🚀 go-pugleaf

Below is an article from the December issue of MacWorld that sums up
pretty darn well my experiences with a mail order company named SuperMicro
based out of Torrance, CA.

I am posting this as a warning: STAY AWAY FROM SUPERMICRO!

My own nightmare lasted for three months, included dozens of unanswered
phones calls, hundreds of headaches, and kept $600. of mine in limbo for
way too long. 
The only good thing to come out of my experience is the knowledge that I
will never do business with any back pages Mac mail order business unless
I have first hand knowledge of their honesty.
Should you feel inclined to let SuperMicro know how you feel after reading
the accompanying article please feel free to do so, toll free at:

800-352-3415  Sales
Sales Manager Brad Kat is at ext. 115

The surly salesperson that caused me months of greef (Mike) is at ext. 113

silsurf@caprica.com
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Maddening Mail-Order: The saga of SuperMicro

MacWorld Magazine December, 1995

Edited by Marjorie Baer


Each year, Conspicuous Consumer receives hundreds of complaints about
computer companies. Normally, it's kind of a steady trickle, so when
complaints about a single company start arriving in torrents, we know
something's up.

Robert Passananti of Irvine, California, had never owned a Mac until he
bought one from SuperMicro of Torrance, California, having seen an ad for
SuperMicro in the September 1995 Macworld. A sales rep at the company told
him that a Power Mac 9500/132, a 20-inch monitor, a graphics card, and
extra RAM would cost $7500, including delivery--$96 less than the price
CompUSA quoted to Passananti. "I sent them a cashier's check for
$7500--that's what they asked for--and the sales rep told me I would get
the computer 24 hours later," Passananti said. 

Three days later, nothing had arrived. "They kept saying, 'It's in the
mail, it's in the mail,' and I asked for a tracking number, and they kept
telling me their computer was down," Passananti said. Frustrated and
worried about his $7500, Passananti drove the 40-odd miles from his home
to SuperMicro's offices, where he was told that the company could not sell
him the products he had ordered for the price he'd paid. Instead,
SuperMicro canceled the order and promised him a refund check by mail. 

"They cashed the check on Wednesday, and on Friday, they tell me the
order's canceled. Why'd they cash my check?" Passananti asked. His next
step was to hire a lawyer and file a report with the Torrance Police
Department.


The Vendor's View

Passananti's complaint is one of over 40  we have received about
SuperMicro so far this year--the majority of them arriving after a
two-page ad for the company ran in the September Macworld.

The complaints vary, but a few themes arise. Several readers say they were
quoted one price and, after sending  a check, were told they needed to
send more money--often several hundred dollars above the original
quote--before the item would ship. Others tell of receiving nonfunctional
items and being charged a testing fee after returning them. Still others
say the product they received was different from the one they ordered.

When Macworld questioned Brad Kad, SuperMicro's sales manager, he
attributed customers' dissatisfaction to their own failure to follow
company policies, which, he said, are clearly stated by SuperMicro's
voice-mail system. The company caters to high-end users, he said, and
smaller customers don't follow SuperMicro's procedures. "It's always the
$400 orders that people scream and rant about," Kad said. "They do get
their money back--they just have to listen to the policies. . . . If they
can't, they're not my customer."

Kad said he sometimes gives customers a price that SuperMicro's accounting
department later rejects. "I'll tell the customer I'll do the best I can
to get it through accounting, but accounting might kick it back. It's not
a firm quote. All prices are subject to change." Kad said he never simply
cancels a customer's order, as Passananti's claims. If he can't negotiate
a satisfactory solution with the customer, Kad said, he'll offer to cancel
the deal and refund the money.


Particular Payment Policies

Most readers who've written to us about SuperMicro used a cashier's or
company check for their order. Macworld always recommends paying with a
credit card, since credit card companies often help customers resolve
disputes. But because of past experiences with fraudulent cards,
SuperMicro currently accepts only company, personal, or cashier's checks.
It also has a policy of cashing checks before mailing the merchandise,
because, Kad explained, "[some] people will put a stop payment on a check
when the goods have been delivered."

How often do merchants get burned by fake credit cards? According to Allan
Trosclair, vice president of fraud control for Visa USA, that problem
represents a mere 0.01 percent of Visa's overall sales volume of $290
billion. Trosclair says Visa takes care to prevent fraud in mail-order
transactions. "The merchant gets the card number, expiration date, bill-to
address, and he should get a phone number. People who are trying to
defraud often give a wrong phone number." The merchant can call the number
to verify its validity. Trosclair adds that Visa's computer system
monitors authorization requests and can detect unusual patterns. "It's
been beneficial to both merchants and cardholders," he says. 

