Let me start off by saying I'm a long time newegg customer. 99% of my experiences w/ newegg have been great - this one, however, makes me nervous about shopping here in the future. See, I'm a freelance IT technician. Whenever I have a customer who needs a part, this is where I get it. Sometimes I spend close to $500 in less than a month's time with newegg, and like I said, up until now I've been very happy.
Here's the situation: My girlfriend and I are moving. We need a microwave. Since I've been happy with newegg's service for years now, I decided to check and see what they had. I found a good deal on an open box microwave by sharp. I ordered it on Friday March 28th. The sale was processed, and my card was billed, however, the microwave didn't ship. That's ok - it's a Friday. It'll probably go out on Monday, right? Nope - on Monday March 31st I received an email notifying me that my microwave had been RMA'ed. I also noticed that the product page for the microwave listed it as "deactivated". What I took away from this was that I was sold a microwave that didn't exist. OK, I understand stuff happens - I've worked in retail and E-tail before - things don't always go according to plan - no big deal. Here's where it gets hairy. The RMA has sat in "step 2" for over a week now. To paraphrase the description for step two, this means the RMA needed to be inspected before I could receive a refund. Fearing that this may cause a problem (seeing as how the microwave doesn't exist and all) I contacted customer support via email and was told to just keep on waiting, and it would go through eventually. I wasn't happy about it - I need the microwave, and I need the money to get the microwave, but I di as instructed and waited. I contacted support by email and phone again yesterday (Monday, April 7th) and was told by both email and phone CSR's to keep waiting - possibly for 3-5 MORE days. By this point I'm fairly mad - It's been over a week since the RMA was started, and I'm waiting for an imaginary microwave to be inspected. Today I received a notice that my RMA had, in fact, not been received by newegg, and it was dumped back down to step 1. If no one from newegg steps up and fixes this by Friday, I'll have no choice but to file a complaint with Visa. I've been patient, and the CSR's, while very polite, have been no help.
I should point out that somewhere in the middle of this, I was offered a $25 credit. That was a nice gesture, and it was appreciated - however, it was applied to an order placed on a card I don't usually use on Newegg without my permission.
For anyone from newegg that may be looking at this, here are the so, and rma numbers
original SO 57399381
RMA 29618140
Had this been an item for a customer of mine, it would have been a much bigger hassle for me - in the future, I will very strongly consider going with a different supplier for parts for my customers. Newegg delivers quickly and professionally when they deliver. When they don't deliver, they go all out.