brad's Experience
Written: Feb 01 '08 (Updated Feb 06 '08)
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| Full Review |
Greetings. Normally, when I see that a product or service has been reviewed many times over and I see that there is a general consensus on the quality of service, I don't bother posting yet another review. However, given my visibility here and a very thorough experience dealing with this merchant, I think it is important that I post my experience. So, here goes.
I will start by saying this is the worst online shopping experience I have ever had. Now this is saying something. I have been shopping online extensively since 1998 when I first bought tickets off of Ticketmaster. I have bought from probably over 100 different online-only merchants these past ten years, many (if not most) being "gray market" or seemingly "fly by night" operations. I have never been burned. Some might find that surprising. I have always been willing to take risks with young "up and coming" merchants, giving them the chances, but all for one reason: to save me money. And I have saved a lot of money doing business this way. I think shopping online is the best way to do business because of the inherent competition. The margins are in the range of 20% less than traditional "brick and mortar" counterparts, just on a general scale. Obviously, this differs depending upon what you are buying.
I was shopping for a treadmill, a particular treadmill and Mercantila had the best price. I did my research on the treadmill over and over again and settled - don't think "settle is the right word, but nevertheless - settled on the Sole F80 2008 model. This model's MSRP is $1,999, but even the brick and mortar store Dick's Sporting Goods sells it for $1,499 here in Minnesota. The obvious problem is that I have to pay sales tax on top of that and then of course, I need to haul it home from the store.
Mercantila offered it to me for $1424 after a $75 coupon that was published for their store, which presented the final price of $1424 being $63 cheaper than the next best online price which was $1,487. Free shipping was available from all of the top price competitors for this treadmill. I thought $1,424 was a great price and so I jumped at it.
Now with my opening statement out of the way - that this has been the worst shopping experience of my life - the question is, would I do it all over again?
Yes.
What exactly transpired?
First, these people are absolute liars. What Mercantila does (and what other merchants do) is advertise something on their website as "in stock" and then offer a price and then take orders. But they don't have these items in stock. In fact, and I learned this from the shipping company (of which two I dealt with), Mercantila turned around and simply ordered the treadmill directly from Sole (the treadmill manufacturer) and had it shipped directly from Sole to me. It was never in any warehouse of Mercantila, in fact Mercantila never even had possession of the treadmill.
What problem does this present? Well, for starters I placed the order on December 27 (2007). I'll give you one guess as to the date they billed my credit card. You guessed it, December 27. The treadmill didn't arrive at my residence until January 28. I could stop the review right here and that would be enough to steer most of you away.
But it gets worse. Their customer service team throughout this process never admits the situation and leaves me clueless throughout, continually frustrated as to why it is taking so long to ship something that they presented as simply being in one of their warehouses (if they actually exist) and having it sent out to me. They just kept giving me excuses. "Oh, it's the holidays. The shipping company doesn't operate during such and such a holiday." In fact, the shipping company did not take possession of the treadmill from Sole until January 14. I know that from one of about two dozen phone calls made to three different shipping companies in all, one of which ended up not being part of the transaction at all, being merely miscommunication or simply lies from the shipping company!
So not only was Mercantila incredibly bad in getting this organized with Sole, Sole's shipping company was incredibly bad in dealing with me as a consumer. I don't blame Sole, because in all likelihood, they probably don't have that many cases where they need to ship something directly to a consumer (unless it is from their front end - from their sales staff).
For the record, the shipping company in charge of getting the treadmill to me was "ALG" (just Google them). ALG outsourced the residential delivery to a company called "Freightmaster." And believe me, I hounded these people for about fifteen days, trying to find out where my treadmill was and when I could get an ETA. When I finally got an ETA, Freightmaster called me a day early and said they were coming out to deliver. Since my residence is a farm site and there are people here to sign for deliveries, this isn't a problem. But had this been for the average suburbanite Joe Schmo, it would have been a big problem.
In case you are wondering, Mercantila's website is subpar. I noticed that right off the bat. It's basically stuck in maybe 2000-2001. But it is functional. To their credit, the checkout process was smooth and I did receive a confirmation email.
The problem with Mercantila is entirely logistical. But then, that's what this is all about. You can have the fanciest website in the world, but if you cannot process orders in a timely manner and get product shipped and delivered, then you're next to worthless.
I knew there was risk involved when I bought from a company that offered a product grossly below anybody else's price and I knew there was the possibility for hassle. I deal well with hassle. I have been through the mill a few times and know how to deal with these people. Somebody who hasn't dealt with these types of merchants would have gone insane. My logic is that I am just willing to put up with it to save money. I saved $63 by putting up with their hassle and probably waiting two weeks longer than another merchant who would have charged me $100 more.
So that's the story on Mercantila. Yes, I only bought one item from them, so it's not like I have broad evidence that this is always the experience one has with this merchant. But if this one experience proves anything, it is that Mercantila is willing to lie and lie often. Trust is everything.
I do not recommend Mercantila.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Sole F80 2008 model treadmill
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Epinions.com ID:
brad
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Member: Brad Engelmann
Location: Helen Township, MN
Reviews written: 161
Trusted by: 94 members
About Me:
brad@engelmann.us (email address)
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