nmvettec7

A word of advice when ordering from Autogeek.net..... a real situation occurred.

I have been a long time purchaser of detail products from Autogeek.net a CF vendor. I have been on their email ad list for many years.

Last night Autogeek.net sent a 24 Special Pricing on the Blackfire Products. After reviewing the ad, I placed an order for the Blackfire Wet Diamond Kit. The advertised price was $8.99 + flat rate shipping of $7.95.

I placed my order, the order was taken electronically, paid for electronically via PayPal and an order confirmation was sent from Autogeek.net to my email.

This morning Autogeek.net sent a message stating my order was canceled and funds refunded. While I was not out any money by the cancelation of the order, and the refund, I was upset that the order was canceled and Autogeel.net would not honor their pricing. The explanation given was: There was an inaccuracy regarding the price of the BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond Kit that was ordered. All orders containing this kit with the incorrect pricing have been canceled. All money has been refunded using the original payment method.


I responded to Autogeek.net stating the following...

"I think AutoGeek should honor the price as listed. No reputable retail establishment would cancel orders due to an advertised mistake.

When American Airlines, Walmart, Albertson's grocery stores, Target, and so many other major retail sellers makes errors in their ads they honor the price.

I strongly believe that Autogeek should do the same. By canceling this order, I lose faith that Autogeek is only interested in their own interests, not the customer.

As a long time buyer, I will hesitate to place future orders from AutoGeek due to the fact that you will NOT honor advertised prices.

Word of mouth advertising is the best. I am a member of several automobile forums and would be pleased to spread the word, that Autogeek does not honor ad prices, and to beware.

The email canceling the order is quite disappointing.

In good faith, Autogeek needs to fulfill these orders to the consumer and take the loss. I am quite sure that very few orders were placed for this Blackfire Wet Diamond Kit.

Please advise".

This afternoon Autogeek.net called saying they made a mistake and the company could not afford to honor the advertised pricing. I asked to speak to the general manager, or owner of the company. The customer service rep refused to pass my situation on to a higher level, basically stating the "The buck stops here". If you don't like the decision, there is no one else to speak with. I told the CS rep, that is crazy. If she walked into any retail establishment, I.e a grocery store and stated an item was mispriced to a cashier, would you accept the cashier saying, no I will not let you speak to the manager?. I thought this was crazy. I asked for the general manager or owners name. The Autogeek.net CS would not provide that. I continued to complain. Finally was given to the CS manager Nick, who would not provide the owners name. He stated Autogeek.net is a very small company, yet Autogeek.net has revenues in the millions of dollars annually.

Subsequently after researching Autogeek.net it was easy to determine the owners name (Robert McKee) and his personal address. There was no reason for Autogeek.net personnel to prohibit providing the owners name. It was easy to find the names associated with autogeek.net (PALM BEACH MOTORING ACCESSORIES, INC, SOUVERÄN,WOLFGANG CONCOURS SERIES etc.). It was easy to find the name of the legal counsel (Pamela J. Crane) who's office is located in Santa Fe, NM. It was easy to find litigation filed in 2013.

While some members may think this situation is trivial in nature, my point is the retail establishment made an error in their advertised item that most retail stores would honor, make it right to the customer and move on.

Since Autogeek.net is a CF vendor, I wanted to bring this issue to the attention of the forum members. Some may agree or disagree with the end result.

I have never been turned away from any vendor asking to speak to a person at a higher level. I have never been turned away from speaking to a CEO of any company or their top level representative.

My point is, while Autogeek.net sells good products, they will not stand up for the customer and make any errors they make "right". While they claim to be a small company with 40 employees their interest is clearly not with the customer, but the company themselves.

In the future, I will have to defer from making any future purchases. Anyone that has an issue after the purchase with Autogeek.net should be fully aware that they may not be willing to resolve any issues.

This was my case. Whether you agree with Autogeek.net or not, is not my concern. As a CF member, you have been advised of at least one incident that took place, where they will not honor any errors or be responsible to the end consumer when errors are made by their own respective employees.

To acknowledge from a customer service rep of any business, the buck stops here, "I will not let you speak to any manager" is simply bad business. I was shocked.

Let the buyer beware when ordering with Autogeek.net.

Case closed.

Stan0324

I have to agree. The stores where I shop will always honor the listed price. Some, if it's a paper ad, will have in small print "not responsible for typographical errors" This may have been what happened to you.

RACE U

Not to defend autogeek, but I don't know of any business online that does not have a disclaimer with regards to pricing and availability of product.

I too am a long time customer of autogeek and received the same offer via email. I, however, did not place an order as a result of this offer.

I know you are frustrated with this situation, but how has their service been for you in the past? I have purchased thousands of dollars in product from them over the years, and generally speaking, my experience has been that they are one of the better vendors that I have dealt with.

I understand your position as well, and as upset as you are with this situation, if they were smart business people, they probably should have honored the pricing for your order, even if they took a loss on this one transaction, to keep a customer in the future.

nmvettec7

Generally service has been average or normal compared to other on-line vendors. The order is taken, payment is electronic via CC or Paypal, order confirmation is sent to the buyers email, the item(s) is shipped.

I had an experience where the amount of product ordered was different than what sent, called AG and they did send out the item that was missing. Understandably this can happen.

As for a disclaimer I did not see any disclaimers or terms and conditions throughout the order process. I did copy the website where the product was displayed with description and the selling price. I have retained those for my file. I retained copies of the order, payment and confirmations from Autogek.net

I was advised previously when placing orders with internet websites it is always suggested to print copies of the product page, description and order payment, as internet vendors are well known for making changes to their "terms and conditions".

What was disturbing is the fact that CS shuts you off immediately, and Autogeek does not recognize full disclosure. It made no sense to state they would not provide the name of the principal person of the business as that information is of public knowledge. I was told by Nick the CS Supervisor the owner refuses to accept calls from Autogeek customers or consumers. While they sell good products, they are not the type of business that I like to do business with as they lack ethical standards and integrity. At least this was the case with Robert "Bob" Mckee's personell I spoke with.

I agree they should have honored the ad. I wish I would have had a recording of the conversation, as I found their attitude for a retail establishment to be quite lacking and unprofessional. Since they are an internet company and out of state, it is almost impossible for any consumer to resolve issues, if they as a business are not willing to resolve the issue, which certainly they did not. I was told that 24 orders were placed for the same item.

Today was a good learning experience about Autogeek's service to the customer/consumer, their lacking attitude and unprofessional personel that I spoke with. I was quite surprised. But in today's world of business relationships between customers and the retail vendor, it is so easy for any of them to tell the customer to "get lost". Today, I found out that Autogeek.net and their associated brands fall into that category. They don't care about the customer, they are only sales and profit minded, nothing else. To tell any customer they are a small 40 person company and can not afford to honor the ad price point, and cannot afford to take a loss, appears to be total baloney when this firm does millions of dollars in annual revenue. Who would want to take a chance of ordering from this company. Autogeek.net personnel made the decision to lose a customer for future orders. There are numerous detail products and vendors to choose from in the marketplace. Autogeek could care less losing one customer. However in todays world of consumer related businesses, every vendor should care about every customer, whether new or a loyal repeat customer as I have been.

RACE U

Hopefully auto geek learned from this as well. This should never have reached the point where your frustration compelled you to write a negative review here. They should have honored the advertised price, so everyone can just move on.

As a business, it's so hard to gain a good reputation, but extremely easy to damage one. Hope this was worth it to Autogeek.

meyerweb

This just isn't true. Almost all retailers include disclaimers regarding erroneous pricing in the advertising. Sometimes they will choose to honor the prices anyway, but not always, and they're certainly not under any obligation to do so.

For Autogeek to honor what was probably a large number of orders at that price would likely entail a significant loss of money for them. A company that does tens of millions of dollars in business can afford to eat a loss on one particular occasion pretty easily. Auto Geek, I suspect, is a pretty small operation, and to ask them to lose money because of an honest mistake isn't fair.

Reverse things, and see how you feel. If you ordered something, and found out later that the listed price was a mistake, and the company lowered the price the next day, would you be happy paying the mistaken price, or would you demand they correct the mistake?

Why would you expect different behavior when the mistake is in the vendors favor vs. yours?

nmvettec7

meyerweb:

Apparently you did not read the entire post #1 or subsequent posts from other CF members. AutoGeek took in 24 orders during the sale period of this item.

Retailers do honor mistakes and errors in advertising. Just about any consumer can attest to this. Once the mistake is found, usually no more items listed ref the error are sold. They do it all the time. All of the retail establishments listed in the above 1st post have continuously honored mismarked items or miss advertised pricing. Retailers who are savvy and respect the consumer and their customer will honor ads or even price match products.

Autogeek had no disclaimers in the on-line ad. Autogeek had no Terms and Conditions ref the sale price.

Addition to the price not being honored the general attitude and the point of the "buck stop's here" was absurd by not providing the customer with the name of the general manager or owner of the business. It took me only a very short time to determine the owner of the business. Autogeek does millions of dollars in revenues.

Bottom line is, they lost a customer, a good customer. I could not do business with them again, not only due to the inability to honor the advertised price, but the general attitude of the CS reps and lack of transparency.

Appears you are an uninformed consumer from your post.

Wm Rose

Sounds to me like you want to get something for nothing. Get over it, move on. It was a mistake by an employee. I guess they should loose their job over a simple mistake. Unbelievable!