Charges for returned items also angered readers. According to Kad and the
company's credit department information line (310/782-5969), SuperMicro
tests all products before shipping them. "If our engineers test it and it
tests bad, they'll have a new product within 72 hours," Kad told Macworld.
A customer who receives a defective product should call for instructions
on how to return it. SuperMicro charges a 15 percent restocking fee for
returned products that have been opened, and returned Apple and DSC
(SuperMicro's own brand) items are subject to a $50 testing fee. Products
returned after 30 days may be subject to a depreciation charge.


Unwelcome Surprises

David Averett of Salt Lake City was wary of mail order, but he couldn't
pass up SuperMicro's prices. Averett paid $245 for a 730MB Quantum
internal hard drive, but what he got was a 540MB Quantum drive that was
dead on arrival. After returning the product, he received a refund for
$175. SuperMicro had kept $70 for testing the drive, he was told--and
found it in good condition. 

What really irked Averett was that the salesperson had promised him a
factory-sealed 730MB Quantum drive. When the wrong drive came, he promised
another one. Eventually, SuperMicro elected to cancel the order and send
the partial refund. (Averett also collected $70 from Federal Express for
his damage claim.) 

Chip Seide of Acworth, Georgia, paid SuperMicro $610 COD for a Fujitsu
DynaMO 230 magneto-optical drive. He opened the box and found what seemed
to be "a very large and heavy DSC drive with a paper label glued to the
outside of the case with the name Fujitsu 230 megabyte optical drive."
Seide wrote to SuperMicro. "The next time I pay via COD I'm [first] going
to open the box and make sure I've got what I wanted," he said. In fact,
SuperMicro sold the Fujitsu mechanism inside a DSC case, but Seide should
have been informed of that up front. Many other readers reported similar
experiences. 


Consumer Agencies Come Calling

At press time, the Better Business Bureau of the Southland (909/825-7280;
http://www.igc.apc.org/cbbb/) had received 28 complaints about SuperMicro
and rated the company as having an unsatisfactory business-performance
record. 

The bureau's report describes "a failure to eliminate the basic cause of
complaints alleging difficulty obtaining adjustments for defective
merchandise or misrepresentation of costs of shipping and delivery
dates"--similar to the reports that readers sent Macworld. "The company
responded to some complaints by making adjustments it deemed appropriate,"
the report continues, "in some cases denying allegations and deducting
testing charges, claiming the merchandise tested good. Customers were not
always satisfied with this response. Several complaints remain
unanswered."

Asked about the rating, Kad seemed unconcerned. "The Better Business
Bureau means nothing. It's not a credit rating. People can check with the
Better Business Bureau, but we don't take people's money [improperly]." 

Detective Randy Kjenstead of the Torrance Police Department told us he had
received enough complaints about SuperMicro that he began looking into the
company. After meeting in August with Kad and Jeff Goldfield, SuperMicro's
CEO, Kjenstead told Macworld that while he didn't applaud SuperMicro's way
of doing business, "I don't think they're doing anything illegal that the
police department will get involved in." The U.S. postal inspector in
Southern California has also received complaints but was not investigating
them at press time.


Read the (Very) Fine Print

While SuperMicro appears to operate lawfully, its current policies do not
serve the average consumer well. That is the company's choice. But the
deluge of complaints about an advertiser caused Steve Plevin, our director
of telesales operations, to contact SuperMicro. In response to Plevin's
request that SuperMicro explain its policies in its advertisement, a
revised ad appeared in the November issue of Macworld. We'll keep you
posted.--Joanna Pearlstein

______________________________________________
Sidebar

Service Hero


Val Vonheeder of Palm Bay, Florida, says MacWarehouse deserves accolades
for its customer support.

When Vonheeder's fax modem stopped working properly, he called
MacWarehouse's toll-free order line. John, a service technician, helped
test the modem using Vonheeder's telecommunications software. 

"John didn't make me feel like a ditz for being incompetent with AT codes,
which he helped me use to manipulate the fax modem using good ol' ZTerm,"
Vonheeder writes. "John took a genuine interest in my problem, never
seemed to rush me along, and readily agreed with me that fax modems ought
to be easier to use and test."
______________________________________________
Not getting the treatment you deserve? Or have you received heroic
service? Write to the Conspicuous Consumer department at Macworld, 501
Second St., San Francisco, CA 94107; send us a fax at 415/442-0766; or
E-mail us at macworld@macworld.com. Look for us on America Online and
eWorld (keyword Macworld) and on the World Wide Web
(http://www.macworld.com).
______________________________________________

Assistant editor Joanna Pearlstein writes about Internet and consumer
issues and shares responsibility for New Products.

December 1995

Copyright, Macworld Communication Inc., 1995


Transmitted: 10/19/95 12:01 PM (C121201)

-- 
The Autumn night                                                                             
is long only in name-                                                             
We've done no more                                                                               
than gaze at each other                                                                    and it's already dawn.
---Ono No Komachi  (834-???)

henry_cline@earthspirit.org        
silsurf@eworld.com
silsurf@aol.com
silsurf@ caprica.com
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