I completely agree on big purchases. In fact FedEx requires a signature on anything with a declared value of $500 or more. And that's fine. I would want that on an expensive item I ordered. However, this was not a big purchase. It wasn't an AF100. It was a $20 package. That's just ridiculous.
Actually, I'm not. I just don't tolerate bad customer service. Take my example of Varizoom that I mentioned previously. They didn't really do anything special other than immediately say they'd take care of it and then when it proved to be not their issue they invited me to NAB, which anyone can get a free pass to anyway. But the gesture is what makes it great customer service. It didn't cost them anything, but it shows they care about their customers. And I would have been a happy customer even if they hadn't invited me to NAB just because of the way they handled the situation.
Another example is Redrock Micro. I bought the Blue Studio follow focus from them when it was first available to order. I received it and wasn't happy with how long it was. Normally there would be a restock fee since it was opened and used. They exchanged it for the non-Studio version and refunded me the full difference with no restocking fee and didn't charge me for shipping. I didn't ask for the restock fee to be waived or ask for free shipping. They just did it. That's good customer service.
Another example... B&H... I ordered a charger from them. After 2 uses the charger started overheating. I initiated a RMA request online. I received an email within 24 hours telling me they'd ship a replacement and to not bother with mailing the defective one back. The replacement arrived in 4 days from NY.
Another example... Apple... I had Apple Care on a Power Mac. The processor died in the middle of a project due to a freak power outage/brownout. My fault for not having a UPS at the time. The processors were on backorder for about 2 weeks. I explained that I was in the middle of a project and asked if there was anything that could be done, whether it be expedited repair or pulling a used processor from another computer temporarily. They replaced the entire computer with a new one. And this was going from an older Power Mac with a PPC processor and getting a new Mac Pro with the Intel processor. That was a huge upgrade at no cost to me.
Another Apple example... I had a MacBook Pro that would not go to sleep by closing the lid. I went through many steps with Apple to repair it over the phone, reinstalled the OS, sent it in for repair, etc., etc. They eventually decided to replace it. They let me hold onto the computer while a new one was custom ordered and sent to me and then I could ship the old one back after the new one arrived and proved to be working properly. Apple will do that for anyone, and they pay for the shipping. Cinevate made me ship my Durus back first and I had to pay for shipping, even though it was a manufacturing error.
Some of these examples are very basic customer service that I'm satisfied with. Others go above and beyond (replacing/upgrading a $4k computer). Either way, that's what good customer service is. I don't see how anyone would be satisfied with the experience that I had with Cinevate, even after everything is done. Did it finally get taken care of? Sure. But look at what I had to go through to get it taken care of.
Anyway... that's enough of this. Maybe a mod can lock the thread. I'm done wasting my time.
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Then again, almost everything electronic I own says "Sony" on it...
