Important posts:
1. Opening post
2. Reply to comments
3. Disclose of unedited communication
4. Bestcases comment
5. My response to their comment.
TLR; unprofessional, insults customers, tries to sneak in a price raise, violates privacy - and then denies all wrongdoing.
If you really want a CL case: CaseLabs doesn't ship the the EU because of a territory protection clausule in their contract with BestCases, but you can use a parcel forwarder like NYBox.
I want to start this thread my apologizing to CaseLabs for the lost potential sales this thread might have. They have made serious efforts in this matter and I doubt they could have done anything better.
The story starts a while back. I was considering buying a CaseLabs SMA8 for next build and made a thread calling out for reviews of BestCases. After a couple of days, a brand-new account (McTavish), created the same day - with no posts, replies to my thread and starts recommending them. I sarcastically point out that that comment has zero (or even negative) authority and move on. This comment was later removed - but a moderator should be able to confirm its existence (@Mod, could you give me the BB code to quote it?). Note the odd space replies 4 and 5. Something used to be there, but it's now gone. Another post follows and I point out that's it hard to give it any credibility. No verifiable reviews follow and I move on to other stuff.
On the 17th of April, I contacted CaseLabs with the request for an alternative supplier. I link to this the call-out thread and to rather unverifiable reviews on TrustPilot to point out that I'm not keen on ordering from BestCases. (The rather low review count of 4 and the fact that 75% of them was placed in a timespan of less than 6 days, by users that have no other reviews).
CaseLabs then informs me that there won't be any other EU suppliers because of the contractually binding exclusivity BestCases has on the EU market. Even CaseLabs won't ship directly to the EU.
Quote:
The reason I needed a custom offer is because BestCases doesn't offer the whole CaseLabs range. Weird, considering the core selling point of CaseLabs is customizability and the simple fact that they their contract makes it impossible to order a customized version from CL directly.
This is however where it goes wrong. I have requested BestCases multiple times for a detailed quote so I could double check the entire list of parts. They failed to do so. First they threw a vague mail with a well-defined total price:
Quote:
Unfortunately, CaseLabs contracts prevents them for shipping straight to me so I'm stuck with BestCases.
I contact PerformancePCS about the estimated restocking time of some parts because I'm desperate for an alternative. Unfortunately, they inform me with an estimated restocking time of 3 months. Not that happy with waiting that long (and the fact that I can't get a reverse-ATX layout), we're back to BestCases.
A new mail goes out. I had done some calculations and their quote did seem a bit on the high end, considering they explicitly pointed about they just charge the CaseLabs price, but in Euro. I request them yet again for a detailed quote.
I'm met with the following reply:
Quote:
rand (more than that with VAT) for a sophisticated metal box. A precisely engineered, high quality metal box. For that kind of money, I expect a perfect metal box with a (near-)perfect customer service. Instead, BestCases makes it a total nightmare to properly place an order. They basically act as a middleman for an inferior CaseLabs experience and dare to even charge extra for the inferior service.
I write them an angry email and write a negative review on their Trustpilot page and put my project on hold yet again.
End of story? Unfortunately not.
A reasonable and properly managed store that gets a negative review, usually leaves it for what it is or tries to defuse the situation. A polite mail, an apology (not that I felt that I needed one at that point, but rather as a signal of good will and ecommerce etiquette), a coupon or whatever.
Instead, BestCases manages to outdo themselves again. They reply to the negative review with my full name. This is a direct violation of business ethics, my personal privacy, EU law and even their own privacy policy. (Edit: and even trustpilots terms!) Then they continue to list an out-of-context fragment of the conversation and even insult me: "that your medication stop working and kindly suggest that you consult a doctor."
Quote:
insult - especially considering it kind of enforces my review - but the privacy violation is a step to far. I've sent them an email with the request to remove my full name and hole they are sane enough to remove my name. I got a vague response:
Quote:
Trustpilot has also been contacted, but I expect their service desk to take a while before they stumble on my ticket. Edit: 3 bot-closed tickets later I've contacted their business department. Hopefully it lands with at person now.
The irony here is that I was actually considering to remove the original review because my review might seem it worse than it was. Their response, however, confirmed it is actually as bad I feared.
And while some of this mistakes are rather small ones, the total sum of them is not. Small mistakes can happen. But a chain of mistakes is either the consequence or incompetence or sloppiness.
If this was some shady Ebay seller of some discounted China made knock-off product of less than 100 bucks, I would kind of have expected this. But not from the official EU CaseLabs reseller. Not after the massive effort CaseLabs made to convince me into giving BestCases a chance.
Their acts are a insult to the enthusiast consumer and an insult to what CaseLabs stands for.
Edit: follow-up
1. Opening post
2. Reply to comments
3. Disclose of unedited communication
4. Bestcases comment
5. My response to their comment.
TLR; unprofessional, insults customers, tries to sneak in a price raise, violates privacy - and then denies all wrongdoing.
If you really want a CL case: CaseLabs doesn't ship the the EU because of a territory protection clausule in their contract with BestCases, but you can use a parcel forwarder like NYBox.
I want to start this thread my apologizing to CaseLabs for the lost potential sales this thread might have. They have made serious efforts in this matter and I doubt they could have done anything better.
