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Expansys / MobilePlanet’s Lousy Customer Service

Dec 18th

Posted by Diego Samuilov

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closeThis post was published 11 months 10 days ago which may make its actuality or expire date not be valid anymore. This site is not responsible for any misunderstanding.

ExpansysLogoExpansys-USA / MobilePlanet: You didn’t care about me as your client and delayed the shipment of my device for weeks. You not only broke a record in customer dissatisfaction but you blatantly lied and for that, you lost me as your client.

At the risk of sounding like an grouchy old man, I have to ask the following question: What is the problem with good customer service these days? Doesn’t anyone care about the money us customers spend anymore? I would assume that with the economic/financial downturn the world is in right now, companies would make an extra attempt not to annoy customers away with bad customer service!

Let me get into the details and you be the judge.

December 1: I ordered myself a nice HTC Touch HD from Expansys-USA. The web site (Expansys-USA) indicated that they had 14 devices in stock and that it normally “ships in 4 days”. I selected the device, I also selected a 2 day shipping option so that after their 4 days of processing, packing and handling, it would not take too long to arrive. I completed the transaction at night and didn’t make too much of the fact that right from the start it logged tracked the transaction in UK time. Not that this would mean anything, but it would create some confusion in the days to come.

December 2: I checked out their Order Status web page link, which I received in an email. The credit card transaction was going to be processed that morning, it all went pretty quick and immediately started showing a status of “awaiting stock”. I figured this must be some intermediate status and it will probably be updated tonight after they run their nightly processes.

December 3: To my surprise, the web page was still showing “awaiting stock”, and now it was showing 14 days as opposed to the 6 days that it was showing the previous day. I called them immediately. What was going on? why did they delay the process? On the phone one of their sales reps confirmed that it was in fact delayed two full weeks. There was nothing he could do and my HTC Touch HD was in fact being held hostage!

The following days the expected shipping date came closer. At some point it reset again and now it was saying “Will ship in 14 days” again!!! On top of this, the link that described the item in my order was now pointing to the unit’s European version, which of course is not on sale in the US. Whenever I would click on the item, I would get a very discouraging “Product not found or is not available in this region”. ExpansysNotFoundSo there I went again, gave them a call and they explained that they were trying to fulfill all orders with their foreign warehouses in Europe. The person I talked to had the nerve to tell me that it was very simple, I could wait or else I could cancel and refuse to pay the charges in my credit card. I didn’t want to fight another battle, I didn’t want to have to argue with my credit card company if I wanted or not to charge over $800 dollars for a service I actually was not receiving. Just as I was about to start arguing whether I had any other options or not, he also told me that they had some back-orders and that they would fulfill all of them in the order that they were placed. At the end of the call, the sales rep mentioned that he was not supposed to say this, but that they were expecting a huge shipment of about 100 HT Touch HD to arrive on Friday December 12. Having heard that; I figured, I don’t want to wait, but I don’t want to waste any more time… I’ll just have to sit this one out and wait. With my 2 day shipment, I’ll be enjoying my new device by Monday 15.

Fast forward to Friday December 12, 5:30 PM. I’m getting ready to go home but I remember to check the status of my order before I leave. The web site still shows that the order will ship in 10 more days! Nothing changed! The Online Order Status page says that they close at 6 PM, I promptly call them up and I get the grim news that for some unfortunate reason the shipment that they received was not enough to cover the orders that they had pending, therefore I will have to wait … until the following Tuesday when they might, just might! receive another shipment.

December 13: Still showing that my HTC Touch HD usually ships in 10 days. I wonder if these guys ever learned the meaning of “usual” … Maybe I didn’t understand that “usually ships in 10 days” really means “we’ll ship it whenever we want to ship it to you”???

December 14: Again, my HTC Touch HD usually ships in 10 days… normally this number would automatically decrease every day. Last week it would even decrease during the weekend, but I guess that these guys have given up on their own system. If they don’t care about the customer, why even bother keep them updated and happy.

December 15: Still stuck at usually ships in 10 days. Maybe if I keep insisting, they’ll just send it to me to get rid of the guy that keeps calling for the status of his order! I called them again, and this time I finally got to speak with someone that really had the intention of helping me. Joe B. should be commended for his customer handling skills. He helped me out, gave me information on what and when it would be shipped. All of which turned out to be very accurate for once. I now have received an email indicating that the device was handed out to the shipping company. Hopefully that’s true.

December 17: I finally received my HTC Touch HD and I am very happy with the device… I don’t think I am going to buy from Expansys-USA unless I hear they have changed their business practices. I sure hope I do for their client’s sake. However, for now and until I am convinced otherwise, I will recommend anyone who asks about their service to try to avoid them as much as possible. I know I may end up getting a lot of comments of people that were satisfied with their service, but remember, just because it worked out for you, it doesn’t mean it will work out for everyone. In my case I know there were at least 200 people still sitting in the waiting list after my spot. So they mostly would go through the same lousy experience I went.

Someone once said that good customer service is demonstrated with actions that would benefit the customer; that’s what turns people into return customers.

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Diego Samuilov (18 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Diego Samuilov has worked in Microsoft's environments since he started his professional career in 1990. Since then, he has been through many positions related to the Software Development lifecycle. Having worked as a developer, analyst, technical lead, project lead, auditor and, since 1996 a project manager for projects in the Server and Desktop environments. He enjoys the software development process which has played a great part in his skills development. Since the introduction of Windows CE in 1998 he has been involved in one form or another in the development of several solutions for the mobile environment. He leads his consulting company; BlueKatana, Inc in the mobile development effort and participates in public and private developer community events. He actively collaborates with the community at support forums and blogs.

