1/5

posted Jul-14-2010

Gazelle Order Number: SR81253891626

Gazelle offers a used phone repurchase service to customers by itself and through other companies. A person can sell his used telephone to Gazelle and obtain some of the funds that he spent on the original purchase price.

I bought an iPhone 3G less than two years ago and recently upgraded to an iPhone 4. On June 14, I arranged, through the Costco website and its “follow-on” link Gazelle website, to ship my 16GB 3G phone to Gazelle. I went through the website “evaluation” procedure and answered the three questions – 1. Makes a call successfully? {Yes} 2. Free of water damage? {Yes} 3. Rate overall condition – Poor; Fair; Good; Perfect. Since my 16GB 3G had lived its entire life in a silicone cover and had no scratches anywhere, I rated it Perfect.

Gazelle stated on its website and by email that a phone described above was worth $145. Gazelle has a policy that it must receive the phone within 30 days after the arrangement is initiated. I sent the phone to Gazelle on July 3 by the USPS express mail which Gazelle specified. I confirmed sending the phone on that day by email to Gazelle.
On June 14, on the Gazelle website, it stated the following:
“Offer Protection
With offer protection, we make sure you get the best offer for your iPhone 3G 16GB. Lock in your offer now, and we'll honor it for 30 days. In addition, if the value of your iPhone 3G 16GB is higher on the day we evaluate it, we'll make sure you get the better offer.”

Apparently, if the value of the phone drops in those 30 days, Gazelle forces the seller to eat the difference between its promise and the later price.

Before I sent it to Gazelle, I wore photographic gloves and polished it with a microfiber cloth to insure that it was as I described it. You could not tell the difference between my phone and one coming from a new, unopened box. I then carefully wrapped and packed it in 4 layers of bubble wrap so it would be well protected in its boxed journey to Gazelle and arrive in pristine condition. (Gazelle provided the box, tape, label, etc.)

I received an email from Gazelle yesterday (July 13 – NOTE: within the 30 days that Gazelle specified it must reach Gazelle) stating that it had received the phone. Today, I received an email from Gazelle saying that the phone had scratches on the back.

This is false.

The phone was wrapped in a silicone cover for the entire time I owned it; moreover, I carefully examined it prior to going on the Gazelle website and evaluating it as perfect; I examined it while polishing it.

THERE WERE NO SCRATCHES ON THE BACK as Gazelle stated.

I went to the Gazelle website today to “re-price” a ”perfect” 16GB iPhone 3G. SURPRISE! A perfect 16GB iPhone 3G is now worth $125 (or $129 if through Costco). The $129 is below the value that was specified on the Gazelle website for a “Good” phone back in June.

I spoke to a Costco Customer Service Supervisor – Travis at 425-416-2901 – and related to him the facts above. He responded within a few minutes that I could refuse the offer from Gazelle and have it sent back. That is all Costco could do.

Of course, it is obvious from the price on the Gazelle website today that a month has gone by and the phone is worth less than it was when I made the original arrangement with Gazelle.

I stated to Travis that I thought that, in spite of my having scrupulously met all the terms and conditions that Gazelle specified, I was now being penalized because of Gazelle’s mistake. Gazelle put out a price a month ago and by the time its personnel got around to opening it and examining it, its value was lower than what Gazelle had originally thought it would be worth at this time.

If you are running Gazelle, how do you solve this problem of prices continuously dropping? Simple: you tell your customers that there were scratches and force a lower price on them. A month later, the customer has little or no recourse or opportunity to sell the device for the price which Gazelle originally promised him and is forced to eat the loss.

In effect, Gazelle broke its promise because it had misread the number of used iPhones it would receive and mispriced the device. It then forces a lower price on the customer because of “scratches”.

In other words, Gazelle runs a scam, knowing that after it receives the phone, its customer has no alternative if he wants to obtain anything like the original promised price.

Long story short:
I met each and every condition that Gazelle specified. The phone was in pristine condition with all the required accompanying equipment.

Gazelle reneged on the original deal. I will never do business with Gazelle again and will forward a copy of this message to the President of Costco.

Others should be very careful in their dealings with an apparently slippery and unethical firm like Gazelle.

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5/5

posted Aug-09-2005

Given some of what has been written here in the past, I was somewhat skeptical. However, I bid on and won a Nikon CL64 Case for a 50-300mm lens.

It was exactly as described in the ebay product description and was in the original case. The auction closed near midnight on Sunday and the item was delivered today (40 hours later) in good order.

I received an email with the UPS tracking information so I could arrange for delivery.

Communications were very good; the item was as described; shipping was rapid.

I could not ask for more. I would buy from this firm again in the future if it had that for which I was looking.

This review was modified by rjkjunkmail on August 19 2005 04:15:04 PM

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1/5

posted Dec-08-2004

I placed an order on Dec 2 and got the machine generated confirmation. I called the following day for UPS freight information. I was told there was a computer glitch and someone would call me. No one did. I called later and was told someone would email me. On Monday, the same run around. On Wednesday, more of the same: always the promise of a return call or an email; many times, cut off while waiting; never any performance.

I cancelled the order.

Unless you are bored or retired with too much time on your hands, stay away from them.

This review was modified by rjkjunkmail on December 20 2004 10:23:58 AM

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1/5

posted Aug-25-2003

This is an excerpt from a customer complaint letter sent to DELL. It describes the miserable experience at DELL. I will never buy a single thing from DELL again.

I ordered a digital camera, a case and compact flash card from Dell last Thursday. The Dell website indicated, on Friday, that the camera and case would be delivered today. The card is supposed to be delivered in early September. Because I was due to go on a business trip, I arranged to retrieve the camera and case from the shipper, Airborne Express this morning.

At 8 AM, I received a carton from Dell which contained the case but no camera. For the last seven hours, I have been attempting to navigate through that miserable, diabolical, anti-customer service telephone tree system that Dell uses. That alone would motivate me never again to purchase anything from Dell. The choices simply do not capture the variety of possibilities and there is virtually no way to address a human being. It is like being caught in an endless silly fun-house game.

Far worse is the actual customer service when one can actually reach a customer service representative. All of them seem to have the experience and intelligence of the three interns featured in your advertisements who lose themselves trying to determine a strategy for Dell.

Based upon my experience, the Dell reputation for service is undeserved.

I thoroughly dislike dealing with Dell and will describe my experience to my friends, co-workers and business contacts. A simple order should not require hours of customer dis-service to track an order through legions of under-trained and indifferent people.

This review was modified by rjkjunkmail on September 23 2003 07:38:07 AM

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