Here’s a little story that perfectly captures the differences in customer service and care companies choose to use, and how it has consequences for them.

Several weeks ago I pre-ordered ‘Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning’ for the PS3 (terrible name but the game is pretty good) from Newegg.com because they had it for $15 off. The day it was supposed to ship, they alerted me to a billing failure and asked me to correct it, which I did (somehow, the expiration date on my CC was wrong, which was hard to explain since they had it in their database and I did not change it). 10 minutes after I update my billing they charge me and tell me my order has been processed. 10 minutes after this, they email me to tell me my order was cancelled and they would refund my money in 2-3 days. Digging around, I discovered a lot of folks who had pre-ordered the game from Newegg had also had their pre-orders cancelled after their credit card was charged.

I’ve done business with Newegg for a long time and generally had really good experiences with them, so I was willing to cut them a little slack and, giving them the benefit of the doubt, chalk this up to automated systems misfiring, but this was still pretty irritating.

Anyway, I managed to pre-order the game for the full retail price on Amazon that same day, and several days later had the game and was playing it, only for $15 more than I had planned to pay. 3 days later, Newegg refunded my money. a week after that, Amazon sent me a no strings attached $20 gift card because they had dropped the price of the game on their site and were honoring their price protection guarantee.

!!!!

Get the difference there? Newegg, possibly scamming me or maybe just a little incompetent. No apology, and they sit on my money for 3-4 days. Amazon, bending over backwards to make sure I remain a happy customer.

Today when I had to order some parts for a gift I’m putting together for my nephew’s birthday, guess where I shopped?

Actions have consequences and all that.