Cooltechnica - NO RETURNS on watercooling

Hidden far into Cooltechnica's policy statement is the line "On all watercooling and related products, including accessories all sales are final unless otherwise noted. " How's that for customer-focus.

I picked up the crappy DangerDen Blue Acrylic Reservoir from them and they won't take it back. I've already contact the Better Business Bureau and the credit card company is getting a call tomorrow.

In case anybody needs it later, the Better Business Bureau of Nevada is at http://www.vegasbbb.org/

And the domain name info is:
SAS Worldwide Inc
Tony Sasmaz
1555 East Flamingo Road
suite# 155
LV, Nevada 89119

I had bought from them before but I guess I should've searched for recommendations before EVER buying from them.

Your credit card company will tell you to call back after your next billing statement with the charge on it. They can not do anything until after this cycle. Something to do with Fair Business something or other. American Express told me this when i called up to dispute a charge.

Thanks for the advise. I've probably bought total about $30K of stuff on the web and this is the first time I've had to do it. And for a measly $25.

I was pretty sure that most watercooling stuff sold online won't be taken back?

I hate to say that I think the credit card company is not going to help you on this one but I may be wrong. I sell some online (high performance car parts) and have a policy of no returns on some parts no matter what the reason and it is stated at the end of my disclaimers and return policy page, although you are not able to check out until you agree to the policies. I have had people that have tried to force the issue and went to thier credit card co. and lost the dispute. The credit card co. basically told them that it was their responsibility (the card holders) to read all the policies and disclaimers and that I was not to blame.
I hope that things work out for you but if it was stated somewhere on the site it really is your problem not theirs.

The Reservoir is defective. Bad seals on a couple of the edges. I explained what happened to my credit card company and they've sent out the paperwork. They thought it was pretty straightforward.

But the cool thing in all this is that Dan from DangerDen contacted me directly this morning and offered to exchange it himself. He was extremely polite and really wanted to make it right. Even offering to refund my shipping cost!

Now, if only Cooltechnica hadn't been such jacka$$es this never would've happened. You wouldn't believe how rude their emails were.

I've dealt with Cooltechnica so many times it's really hard for me to believe that you can receive "rude" e-mails from them. If you drove them nuts that's another thing though.

Couple of weeks ago I bought the Swiftech 226W pelt conversion kit from them. The wire was so thick on the 226W pelt (i believe 14gauge) while installing the kit to my 462-U it broke at the solder joints. Although Swiftech doesn't honor the warranty for broken wires, Cooltechnica sent me a replacement pelt right away and with thinner wires (16 or 18 gauge i believe)

BTW i think as the manufacturer Danger Den is to blame not cooltechnica. For example VIA keeps releasing buggy chipsets for the motherboards, I don't hear anyone flaming the resellers, everyone blames VIA.

Al666 said:

I've dealt with Cooltechnica so many times it's really hard for me to believe that you can receive "rude" e-mails from them. If you drove them nuts that's another thing though.

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I've only sent them two emails and they were both extremely polite. The first merely detailed the problems with the reservoir and why I'd like to return it. The second detailed the steps that I took. There's no point in me being rude or inflammatory to them. It had never actually occurred to me that they wouldn't take it back until the first response from them which was a terse and rude "All sales final".

BTW i think as the manufacturer Danger Den is to blame not cooltechnica. For example VIA keeps releasing buggy chipsets for the motherboards, I don't hear anyone flaming the resellers, everyone blames VIA.

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What about if the motherboard arrived with the CPU socket half-off. Would you expect to return the motherboard to the reseller? Of course you would.

DD is responsible for making a defective product. Cooltechnica is responsible for SELLING me that defective product and then refusing to take it back.

Keep in mind that DD immediately offered to exchange the reservoir for me. Cooltechnica DID NOT. All they said is "All sales final". If you buy a shirt from Target and it has hole in it, do you return it to the manufactuer or Target?

Ofcourse if the product is defective they should change it... Well like i said when i had an issue with a product they replaced it immediately... Their service is faster than any other online company that i worked before...
Besides I recommended them to so many people, including personal friends, relatives and co-workers... everyone that i know is extremely happy with cooltechnica... and that's why i'm so surprised

I don't know the details ofcourse but something doesn't sound right to me... also you are saying that DD responded immediately huh? That's really rare... to my experince their earliest response time was 1 week...

