I agree - it is amusing!
One advice from me.
Maybe it was not invalid but their website has bugs. (Im tellng you from my own experience)
Maybe you should have click through Paypal, and than in last step you have to confiirm order on Dinodirect page.
And there the lower amout could have been stated. There are many bugs there.
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Good advice I'm sure but where money is concerned I don't want to be dealing with "bugs". The bottom line for me is that there are plenty of other sites out there so there's no need for me to have to work this hard at DD.
I didn't really need (or really even want) the light I was ordering. I just thought I'd given the process a chance if I could keep the money expenditures low and the risks low. Trying coupons that don't work and hoping that it will work after I've OK a payment through PayPal isn't a chance/hassle I want to deal with.
If there own order/payment system doesn't work why be here?
Your posts are entertaining however :) If anyone can get their money's worth from DD I believe it will be you :)
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we are sorry for the inconvenience, there may be some system problem that we cannot expect, but we have tried to update the status to give you most convenience.
I think he speaks about the diffrenece between your $8 gift card and the Dinodirect banner "Get $10 Gift Cards when you invite someone to DinoDirect.com."
oh, yes, that is for the customers who suggest a new customer to us.
I got an email a few days ago from dd asking if the (free) light was received. Replied stating it was a dud and what are they going to do about it. No reply. Great customer service, NOT.
AVOID
in addition they do not post negative reviews and the reviews dont match the light that was sold.
AVOID
+1
+2
I suppose some people won't be content until the free things they get are to their satisfaction. Can't really say that's the kind of customer any retailer's looking for.
To me it makes no difference if it was free or $8 or more. The issue is with the quality control and the customer service. So DD would not want me for a customer. I've spent more than $1.5k (probably more) in six months on lights and associated items. $100 + in the last 24 hrs. They wouldn't be here if they were not after a customer like myself. As I mentioned somewhere, my second order from manafont had a DOA light. I've ordered 15 times since then from them because they rectified it quickly. It has taken 2 weeks + for Semur to offer me another coupon.(Don't have it yet though). Poor service.
IMO they have dug a hole for themselves. The ufh2 deal was great but now people will expect similar deals all the time. If they had any business savvy they would have offered the people who received the piece of free cXXp the opportunity to get in on the UFH2 deal. They didn't which was just stupid.
They won't be getting my money.
Give up Goran how much time have you spent trying to save a few bucks on dubious products.
No, I'm pretty sure nobody's after customers who whine about untimely reception of more free stuff to rectify whatever's wrong with the earlier free stuff they got. Looking at it more carefully, I would agree that DD is pretty terrible at business given they've made the mistake of offering anything to someone with such lofty expectations when no money's even changed hands.
Perhaps I'm looking at this with too much simplicity, but I expect when I pay X, I get something worth X, end of story. I don't have any notion I'm owed anything otherwise.
Value, or lack thereof is entirely besides the point in this situation.
What people are upset about is that DinoDirect offered a reconciliatory gesture and made promises of receiving items, creating an expectation that needs to be fulfilled. Instead, we've gotten the following:
1. Products with blatantly false descriptions.
2. Products with fake reviews using stolen advertising pictures.
3. Products that when delivered, simply don't work.
4. In my case, products that simply haven't been delivered in four weeks.
5. Customer Service that is difficult to get a hold of, or entirely evasive when it comes to answering questions.
6. Shady advertising and pricing practices.
7. A confusing, difficult to navigate, technically bugged-out website.
8. Offers or coupons that are either not honoured, or not explained in any meaningful way. I too received that $5 cash coupon, but the only time I've been able to attach it to my cart is adding something that costs $50+ in the first place. That's not explained anywhere and considering DinoDirect has higher prices than most Chinese websites, not useful anyways.
Sorry, I don't care if I'm getting something for free or paying retail+ markup for it. You try and screw me around I will be justifiably annoyed. DD has moved from "be careful" to "outright avoid" in my book.
Summer I am very sorry for the fact that you are not getting the standard $10 dollar gift card for adding a new customer. That would have made for a decent days pay for the favor you did for us here on BLF if Dino Direct had cut you the same deal they offer everyone else on there website. As far as I am concerned this is just another reason to avoid Dino Direct and would explain the poor customer service gorann is receiving if you are not being paid fair market value for your work. That being said I appreciate what you have done for us here even more now knowing that you did not get paid for all of your work you did and I am sorry you have to work for such an unscrupulous company.
I don't see anything that indicates that Semur isn't getting paid. He/she just isn't getting paid per customer. If Semur works for the company that he/she is getting paid just like we all do when we work for a company. All we've learned is that Semur isn't being paid on commission.
I don't think this is the issue anyway (how or if Semur is getting paid).
By the way, I'm sure DD isn't after "customers who whine". They are after those who don't whine while experiencing poor service.
The fact that many of the points above are applicable to just about any such dropshipping type operation rather indicates you don't really take yourself seriously, in which case I'm not really why anyone else should.
Also, I'm not sure why someone would think anyone is so intent on "screwing" customers that they would intentionally send out something on their own dime, just to do so. I'm not sure how that works out in their head. I mean, you can rightly criticize DD for not being competent, as I've done, because I don't really think I'm so special that people would pay money just to screw with me.
You never defended them until you became "involved" with them. DD owe me nothing though they have wasted my time and it did cost me $6.60 to post the light to someone who could fix it. (that was my choice though). I never said they owe me money. It is an example of their poor customer service and poor quality control. The email I received was not from semur/ summer or yourself. It was a general email checking if the item was received. It does not even show that it was free. My review was not approved although it was fair and I had no reply to my email. But I do get daily spam from DD offering all sorts of crazy deals if I post positive reviews etc.
I never bothered to defend them until:
1. I bothered to read the thread
2. A couple of people started dumping on them for entirely outrageous and speculative reasons
3. Others started believing in this not even premature bullshit to get the dogpile going
4. The bandwagon started posting rumors in the group buy thread about being charged for shipping etc. for no reason at all.
Now, at this point I can either let this idiocy continue which potentially fucks up the group buy for the 100 or so other members involved (which I gained zero benefit from except participating in it to ensure future such forum activities are successful as stated in that thread), or I can do something about it which I did.
So thanks to the people who know who they are for wasting my time and trying to screw up everyone else for whatever personal reason they had.
I don't see how people were trying to screw up the group buy. I definitely wasn't.
Anyway an update. Summer sent me another gift card. Took me about half an hour to finally buy another light. (yes I had to pay as well because there is nothing worth buying for $8). Not an easy process. I will post a fair review when I get the light.
I must have a positive side of the story..
After tyring to add 2 coupons (1 gift card, and 1 5dollar coupon), and 3 hours on their website.. I lost my gift card.. as it was processed, and I canceled the order, because I couldnt find a way to add my 5 dollar discount.
a little frustrated, I had to contact DD.
Then some emails with Summer, and he managed to give me a new code, which worked out well.
Until now I must say that Semur helped me well! which I really appreciate.
So if you understand the way of working, (at least with the gift card, maybe not their cash coupons) and dont cancel orders etc.. it shouldnt be too difficult to get everything through...
But it can take some time..
And I have to admit, that the website isnt the user friendliest.
now I could finally use my 10 dollar gift card, and ordered the TR001 charger for my 14500 (and a small keyring light)...
Now the waiting begins... (and the start for searching a device to check voltages etc... to keep things safe here with this charger)