Buy.com Customer Support Phone Number

One of the greatest things I learned during my time at Google is writing good customer support emails. I think the seeming boring task is actual quick an important part of any Internet B-to-C or B-to-B business because most of the transactions happen online and through exchange of emails.

I have one of the worst customer support experience I have had while I was in the process of ordering a new Memory Stick Pro Duo for my Sony digital camera from Buy.com. As usual, I was searching for a good deal on Buy.com and found that there was a promotion of 2 Lexar 1GB MS for $15.99. Customers with new Google checkout account can even take an additional $10 dollars off. However, when I read the descriptions on the page, I realize that the pictures shown on it do not reflect the descriptions of the item. The pictures shown a MS Pro 1GB but the description states that it's MS PRO DUO 1GB. Anyone with a Sony product knows that they have had so many MS products now that it's confusing which one you exactly need for your Sony products.

I know for certain that I need a MS PRO DUO (the shorter kind) but not the MS PRO. Therefore, I wrote an email to Buy.com asking for clarification to make sure that I am buying MS Pro DUO but not MS Pro. I exchanged emails from them 4 times but the response I got each time was not even close to any possible answer to my question.

"Please refer to http://www.lexar.com/ for details."
"We cannot provide further descriptions of the product you ask."

One customer support email is even a direct copy of the product descriptions they have on the website.

Finally, I got a very brief email from Buy.com today regarding my questions:

"Hello Antony,

Thank you for contacting Buy.com.

This is in reference to your email regarding your email.

Our Customer Support Department is available via telephone 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Our toll-free phone number is 1-800-800-0800 (Press Option #3).

Please contact us with any further questions you may have. Your satisfaction is important to us.

Sincerely,

Buy.com Customer Service
http://www.buy.com/"

I removed the Customer Service Associate's name so that he won't get penalized for his reply.

Now, next time if you buy anything from Buy.com and are confused with their descriptions, you should try giving them a call instead of exchanging emails with them.

Anyway, I gave up on Buy.com and decided to order it from Amazon.com instead. I also want to thank Paolo and many TAs at Google, who taught me how to write proper customer service emails.

Paola, hope you get well very soon!

Rachel and Justice Farewell Lunch

Farewell Lunch with Rachel, Justice, and Victor

Today, I took Victor, Rachel, and Justice for lunch because they are moving to Ohio on Monday. It's very sad for me to see Justice go because I missed him so much when I was back in Hong Kong. When I moved back to Hong Kong at the end of April, I thought that I won't see him again for a long time. However, because of the problem with my vehicle registration, I decided to fly back to San Francisco to sort it out. Luckily enough, the ticket I bought in April was actually an open ticket valid for 6 months. Therefore, I was able to fly back without having the need to buy an expensive ticket during the summer peak travel season.

We went to the P.F. Chang in Sunnyvale for lunch. It actually turned out to be one of the best dinning experience I have had in the States. After we were sat at our table, we waited for a while but no waiter showed up to serve us and take our order. I asked another waitress who walked by and she said she had no idea. Instead of trying to help locate a waitress to serve us, she just walked away. That's BAD customer service experience. She should have told the manager or the host to figure out who should be serving our table. You don't want any disgruntled customer sitting there for minutes.

Finally, our waiter came and he aplogized repeatedly for his tardiness. We could tell that he just got pulled by the manager at the last minute to serve us. He took our order immediately but served all of our drinks except Justice's Sprite. We ended up waiting for another 5 minutes or so before it arrived. The manager came to our table and apologized for the delay in servicing us. He even came back to check on us a few times during our meal to make sure that we were okay with the service. I could tell he was trying to win his customers back. I think he is one of the best mangers I have ever seen because he actually serves a a model and shows other waiters how they should treat their customers. Instead of simplying asking Waiter A or Waitress B to help us, he actually came to our table and made sure that everything was in order throughout the entire meal.

To our surprise, when we asked for our check, the waiter brought over two orders of eggroll bananas with conconut ice-cream as complimentary desserts for us. I thought I would only see this top-notch service at a 5-star hotel. I was very impressed by the manager and we ended up giving a 20% tip. The dessert was so tasty that I would definitely go back and order it next time.

Props to the Asian manager at P.F. Chang in Sunnyvale. If I ever had a restaurant, I would hire you immediatley.