I am one very annoyed customer, and have a dual purpose here.

One is to discuss the "Sale ends" that is put on sale items at the store here, another is to express my dismay - let me put that more strongly - disgust - with Renderosity's attitude toward customer service.

At the end of July, I had a question about a sale that said "Sale ends July 31, 2010". Rather than make assumptions, I sent an email on the 29th to ASK exactly what that meant.   Did it mean (as it APPEARS) that it ends on July 31st at the end of the day Renderosity time?  Or was there a possibility that it meant that it ended on the day BEFORE (July 30) at the end of the day?

The response from Renderosity was, and I quote:

"If it states the sale ends 7/31/10, it ends at 11:59pm CST on 07/31/10. "

I sent an email saying thanks, got a reply saying I was welcome.

It happened that in that sale, I DID buy the items on the 30th because I had decided what I wanted and was going to be away a lot on the 31st.

The next time I was buying things with a "sale ends" time was yesterday.

Rebelmommy (Amy) had a bunch of things on sale this past week, and they all said on the item page "Sale ends Sept 1, 2010".

Last night, still unsure about whether I wanted a few items in Amy's store, I put the ones I WAS sure about in my cart and went back to find that email. After re-reading it, of COURSE I knew that all was fine, I had till the end of the day Sept 1st to check out.

4 hours after Midnight Renderosity time, I happened to go look at one of those items I wasn't sure about and saw that it no longer said it was on sale. Shocked, I took a screenshot of my cart, which showed the items at sale prices, and opened a new window, brought up my cart, and found that all the prices were back to normal.

I immediately wrote to the representative at Rendo who had written to me the previous month (I will be nice and not mention that person's name) , explained the situation, and said I hoped they would put the items back on sale (of course, I thought it was an error that they'd been taken off in the first place) and got an email back this morning that they were very sorry, and apologized, but they had made a typo in that email last month, and they meant to type 7/30/2010 rather than 7/31/2010.

That's it. That's all I got.

I wrote again, re-explaining and saying that I certainly can understand that anyone can make a mistake, but they should honor the prices at LEAST of what I had put in my cart (which I'd sent a screen shot of to this representative) because I based my decision on what I was told BY them.

I got another email saying that no, they can not honor it, because it was a vendor-scheduled sale, not a Rendo one, and would take a lot of money away from the vendor. That everyone makes mistakes and if the person had told me incorrectly because they didn't know that would be one thing, but a typo is accidental. The person followed that up with saying that the items were on sale a week and a half (implying that I should have bought them earlier - real cute, blame the customer), and apologizing again.

I sent Amy a pm and others also wrote to her at another forum - because I was not the only one who read "Sale ends Sept 1st" to mean at the end of that day!!!.  As a result of OUR contact with her and HER excellent customer service attitude, she put the items back on sale till tomorrow at  11:45 pm. I have thanked her at that forum and in pm for doing this.  I will not forget it.

Unfortunately, nor will I forget the attitude of Renderosity.  TWO THUMBS down to Renderosity for poor customer service. This has put a VERY bad taste in my mouth.  I am a business owner.  If I (or an employee of mine) told someone something incorrectly (doesn't matter if it was an accident or an "on purpose", I would honor it.  No questions asked.  Customer service is THE most important thing.

So, a few things about the "sale ends" thing.

I got an email from the representative saying that the vendor has put their things back on sale until 11:45 pm on Sept 2nd (tomorrow).  I just looked at the pages and they say, amazingly:

Sale Ends:9/2/10

WAIT A MINUTE!!  According to what I was told this morning, this means the sale ends TONIGHT, not TOMORROW night. 

But no, THIS time when it says Sale ends 9/2/2010 it actually means at the end of the DAY on 9/2/2010  

RENDEROSITY, you need to be CLEAR about when sale dates end.  I KNOW I am not the only one angry and confused by this complete inconsistency - it now feels like "well, if we say it ends 9/2/2010 we MAY end the sale at the end of the day on 9/1 and may do it on 9/2"

Try something like this on EVERY SALE ITEM'S PAGE-

Sale ends: 9/2/2010, 11:59pm Central Daylight Time

or in the case of this extended sale:

Sale ends: 9/2/2010, 11:45pm Central Daylight Time

No guessing, no "when is it REALLY?"

I have to wonder how many people who don't know about this whole thing and JUST see the sale items for the first time will put them in their cart and plan to check them out at 11:50 pm CDT, finding the sale ended at some strange arbitrary hour 5 minutes earlier.

It is completely ridiculous to state a day when a sale ends and not make it clear WHEN on that day it ends!

Please make this clear on your pages.

MEANWHILE - can we get an OFFICIAL WORD - which is it????

If the page says "SALE ENDS SEPT 1, 2010"  EXACTLY what time of what day does the sale end??

 - Alisa

I agree. It is confusing.

When I hear "ends September 1st" I take it to mean that it ends at 1 minute past midnight on September 1st (the start of the day). But I can also see how it could be interpreted as meaning at the end of the day on the day indicated.

I haven't looked, but I imagine they have something in the TOS about not being responsible for typographical errors in communication in order to protect themselves, otherwise they would be in deep doggie-doo if they have someone who has a high rate of inaccuracy when typing.

Quote - I got an email from the representative saying that the vendor has put their things back on sale until 11:45 pm on Sept 2nd (tomorrow).  I just looked at the pages and they say, amazingly:

Sale Ends:9/2/10

WAIT A MINUTE!!  According to what I was told this morning, this means the sale ends TONIGHT, not TOMORROW night. 

But no, THIS time when it says Sale ends 9/2/2010 it actually means at the end of the DAY on 9/2/2010 

I think the reason they said the sale ends on the 2nd instead of 11:59 on the first, is because the vendor explicitly said "11:45 pm on Sept 2nd" instead of just "September 2nd".

Quote -
I haven't looked, but I imagine they have something in the TOS about not being responsible for typographical errors in communication in order to protect themselves, otherwise they would be in deep doggie-doo if they have someone who has a high rate of inaccuracy when typing.

That's certainly possible - I haven't checked.  Thing is, I still think the response was poor customer service given the circumstances, and I also believe that a particular other 3d store I will not name (but it has 3 letters) would have handled it completely differently.

I am not doubting the rep's word, but is equally likely from the evidence (ie the emails) that that person just gave me the WRONG answer rather than made a typo - and it was sent back to them and then back to me a second time when I thanked them  - so it was missed AGAIN.

I am not feeling that the person is horrible for making this error, no matter WHAT error was made. We ALL make mistakes.  I just feel that Renderosity's response was wrong.  The very LEAST they could have done was to have offered to check with the vendor to see if the vendor would honor the sale, and then honor their half as well if the vendor agreed.  But that was not suggested - I was just pretty much told "too bad, so sad",   

It makes me wonder what the point is of ever asking a question to clarify something here, because they can always claim deniability and say it was a typo (again, not saying that it wasn't one in this case, just that they could always claim it no matter if it was or wasn't).  Things could have been phrased differently in the email as well - like "if the sale end date is July 31st, the sale actually ends at 11:59 on the evening BEFORE that".

I think Rendo has great products, and the reps are very nice - this person certainly was just following company policy - but this company has gone far downhill in my estimation by the way this was handled.

aprocter,

I can assure you that the error you are referring to was a typo. The person you are referring to is one of the most helpful, patient and honest staff members on board and she was very upset that she typed the wrong date a month ago.  I think we can ALL say we've typed a wrong letter or number at some point in our life. I know I have and it happens but no ill intent was meant.  She was following the normal procedure regarding sale prices being valid at the time of checkout if the item is still on sale.

We appreciate your feedback.

Have a great evening.

Regards,
Stacey
Community Manager

Hi, Stacey - as I said in my last post, I was not doubting her word or integrity or helpfulness.  I agree with all you have said about her. And of COURSE no ill intent was intended.  Of COURSE we all make mistakes and make typos. I guess I feel that those things are irrelevant to the issue.

I am a business owner.   Let's take a comparable scenario -

I email a client, saying they can pay me at a discounted rate if they do so by Sept 2, and they write back asking "do you mean by the end of the day Sept 1 or the end of the day Sept 2?"  and I respond "by the end of the day on Sept 2" - MAKING A TYPO and intending to have said Sept 1.  They write back "thanks" and I write back "you're welcome".

Then, they walk in to see me on Sept 2nd with the discounted payment in hand.  I say "Oh you had to pay by Sept 1, you didn't pay in time, so no discount" and they show me a copy of the email.

I would NEVER say "oops, that was a typo, sorry - can't give you the discount"

I might say "oops, that was a typo, sorry, please remember that for next time it is the day before the day I tell you." I'd probably follow up with an email to that effect. 

Then, I would HONOR MY WORD, give the discount and take the loss that time.  THAT is what I think Renderosity should have done. 

This was not your representative's decision, I'm sure, but the company's policy. And THAT is what I am upset about. - Renderosity's policies, not the representative.

We're not talking about a type of typo where I would have had to be an idiot to think that the representative was right, like if I had asked "is it Sept 1 or Sept 2?"  and been told "it's Sept 22th"   when clearly the page said Sept 2.      

This is a typo where I asked "is it A or B?" and was told B, when the correct answer might have been either.  Then, the first time I test it, I'm told nope - it's A.

And I am STILL trying to figure out what Renderosity MEANS when they say "SALE ENDS SEPT 2".

*edited to take out a few extra words in a sentence the didn't make sense :)
 

It was a typo of a 1 instead of a 0, that simple.  Instead of typing the 7/30 they typed 7/31, not catching the error of the wrong number.

As I stated above, we appreciate the feedback and it will be passed on to the appropriate staff members for review.

Have a great day!

Stacey