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  • Roger Marquis
    I pre-ordered a Wind from Expansys-USA in May. It shipped in August but the model was different from what was advertised (UK vs US keyboard, 3 vs 6 cell battery *). I contacted Expansys-USA sales who said they would process an exchange as soon as the advertised models were in stock. After not hearing back for a few weeks I called and was given the same story. This went on for 3 months until I finally reached someone who said the US models were in stock. His manager, however, refused to honor the promised exchange due to a "policy requiring exchanges to be made within 30 days of purchase". This was a completely different story from that which I had been told several times by Expansys-USA sales in the preceding months. Requests to speak with a manager were responded to with "there is no manager above me" (Logan Chandlee) though I was able to locate his manager (Steve Muttram). Unfortunately, the reply was the same (30 day policy, no manager above me...)

    The root cause may be that Expansys-USA was apparently not authorized by MSI to offer this model before it shipped, and there was so me fallout between the two company's resulting in Expansys-USA being shorted. There also appears to be significant employee turnover in Expansys-USA's staff as all of the sales people I spoke with originally are apparently "no longer with the company".

    Strongly recommend avoiding this vendor and if you do buy anything from them be prepared to cancel your credit card and return the merchandise within 30 days, regardless of what their sales people might say.
  • doogald
    I bought something from Expansys years ago and they were just about the same - obviously happy to take my order, very slow to fulfill it, reluctant to answer an e-mail inquiry about the status of the order, etc. I did get the item, a few weeks later than I expected, but I also wouldn't consider buying from them again. There are way too many companies out there with decent customer support that I'd rather do business with.
  • Welcome to the realization that Customer Service died and moved to India.
  • lost customer
    I truly support the author. I have got an Experience with European office. I ordered bluetooth headset in september. After 2 returns I got back broken item again and no replies to my questions what are they going to do in order to solve the proble. Nothing. So it is ok with Expansys until everuthing is ok. If it's not, better forget about it or even don't buy anything there. It costed me about 80 GBP and 4 months time to understand how stupid I am.
    It will also be a good idea to check what people say about those on-line sellers.
    Merry Christmas!
  • And?
    By the intro to your article I was expecting some really horrific details.
    All I see in what you've written is a company that is having stock issues with a popular product, probably because the company making the product is having trouble filling orders themselves.

    It appears that you have never worked in retail.
  • dsamuilov
    I did work in retail a long time ago, but there are lots of ways to handle these situations and this one in particular is just plain lousy. If the issue here was just not having stock, a simple email letting me know what the problem was would have been fine. In this case there were lies, said, reported on their own site and the customer support reps simply verbally mistreated a customer that just wanted to know what was going on.
  • And?
    Agreed. Much online shopping frustration could be saved by the retailer simply sending out a "We are experiencing difficulty fulfilling orders for "X", more information to follow", and then follow up with information as it becomes available. They already have all of our information in their systems after all.

    In your retail work did you never see situations where shipments of a product were delayed and cringe because you had known when they were due to arrive and had been telling customers? Or worse yet, the shipment arrives half damaged or defective and the next one isn't coming in for weeks. Did you feel like you had been lying to the customers or were you giving them the best information you had?

    I believe the potential for anger at an online retailer is much higher than that of a brick-and-mortar because of the trust factor and the removal of control. You have paid and the money is in their hands, but there is nothing tangible about the transaction until the product arrives. The longer the delay between purchase and arrival the more emotion gets invested, and all over a problem that possibly neither party had control over.
  • dsamuilov
    I understand, I also understand that sometimes, who is answering the phones is expected to follow a script that Management may have already decided for them. But when several different people have the same attitude, that sounds almost as if it were company policy. Note that I am not saying IT IS, I'm just saying SOUNDS LIKE IT IS.

    I think the issue here is that no one seems to be thinking in longer terms... if you are nice to your customers, they'll come back it seems to be a no brainer that benefits the company and makes customers happy.
  • And?
    a) Re-reading my first post I find it incredible standoffish. I did not intend that and apologize.
    b) No I do not work for Expansys or any other retailer that advertises here, just 3 years at a front line customer service job.
  • breley
    Weeks ago I emailed Expansys support an inquired if they had or could direct me to where I could obtain an electronic copy of an English version of the X7510 user manual since they offered the unit. The terse reply from their support was to go Google it.

    Now if the reply had been something along the lines of "I'm sorry, but I can't provide one for you, did you try a Google search for the manual?" I probably wouldn't have been so put off, especially since I'd been a past customer of the company.
  • badersk
    Many companies have the mistaken perception that good customer service costs money rather than build loyal customers. Most people would gladly pay more for good service but in the absence of such shop best price instead. I long for the day when they figure it out and both we the customers and the businesses themselves become winners.
  • Ed
    I ordered the HTC Tv out cable for the fuze, and when I ordered it the stock status showed 5-10 cables in stock. Then later I got an e-mail saying that the item has gone out of stock and they will ship ot once they get more stock of the item, but as an alternative I can buy expansys' own tv out cable. When I have to buy accessories and other stuff I definitely prefer other vendors over expansys.
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