ADVFilms.com - Bad customer service rep...

moiety

moiety

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This was just surprising more than anything.

I bought the Neo Ranga set during the Rightstuf sale. Didn't come with the box. No biggie. I didn't even think about emailing advfilms.com until now to see if somehow, some way, I could buy just the box from them. Now, I understand they sell it as the box + the first dvd of the series. But I figured I'd take a shot in the dark and see what happens. (And then the sale started and I see it's 10 bucks for the box + dvd #1). This may be why I got the response that I did, although I still think it's uncalled for.

My inquiry sent I think Thursday evening:
Is it possible to buy JUST the Neo Ranga collector's box? I have already purchased (and enjoyed!) the entire DVD series. I do not need another copy of the first dvd, and was hoping that somehow I could buy just the collector's box. Also, if this is possible, how much would you charge?

Thank you so much!
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Today, I get a response from the sales rep:
Please see our website at www.advfilms.com for a Valentines sales.
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Ok...

My reply:
Thanks for your reply but I already know about the Valentine's Day sale. You are selling the Neo Ranga Box + DVD #1. I inquired about buying JUST the box, because I already own the entire series. If this is or isn't possible, please let me know.

Thank you.
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Of course by today I know the sale price of it, but I still wanted to see if I could get just the box. All I wanted was a yes or no. If no, no big deal I would've just bought the box + dvd and give it away or something.

But then his reply was:
Ok tightwad, give me your address and I'll send it to you.......free.
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So I responded:
I don't understand why you are being rude. I asked about BUYING - I was and am willing to pay for it. All I asked was if it was even possible to buy just the box. As I said earlier, I have already purchased the whole series. I thought maybe I would inquire with the company that has licensed the series. I didn't want to have two copies of DVD #1 (again, if it was even possible to buy just the box). Instead you've been rude when all I asked was a question. If the answer was no, then no problem!

I surely hope you don't treat other inquiries in this fashion. All I had asked was a question.
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So, like I said, shot in the dark inquiry, but did he really have to respond like that? I was just looking for a yes or no answer. Now I have no interest in giving them business - I would've bought the sale item if the answer was no (as I didn't even know of the sale until it was posted on CAG). Anyway, I just had to rant/share.
 
A customer 'service' rep, in an email, called a customer a tightwad?
I hope you saved that email, and have some free minutes on a cell phone--you could get somebody fired. And should.
The first email was probably either an autoreply, or the responder's brain was on auto and didn't read the email too well. But that second email is totally uncalled for and unprofessional.
First, I'd reply back and get him to send me the box :)
Then I'd call--not email--the highest person at ADV I could, and get that guy's ass fired.
 
:lol: I think the guy was being sarcastic. After a response like that, I just lost any interest in dealing with the company at all.
 
[quote name='dtcarson']A customer 'service' rep, in an email, called a customer a tightwad?
I hope you saved that email, and have some free minutes on a cell phone--you could get somebody fired. And should.
The first email was probably either an autoreply, or the responder's brain was on auto and didn't read the email too well. But that second email is totally uncalled for and unprofessional.
First, I'd reply back and get him to send me the box :)
Then I'd call--not email--the highest person at ADV I could, and get that guy's ass fired.[/quote]

Oh, I save all my emails :p . I sent the last email, so the "ball is in his court", in a sense. It's probably too late to get it for free. But I'm thinking of calling. I'm gonna see if I get any sort of reply first, and then I'll go from there.
 
That's true, he may have just been sarcastic/joking, but with email, it's hard to tell. Especially when you are 'representing' a company. Humor/sarcasm is tricky in print.
 
I mean, even if intended as a joke, that's a wildly inappropriate response to such a polite and formal e-mail regarding a possible purchase.

You'll be doing ADV a favor by mentioning this to them, any self-respecting company doesn't need/want moron reps like this. Again, sarcasm or no, that's just uncalled for.
 
Alright, I gave a call to their customer service. I explained why I was calling, and she took down my name and # and the rep's info and said she had to go look into it. She'd get back to me within an hour, so I'll let you guys know how it goes.
 
Wow.. sales rep can say that sort of stuff? Even though if it's "jokingly/sarcastic".. that seriously sounds ... err.. free speech..(even though you're getting it for free). If a company is suppose to be a "good company" then at least have decenacy to say it in a respectable manner (that guy at least).
 
you coulda been like. "not only am i a tightwad, but I'm also a blackmailer. You'll be sending me two if you dont want your superiors to find out"
 
^^ lol

Not surprisingly, customer service never called me back. I'm going to call back tomorrow. If they give me the same response, I'll ask for a superior/manager. I don't even care about getting the box anymore (I don't plan on buying anything from them). It's all about the principle now. :?
 
