1/5

posted Jan-30-2011

I purchased a Jawbone Prime for $30 (free shipping) from surpluscomputers.com on 1/21/11. It arrived at my door (CA to SD) on 1/26/11. The price and shipping were fantastic. However, when my order arrived, my new headset was dead on arrival. The shipping box was in good shape, so I don't think it suffered abuse in shipment.

The product package, however, was a different story. It looked like it had suffered quite a bit of abuse. The product was sold as NEW on their site. Not NEW-BOX OPEN, or NEW BULK PACKAGING, but NEW. So what am I to make of the sealing tape that is curled and has fingerprints in the adhesive? Looks like it's been opened and put back together. Sure, all the accessories were there, but don't sell me something that's been opened without indicating it as such.

I am highly disappointed in surpluscomputers.com's customer service. Ever come across a deal that's too good to be true? It probably is. That was the case in this instance.

Before you go any further, go ahead and call 877-552-4787. This is their customer service contact number. They will have 5 options to pick from - during my ordering dilemma, every single option (1-5) provided an automated "Sorry, this mailbox is full. Please try again later." If any of these options are open, you may have better luck getting through to them than I did. Shortly after my package arrived and I discovered the headset was totally dead, I tried for 20 minutes to get through to a human. No luck at all.

I then sent my first email to their customer support; it specifically requested they call me so we could discuss the details and see what options were available. They responded within a few hours via email (not a phone call), telling me to submit an returned materials authorization (RMA). There is no way to submit an RMA on their site without a calculation showing a possible charge (either restocking or inspection fee, depending on what your choice of RMA). Oh, you're also picking up the tab for shipping it back to them, too.

I sent a few more responses asking for ways around the charge - they said they wouldn't charge me and would give me a full refund or replacement, along with a refund of my shipping expenses. Meanwhile, I'm still out a headset and I have to wait how long until the defective headset arrives at their doorstep, is confirmed dead, and then they ship a new one out? I don't have that time, and you probably don't either. And not being able to talk to a human customer service person is enraging-I'll take a 15 minute wait and a 2 minute conversation over 5 string emails encompassing 2 days. I didn't get one phone call, in spite of repeated requests.

In the end, I called Jawbone support. They took great care of me - they are shipping me a new headset and a prepaid mailer to ship the old DOA one back to Jawbone. They were very nice on the phone and had me squared away within a few minutes. One hundred stars for Jawbone/Aliph.

I was unimpressed with surpluscomputers.com and their customer support. Their selection is vast and comes at great prices, but I get the feeling the deals are too good to be true.

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