Legend Micro

This issue did finally get resolved and Paypal didn't need to step in. I'm going to remove any editorial remarks, and just leave the factual emails here. If you do have any problems, I would recommend getting Simon involved, he was prompt and professional - Justin

I bought what was listed as a "Hauppage PVR-150 MCE PCI Card", and received something compeletely different. Below is a copy and paste of all my communications with them.

On 4/23, I sent my first email to them:

Dear legendmicro-wholesale,

I just received my tuner card, and it's not as the auction implied. It
is not compatible with with the WinTV-PVR-150 MCE PCI #1042, it's a
completely different card with different inputs, outputs and chipsets.
I run MythTV on Linux, and there are no drivers for this card.

I would gladly exchange this card for a "true" WinTV PVR 150. If you
don't have one, I will need to get a refund.

-techadvise

Later, on 4/23, they responded via eBay:

We do not advertize this card as being Linux compatible. If you would
like to return this card:
PLEASE CONTACT OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE
please use
link below to file an RMA 
target="_blank">http://www.legendmicro.com/return-auth.asp

-legendmicro-wholesale

Okay, fair enough. I didn't really go into all the details about how their auction was completely incorrect. So, I did that next. On 4/24, I sent them this via eBay:

Dear legendmicro-wholesale,

I can contact your customer service, but I don't think you understand
just how incorrect your listing is. Here are the major points:

- The title reads "Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE PCI Tuner Card". This
card doesn't have anything at all in common with a Hauppage card. It
is a Emuzed Maui I/II, and is described in detail here:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/ivtv/devel/14252.

The auction states the card has an FM Tuner, it does not.

The auction says it has a composite video input, and the card does
not.

These are just the major points.

I need to either have a card that fits the auction description sent to
me free of charge, or I can return this card for a refund. I don't
think I should be responsible for paying freight in either direction
as I would not have bid on the auction if the listing was correct.

Please confirm that I will receive either a replacement or a full
refund.

Justin

-techadvise

To which they replied on 4/24:

Dear techadvise,

Justin,

You will need to contact customer service to proceed with the RMA.

PLEASE CONTACT OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE
please use link below to file
an RMA
http://www.legendmicro.com/return-auth.asp

-legendmicro-wholesale

So, on 4/28, I send them this via eBay:

Dear legendmicro-wholesale,

I contacted customer service on April 24th at 4:30, and still haven't
heard back yet.

If we don't have a plan in place by tomorrow at noon, I'm just going
to start working with Paypal/Ebay to get my money refunded.

Justin

-techadvise

To which Legend Micro replied on 4/28:

Dear techadvise,

PLEASE CONTACT OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE
please use link below to file an
RMA
http://www.legendmicro.com/return-auth.asp

-legendmicro-wholesale

Gosh, that looks a lot like their last message. So, I got a little frustrated, and sent them this back via eBay on 4/28:

Dear legendmicro-wholesale,

IF YOU READ MY PREVIOUS MESSAGE YOU WOULD KNOW THAT I HAVE!  Thanks for
making my decision easy.  Enjoy your negative feedback.

-techadvise

To which they replied on 4/28:

>Dear techadvise,

RMAs are processed in the order that they are received. Sometimes it can
take up to 2 business days to process an RMA. If you would like to talk to
someone regarding your RMA, please call customer service 800-935-9305 x3

-legendmicro-wholesale

At this point, I opened a case with Paypal. Here's what I posted to Paypal on 4/28 to initiate a dispute:

I bid on and won eBay item #260231153044 a “Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150
MCE PCI Tuner Card”. What I received was a TV tuner card, but
nothing close to the specifications set forth in the auction.

The auction title reads “Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 MCE PCI Tuner
Card”. This card doesn’t have anything at all in common with a
Hauppage card. It is a Emuzed Maui I/II which is a cheap knock-off of
the Hauppage.

The auction states the card has an FM Tuner, it does not.

The auction says it has a composite video input, and the card does
not.

I have sent email to the seller 4 times. Each time, he replies with
the same copy & paste answer:
---
PLEASE CONTACT OUR CUSTOMER SERVICE
please use link below to file an RMA
http://www.legendmicro.com/return-auth.asp
---

When I go to the above site, the RMA procedure states that I will be
liable for S&H, which I don’t believe I should be. I emailed the
customer service address listed on his site on 4/24, and have yet to
hear back.

