Reseller ratings and customer service (ISTNC)

I am slightly skeptical about the link between a Reseller Rating and the customer service of a vendor.

I ask because I mailed ISTNC (who has a Platinum rating) with a simple question about an Asus laptop and didn't receive a reply even two days later. Some people on this forum also have vouched for their customer service, which is what makes it all the more surprising/disappointing.

I also tried their Live Chat once, again no joy.

Granted, I know that no system of ratings is fool proof but I expected a little more than this. Small experiences like this also make a potential buyer to think twice when buying online, although I do not want to paint all vendors with the same brush because I can see that there are a couple of vendors on this forum who spend a LOT of time answering questions.

 

that vendor seems to have problems recieving emails sometimes or something like that. If i were you i would email geared2play.com or proportable.com i would bet anything u will get a fast responce even at the late hours of night. just thought u might want to try them.

 

mmm i would recommend www.c9tech.com for an asus laptop. Sasha has always replied to my e-mails in a matter of hours, even during hours on weekends when most stores would be closed.

He just e-mailed me recently on his own time to ask if i wanted to RMA my Z70VA since Asus apparently has found a solution to the problem. I think customer service like that is what makes me glad i bought from there.

 

Actually, Justin and Eddie would have been the guys I would've asked first but they didn't have the laptop I wanted (Z70A). Sometime I think I'm the only non-gamer in this forum!

They are the vendors I was talking about earlier...yeah, I know personally that Eddie is very good at replying to mails.

The email not being received might explain why I never received a reply....

 

..... yeah, well Reseller Ratings is really only going to show you two things....

1. If people have REAL problems with a company, they'll be sure to post about them there.

2. I think there was a study that showed a place like RR will produce comments from about 5% of what are "satisfied customers" and 100% of "dissatisfied customers".

Basically this means that 95% of a companies customers just don't have to time to post a rating because they got what they expected and they went back to work. People who feel like they didn't get what they expected will tell the world if they could. The only problem is that RR and BizRate and others have had a HUGE amount a bribery cases against some of the bigger names (Dell, Kmart, BestBuy.... a lot of places who wouldn't care) but also smaller places (it happened to us a handful of times... most of the time they just delete those type of posts, but sometimes they stick because there's a grey line.

But with this knowledge basically RR can predict a few things:

1. Every 1 review equals about 20 customers that company has had
2. Every bad review is just about EVERY bad experience that's been had with a company, especially those who rely on RR
3. Usually the "bad" reviews are exaggerated a bit

With that information, you can just about pinpoint a lot about a company..... and basically make sure if you buy from their site, you're going to get your product. A place like RR isn't like JD Powers or someone who's actually testing a companies "customer service" The really important number that RR uses is "overall customer satisfaction". You can use that along with other awards and things that will help you make up your mind, but the response from email, im, phone, etc are what's really going to help cement your choice. Personally I think a little bit of everything helps. For us, I know that there are only two "Asus Premier Partners" on this half of the world...... customers want to know what that means they'll get and really it just stands as an assurance. It's an award (which is something to be proud of) for sales, service and how you've promoted Asus on a whole as well as being a long term partner. That doesn't get a customer a free bag or something, but it should give them something else which is important when really buying something site unseen from a company they just heard of yesterday.

Sorry for the rant...... you didn't even really asked any questions... I just wanted to talk

 

Usually if a sales company doesn't hear any news - it's good news.
Sadly I wish there was more customer feedback.
Come to think of it, when I buy something I usually do not post about the experience... unless something really stood out. My high expectations as a customer drives the motive behind c9tech's service.
Lately we have been getting quite a few responses to our service... all good so far.

:asus:

 

dqm, you've got a private message.

 

Justin, interesting post/rant

I completely agree with your point on 100% of dissatisfied customers posting. Also gave me a lot more background on how RR works.

Djembe, read your message. I see that they could have been tied up with higher priorities. I can't argue with that at all

This forum has been great and it's why I'd love to buy an Asus. Unfortunately with my model of choice being EOL, I might have to look elsewhere.

 

what i dont like is that resellers like proportable i believe it was, dont gve us the option of buying notebooks BAREBONE. on their site you MUST order with all components put in. i was going to buy from them until i realized i cant buy the z71v without the cpu and other components. i want to build it myself and these "best" resellers dont allows us to do that. WHY NOT? i can save a lot of money if i build myself.

 

try sending an IM on AIM to ISTNC, screename is the same as the company name. that guy is always on. .. and so is ProPortable

 

ill try that, hope their prices compare to that of other resellers

 

Actually, there are two pieces of BS in your statement.

1. If you go to our product configuration pages, you can configure the system down to a barebone if you so choose.

2. Asus Never EVER intended these systems to be sold as "projects"..... so one reason that we ARE a good place is because we don't hawk them as a "part" which is inherent to "no service or warranty". We are system "builders" and although you can configure the notebook basically down to a barebone, you can still get the same warranty. Basically they are configurable like that, not so you could buy a barebone, but you could deselect certain options that you may already have or think you can get cheaper somewhere else....... but then obviously we can't be responsible those parts.


I don't mind when people say they "didn't" buy from us for certain reasons.... but I do mind when they either don't know what they're talking about, or flat out lie. I'm going to guess you never even made it to the configuration pages and that's fine.... We feel sorry for people who can't even make it that far... so don't bother. I just want to make sure other people understand that.

 

sry i mixed up the name of the reseller. it wasnt u guys at all. and yes ive been to your site, i just got mixed up. thats why the first time i posted i said 'i believe it was" cause i was on a tight schedule and had to finish that post in a couple of minutes. i was actually talking about istnc who already told me they wont sell me the barebone notebook on aim. no need to get that offended.

too much stress before the holidays can really mess you up ill just tell you that much

 

Sorry about that... I'm not offended, I just didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. I know it's a stressful time of year but I'm glad it wasn't us that you were looking at because that would just lead me to believe the configuration pages were harder to use than they are.... no big deal. Thanks for clearing that up though.

 

you guys are actually one of the best ones ive seen so far, your configuration pages are far clearer than that of ISTNC. i dont know why they just put all of that info in one big glob like that.

 

That is really weird. I emailed ISTNC about a dozen times before purchasing from them, and each time I got a response within an hour. I had a question a month after the sale and, again, got a response within an hour.

I do know that there was a case of 1 or 2 people that had their emails filtered by ISTNC’s spam filter, or vice-versa, and that caused a problem, but on the whole their customers have raved about them on this board and on Notebook Forums.

Good luck!

 

post sales support is what counts. Only way to find out is to buy and wait till it breaks. Every single dealer you see on these parts should know the product inside and out and provide excellent presales support.

 

Not sure what happened, but in any case the question is moot now.

Wondering whether to wait for new Asus models or just buy a comparable Acer. :decision:

 

Well said, Eddie! :asus: