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Provantage Order


barger

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Yeah, placed a call after the expected ship date changed from 2/1/06 to "unknown".... The were unsure if they'd actually get the 60cx or CSx in at all..

 

I promptly cancelled the order.

 

Placed an order from lake powell, and have a tracking # that claims I'll have a cx on Monday.

 

We shall see.

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Yeah, funny how they're great at communicating when you're buying, but they ignore you when you want to cancel the order. I guess I'll have a nice little chat with them on Monday and get them to cancel my order PERMANENTLY. They seemed to have suddenly disappeared when I requested my cancellation...

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Yeah, placed a call after the expected ship date changed from 2/1/06 to "unknown".... The were unsure if they'd actually get the 60cx or CSx in at all..

 

I promptly cancelled the order.

 

Placed an order from lake powell, and have a tracking # that claims I'll have a cx on Monday.

 

We shall see.

weakfish,

when did you place your order?

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DRAT!! I received the dreaded $80 price increase notification today when I called ProVantage to check on my order. I told them I was very disappointed that they falsely advertised their price and asked them how they can stay in business when they let their suppliers dictate the price they must charge while other places are selling them for considerably less. I also told her I wondered how many GPSR customers they lost - for good - by their action. The customer service girl didn't know anything about why or how Garmin can do that and it certainly isn't her fault so I dropped the conversation. I did tartly express my dissatifaction and told her to add my name to the list of customers who won't return to do business with them.

 

Afterward I promptly got on ebay and purchased one from DealsForYou for $399 + $15 for 2nd day UPS shipping = $414.

 

That price is more than I really wanted to pay but it still beat the $449 (or more) plus shipping that US retailers are charging (DealsForYou is in Canada). Received confirmation already tonight that it was shipped today and I should receive it Friday. Yaaaay!

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First email

 

> Dear Customer,

>

> Re:GPS MAP 60 CSX

> Due to recent changes in our reseller agreement with

> Garmin, we are no

> longer able to sell you the above product at the

> price originally

> offered. If you would like to proceed with your

> order the new price is

> $ 499.99. Please advise if you wish to proceed

> with the order at the

> new price.

> We apologize for the inconvenience.

>

> Regards,

> Jean Ford

> Purchasing Agent

> PROVANTAGE CORP.

> (330)494-3781 ext 130

> (330)494-5260 Fax

> jford@provantage.com

 

My response

 

Sent: Monday, January 23, 2006 8:37 PM

To: Jean Ford

Subject: Re: Order no 2513934

 

Hello Jean. I am very dissatisfied with this. There

were other online companies that are/were in the same

boat as you and had sold the items at their preorder

price. These are not all small companies either.

Tigergps as one of the bigger ones held to their price

as well as megagps and lakepowellmarineelectronics. I

guess I thought I was lucky enough to get this far but

it is too bad that I didn't pick a company that would

stand up for their customers. I will glady cancel my

order. I will also report my experience to

resellerratings. Thanks

 

Their response to me

 

Dear Sir,

 

It has come to our attention that our customers may run into

warranty

problems and the distributor we buy from may also be cut off from

future

purchases. For these reasons this is the best course of action. I

will

cancel your order as you requested and apologize for the

inconvenience.

 

Thank you,

Jean Ford

Purchasing Agent

PROVANTAGE CORP.

(330)494-3781 ext 130

(330)494-5260 Fax

jford@provantage.com

 

_________________________________________________

 

Oh well it is there loss and I still got a deal from Phil at lakepowell.

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That's BS- they cannot, by any means, withhold our warranty simply for the reasons of the price we purchased at. The truth of the matter is, Garmin notified all retailers that if they are caught selling below $499, then they will be suspended from receiving their products for 6 months. If it's an ongoing occurance, it'll be a permanent ban. Obviously Provantage doesn't have the balls to respect their customers. While I completely understand them raising the prices NOW, there's nothing keeping them from maintaining their original sales price. Basically, they felt as if raising the price would recoup them more money than keeping all their customers. Typical. Glad we found out about them now before we order anything else...

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I found LakePowell's approach particularly novel after they raised their price. Now they give you a $60 gift card at a variety of retailers of your choice and free overnight shipping. I noticed that MegaGPS and GPSNow offer free overnight shipping. Perhaps their way of making up for the price increase?

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Got the same from Provantage. I'm going to ask what the ship date will be and probably stick with them. It's just easier. All I care about it getting it before the GPS60Cx++ comes out (or whatever).

 

On 1/24/06, Jean Ford <JFord@provantage.com> wrote:

 

Dear Customer,

 

Re: GPSMAP 60Cx

 

Due to recent changes in our reseller agreement with Garmin, we are no

longer able to sell you the above product at the price originally

offered.  If you would like to proceed with your order the new price is

$  449.99  .  Please advise if you wish to proceed with the order at

the new price.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

 

Regards,

Jean Ford

Purchasing Agent

PROVANTAGE CORP.

(330)494-3781 ext 130

(330)494-5260 Fax

jford@provantage.com

 

------------------

 

From: Mike Wunderlich [mailto:mikevunder@gmail.com]

Sent: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 2:15 PM

To: Jean Ford

Subject: Re: Order no 2515376

 

 

Wow Jean, that's quite a hike.  What is that, like a 33% increase in your advertised price?  I'm not sure I find that acceptable.  Not versed in the legalities of all this, but it sure feels like a bait and switch to me.

 

I chose to buy from you rather than my preferred vendor because of the price difference.  They are also offering it at $449 currently and see no reason why not to just buy from them as I trust them and at this point have little reason to trust Provantage.

 

If you can give that price for a 60CSx or put me first in line for fulfillment on the 60Cx I guess that would be some kind of "compensation".  At this stage, I'm going to be at the end of the line for this new unit thanks to you guys if I switch.  And I won't buy at this point without some additional incentive.

 

-------------------------------

 

Dear Sir,

 

 

I’m sorry but we must sale the product at the MSRP.  I can offer you free shipping to compensate you for your inconvenience but I can not lower the price.  This is not a bait and switch situation we truly can not fill the order at that price, it could void the warranty and penalize our distributor.  If you would like to cancel the order just let me know.

 

 

Thank you,

Jean Ford

Purchasing Agent

PROVANTAGE CORP.

(330)494-3781 ext 130

(330)494-5260 Fax

jford@provantage.com

 

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I've dealt with Provantage and had excellent service. This price issue is a direct result of Garmins vendor policies. If you have issues ... they should be with Garmin. So far, nothing about the x models is convincing me they are worth paying a premium price. I'm autorouting and finding caches just fine with the old ones .... and could care less if it takes the unit longer for sat lock.

 

Early adopters must pay the price to debug new products!

 

:lol: ImpalaBob

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Afterward I promptly got on ebay and purchased one from DealsForYou for $399 + $15 for 2nd day UPS shipping = $414.

 

That price is more than I really wanted to pay but it still beat the $449 (or more) plus shipping that US retailers are charging (DealsForYou is in Canada).  Received confirmation already tonight that it was shipped today and I should receive it Friday.  Yaaaay!

WOW - I received my 60Cx from Deals For You on Thursday morning! Delivery was less than 48 hours after PayPal payment (from Manitoba to Nebraska). Ain't free upgrade to 2-day shipping wonderful!?

 

P.S. I LOVE the new unit. I can't believe how tiny that micro SD card is.

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I bought from

http://www.lakepowelldiscountmarineelectro...gpsmap60gp.html

 

I'm freakin' impressed. Cancelled my order with Provantage just after my last post (11:48am yesterday) and got my 60Cx TODAY. Very cool. Good price and they still have the $60 amazon.com gift certificate which should be enough to get me a 512 card. Still trying to determine if 512 is the max the X series supports though.

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Did Provantage.com ever send a X-garmin-gps to a customer?

 

It seems that this company is only gathering CreditCardNumbers and not sending any gps.

 

There would be enough posibilities to bypass garmins policies.

So why does Provantage.com not send the units to the customers?

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I also canceled at provantage.com and rated at http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1969.html

:mad::mad::mad:

 

I made this suggestion:

--------------------------

Send me the GPSMAP 60 CSX for 499.99

With

1) free shipping

2) free Sandisk microSD 512MB fitting for the gpsmap 60 CSX

 

answer:

---------

I can add a 128mb microSD memory card and no free shipping

 

Everybody (who ordered there) should make a rating!

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I can't find a "DealsForYou" on ebay from canada that sells gps units.

Did you click on the hyperlink in my previous reply? It works for me here at work and should take you to the ebay store home page. He's a "Power Seller" and also runs the ebay store under the handle of radios_for_you. He sure gave me great service.

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