The story you are about to hear may sound too ridiculous to be true. Trust me, I wish it were not.
This morning I sought an end to the horrible chapter in my life that is Sunshine Electronics (ebay id sunshineelec). My plan was simple call in and speak to Danny Woods (this time I am posting his full name. I'll explain why later). He was the "manager" who promised to get my package to me. I wanted to know why he was dishonest with me but more than that I wanted my money back. I wasn't going to take no for an answer.
Oh, if only Sunshine (ironic name huh?) had made it that simple.
I called in promptly at 10:00 and got a rep who asked for my order number. I barely got the number and the name Danny (the manager) out of my mouth before I was abruptly put on hold...for 15 minutes. Once again, no exaggerations. I literally kept a log of the amount of time I was being placed on hold.
He eventually got back on the line and said"you only paid for this a few days ago".
So I proceeded to go through the whole story "Danny promised me it would be in my hands yesterday morning and..."
"OK hold on"- He abruptly put me on hold again. Another 15 mins goes by when I remember an email with Danny's extension. So I hang up and call Danny's extension directly.
A few rings later I hear a man, whom I can only assume is Danny or his clone, answer the line. But instead of Hello, how may I help you I was greeted by, "Who's this? What's your name?"
I had to pinch myself to make sure I hadn't lost my mind. Was he screening his calls?? No...not even these guys would stoop that low. Ducking and dodging an irate and unsatisfied customer? Noooo, not in America!
Boy was I wrong.
"This is Curt...." Before I could say anything further...
Click...."Thank you for holding. Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and your call..."
You've gotta be kidding me. Did he really just screen his call? Did he really hear my name and put me on hold in typical Sunshine (ironic) fashion?
I called Danny's extension back and wouldn't you know it; it went to voicemail. Caller ID huh? OK- I dialed *67 to block my caller ID and called back and guess what?
"Who's this? What's your name?"
"This is Curt again I...."
Click...."Thank you for holding. Your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and your call..."
Okay, now you've done it. You know that moment when David Banner starts to transform into the incredible Hulk? Well lets just say all I could see was green at that moment.
I continued to call back and get his voicemail. I decided to try customer service but got the put on hold routine from everyone I spoke to. This is getting personal.
I decided that since it seemed as though everyone in this company went to the Simon Cowell school of customer service, speaking to 20 diffrent people was going to get me nowhere. I decided that when I got the Voice menu I would just dial zero and get a receptionist.
I dialed zero and got what I assume was one of two receptionsits. I told her I was tired of being put on hold and that I wanted Danny right away. Naturally she put me on hold.
I immediately called back and dialed her again.
"Still waiting for Danny" and naturally she put me on hold again. This continued for about 20 minutes. I could feel her wearing down.
Eventually she gave in. "I'm putting you right through to Danny's Manager"
I got a live person right away. "Sir we are sorry for blah, blah blah...and we'll go ahead and refund your money. You'll see it in your paypal account in a few minutes."
Not falling for that one again! I insisted that he remain on the phone with me until I actually saw that refund show up in my account. He reluctantly agreed. For 10 mins we waited and checked untill he finally said "I'm gonna put you through to our refund department" and transferred me abruptly.
I got through to a woman (Esther) who said that she was with the refund department. She sounded annoyed as she said "Look, we'll send the refund through when we get you package back from the warehouse. But I'm not going to do it a moment before then."
There was no way I was going for that. I insisted that they send the refund through immediatly and that I would not...could not get off the phone untill they did.
Now brace yourself for this part...
She snapped at me and said "Well look, if you wanna be a baby about it go ahead but I'm hanging up this phone. And if you call back I'll just tell that person to put you on hold. You are acting like a baby right now and I'm not going to deal with this!"
Click....She hung up!
Seriously people....these are the words straight from Esther's mouth. I couldn't have made this up if I wanted to.
Long story short, I kept calling back until that same receptionist put me through to Danny's manager, who upon further discussion and investigation just happened to be Danny himself, and they finally decided to give me my refund right away.
And so ends my nightmare.
This was the worst customer service ordeal I have ever experienced. The folks at Sunshine (again that name is soooooo ironic) were blatantly rude, deceitful, and incompetent. I can just imagine them having meetings and training sessions on how best to undermine the customer.
And of course in the end they didn't have the capacity to make the situation right. I don't think they could get an order right from start to finish even if they wanted to. They just got tired of dealing with me and finally gave in.
"Enough of him. On to the next sucker."
My hope is that somehow this blog will keep others from making the mistakes I made. You can call it scarred straight for ebay.
Just know that there are plenty of choices on ebay. Choose wisely and please, whatever you do, DON'T SHOP SUNSHINE!
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9 comments:
TOTALLY AGREE!
PROBABLY WORSE CUSTOMER SERVICE I'VE EVER HAD!!
Yes, the same situation! However, I managed to cancel the order right away. STAY AWAY FROM sunshine electronics.
