Last Sunday night, I posted a brief warning about Planet of Sound's return policy on the general audio forum. Within minutes, a couple of other forum users had responded to my post, asking questions and making comments.
Over the next 24 hours, the responses continued, and escalated. Some people were clearly in agreement with my feeling that the store's return policy was unfair, and some people were very negative toward my post. In fact, some people got quite personal about it, referring to me as a "man-hater," "loser", and even worse epitaphs. It is astonishing the number of freaks, weirdos and psychos who populate these forums. People who had never met me made personal and awful statements about me, simply because I had posted my opinion about a particular audio retailer.
On the positive side, there were many intelligent posts, and many people who did agree with me that the policy was unreasonable. There were also intelligent posts by people who did not agree with me. And one person even posted a supportive note on my blog!
After twenty-four hours, there was such a flurry of activity, that the owner of Planet of Sound himself had to respond, and he responded several times over the following 24 hours, exaggerating many facts about the return transaction and suggesting I had been confrontational (When I returned to the store, the first thing he said to me was "no returns after 30 days." It was day 28. He then proceeded to tell me that there was nothing wrong with the unit and implied that my father and I were idiots. He then handed me off to a junior sales clerk. So yeah, I may have been a little emotional by that point, but I left the store apologizing for the return - that's how little he and his staff made me feel - with the exception of the nice young lady who sold us the unit in the first place - she was a pleasant exception.)
But as his forum posts continued, he was clearly on the defensive and had to stoop to criticizing me, rather than addressing the real issue - his return policy. A lot of people called him on his policy, and he was clearly unable to defend it successfully.
Over three days, there were 14 pages of posts, and the moderator finally closed off the posting.
Interestingly, within a few hours, the entire post had been deleted. I can only believe that Canuck Audio Mart's loyalty to one of their own (Planet of Sound probably pays some kind of fee as an audio dealer to participate on the site) made them decide to remove the post.
That's okay. I have no doubt that Planet of Sound has lost at least the equivalent of the $400 I spent at the store in the form of future lost sales. And a recent Google search of "Planet of Sound Ottawa" put my forum post in the Top 10 results! That won't last long, but the point has been made, and that was what I set out to do.
Consumers should not accept poor service and should not allow retailers, whether they are online or bricks and mortar, to get away with these types of draconian return policies. The Internet provides many communities of opportunity to state your opinion - if you have the stomach to deal with the psychos, weirdos, and freaks who lurk on Internet forums. My husband refers to Internet forums as "refuges for the damaged." Methinks he exaggerates somewhat, but it was a telling experience.
Caveat emptor!
But also,
Voluptas ultionis melius longo degustatur intervallo, which, roughly translated, means "the pleasure of revenge can be enjoyed for a long time."
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