You receive an e-mail from a large PC company offering various Black Friday deals.
You decide to order a laptop computer for your girlfriend for the holidays, as hers is getting older and she had talked about wanting to buy a new one.
You get a good deal on the computer -- about $900 plus tax (and free shipping), for a computer which normally goes for about $1100-$1200. However, you did not use a coupon or any kind of shenanigans. This $900 deal was open to the general public without any kind of effort involved, beyond ordering it.
You order it on December 2. Delivery is scheduled for December 17, which is well in time for your needs.
December 17 arrives, and no computer comes. You also have received no update as to what is happening, and checking the company website shows it's "still being built".
On December 19, you finally get an e-mail informing you that they oversold (they don't specifically say that, but reading between the lines, that's clearly what happened). The new projected delivery date is December 27 -- clearly after the holidays. You are given the choice of either cancelling the order or getting $50 BACK to your credit card. You ignore the e-mail and plan to call them.
You are very unhappy about this, as you are left empty handed with no gift for your girlfriend for the holidays, and need to sheepishly tell her what happened.
You call the company on December 23 and ask for more than the $50. They offer you $90 (10%) but say that's the maximum. You ask them for more, and they say (probably truthfully) that their department can only offer a maximum of 10% back. They promise a phone call from the escalations team who can authorize more, and tell you the call will "definitely" come within 24-48 hours.
11 days pass, and nobody calls.
The computer arrives on December 30, which was 13 days after the projected date.
You call back on January 3. After a long time on hold, they acknowledge that nobody attempted to call you from escalations as promised. You are given a new promise that escalations will call between 24-48 hours, and that they will "mark it as urgent and follow it up" to ensure a call would actually occur.
Five days pass, and no phone call comes. You call again on January 8. This time you attempt to call the "customer resolutions" number. This time you get a very obnoxious and condescending rep who immediately starts chiding you that you "already got $900 off" and that you "actually don't deserve a further discount". The "$900 off" is referring to a BS "regular price" which nobody actually pays. While you did get a good deal on the computer (in reality about $200-$300 off its normal price), this was the standard price it was being sold on December 2, and you didn't get anything special, nor was it any kind of clearance item.
The rep then makes various ridiculous statements and tells various insulting lies:
1) Everyone else was offered $50 flat, and that you're "the only one of all customers" to be offered that 10% ($90). When you ask for clarification that she really meant you're the only customer in the world to get the 10% offer for the late computer, she again reiterates that it's true, and tells you that you were "lucky".
2) When asked why the escalations team didn't call you, she tells you that your "request wasn't reasonable" (for more than $90), so "that's why you were ignored". When reminding her that both calls were "100% promised" and that the very least they could have done was call and deny the additional money, she replied, "If they think your request isn't reasonable, they're not going to waste time calling you."
3) When you complain that they oversold PCs and caused their own problem with not being able to deliver on time, she sarcastically remarks, "Oh, so you know about our inventory levels? Were you at the meetings?"
4) For the remainder of the call, she consistently reminds you that you "already got $900 off" and "need to feel lucky", and at one point seems to be *giggling* like you're talking to fluffer.
You finally hang up on her and send a complaint e-mail to an address you find on their webpage.
Someone in a lower-middle management role calls you back (the level of employee who was supposed to call you back in the first place), and admits the following:
1) He can see that two escalations calls were promised on 12/23 and 1/3 and never made, due to some error. "We're not sure why, but nobody knew to call you. I do see you were promised both times, and one was marked urgent. I'm sorry about that."
2) The rep lied about you being the "only customer being offered 10%". He says, "That was communicated to the department as something they could give to anyone who was unhappy, and they gave it many times to people." He agreed that she told an outright lie and that it was insulting to even try to tell the customer such a thing.
3) The computer was indeed 13 days late, and you were not notified until two days AFTER expected delivery date.
4) After pulling a recording of the call of the third rep, it's agreed that she was rude and condescending. "For her to tell you that you didn't deserve a call back that you were promised was pretty bad," the manager admits. "And I don't know why she kept giving you a hard time about the good deal you got. That's not an excuse to provide you with a lower level of service or miss delivery."
Given all of the above, what is the appropriate amount to get back on this $900 purchase? Keep in mind that $90 was already offered (and was still on the table), so that will be the minimum choice.
Be aware that the $90 was offered on 12/23, BEFORE all of the customer service fail such as the non-callbacks and the super-rude third rep.