Al666 said:

Ofcourse if the product is defective they should change it... Well like i said when i had an issue with a product they replaced it immediately... Their service is faster than any other online company that i worked before...

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You wanna see some superior customer service then RMA something to Crucial. You have your part the next day without sending yours back right away.

In your original post you did not say that the seal or anything else was damaged, this makes a big difference imo.

Originally posted by sminker
You wanna see some superior customer service then RMA something to Crucial. You have your part the next day without sending yours back right away.

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Crucial is unbelievable! Nothing comes close to Crucial for service.

One time I got a DIMM from Crucial that ended up being too tall for a 1U server that I have. I called them up to see about getting a new one that fits (I decided to use the new DIMM elsewhere). The dude says "hello" on the first ring, I spend 15 seconds explaining, during that time he has already found my order, he says "I'm sorry about the problem (it wasn't Crucials fault - it was mine) and you will receive the new DIMM tomorrow."

Total time on the phone, less then 45 seconds. 20 seconds of that was me trying to catch up with how fast he resolved the problem.

This is like the 3rd awesome customer service experience I've had with Crucial. I haven't bought SDR/DDR memory from anybody else in years. If only they made RDRAM...

I've NEVER seen customer service like Crucial.

Originally posted by sminker
You wanna see some superior customer service then RMA something to Crucial. You have your part the next day without sending yours back right away.

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I strongly agree! Crucial is unbelievable! Nothing comes close to Crucial for service.

One time I got a DIMM from Crucial that ended up being too tall for a 1U server that I have. I called them up to see about getting a new one that fits (I decided to use the new DIMM elsewhere). The dude says "hello" on the first ring, I spend 15 seconds explaining, during that time he has already found my order, he says "I'm sorry about the problem (it wasn't Crucials fault - it was mine) and you will receive the new DIMM tomorrow."

Total time on the phone, less then 45 seconds. 20 seconds of that was me trying to catch up with how fast he resolved the problem.

This is like the 3rd awesome customer service experience I've had with Crucial. I haven't bought SDR/DDR memory from anybody else in years. If only they made RDRAM...

I've NEVER seen customer service like Crucial.

i've had bad luck with cooltechnica. the sent me a wb with a pelt backwards the cold plate got hot!! Good thing i tested it out before putting it on my cpu.

Hi everyone,

This's Bruce from Cooltechnica.

First of all I want to make something clear. We do honor returns on damaged or defective products, there's no question about that.

Ravton - We did accept the return on the Danger Den blue acrylic reservoir, once you said the product is defective.
But in your first e-mail, you said unlike all of the other DD equipment you have, this reservoir has not turned out to be of high quality. You didn't say, it's not in working condition, damaged during the shipment, has leak issues or anything similar to that regard. You addressed technical issues that lead to the better improvement of the product. Such as the methyl chloride wasn't applied correctly, the fittings that come with the reservoir must have larger diameter and teflon tape is needed to get a good seal etc. We are not the manufacturer of the products that we sell, we just carry them. I CCed my reply to Dan over at Danger Den, and immediately gave him a call and discussed the issues that you mentioned. He responded to your e-mail that I CCed to him the very next day and asked you to send it to them to see what's wrong with it and offered you a replacement. And like i said in the beginning, even before Dan's response we honored the return of the reservoir, and I tried to explain the situation more clearly. Besides I don't believe that I was rude or harsh in my replies to you.
we do our earnest to serve the needs of our customers even down to a personal level and frankly, we are dismayed by all this.

o-clock-547 -

i've had bad luck with cooltechnica. the sent me a wb with a pelt backwards the cold plate got hot!! Good thing i tested it out before putting it on my cpu.