(bump) To whoever's interested:
I didn't get a chance to call them back today (way too busy), but I actually received a reply from the guy:

Hey, I thought you'd send your address to me by now. I have the Neo Ranga box packed and ready to send.
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So, I'm confused. Is he still being rude/sarcastic? He totally disregarded my last email. I don't want to email him my address or anything. Tomorrow morning I will definitely be calling up and getting some answers. Very strange how asking one question has led to all these uneasy feelings about both this guy and, in some part, the company.
 
Sending your address to someone who treats you like that would be a rather bad idea. I'd either take no box or buy the one for 10 bucks with the first DVD myself. Complain to the company if you must, but just accepting his behavior in exchange for a box seems rather degrading. Plus if he's a real prick he might take your address and just do some not so nice things with it.
 
sometimes people in the anime industry have..funny senses of humor

the chances of him sending you something bad are slim to nil (or if he really does end up sending someting suspect it's his job, a publicity nightmare for adv and a certain settlement)

give him your address, say thanks and be done with it
 
[quote name='moiety'](bump) To whoever's interested:
I didn't get a chance to call them back today (way too busy), but I actually received a reply from the guy:

Hey, I thought you'd send your address to me by now. I have the Neo Ranga box packed and ready to send.
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So, I'm confused. Is he still being rude/sarcastic? He totally disregarded my last email. I don't want to email him my address or anything. Tomorrow morning I will definitely be calling up and getting some answers. Very strange how asking one question has led to all these uneasy feelings about both this guy and, in some part, the company.[/quote]

Well it may not be the original person you dealt with, but if it is I'd say you just got a jackass of the bunch. I've never dealt with their sales service people, but the ADVocate program folks were always pretty cool when I was the contact person for an anime club awile ago (before I figured the clib was full of total nutcases).
 
is there an order status page in the site? i ordered like 94bucks of dvds over there and i wanna know when they shipped and how long it takes.
 
[quote name='thatstoobad']it's kind of funny, plus he offered to give it to you for free.

lighten up.[/quote]

See, the thing is that this is a PROFESSIONAL company, not just some store that's owned by some guy and operated out of his basement. It would be like e-mailing CocaCola to ask if you could buy a box of their syrup, and having them reply "Ok cheapass, if you don't want to fork up the money to buy our soda in stores, then we'll just send it to you for free."

She was never trying to score something free from the company. His response was completely out of line for somebody working at a legitament company, and I know that if I behaved that way at my work, I'd be fired. He's a sales representative for christ's sake. You're supposed to make sure that the customers' needs are satisfied to the best of your ability (even if that means saying "Sorry, we can't sell you just the neo ranga box"). In a professional business, you talk to the customer as if you respect them and are grateful for their business. Going at it with a "screw you we don't need your money" approach won't win you any favors.

I could understand if she emailed JoeBob's Alabama Anime Imporium, but this is ADVFilms. Not acceptable.
 
Well, he's also a CAG:
Just looked at your posting on the forum. Bummer. Thought you recognized a bit of humor. Oh well, offer still stands.
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It's the same guy, he has his own company email address. Guess he'll be reading this, as well.

Anyway, as both dtcarson and evilmax pointed out, he's representing a company. You can't be "humorous" or sarcastic, because people take it differently, and in print you can't tell what they mean.

I've never received a response like that to a question, plus these last two emails he's sent on his own - I haven't responded to them to prompt any response from him.

To top it off, he's not just a sales associate. He actually holds a higher position in the sales department. I'm not going to post his name and stuff, because that's not right.

Maybe he was joking, but when you are representing a company and answering an inquiry, you can't "take risks" like that, so to speak. He called me a name in his second email. In face-to-face conversation, you'd know if it was a joke or mocking. Now the rest of his emails feel mocking, sarcastic, and not to mention he's emailed me twice more after he responded to my last email.
 
After reading all of this again, you know, I'd just send him the address and get the box. While a response like that would normally get someone tossed out on their can, I'm starting to think this is just a sense of humor issue.

Worst case scenario: If by some stretch of the imagination he sent anything nasty, you could get law enforcement involved, so you've really got no worries. If you don't want to use your real name, use a pseudonym or abbreviation, like F. Lastname.
 
He called you a tightwad and said he would send you one for free. Whats the big fucking deal. Stop being such a pussy and send him your address to get the free box. There is no law that saws cust. service reps have to be nice to you. There is no law thats says he cant call you names. the BBB isnt going to do shit. Your not going to get anyoen fired.
 
