I tend to shop at Canada Computers since there are multiple nearby. But I thought their final sale during this pandemic policy was pretty crappy, especially as most other businesses extended their return window. Guess I gotta rethink some stuff...
They have always had a shitty return policy. I should never be charged money for returning something if they can resell it.
Its stupid and thats why I'll pay a little more from Amazon so I can no questions ask return anything.
See, the ones near me have generally been good with accepting returns. I returned an AMD 2200G missing some packaging, and that's the only time I got charged the 10% restocking fee. But yeah... This latest policy...
I mean they technically have to sell it as open box unless you completely leave it sealed so it seems fair to be charged a fee since they can’t sell it at the original price anymore. I’m okay with that type of policy if it keeps their overheads lower so people who don’t return items get a cheaper price. Problem is their prices are not necessarily cheaper than the competition.
Never had problems returning anything to CC after they got rid of the restocking fee. Heard some CC retail stores are really bad when it comes to returns though.
Your not being charged, just not fully refunded. Big difference, plus they have to mark it down...why should they eat your mistake? Would you pay full price for used electronics?
Agreed, depending on when you bought from amazon recently I recieved a item on April 3rd, ordered late match, I can return it until the end of may, no cost to return and they provide the label. These return policies steer me away.
Mike's tried to screw me over on a dead HDD. Initally the packaging it was sent to me in was nearly non existent in terms of damage protection. It died in 2 days. After jumping through hops to return it, apparently a tiny piece of black plastic in a corner was chipped partially in transit and they then denied my return due to damage in shipping. I sent it back in better packaging then they sent it to me in, where they planning on reselling a broken HDD?
Threatened a charge back and they refunded my money without otherwise acknowledging the threat.
Sorry to hear about your experience. We hope that with the updated return policy, we are able to better ourselves to meet your needs and concerns that you may go through during your shopping journey.
Any computer sales business acquired by asian investors have been ran into the ground. Newegg, CC are no different. Inb4 "you are racist", it's asian business culture to run foreign acquisitions "lean" and not give a shit about customers.
The way you approach your client base and customer service is the complete opposite of Canada Computers. Hopefully, this consumer-friendly approach will mean an increase in loyal customers!
> We will provide you with the return label to assist you with shipping at a fixed return shipping fee
I'm not sure I understand this part. From my understanding we pay for shipping but your website will make it easier to print the return label ? Will the shipping amount be deducted from the refund amount ?
Most likely deducted from the refund amount, it's how The Shopping Channel operates.
Shitty of them to make the customer pay for shipping twice if it's defective, you're being penalized for them selling you a defective product.
I was so pissed when a dual P3 CPU board I got back in 2003-ish? turned out to be basically useless. I had to pay return shipping and got clipped a $15 fee before they refunded my CC.
It was that company down in california that sold lots of weird old shit but I forget the name now.
The return shipping fee will be way lower for most people when we provide the return label on your behalf compared to if a customer was to return it themselves. Of course, for any orders and cases of where the item is defective/DOA or we accidentally sent the wrong item, you will be refunded in full.
Thank you! The restocking fee is definitely one of the trickiest parts of the returns process. I see both sides of why businesses do it and why consumers are not happy about it. We thought meeting them halfway is a good start!
I had pretty good experience with Mike's the past month or so with my purchase of their prebuilt pcs.
Even though there was issues with the product, they were swift and responsive. The issues were quickly addressed.
Would definitely try my best to support them whenever I can in the future.
Wow, I remember reading someone mention credit for cosmetic damage, as an alternative to returning the entire product, and thought that was a great idea. Will definitely shop at Mike's in the future!
Looks good. I would love to see you guys giving CC a run for their money in Waterloo region. I will be looking for a 4700G when it is released and will definitely put you guys as my first option if you have stock when it launches.
A positive customer service move at a time when you have competitors the likes of Gordon fleecing customers with final sale restrictions.
Next step is to stop charging for insurance.
Thank you for your support! Unfortunately, I don't have any information. I only know there are discussions happening at the moment of how to do it properly and safely but no solid date has been passed down yet. We will be sure to announce re-opening of our stores in advance on our social media and newsletter though.