The story starts a while back. I was considering buying a CaseLabs SMA8 for next build and made a thread calling out for reviews of BestCases. After a couple of days, a brand-new account (McTavish), created the same day - with no posts, replies to my thread and starts recommending them. I sarcastically point out that that comment has zero (or even negative) authority and move on. This comment was later removed - but a moderator should be able to confirm its existence (@Mod, could you give me the BB code to quote it?). Note the odd space replies 4 and 5. Something used to be there, but it's now gone. Another post follows and I point out that's it hard to give it any credibility. No verifiable reviews follow and I move on to other stuff.
On the 17th of April, I contacted CaseLabs with the request for an alternative supplier. I link to this the call-out thread and to rather unverifiable reviews on TrustPilot to point out that I'm not keen on ordering from BestCases. (The rather low review count of 4 and the fact that 75% of them was placed in a timespan of less than 6 days, by users that have no other reviews).
CaseLabs then informs me that there won't be any other EU suppliers because of the contractually binding exclusivity BestCases has on the EU market. Even CaseLabs won't ship directly to the EU.
Quote:
Many encouraging and diplomatic mails from CaseLabs follow and they convinced me to give it a try. They contact BestCases with the list of parts I requested and BestCases agree to set up a custom order. So far so good. Aside from all the time and effort this has taken, we're on track.
The reason I needed a custom offer is because BestCases doesn't offer the whole CaseLabs range. Weird, considering the core selling point of CaseLabs is customizability and the simple fact that they their contract makes it impossible to order a customized version from CL directly.
This is however where it goes wrong. I have requested BestCases multiple times for a detailed quote so I could double check the entire list of parts. They failed to do so. First they threw a vague mail with a well-defined total price:
Quote:
I'm disappointed by the long delivery time, but I understand why: they need to order the extra parts from CaseLabs themselves and that simply takes time. The first thing that comes to mind is: "Then what's the point of an EU distributor in the first place?". The second thing that comes to mind is that I've lost all my leverage in case something goes wrong. Getting a chargeback after 11 weeks is virtually impossible. Due to my uncertainty about BestCases reliability, this prevents me from putting pressure in case something goes wrong. This might seem paranoid, but it was too misplaced with what follows.
Unfortunately, CaseLabs contracts prevents them for shipping straight to me so I'm stuck with BestCases.
I contact PerformancePCS about the estimated restocking time of some parts because I'm desperate for an alternative. Unfortunately, they inform me with an estimated restocking time of 3 months. Not that happy with waiting that long (and the fact that I can't get a reverse-ATX layout), we're back to BestCases.
A new mail goes out. I had done some calculations and their quote did seem a bit on the high end, considering they explicitly pointed about they just charge the CaseLabs price, but in Euro. I request them yet again for a detailed quote.
I'm met with the following reply:
Quote:
No detailed quote once again. I open the custom request page and start filling in my configuration and I'm met with a total of nearly €900 (ex VAT) if I recall correctly. I think to myself, wait a minute: this quite a bit more than my math made me expect. I then proceed to compare the "non-custom SMA8" listing with the "custom" one and I'm presented with a €118 (ex VAT) difference.
rand (more than that with VAT) for a sophisticated metal box. A precisely engineered, high quality metal box. For that kind of money, I expect a perfect metal box with a (near-)perfect customer service. Instead, BestCases makes it a total nightmare to properly place an order. They basically act as a middleman for an inferior CaseLabs experience and dare to even charge extra for the inferior service.
I write them an angry email and write a negative review on their Trustpilot page and put my project on hold yet again.
End of story? Unfortunately not.
A reasonable and properly managed store that gets a negative review, usually leaves it for what it is or tries to defuse the situation. A polite mail, an apology (not that I felt that I needed one at that point, but rather as a signal of good will and ecommerce etiquette), a coupon or whatever.
Instead, BestCases manages to outdo themselves again. They reply to the negative review with my full name. This is a direct violation of business ethics, my personal privacy, EU law and even their own privacy policy. (Edit: and even trustpilots terms!) Then they continue to list an out-of-context fragment of the conversation and even insult me: "that your medication stop working and kindly suggest that you consult a doctor."
Quote:
insult - especially considering it kind of enforces my review - but the privacy violation is a step to far. I've sent them an email with the request to remove my full name and hole they are sane enough to remove my name. I got a vague response:
Quote:
Clearly indicating they fail to comprehend the gravity of their misstep.
Trustpilot has also been contacted, but I expect their service desk to take a while before they stumble on my ticket. Edit: 3 bot-closed tickets later I've contacted their business department. Hopefully it lands with at person now.
The irony here is that I was actually considering to remove the original review because my review might seem it worse than it was. Their response, however, confirmed it is actually as bad I feared.
And while some of this mistakes are rather small ones, the total sum of them is not. Small mistakes can happen. But a chain of mistakes is either the consequence or incompetence or sloppiness.
If this was some shady Ebay seller of some discounted China made knock-off product of less than 100 bucks, I would kind of have expected this. But not from the official EU CaseLabs reseller. Not after the massive effort CaseLabs made to convince me into giving BestCases a chance.
Their acts are a insult to the enthusiast consumer and an insult to what CaseLabs stands for.
Edit: follow-up