[quote name='bignick']He called you a tightwad and said he would send you one for free. Whats the big shaq-fuing deal. Stop being such a pussy and send him your address to get the free box. There is no law that saws cust. service reps have to be nice to you. There is no law thats says he cant call you names. the BBB isnt going to do shit. Your not going to get anyoen fired.[/quote]

Its not a matter of law, but rather company policy. If I worked at a car wash, there's no law saying that I can't urinate on someone's car and then curse them out if they ask for a car wash. But if I ran a respectable company its not something I'd want to do or I'd want my employees to do. This guy should get reprimanded.
 
I'm not trying to get anyone fired and I'm not going to the BBB. I understand now it was probably his "sense of humor", but it was totally unnecessary. And when I don't even know this guy and I'm getting a response via email, how am I supposed to know if he's joking or not? It wasn't the most ungodly name he called me or anything, but he shouldn't have called me anything. And on that note, since he did, why would I have any interest dealing any further with him? At this point the matter is closed with me.

So sue me if I was taken aback by his response. :roll: I'm sure if it wasn't me, it'd be someone else. It's all subjective.

Thanks to those of you who gave constructive and helpful responses. It's one of those crappy things that happens and, while it's not earth-shattering, I felt I needed to share it with the community.
 
The thing is, this guy doesn't know who he's dealing with. How does he know that the person he emailed wasn't a 10 year old kid? Or a 70 year old grandmother looking to buy something for her grandkids. Do you think it would be appropriate to send a 10 year old kid those emails? Or to deal with them as rudely?

The guy is an ass, and I think that his attitude speaks highly for the way that ADV runs itself. If this kind of behavior is tolerated in a Sales Representative, then I think they'll do fine punishing themselves.

It's only a matter of time until he badmouthes somebody important, and loses a big sale.
 
[quote name='dcfox'][quote name='bignick']He called you a tightwad and said he would send you one for free. Whats the big shaq-fuing deal. Stop being such a pussy and send him your address to get the free box. There is no law that saws cust. service reps have to be nice to you. There is no law thats says he cant call you names. the BBB isnt going to do shit. Your not going to get anyoen fired.[/quote]

Its not a matter of law, but rather company policy. If I worked at a car wash, there's no law saying that I can't urinate on someone's car and then curse them out if they ask for a car wash. But if I ran a respectable company its not something I'd want to do or I'd want my employees to do. This guy should get reprimanded.[/quote]

Thats one of the stupidest things I have heard in a while. You cant urinate on someones car. You would be fined for that.
 
I had a two month war with ADV about a bad disc. They knew a batch of this one disc had errors and wounldn't play the second episode. I called them six times over two months to get a replacement. Everytime this one woman would take my info and nothing. Finally I got a guy there that took my info and said he would pass it on. He gave me his name and direct line and told me to call him if I didn't get it. After talking to him I got it. Still, responses like that are not good for business. There are plenty of people that flip out over every little thing.
 
[quote name='moiety']I'm not trying to get anyone fired and I'm not going to the BBB. I understand now it was probably his "sense of humor", but it was totally unnecessary. And when I don't even know this guy and I'm getting a response via email, how am I supposed to know if he's joking or not? It wasn't the most ungodly name he called me or anything, but he shouldn't have called me anything. And on that note, since he did, why would I have any interest dealing any further with him? At this point the matter is closed with me.

So sue me if I was taken aback by his response. :roll: I'm sure if it wasn't me, it'd be someone else. It's all subjective.

Thanks to those of you who gave constructive and helpful responses. It's one of those crappy things that happens and, while it's not earth-shattering, I felt I needed to share it with the community.[/quote]

Yep, exactly... all subjective. I'm not going to weigh in so much inasmuch just to say that as you said, print sarcasm is a highly tricky thing to pull off, especially in one sentence. I think it could have been a better choice of words, definitely.
I dunno. All I know is I just wanted to share the love with the deal when I posted about it here.
Ultimately, I disapprove of attitudes-even misunderstandings can be, well, understood- but when I'm saving a boatload of cash on DVD's, I can put up with a little snippiness. :roll:
 
[quote name='Jobbercho']Just wanted to let you know that I actually emailed them regarding the issue as I don't want to have to deal with shitty service when I order from them again. Here is the response I was given from sales...

We are customer service oriented as well as trying to have fun as you can see.
Lighted up. The box was offered for free and we still get chastized for it?
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I also emailed the customer serivce person and this response is pretty messed up...