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Well we definetely messed up on that one, and I remember it clearly because that's the only one we made a mistake . But I immediately called you on your cell phone after I learned that you paid shipping and repair charges to Swiftech. I apologized for this situation and asked you to tell me how much Swiftech charged you including the shipping. I told you that it's our responsibility to pay whatever it cost you, although you didn't request anything from us. And as you know we didn't charge you anything extra for saturday delivery to make it up for you. BTW I'm still asking you to tell me how much it cost you. Please e-mail me so that we'll refund the amount back to your credit card.

i dont believe Cooltechnica actualy responded on the posts they are on the ball i just wish they had tygon tubing id buy some and if they had gagets like digidoc 5 hint hint cough cough but im glad they addresed your issue

Bruce
I would have responded just as you did with the orginal info provided. I think you handled things perfectly and it sounds to me like your follow through is outstanding.
From what I am hearing we have similar problems between returns on high performance parts wether they are for computers or cars. The customer needs to clearly state the problem or defect not what he or she would do different in design this just doesn't matter to the reseller 99% of the time because we only sell it. If the customer has suggestions to improving quality those concerns should be directed at the manufacturer.
Good response Bruce!

I joined I joined

I just want to give you my opinions

I ordered a bunch of stuff from CT.

I had a Maze3 in that order.

I had e-mailed bruce with a question along the lines of:

I was wondering, how I will get my tracking number, etc. Is it at Cooltechnica.com? Or will It be e-mailed?

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Bruce replied with an honest and straight forward e-mail saying that the Maze3 were not delivered last week, due to a problem with D-Dens CNC machines (Whatever they are ) and that as soon as he ships my order, I will be informed of my tracking number v.i.a. E-mail. (I love tracking, its like a tease )

So I was disappointed, Im one of those people that like things right away

So he recently sent me an e-mail telling my that he will recieve the Maze3's on the 24th, and that my order will be sent that same day.

CT...No, Bruce is one great businessman, his prompt replies and speedy shipments are the things all business's should strive for.

I too, hope to own a business someday.

[long boring story]
I want to.....
Aww hell with it
[/long boring story]

Keep up the GREAT work bruce! Get some more inventory and I'll order from you ALL the time

Window Kits! Window Kits!

dacooltech said:

Hi everyone,
Ravton - We did accept the return on the Danger Den blue acrylic reservoir, once you said the product is defective.
But in your first e-mail, you said unlike all of the other DD equipment you have, this reservoir has not turned out to be of high quality. You didn't say, it's not in working condition, damaged during the shipment, has leak issues or anything similar to that regard.

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If you're going to state supposed facts like this Bruce, you should really double-check them before posting them in a public forum. I believe I clearly stated that the seals were defective. The other items I addressed were my opinions on how DD could make the product better.

This is the first paragraph of my email to you. I added the highlighting:

I want to enquire about how to return the "DD Blue Acrylic Reservoir"
that I purchased. Unlike all of the other DD equipment I have, this
reservoir has not turned out to be of high quality. The most
important factor is it has significient defects in how the methyl
chloride was applied resulting in a really poor quality seal.

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This is your complete response to that email. I edited out the double spaced lines.

All sales are final on water-cooling products.
The fittings on the reservoir are 1/2"OD.
Teflon tape is definitely needed to get a good seal.
I CCd this e-mail to Danger Den, so that they can give you more details on the product.
Bruce

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A very friendly and warm response there Bruce. In your terseness you didn't even bother to address the faulty seals.

Here's the 2nd paragraph from your next email:

What i undertand from your comments is that the product is not damaged during the shipment, doesn't have cracks on the surface or other visible damage to prevent it from it's working condition. Therefor i don't see why the reservoir is defective. The technical issues that you are addressing for the reservoir lead to better improvement of this product, which needs to be discussed directly with the manufacturer. And we will definetely bring them to their attention.

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Again, you missed my statement about the faulty seals. After that you finally did offer to take it back. I can't help but notice that was only after I submitted a report on you to the BBB and my credit card company.

I wasn't trying to start a flame war here. The point of it, as the subject states pretty clearly is that Cooltechnica has a NO RETURNS policy on Watercooling gear. A couple of people have suggested that "I drove you nutts" but in fact, I think I've done an good job of stating the facts as I know them.

mustangman said:

I would have responded just as you did with the orginal info provided. I think you handled things perfectly and it sounds to me like your follow through is outstanding. <snip>[/B]

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Mustangman, please read my previous response, especially where I quoted the first paragraph of my initial email to Cooltechnica. I think you're "Good Response Bruce" should be reconsidered.