COMP-U-PLUS
I've done business on several occasions with Comp-U-Plus. They sell all sorts of computer related stuff. They generally have really low prices on stuff. I wondered how they could sell stuff so low, but now I know.
One of the last times I'd filled up a shopping cart with lots of stuff and proceeded to the checkout page. After filling in all my info, I noticed they were going to charge me $80-something for shipping and handling. I was really pissed that they screwed me over after I went to all the trouble to enter the order, but I was in a hurry and proceeded with the checkout.
Two of the items I ordered were 60 GB Maxtor hard drives. Along with two other identical drives I already had, I was planning on building a 4-drive software RAID. However, only about two days after installing them, one of the drives I got from Comp-U-Plus went bad.
I checked Maxtor's web site. They say if the drive was an OEM packaged drive I would have to go back to the place of purchase for warranty returns. I then went to Comp-U-Plus's web site and got an RMA. I packed the drive up and shipped it off. Then I found out that the whole Comp-U-Plus business was taking a week off, so the old drive wound up sitting at FedEx for a week! They had no notice on the web page that they were taking the week off.
I finally got the new drive in and have it working. (One of the other Maxtor drives has since failed. I was able to return it directly to Maxtor since it was a retail package. But that's another story.) So everything was fine until I got my credit card bill a few days ago and noticed a $3.95 charge from them.
I called their customer support to find out why they had billed me. They said it was their policy to charge for shipping for all "exchanges". I said this was a return for warranty replacement. It's not like I sent the drive back because I thought it was the wrong color or something. I said I would contest the charge on my credit card. The woman put me on hold for a while. When she came back she said while it was their policy, they would make an exception in this case.
I'm glad I "won" in this case, but the thought that they would charge me for shipping a replacement drive really galls me, especially considering I had to pay so much for shipping in the first place.
I think I will take my business elsewhere in the future...