gohastings rant

[BrownRiceXIII]

Received a smashed playstation TV from the bundle sale.  There was no padding in the shipping box, which was severely smashed.  I asked for a replacement, here is the nutmeat of the response.

"We are unable to offer any reshipments or replacements of any items as we do ship from over 126 different store locations. We are unable to accept this item back into our facilities as a return as there is a warranty on the item through the manufacturer. Please contact the manufacturer for further assistance with this matter."

Anyway, I called BS on them and informed them I would file a chargeback if they don't fix it, but I have not yet heard back.  

I had placed a few orders with them previously without issue, but never needed help from CS.  

No way a reputable place pulls this.   Never again gohastings.

 

[Squarehard]

*finished reading rant*

If you want more immediate help though with this issue, I recommend you call them back again and tell them you want to speak to their manager.  His name is Billy, and he's in charge of the whole CS department, so get in touch with him to see what can be done.

 

[kodave]

I don't know...

Billy is a nice enough professional, but that whole company is screwed.

I've been on their case about how they package things for YEARS at this point. Every time there's a flair up where it's so bad I have to get into it with CS and invoke the name of Billy, I always eventually get a message from Billy telling me something like what they're doing is unacceptable, doesn't meet standards, policies need to be fixed, in the stores people need to be retrained, etc. etc. etc. and nothing EVER changes.

Billy will give you a song and dance and refund your money or throw some coupons your way, so you will be made whole, but there's no real fix in sight to the crumbling machine that is GoHastings.

When I do receive something sufficiently packaged from GoHastings, I assume it was by someone down on their luck and quite frankly too smart to be working at that company.

The warranty likely isn't going to cover damage from shipping caused by the retailer. Just get on CS's case and tell them to either intiiate and accept the return/refund, or go straight for the charge back.

The charge back threat nearly always works, but it'll piss off whatever person is working CS.

 

[Squarehard]

No arguments there really.

Billy is probably the only person there that actually does do anything, but to be fair to Billy is that he has so many people he has to deal with from above, that even though we do our best to inform him of these sometimes easy fix issues, it's still not up to Billy to really do anything about it as his influence ends at dealing with customer issues, and changes can really only happen from the people above him, which is unfortunate.

The Facebook staff are typically pretty good as well in handling most of the issues, but there's just too many holes that have yet to be filled for Hastings to be a consistent place that I would want to shop compared to the old days when it was always my go to place.

 

[lildirtygamer]

I just had my first bad experience with them with a recent order I placed that was cancelled just yesterday. I had placed an order for Skate 2 for PS3 on July 30th during the 30% off used sale. Usually they send out the game(s) that I order the next day. Well I waited until this past Monday and hadn't received any kind of update. I called and talked to a CS rep about my order and they told me that they were having a hard time sourcing the game. I guess in layman's terms that meant they were having a hard time finding a store that had at least 1 copy in-stock.

They told me it could take up to 7 days to receive a shipment notice but it shouldn't take that long. Yesterday I get an email stating that: "The following item(s) have been cancelled. Either the item(s) were cancelled at your request (which I didn't request) or our sources were unable to ship the item(s) due to availablity. You will not be charged for any cancelled items. We apologize for any inconvience."

The kicker? Right after I read that email I went to the website to see whether it was still "in-stock" or out-of- stock. They still have it available for purchase as of today. No more gohastings for me.

 

[kodave]

I just had my first bad experience with them with a recent order I placed that was cancelled just yesterday. I had placed an order for Skate 2 for PS3 on July 30th during the 30% off used sale. Usually they send out the game(s) that I order the next day. Well I waited until this past Monday and hadn't received any kind of update. I called and talked to a CS rep about my order and they told me that they were having a hard time sourcing the game. I guess in layman's terms that meant they were having a hard time finding a store that had at least 1 copy in-stock.

They told me it could take up to 7 days to receive a shipment notice but it shouldn't take that long. Yesterday I get an email stating that: "The following item(s) have been cancelled. Either the item(s) were cancelled at your request (which I didn't request) or our sources were unable to ship the item(s) due to availablity. You will not be charged for any cancelled items. We apologize for any inconvience."

The kicker? Right after I read that email I went to the website to see whether it was still "in-stock" or out-of- stock. They still have it available for purchase as of today. No more gohastings for me.

That's just their generic cancelation email message. Of course you didn't request the cancelation. It's just boilerplate language.

I think in some states they have to hold traded-in items for a certain amount of time under some pawn laws, but they enter them into the system. Therefore it can take a while before the item can be freed up for shipping. I've had things in a pending status for over a week before I got a shipping notification.

But generally if it's been about a week, the automatic cancelation is going to kick in. This is because the item is lost/stolen at the store and the associate can't find it or someone bought it off the shelf before an associate could grab it to ship to you.

Sometimes there are unexplainable issues, like if the item showed it was never sold out yet they still canceled it. It's hard to say if that item is/was actually fulfilled for anyone, or if it's a bug in the system.

With your situation, it's possible you got the last item and then by the time you checked their inventory again, your order had been canceled but they got another copy in somewhere else just a bit too late to fulfill your order. Or it's possible it was a bug of some kind.

I mean, really, your situation is like one of the least "offensive" errors Hastings can make. If that turns you off from them forever, so be it, but it doesn't compare to some of the shit that I and other people on the thread in the Deals forum have been through.

 

[lildirtygamer]

That's just their generic cancelation email message. Of course you didn't request the cancelation. It's just boilerplate language.

I think in some states they have to hold traded-in items for a certain amount of time under some pawn laws, but they enter them into the system. Therefore it can take a while before the item can be freed up for shipping. I've had things in a pending status for over a week before I got a shipping notification.

But generally if it's been about a week, the automatic cancelation is going to kick in. This is because the item is lost/stolen at the store and the associate can't find it or someone bought it off the shelf before an associate could grab it to ship to you.

Sometimes there are unexplainable issues, like if the item showed it was never sold out yet they still canceled it. It's hard to say if that item is/was actually fulfilled for anyone, or if it's a bug in the system.

With your situation, it's possible you got the last item and then by the time you checked their inventory again, your order had been canceled but they got another copy in somewhere else just a bit too late to fulfill your order. Or it's possible it was a bug of some kind.

I mean, really, your situation is like one of the least "offensive" errors Hastings can make. If that turns you off from them forever, so be it, but it doesn't compare to some of the shit that I and other people on the thread in the Deals forum have been through.

Fair enough and thank you for the thourough explanation. I do remember reading you and others horror stories about them. I'm going to shut up and go away now. :ziplip: