not going cross our heart and hope to die if we don't have the drive you're looking at. We're not lying to you. If it's on our site, it's in stock and we're currently building systems with them.

But when you continue to ask the same questions, after a while we simply lose our patience when some pain in the ass person continues to tell *US* what some other dealer told you about some other distributor.... Like I said... go find it somewhere else. Hearing that you would have bought somewhere else, but they didn't have the hard drives just sorta puts a tear in my eye, because you really picked us for the right reasons. So basically all the other emails that were thoughtfully written out meant absolutely nothing because you came back and said that you narrowed it down to the Z70va and you'd get it somewhere else if they had the drives...... So that means the other 10 emails and responses did nothing, so why would we want you as a customer by default? The answer is, we wouldn't and I made the decision to to cut the relationship short right there simply said you should find it elsewhere, because we don't want you as a customer. I'm glad we have the drives, I'm glad we know Intel's warranty policy, and I hope you find the computer somewhere else because you're not someone we care to work with.

 

That was a hilarious reading !

 

Thread re-opened temporarily by request.
If flaming starts, this thread will be closed and/or deleted instantly.

 

Yes it is funny but what i have seen, Justin is correct on this issue. If you dont like his sellings or anything about him, buy from somewhere else then. Theres no need to bash him for not having your standards.

 

I am standing by Justin on this. It appears as if you have posted only one part of the story.

Repetitive emails can get annoying, especially when there are answers to the questions directly in front of you. People are not there to just answer all your questions for you, even the most basic - you can find answers to those on your own. It is necessary to do some of your own research. If you are going to buy something as expensive as a notebook computer, then you should put some elbow grease into it.

As far as I'm concerned, if one dealer or store does not have what you want, then go to another one. It is as simple as that. "The Business of America is Business" -President Calvin Coolidge

 

Justin,

The reason that there were some repetition in the questions I asked was because at times my questions were not fully answered.

In your last post you referred to my communications as "rediculously stupid". That type of treatment to a potential customer is unprofessional, mean spirited, and bad customer service.

The reason why I sent so any e-mails was because your company prefers e-mail comunication. So to have a conversation and get my questions answered properly, I felt that was necessary.

In third paragraph you call me a "pain in the ass". Proportable.com was not patient with me as a new customer and got offended because I wanted to be sure that you have a certain drive in stock.

I have the right to tell you what another distributor said, and thought possibly that information could have been used toward your benefit as a business. Are they not your competition?

Consumers buy where they are most confortable and where they would like. If someone isn't answering your questions fully and your having to wait, why wouldn't I look elsewhere. I am the consumer. It was said of old time "The Customer is Always Right"

Your e-mails were appreciated, but you didn't and still don't give me the impression that you want a customer's business.

By cutting your ties from me, you've proven to me that you really don't want a customer's business nor provide the appropiate service.

AC

 

While I understand that customers sometimes can become too much, and ask stupid questions, that's what a salesman is there for. I have worked in customer/tech support for several years, and yes, I definately got annoyed several times, but never did I let that show. It is extremely unprofessional to respond in the way ProPortable did in this instance, that's the bottom line. If you can't handle getting questions an uncertain customer asks you, then you should not be selling computers. Calling a customer, on a well known messageboard likes this, a "pain in the ass" openly shows extreme lack of tact.
Having said that, we do not know the full story here, but the bottom line is: the email, nor the personal attacks on a customer is not exactly correct behaviour to attract customers.

 

There is defiantly more to the story than what is posted here. Believe me, if he doesnt want to buy from proportable, he doesnt need to bash them since hes not getting his way. Enough said

 

I don't know who "prefers emails", but at least we can skim an email when the same questions you asked would probably take an hour or more over the phone. I guess that is worse, but you could call, no one anywhere said we prefer anything over anything else... we have a toll-free number. But you're right, for the amount of questions you have, instead of you taking the time to write everything down, we did it for you.

I looked and on two previous emails, we stated we have the 100gb/7200rpm drives and yes they are here and there's nothing else to it. If we take an order, it's in stock, period. It all comes down to this.... you are a nuisance and I choose to bar you from our establishment... Basically, you can look at the hours put into your dozen emails as a charity. We did that free of charge and now ask that you give someone else your money. That's my choice. I started this business more than five years ago, importing only Asus' products and we're a big reason their notebooks are where they are on this continent.

To explain what we are... basically, we're not the best around because we're the first to import Asus' notebooks, we're still around because we're the best. Being the best means doing it for the love of the product rather than the love of the sale. You are a perfect example of what we do here. Our sales manager can atest to the fact that you have had more questions and indepth returned emails than anyone he can remember in the last couple years. In the end, your comments made me realize you're not the type of person who deserves a computer like this and you don't deserve our service, so I cut you off before we got our end of the deal. I guess that's better than selling you a computer and then refusing to help you after the sale. In the end you little thread will prove to help our business even more by showing people there are still people in sales who have principles.

 

What impresses me about PRO is that he is not ashamed to have this posted. That shows me what sets a good dealer apart from a great one. Being dedicated to your goals and standing up for yourself when you get blasted, plus not having a thread targeted specifically toward your company deleted or censored as on other forums.

I think the problem is that the emailer never read all of the information in the emails, and put two and two together.

I'm not sure of your motives behind this, but why did you post here in the first place if you only have negative comments?

 

Agreed 100%. This isnt a complain and negative forum, its a helping forum and Pro really does answer and help a lot of questions for this site.

 

Justin spends almost just as much time on this forum as I do... he's definitely a person who wants to help.
If he is fed up... he must REALLY be fed up, because he's one of the most altruistic people on this forum.

Anyway...no more needs to be said.
Thread closed.