Hello,

I'm not sure what the poster Moiety is trying to accomplish with
such a post. The quotes were completely falsified and defamatory to our
customer service department. I answer all emails and would never respond
in such a manner. This is my career, not a part time job and have a lot
of pride in what I do. I happen to really enjoy and respect our fan
base, but am shocked and appalled at this attack. Hopefully this poster
will realize that his actions impact more than just readers on the
forum.


Thank you for your email,

ADV Customer Service
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W..T...F!?[/quote]
:shock:
Well from what I can tell, sounds like they have a doof running the sales rep emails and an actual credible person for customer service emails. I'm very surprised that ADV would actually allow someone to work for them that replys in such a horrid way. I never buy directly from advfilms.com, I always buy from other sources.
All I can say is I'm appalled and confused by this. I'll be buying my Puuchu hat from a secondary source.
 
Hey everyone. It's Mike the doof that started this whole thing. My apologies to everyone for my lame attempt at trying to be funny. I offended people and our customer service department is extremely angry at me. That wasen't my intention and for that I am truly sorry. My stupid attempt was...well stupid. You all mean the world to me and I hope you can accept my apology.
 
[quote name='Mike B']Hey everyone. It's Mike the doof that started this whole thing. My apologies to everyone for my lame attempt at trying to be funny. I offended people and our customer service department is extremely angry at me. That wasen't my intention and for that I am truly sorry. My stupid attempt was...well stupid. You all mean the world to me and I hope you can accept my apology.[/quote]

Wow. This thread is getting really strange!
 
[quote name='Rig'][quote name='Mike B']Hey everyone. It's Mike the doof that started this whole thing. My apologies to everyone for my lame attempt at trying to be funny. I offended people and our customer service department is extremely angry at me. That wasen't my intention and for that I am truly sorry. My stupid attempt was...well stupid. You all mean the world to me and I hope you can accept my apology.[/quote]

Wow. This thread is getting really strange![/quote]
I second that!
 
[quote name='Mike B']Hey everyone. It's Mike the doof that started this whole thing. My apologies to everyone for my lame attempt at trying to be funny. I offended people and our customer service department is extremely angry at me. That wasen't my intention and for that I am truly sorry. My stupid attempt was...well stupid. You all mean the world to me and I hope you can accept my apology.[/quote]

Well, if anything, I hope that you read this thread and take the complaints and criticisms as valid. You're in a community that has many Anime fans, and that translates into many potential customers. As you can see, alienating one person can affect a dozen other people. Bad publicity is like a virus, and there's a good chance that if I have a bad experience somewhere, I'm going to be telling my friends about it.

In this case, you kept falling back on the "but we offered her what she wanted, for free no less". But that's just it, it was never about getting something for free. It's a matter of principle, and how you deal with people, and treating them with respect (especially your customers). There's a difference between a casual attitude and a professional attitude, and there's a place and time for both. Again, you've apologized, so I won't beat a dead horse. I will repeat that I hope you take everything that was said in this thread seriously.

I don't think it would be a bad thing to classify this whole thing as a learning experience.
 
[quote name='Mike B']Hey everyone. It's Mike the doof that started this whole thing. My apologies to everyone for my lame attempt at trying to be funny. I offended people and our customer service department is extremely angry at me. That wasen't my intention and for that I am truly sorry. My stupid attempt was...well stupid. You all mean the world to me and I hope you can accept my apology.[/quote]

Dun dun DUN!
 
[quote name='Mike B']Hey everyone. It's Mike the doof that started this whole thing. My apologies to everyone for my lame attempt at trying to be funny. I offended people and our customer service department is extremely angry at me. That wasen't my intention and for that I am truly sorry. My stupid attempt was...well stupid. You all mean the world to me and I hope you can accept my apology.[/quote]

Thank you, I appreciate the apology.
 
[quote name='moiety'][quote name='Mike B']Hey everyone. It's Mike the doof that started this whole thing. My apologies to everyone for my lame attempt at trying to be funny. I offended people and our customer service department is extremely angry at me. That wasen't my intention and for that I am truly sorry. My stupid attempt was...well stupid. You all mean the world to me and I hope you can accept my apology.[/quote]

Thank you, I appreciate the apology.[/quote]

FINALLY! All parties have agreed to come to a peace agreement. Now we shall drink tranya and LOCK DOWN THIS THREAD ONCE AND FOR ALL!!!!
 
:shock: i can't believe any customer service rep would respond like that unless they were looking to get fired! that is shaq-fuing incredible!!!

EDIT: n/m. i just read the response by the customer service rep :lol: sometimes it's hard to see how the person is actually saying something through e-mail/AIM/etc. that's why i like using smilies lol!
 
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