[RANT] Sybaritic

[DarkRanger]

I don't know if this is in the right section. If not, please move.

Anyway, here goes my story:

About the 19th 20th of Feb, I was looking at a computer for my brother. The kid had a budget of R 10 000, and I had a good idea of what to get him. After playing around with different CPU's and GFX card combos to give him the best bang for buck for both Photo/Video Editing and gaming, I found out that Sybaritic is selling a 660GTX for R16xx. So I thought, Awesome. Great card, great price, I want it. Went online, ordered and paid, same day. Nowhere on the site did it mention that the item was not in stock.

After I paid for shipping and all (bringing the total to R1720) I received an update which said the item was out of stock and would only be processed on the 28th. Thought okay, a week and a bit to wait, not that bad. In the meanwhile, picked up all the other parts and built the PC.

The 28th rolled around, and I received this:

Our delivery on the INNOVISION GeForce GTX 660 GDDR5 2GB/192bit has unfortunately been delayed. We will advise as soon as we have more information. Apologies for the delay.

Thought, Okay, another day or two, not that bad.

The 1st of March came, and I got an email from the auto update thingy, and it said the following:

Our supplier has unfortunately advised that we can no longer source this. Is there another option we could possibly look into for you? We recommend:

KFA² GeForce GTX 660 2GB EX OC - 192-bit, 1006MHz Clock, 1072MHz Boost Clock, 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 Memory 6008MHz, 960 Cuda Cores, 1 x Dual DVI-D Connector 1 x Dual DVI-I Connector, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort, PCIe 3.0, 3 Year Warranty
[66NPH7DN6ZVZ]

KFA² GeForce GTX 660 2GB EX OC - 192-bit, 1006MHz Clock, 1072MHz Boost Clock, 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 Memory 6008MHz, 960 Cuda Cores, 1 x Dual DVI-D Connector 1 x Dual DVI-I Connector, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort, PCIe 3.0, 3 Year Warranty
R2,715.00

So a whole grand more than I already paid. Mailed Sybaritic, and told them that according to the CPA, they have to supply the card to me at that price, and as such I won't pay the extra R1000.

This is where Graeme Simms, Managing Director of Sybaritic, comes in. Now, before we go into detail, I would think that an MD would take every measure in the world to ensure that the company image is not damaged. Firstly, Mr. Simms could not grasp the fact that he was having the same discussion with me on two different emails. So for the sake of the post, I'll just post the one conversation (He replied to the other email about 3 times after I told him twice that he is having the same discussion on two different places).

Hi Albert,

I’ve tried to get our supplier to come down on price but they can’t give me a better price unfortunately. Please advise?

Making it my problem...

Hi Graeme,

I still stand by my decision.

Unfortunately you advertised the item at that price. According to the CPA, you are bound to that price.

I've cancelled a 3 day delivery order at another place for this graphics card because it was so cheap, and now I just get screwed around? It means I now need to either pay you guys R1000, or reorder and wait some more.

I fail to see how non-delivery on your part is my problem.

Regards,
Albert

Hi Albert,

I’ll be bound to the price but I just can’t get the stock

Hi Graeme,

And now it's my issue? After waiting 2 weeks for the product, and then being notified your supplier doesn't have stock.

Regards,
Albert

Hi Albert,

It’s our issue, but I can’t get that item anymore L I’ve asked what you would like to do.

Hi Graeme,

The more I hear about your company the more I don't want to do business with you guys.

Rather just refund my money (R1,721.00) and I'll take my business elsewhere.

Regards,
Albert

So that was that. Sent him my banking details this morning before 8, and asked him to please pay it before 12:00 (because that way it will show tomorrow, and as such I'll have the cash to buy a card at some other place). And Mr Simms only paid it after 16:00. So I'm livid. I work a 8 - 5 job. We have shorter hours on Friday (which means 8 - 4) so I can drive to Rectron tomorrow and pick up a card. But now I need to wait till next week, because of incompetence.

So I replied to his utter incompetence just now:

Hi Graeme,

Thanks for the payment.

It baffles me to think that it took you 8 hours. Do you think I asked for it to be paid at 12:00 because I'm trying to be a pain in the nether regions? No. See the thing is: I asked for it to be paid by 12:00 because then the money would show by tomorrow. That means that I can go to a supplier tomorrow and pick up the card.

But now you've paid it after 4. Which means I won't be receiving the money tomorrow, but only on Saturday. Which in turn means that I won't be able to buy the card tomorrow. And since I have an 8 to 5 job, and only leave earlier on Fridays, I won't have a card till next week Friday. Which pushes my total waiting time, because of your incompetence up to a whole month.

To think that I almost made the second biggest mistake in my life by doing business with you, is frightening (my biggest mistake was visiting your website in the first place). I will however advise everyone I know in the computering community to steer well clear of your shop as you've made it clear that your shop CAN survive without the support of customers.

I would be ashamed if my service was even half as bad as yours is.

Regards,
Albert

So please everyone, stay away from Sybaritic. Graeme obviously doesn't care about the customer. If you don't believe me, read the forums on there. He's attitude in general stinks.

Here's my bad to good experiences at other online shops:
Takealot, pre-ordered a game and a CD, asked that they be sent at the same time. CD got released before the game. When they updated my order, they said they were out of stock on the CD so the game is delayed. Contacted them and said that's bullocks, I pre-ordered long ago. In the end, they sent the game, credited the CD and sent it as soon as they had stock (which was a week later).
Kalahari had a similar issue but with two CD's.

I'm not asking for freebies, just a good customer experience online and some proper service.

Sybaritic won't see me EVER again.

/rant over. now I feel better!

[DarkRanger]

Oh and for the TL;DR fools: Sybaritic sucks, their MD's attitude stinks, and they suck. Oh wait, already covered that.

[rustypup]

sorry to hear it

i have done business many times with sybaritic in the past, (12 or so orders including 2 complete machines), and have had zero issue...

the one stock niggle was easily resolved because:
1) i understand how supply chains work in the real world
2) i don't treat the CPA as a catch-all proof of entitlement...

there is fair warning on the site, and the order, that stock is not confirmed available...

[SykomantiS]

That may be so rusty, but it still doesn't excuse their attitude. Most of my friends also don't support them anymore, because of this poor excuse that they call service- one of my friends had debacle where he had to wait more than 3 months to sort out a power supply issue- in the end he was out of pocket for two psu's and when the 1st one was finally agreed upon as faulty, they refused refund, only giving credit and so forcing my friend to spend that credit or lose it. And that is just unacceptable.

In my eyes the only thing Greamme has managed to accomplish is alienate customers who've literally spent tens of thousands of rands in the past. Orders like 7 or 8 laptops at a time, full high performance gaming spec machines etc. The type of orders you would ideally want to have a cc registered for.

From our side, they will not see business again either.

[rustypup]

hmm..

maybe i'm dodging bullets...

[Stuart]

For what it's worth, I've also personally never had issues with Sybaritic, though I have read many of the complaints to which DR is referring.

[KALSTER]

hmm..

maybe i'm dodging bullets...

I ordered an adsl router from them once. The wifi router I received had no modem capabilities, which meant I had to buy a modem locally at an extra expense. Thing is, I received exactly what I ordered and was simply being a noob.

[StarBound]

I tend to mail and ask if stock is available before paying. Just something I picked up from my experience with Prophecy. Waited 2 weeks, phoned, got told they still don't have stock, cancelled my order, got refunded. Then sometime later the afternoon I received the sms saying they finally got stock and if I still wanted it but sadly that happened while I wasn't at my phone so I missed it. In the end I went with a more expensive option from someone else which meant I had to replace my agp card with a pci-e card.

The end result was a better one.

[D3PART3D]

I ordered a router from them once. When the delivery date eventually came by I got one of those automated emails to tell me that there had been a delay and that I would have to wait a little longer. A week later, another automated email with a further delay… had I not emailed them I would have received mail from a machine for weeks on end. You'd think there would be a human being monitoring the system. The automated update was very vague on what was actually going on, and Graham was not very apologetic. I let it slide because I had not had any issues with them before, but I've also seen all the other complaints from other customers. My business goes mainly to Wootware or Landmark these days.