🚀 go-pugleaf

Dear News group Readers:

For those of you who read my post about "PC�s a la Carte" a week ago, 
here is an update. (Those of you who did not read, the original post is 
attached below.)

I called Carl on Tuesday, asking about the zip drive, he said that he 
mailed it out on Monday (June 23rd) by Fedex two days� air. I Thanked 
him and told him about my first post. On Thursday, I still had not 
received the drive, I called again, Carl promised to check and call 
back, and as always, he did not call back. When I called, he told me 
that he did not know for what reason, the shipping staff did not send 
out the drive, and if I still wanted it, he would "personally run down 
to the Fedex office and send it overnight express", I said yes, and was 
so moved and repeatedly said "thank you". He gave me a tracking number, 
and told me that I should receive the drive by 10:30am Friday. I checked 
several time with Fedex, but the computer system had no information 
what-so-ever about the tracking number. Friday morning after 11:00am, 
nothing arrived, I had to call again. Carl said that Fedex must made 
some mistake, or the plane is late, and he will "run down" to the Fedex 
office to check. The answer is that "the drive was sitting there in the 
Fedex office". Carl told me he made them ship overnight Saturday 
delivery, and I should receive it by 10:30am Sat morning. Now is almost 
Saturday evening, nothing arrived. 

I just placed an order from another dealer. I called in Carl and left on 
his answer machine a message, ask him to cancel the order, and issue me 
back the credit card charge (BTW, my credit card was charged on 16th of 
June, the company appeared on the bill is "uni-tech", whatever shipping 
method they�d use, the drive should have already in my computer by now). 
In the message, I also thanked Carl for his help�if he ever offered any 
beside speaking politely on the phone. As a matter of fact, I now deeply 
believe that the only thing he ever did was talk to me on the phone, but 
never shipped or tried to ship the drive. If this is the truth, he has 
been such a great actor and cheater, astonishingly successful, to the 
extent that his attitude is the only reason that for more than a month I 
did not cancel the order!!!

Dear Newsgroupers, I spent tremendous amount of time just for purchasing 
a zip drive from PC�s a la Carte, and eventually, I admit that I am the 
loser. I hope my experience will help you avoiding such kind of time 
lost.

I will post this message daily till I get an official and sincere 
apology and compensation for my time from PC�s a la Carte.

Thanks for reading this. Good luck to your next purchase, and spread the 
word, if you wish: DO NOT ORDER FROM PC�S A LA CARTE, OR UNI-TECH, or 
whatever they call themselves. Their number is 1-800-989-0144, the sales 
person is Carl, do not be attracked by their "free UPS shipping", which 
never shipped anything!!!

The Original Post:

Dear News group Readers:

If you are thinking of ordering computers or computer parts, you might 
want to read my personal experience with the dealer "PC's a la Carte", 
and try to avoid ordering from them. Take a minute or two to read this 
now and it will save you A LOT of trouble later. I decided to order from 
them because of somebody post a positive message about them, however, 
after my terrible experience with them, I think I have the obligation to 
share it with you and help you to stay out of trouble, especially for 
those thousands of end users who once in a while order a computer part 
from mail-order dealers.

I will try to be objective as I can; the sales person Carl in "PC's a la 
Carte", if you read this, please send your comments to me via email, and 
I would be glad to hear what I state below is NOT fact!

I called them about 3-4 weeks ago on a Monday and asked about an 
internal SCSI Iomega zip drive, I was told (by Carl) that they have that 
and will send it out the same day. I placed the order and waited for 
about three days, and nothing arrived. I called them for a UPS tracking 
number, Carl answered the phone but said that he was then in the 
warehouse, and will call me back once he find the tracking number. I 
waited for like a whole day and had to call back, this time an operator 
told me that she has no access to tracking numbers--I have to call back 
the day after. I called, as you can guess, was promised to be called 
back, and waited, I do not want to repeat this detail, but believe me, I 
called many many time during the three weeks, and was promised as many 
time to be called back, and had NEVER, even once, received a call back 
from Carl or anybody else from the company. Finally, on Friday, I was 
told by Carl that they do not have the zip drive in stock, so has no 
send out anything!!!!! If you think this is nothing, go on.

I was going to be out of town for a week, so I decided to cancel the 
order temporarily. I was also told that they will get the drive the 
coming Monday.

A week later, after I returned back to town, I called (on a Monday), and 
asked for the same zip drive, Carl picked up the phone again, I repeated 
at least twice, "do you have the exact drive in stock right now, please 
check!" Carl put me on hold for a moment and then told me "we have one 
in stock right now, I will send it out today, you should receive it by 
Wednesday." Unfortunately, I had to call again around 5:00pm on 
Wednesday when I see no trace of the zip drive. This time, Carl give me 
a UPS tracing number: 1z5e5e560378006871, and told me that he sent it 
out on TUESDAY (not on Monday), and I should receive it by Thursday 
3:00pm.

I was too naive to not believe him, especially with a tracking number. 
Thursday afternoon around 5:00pm was the first time I started to have 
some doubt on them, I called UPS, and was told that there is no info on 
this package, and also, the fact that there is a tracking number does 
not mean a package has been sent out, a sender could give a tracking 
number without doing anything, UPS's computer shows that this package 
(if there is such a package) has not been scanned at all. I called Carl, 
and was promised, politely, as usual, to take care of the matter by 
himself, he also told me that the "shipping person" was not in then, but 
he will check with him and with UPS, and "call me back".

As you already read above, I got no phone call back, this time till 
Friday afternoon. I called, almost "begged" that they check the matter 
and make sure that I receive the package by 5:00 pm the following 
Monday. I was so angry that I told him, I decided to order from them 
because I read somebody post in a computer related news group positive 
words about them (true), and I will post my experience to all the 
relevant news groups if I do not receive the drive by Monday 5:00pm (not 
what I really wish to do). As usual, Carl promised "no problem". As 
always, I saw nothing till now, Tuesday 9:50am.

I think that I, benefit from news groups I subscribe, should also take 
the time and contribute to the groups, that is why I am taking my 
precious morning time to compose this message. For your info, if you've 
been curious from the beginning why I did not purchase the zip drive in 
my local store if I am so anxious to get one. First, I am anxious 
because half of my dissertation is in my hard drive, you know the 
feeling, I decided to mail order because I am a poor graduate student, 
and their price is about 10$ cheaper than in local stores, and they do 
not charge shipping. However, according to my experience, you guys out 
there, please be cautious.

Again, Carl, or anybody else in PC's a la Carte, read this and think 
that I am not stating the FACT, please let me know either on-line or 
off-line, I also welcome comments from anybody.

Thanks for you time. And again, try to avoid ordering from PC's a la 
Carte, and do not be tricked by their "free UPS ground shipping" and 
their apparently polite attitude toward customers--they only care 
getting your money, without deliver your goods in a timely fashion, if 
they deliver at all.

Yiyi Chen
yc47@cornell.edu