As I have explained to the seller, I am willing to accept either a
full refund of $49 or a true Hauppage PVR-150 MCE PCI card. I will
gladly ship the seller’s card back to him at his expense.

Metaphorically speaking, I bid on an American sports car, and recieved
a British 4 door sedan with the steering wheel on the opposite side.
Sure, it’s a car, but it’s unusable to me, and doesn’t even come
close to matching the original description.

On 4/29, the seller updated the Paypal case:

dear customer,
we apologize for inconvinience,we never received the RMA request from
you, please close the dispute, you will be issued RMA # and pre-paid
shipping label and you will be refunded in full as soon as we will get
the product back in stock, for any questions, please call our customer
service 800-935-9305 ext 3-Kat,
thank you

Immediately after receiving that message, I filled out the RMA form on their site, and put Kat's email above in the notes field. I immediately got an autoreply stating that my request had been received.

On 4/30, I get this via my personal email account, bypassing eBay and Paypal:

Dear customer,

we apologize for inconvenience, we never received the RMA request from
you, please close the dispute, you will be issued RMA # and pre-paid
shipping label and you will be refunded in full as soon as we will get
the product back in stock, for any questions, please call our customer
service 800-935-9305 ext 3-Kat, thank you

Thank You for Your Business

Kat  (Customer service)

 @LegendMicro.com

30700 Carter Street

STE B

Solon, Ohio 44139

440-776-8839  Direct Voice

800-935-9305  Ext. 3

440-498-0706  Fax

LegendMicro.com

On 4/30, I replied back to Kat directly:

Kat,

My apologies, but since the dispute seems to be my only way to get a
quick response from your company, I'm going to keep it open until the
issue is resolved.

I never submitted an RMA request before, I simply emailed
service@legendmicro.com with questions that I never received a
response to.

However, I did submit an RMA form last night, and got an autoreply,
but nothing else after that.  My request number is 501014.

Thanks,

Justin

On 5/1, I received this update to the Paypal dispute case:

please close dispute and call 800-935-9305 ext 3

On 5/1, I update the Paypal case with the recent communications, and set forth an ultimatum:

As I stated in my email to you yesterday, I will not close this
dispute until my dispute is resolved. It is not. I have filled out
your RMA form, and received a request number of 501014. I have not
received an RMA number, nor a pre-paid shipping label.

Since your priority seems to be getting me to close this dispute
without actually resolving the problem, I'm going to mandate that all
future communications take place through Paypal for third-party
documentation - I will not call you. Once I recieve an RMA number and
a prepaid shipping label, I will ship the part back to you. Once my
paypal account is refunded, I will close this dispute. UNTIL THAT
POINT IN TIME, I WILL NOT CLOSE THIS DISPUTE! Please stop asking me to
do so.

We have 17 days to get this resolved before I file a claim. I suggest
you stop trying to get me to close the dispute and get around to
sending me that RMA number and shipping label that you've been
promising me for 3 days now.

Justin

After updating the case, Kat emailed me at my personal email account on 5/1:

As soon as we will see the dispute closed, you will be emailed RMA # along
with prepaid shipping label and we do have the right item in stock for you.

Thank You for Your Business

Kat  (Customer service)
 @LegendMicro.com
30700 Carter Street
STE B
Solon, Ohio 44139
440-776-8839  Direct Voice
800-935-9305  Ext. 3
440-498-0706  Fax
LegendMicro.com

I updated the case with paypal with this:

Paypal,

Kat from LegendMicro just emailed my personal email account,
disregarding my request to stop communicating "out of band". Directly
quoting her entire email:
---BEGIN QUOTE---
As soon as we will see the dispute closed, you will be emailed RMA #
along with prepaid shipping label and we do have the right item in
stock for you.

Thank You for Your Business
Kat (Customer service)
@LegendMicro.com
30700 Carter Street STE B
Solon, Ohio 44139
440-776-8839
Direct Voice 800-935-9305 Ext. 3
440-498-0706 Fax
LegendMicro.com
---END QUOTE---

It is obvious to me that the seller is not concerned with customer
service, only with closing this dispute. Probably so that they can
string me along further without a deadline hanging over them. It's my
opinion that I've done everything I can to facilitate fair commerce
between myself and the seller, and that the seller has done nothing to
try and resolve the issue.

