Mark D.
I purchased a water pump from 123Ponds
I purchased a water pump from 123Ponds. The pump was defective (which is no fault of 123Ponds). I contacted the manufacturer and showed them my application and they were also convinced the pump was defective and recommended I return it. I explained my situation to 123Ponds as I noticed they had a RESTOCKING FEE on returned Items. Even though I mentioned that the manufacturer agreed it was defective 123Ponds said they would charge me a 15% restocking fee unless I exchanged it. I just wanted to return the pump but they said I could not without a restocking fee. I asked them for an exception due to the defective nature of the pump and they said they would not make an exception despite the fact that they wouldn't be eating the cost on the pump. After 20min on the phone with customer service trying to ask them for an exception, I made the point that they spent more money arguing with me about a restocking fee and losing a customer than agreeing to waive the cost and have a customer willing to recommend them to someone else. In the end I ended up keeping the pump and talking directly to the manufacturer who was very willing to help me out. Judging by the other negative comments on 123Ponds about the SAME STUFF, I wish that I had read that first and shopped elsewhere. And NO, I am not some other business trying to throw shade on your business. Just an angry consumer who wishes that you would take in some of the frustrating criticism and change your business model to one that looks out for its customers instead of simply trying to profit off them. (addition): I see that you post comment defense for each bad review. Perhaps instead of trying to 'correct' the reviews you should spend the time rethinking your customer service. I am truly baffled by your approach... ... and of course the review of my comment comes now too.. I'll let that speak for itself..
Response from Store 123pondsNov 5, 2019
Hi Mark, Yes, we will take the time to defend ourselves. Especially when there are items that are left out. We see you spent the time to write this but what you left out was the fact that you actually purchased a new larger pump and that you bought this smaller pump to replace a larger one that you had before. This is important because the pump you purchased from us was not defective but just not right for your application. When you replace a pump with a smaller pump and it does not work out for the application we offer free technical support and offer exchanges. You did not seek out our assistance. Instead you realized that the pump was too small, went locally and bought a larger pump and then contacted us thinking the pump is defective. Pumps are very simple mechanical devices. They have one moving part and they either work or don't. If they work, yet just not performing what it was meant to do than the weight goes to a few things - either the application is not right or the tubing is too small for the size of the pump. In your case it was the wrong application. You have also mentioned that we wouldn't be eating any cost but what you don't understand is (and we explained this to you) - the manufacturer will test the pump when they get it back and they will repair it and send a used pump back to us which we cannot resell or they will issue us a credit however it will be for our cost. It does not cover the shipping, packaging, credit card fees, etc. We also explained that we would have been more than happy to send you a brand new pump at our cost to you if you had given us the chance to do that. That new pump would be completely at our expense but you were stuck on the fact that you could have us send you 10 pumps that would all be defective. This was you dwelling on that fact since you already knew the pump was not right for your application. You have also exaggerated as it was not 20 minutes on the phone. It was about 10 minutes and as long as you had questions we were going to give you the time and respect to answer you. You cannot fault us for that. I will bold the following because its important: WE OFFERED YOU MANY TIMES DURING THE CALL TO AVOID ANY RESTOCKING FEES IF YOU WOULD TAKE A STORE CREDIT BUT INSTEAD YOU REFUSED THAT. THIS WAS A STORE CREDIT FOR THE FULL PRICE OF THE PUMP. NOT ANOTHER PUMP. AND N O R E S T O C K I N G F E E S AS YOU KEEP MENTIONING. Again its easy to throw stones our way especially when you read a few made up reviews on this crack pot website. You write this long store in hopes to slander us and make yourself feel good. We know that we ship thousands of orders every week. We know that we come to work everyday loving our job and doing the best job that we can and do the same for over 20 years now. You can feel good slandering us and leaving out things and that is on you. We will continue to offer our customers a good experience and be here for them. We offer free technical support and we are one of the few companies that will offer proper support from 20 years of knowledge unlike the thousands of companies out there that don't stock what they sell and don't even know the products they offer. We have the knowledge and the products in hand so that we can always offer the best advice when those contact us to take advantage of it. WE HAVE A VERY GOOD BUSINESS MODEL. WE TRY TO HELP OUR CUSTOMERS. WE MAKE OFFERS WHEN WE CAN. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A FEW THAT GET STUCK ON ONE THING AND YOU MAKE THE SAME THREAT. IF WE DON'T DO WHAT YOU WANT THEN YOU WILL TELL EVERYONE HOW BAD WE ARE. THAT IS NOT THE WAY TO GET WHAT YOU WANT. TREAT US WITH RESPECT AND WE WILL DO THE SAME. WE TRIED TO MAKE YOU HAPPY BUT IT WAS NOT EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANTED. WE ARE SORRY FOR THAT! WITH OVER 250,000 CUSTOMERS OVER 20 YEARS SERVING THE POND COMMUNITY WE KNOW THAT WE ARE DOING OUR JOB. NO BUSINESS CAN MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY. ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO AND EVEN THE BIG GORILLA IN THE ROOM DOES NOT MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY.