My Prophecy experience

A

ABU

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Hi guys,

Thought I would share this experience with the forum. I am sure most have had good experiences with Prophecy, who generally offer good service with reasonable prices. It was mainly due to the good comments about them on this forum that I decided to give them a try.
(Ok, I admit the R100 discount and free shipping on orders over R1500 also played a big part)

I placed an order on Mon 5th Oct and made the deposit the next day. Order was shipped out on Thursday and reached me Friday morn. Superb.

Then I opened the box...

While 3 of the items I ordered were correct, the fourth wasn't.

I had ordered this Vantec E-Sata Enclosure, yet received this one, which is way cheaper and only USB.
Ok, an error of this sort is understandable, esp as the model numbers are so similar (nst-300SU & nst-300s2), so I called them immediately, politely explained the problem and requested the correct one be sent to me.
They promised to order it immediately, saying that if it isn't here today (Fri), then it will be here on Mon, so it should reach me by Tuesday.

Tuesday came and no drive or email from them, so I emailed them; no reply so emailed twice on Wed and still no reply.
Then phoned them on Wed afternoon and was told that the drive would be in tomorrow or Fri, so I should have it by Monday. The supplier apparently had made an error.

Monday came and went with no email or drive, so I sent off another email, which went unanswered as usual.
Then yesterday afternoon (Tue) I received an email that my order has been shipped.
I received it happily this morning relieved that this ordeal is now over, or so I thought.

I opened the box and what do I find?
This!!!
A dual-HD e-Sata dock, instead of the enclosure.
These guys probably looked for a Vantec product whose model number ended with SU and found this one.
The correct model no. is nst-300SU while this one is nst-d200-su.

I was tempted to just keep it (it is double the price); these incompetent guys would never know. I however called them and explained the problem and received a promise that this item would be ordered immediately and shipped to me today, to reach tomorrow. If not, they promised to call me this afternoon on my cell to let me know that it wouldn't be shipped immediately.

Anyone wants to guess if I received that call? or the email with the tracking number?

They managed to mess up the same order twice and also didn't reply to 4 emails. I wonder how guys of this sort manage to stay in business.
They have to pay for 3 courier deliveries to me, plus a fourth one to collect the wrong drives! For an order with Free Shipping!
 
Last edited:
Have you tried contacting them on their forum?? Generally they respond faster on their then through email.

Sad to hear you had issues. Have used them 4 times and never had problems.
 
Should've kept the double dock, but then again it's not really a portable item.

Unfortunately, things do go wrong from time to time.

As for forums vs e-mails; not everyone is going to go sign up for a forum for this sort of thing when they've been offered an e-mail address to communicate through. What is it with SA companies and e-mail? Why bother having an e-mail address available to the public when you're not going to read any of it or do so selectively?
 
stefan9 said:
Have you tried contacting them on their forum?? Generally they respond faster on their then through email.

Sad to hear you had issues. Have used them 4 times and never had problems.
Click to expand...

Seriously? That'd disgusting, a company should reply to emails and phonecalls as a priority, users whouldn't have to post and monitor threads to replies. Prophecy -1
 
nihilist said:
Seriously? That'd disgusting, a company should reply to emails and phonecalls as a priority, users whouldn't have to post and monitor threads to replies. Prophecy -1
Click to expand...

Hey, I sit and read forums all day as well and don't do work.

:D
 
stefan9 said:
Have you tried contacting them on their forum?? Generally they respond faster on their then through email.
Click to expand...

That's BS. Why would they respond faster on the forum? Because it's posted publicly? Not good.
 
I've ordered from them a couple of times. No problems.

I ordered my first 360 from them when it was released all them years ago.
 
kayvee said:
That's BS. Why would they respond faster on the forum? Because it's posted publicly? Not good.
Click to expand...

I see posts and pm's on the forums I visit faster then when checking email as well.

Generally when emailing them it takes them a day or two to respond but when I pm the correct guys on the forum they will respond on the same day.

Not going to defend them and the ways they do their business. All I will say is they have always given me excellent service and I will use them in the future.
 
I found that phoning them is much quicker, and you almost never have to hold.
 
Finally received the correct enclosure today, 2 weeks late.
 
I can't help wondering why some online stores do this :confused:

Website specifically says don't call us to check stock on an item, email us.

Item reflects "in stock at Prophecy".

Send email to inquire on stock and warranty, a few minutes later one of those "we're busy" auto-responder email arrives.

One week later..... diddly squat. :(
 
I'm been thinking about something similar. Do the distributors have portals to query stock? Since hardly any of these online stores actually have stock on-hand, how can they put up something regarding stock availability? Obviously, this is why they need an e-mail instead of allowing people to call. You can't have the customer on the line while trying to call the distributor at the same time while trying to keep up the pretense that you are an actual brick-n-mortar shop that currently has stock.

I haven't approached my suppliers regarding this, but it'd be quite cool to have a portal as opposed to running off an excel price list which is outdated the moment you get it.
 
A message to the guys at Prophecy if you are reading this, as you guys don't seem to read emails:

It is now more than 6 weeks that your two enclosures are sitting at my home. Please arrange for collection by Friday.
 
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