To date, I have still never received an RMA number, nor a shipping
label. I give up. They have done nothing that I ask, and really seem
to want me to take this "offline".

My only recourse at this point is to turn this over to Paypal as a
claim.

Paypal, I have complete documentation of all email communications
between the seller and myself should you need it.

Thanks,

Justin

I then escalated the dispute to a claim with this comment:

While the seller will answer my emails, they will not give me an RMA
number or a shipping label. They continue to try and get me to close
the dispute without giving me any indications that they will follow
through with their statements.

Shortly after posting this blog entry, and giving negative feedback on the seller, I finally got an RMA from them. There's some semi-sensitive information in the email, so I'll refrain from posting it here. However, two things to note:

• The RMA reflects that the card is indeed an Emuzed card, not a Hauppage. Did they know all along?
• The RMA includes a refund on my original shipping charge. This is good! However, I didn't get any notice of a shipping label to send the Emuzed card back to them.

So, I sent them an email asking about the freight to them on 5/2:

Thank you for the RMA number.

Kat in customer service promised me that I would receive a pre-paid
shipping label to return the part back to you. What is the status on
that label?

Justin

Also on 5/2, I received a reply from someone (judging from the typing style, either Kat or the seller) to my personal email account:

Please Close the dispute and you will receive the shipping label.

I immediately replied:

The dispute is closed it's a claim now.

You can send me the shipping label, and I'll stop the claim.  Or you
can lose the claim, pay me my refund and have to deal with Paypal
marking you as a questionable merchant.  Your choice.

It's beyond the point of the money now, it's the principle of the
whole thing.  You guys didn't do jack for me until I opened the claim.
 Hell, I have a good reason to think that you knew you were selling me
something different than what I bid on.  There's no way I'm going to
give up the only leverage I have in exchange for your "word" that
you'll get me a shipping label.

You might like to know that I'm tracking all of our communications via
my blog so that Paypal and other potential customers of yours can get
a heads up on what kind of shady practices you take part in.
http://techadvise.com/2008/05/02/legend-micro/ - I update it quite
regularly.

Justin

I received an email from Simon on 5/2:

Justin,

First of all, I’d like to apologize on behalf of Legend Micro for
the miscommunication that occurred with this transaction.

Second, I’d like to give you this shipping label in hopes of
resolving the claim/dispute. Along with that, I’d like for you to
consider removing the negative feedback you left for us.

I’d also like to explain to you what happened in the
misunderstanding:

Our warehouse mistakenly sent the wrong card. This is our mistake and
you should have been issued a shipping label from the beginning. We do
have the Hauppauge card that you originally ordered in stock. We would
be more than happy to send you the card that you originally bought in
exchange the card that was incorrectly shipped to you.

Please let me know if you would like the Hauppauge card or a full
refund.

You can contact me directly at this email or by calling me at either
of the numbers below.

Regards,
Simon

Legend Micro
30700 Carter Street Suite B
Solon, Ohio 44139
Phone: 888-368-7573
Direct/International: 440-394-4570

To which I replied:

Simon,

THANK YOU!!! This is all that I have wanted done since this issue was
started 11 days ago. I would love to get the proper card sent out.

Let's do this - I will drop the original card off at the UPS store
with the label you have sent me. If you ship out the replacement and
supply me with the tracking number, I will close the Paypal claim, and
update my feedback on eBay.

Let me know if this works for you.

Again, thank you for finally stepping up.

Justin

A few minutes later Simon replied back:

Justin,

Sure this is not a problem. We can ship out the card as soon as we see that
the label we sent you has been activated and the package is in UPS'
possession. Please let me know when you are planning on dropping the card
off at the UPS store.

Regards,
Simon

I sent him the following email:

I will do this over my lunch break in the next couple of hours.

Simon and I emailed back and forth a few more times, and they did what they promised. Once their tracking number showed the package was in UPS' hands, I got a shipment notification of the replacement card. On 5/7, I received my replacement which is quite obviously a "true" Hauppage WinTV PCI card.