Well, my wife decided to cheap it out and told me to order from Sunshine rather than Amazon, even though I told her it was probably a rip-off. I ordered a Canon EOS 5D from them on wednesday 28 Nov 2007. They said they had 3 in-stock. They charged me $100 for DHL insurance and "threw in" free express delivery. It is Friday 30 Nov 2007, no camera. Order status at their website is "Order sent to warehouse." Have called my bank about refusing charges, but must use formal dispute process once they actually transfer the hold to them. If it hasn't shipped by Monday (DHL confirmed), or if it arrives gray or incomplete, I will cancel my order and then head down to my bank to begin the formal dispute process if I don't get an immediate refund.
As a person who tries to avoid developing hate and anger, I sent a note to the ADL about my feelings this experience has caused.
I also ordered a Canon 5D from these guys. They tried the upsell, and I refused every one. Then they asked if I wanted shipping insurance. Damn right I want insurance on a $2000 camera. Well later I got the bill. They charge $95 for insurance. I went to the UPS site and calculated how much it would cost to ship and insure this package, and it would be less than the $29 they were charging just for shipping. Can you say RIP-OFF? This is also a violation of eBay's fee avoidance policies. I have reported them to eBay for this and suggest you do the same. Enough reports and they will lose their powerseller status. I should have bought from B&H photo like I do every other time. THought I could save a couple hundred bucks but is it worth it do be treated like crap on the phone and scammed out of 95 bucks?
Everyone that has posted comments, THANK YOU, was about to spend big bucks on a camera to capture my 1st sons 1st Christmas ... I would have been devistated if I would have bought a camera that didnt make it here in time.
Thank you guys so much and Merry Christmas!
Bottom line, I did get a good camera from these guys at a price that ended up being $100 less than what I could have paid at B&H. But it wasn't worth the hassle.
I did a buy-it-now for a Canon 5D at just under $1900. Shipping was 29.99. Reasonable. Bunch of other crap in the auction that I didn't care about, a tripod, a bag, a card reader, a lens cleaning kit. Who cares. Wanted the 5D and this price beat the $2199 at B&H, my usual store.
Had to call them up on the phone, they tried the upsell on the battery, (it only lasts 30 minutes they said, bullshit). Want the shipping insured? Definitely, who wouldn't insure a $2000 package? Well they don't tell you that the insurance alone costs $94.90, on top of the $30 shipping charge. That's pure highway robbery. I checked what it would cost to ship fully insured and it was around $30 for this package at this price.
So anyway, I get the bill and it shows the insurance charge. That was the only upsell I allowed them to do. The auction page listed free upgrade to overnight shipping, which I didn't ask about since I didn't care.
About a week after auction close, no word from these jokers. I called them up. Oh your package shipped yesterday. Tracking number? Oh we'll email that to you. 11 days post auction the package arrived. Camera was good, though it was a 5D in a 5D plus lens kit that they'd yanked the kit lens out of. No biggie, I don't care about that. It was a USA warranty camera, which was also good. It was new and unused. The battery was the standard Canon battery, not a 30-minute battery as the salesman claimed.
I debated whether to post a neg or a neutral. After all, I did get the camera for less than I could have paid elsewhere.
I filed a report with eBay claiming "fee avoidance," since they overcharged me 94.90 for insurance which was bogus. I doubt eBay did anything though, because to look at their listing, the ship cost was reasonable ($29.99).
In the end I did post a neg, saying item good, $125 11-day shipping bad. Boy nothing gets these guys attention like posting a neg. They rang my phone day and night, and I refused to answer it, till one day my wife picked it up and said "it's the camera guys." Crap. Long story short, I got them to agree to refund $75 in exchange for retracting my neg. And they wouldn't do the refund until after the neg was retracted.
I don't expect I'll ever see that $75 though. Should have let my neg stand. Word to the wise, these guys are just too much hassle to deal with. Had I called B&H like I always do, I would have paid $100 more, but I would have had my camera the next day, and I wouldn't have had to hassle with these charlatans for nearly two weeks.
-Mark
Thanks for the heads up. I am also looking for a D40 and came across them. I will not be buying from them either thanks to your blog.
Update, these guys did eventually refund the $75 that we agreed on. So bottom line I saved a hundred bucks, but next time I'm just going to call B&H. They've never steered me wrong.
I just tried to buy a camera from these guys after thinking it would go smoothly. As soon as the PayPal option didn't appear on the checkout, I knew something was wrong. A quick search led me to this and other stories about their sorry a$$'es. Ebay won't allow a cancellation... Scamshine... uh I mean Sunshine doesn't disclose their PayPal ID & when I decided to buy a $6 item that did have paypal in the checkout (so that I could lock them into the contract), I was refused because Sunshine won't allow anyone to buy more than one thing from them. This SCREAMs scam artists. On Monday I will call and record my conversation with them... and will post the audio here if it's worth listening to. I plan to cancel my eBay account. Thanks for posting ... too bad I didn't search first.
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