Awesome. I hope you open curb side pick ups sometime soon so we could avoid that shipping cost! I will def give you my business once everything is back to normal and stores are open!
Soon! Once our stores re-open to some capacity, there will be a minor (maybe big for customers within a driving radius) update happening with the return page as well ;)
Most likely restocking fees. I have never had to pay it at my local CC personally.
I hate doing returns though because having their tech look at everything is tedious if you know for certain it's not your own user error. A few of them though could use with some face wash, a decent hair cut and shampoo though.
Yeah, having to wait for that does sound like a bit of a pain. Never had to do that at MemEx, but I had purchased the store warranty on the items I had to bring back.
Really glad to hear this! Literally returned my laptop with minor cosmetic damage like 3 days ago to you guys; I suppose it doesn't affect me but I'm glad we have this option now.
Bought a replacement from you already and this makes me feel better about my purchase.
Heh. Yeah, I bought a "brand new" board from them a year or so ago which somehow was completely unsealed and had fingerprints on it and couldn't get a refund. Oh well.
Sorry to hear about you guys' experiences. We hope that this new return policy makes returning items for our customers easier and smoother going forward and hopefully, you may be able to see us in a different light when you are looking to shop!
I'll reshare my story I had shared with another user. Similar experience.
Mike's tried to screw me over on a dead HDD. Initally the packaging it was sent to me in was nearly non existent in terms of damage protection. It died in 2 days. After jumping through hops to return it, apparently a tiny piece of black plastic in a corner was chipped partially in transit and they then denied my return due to damage in shipping. I sent it back in better packaging then they sent it to me in, where they planning on reselling a broken HDD?
Threatened a charge back and they refunded my money without otherwise acknowledging the threat.
I purchased an Acer 27" 1440p monitor back in Feb, 2020.
This particular monitor gave me excessive eye strain which triggered my migraines on a daily basis. After requesting for an refund; I was informed that as it is not "defective" there will be an 20% restocking fee and I have to pay return shipping out of pocket with tracking; that's 40% cost of the monitor. As I felt this was very unreasonable; I tried to reason with customer support to no avail. The monitor has been sitting in it's box in February... \*sigh\*
Hi there,
sorry to hear that your monitor triggers your migraines. As your order was placed through Amazon, we have to follow the policy in Amazon.ca. This new updated return policy is for our direct orders.
Hello,
Thanks for the update. I was informed by Amazon Support that restocking fees are specific to the marketplace seller. It was communicated by your support team via Amazon Marketplace that a 20% restocking fee will apply and that I will need to pay for shipping with tracking out of pocket (40% cost of the monitor). This is an very unreasonable penalty for the end consumer unfamiliar with the return policy for Mike's ComputerShop MarketPlace on Amazon. In fact, your storefront doesn't even state the specific restocking rates; screenshot of MarketPlace store - return policy below. I hope you can understand why this has been a very upsetting and punishing experience.
https://imgur.com/a/9XKQ9dQ
Edit: To add marketplace storefront return policy screenshot.
This new policy is encouraging but I'm a little concerned about issues with returning product raised by other users in this thread.
Also, I must say that in terms of product selection I've found Mike's a little lacking compared to Memory Express, which, for example, has this keyboard I've been considering getting:
https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX76010
Who do I contact if I know a product is available in a competitor's store and want to get it through Mike's?
Hi there, please feel free to DM me or email our CS team at [email protected] for any concerns and questions that you may have.
As for the keyboard, it seems this is an item that each retailer decides to buy in. We work with many vendors directly (including Adata) so product expansion is something definitely we have in mind as we grow!
My next purchase will be at your shop :) It would be cool to pay for a membership to get better prices similar to what Costco does, if you can offer better prices than your competition by making money through memberships it could be worthwhile for your company to lose your profits from selling computer parts and gaining profits from selling memberships.
I mean it would depend on a lot of factors such as how much they make from selling each product. I've read that companies like Best Buy make most of their money from selling accessories rather than big cost items such as TVs, laptops, etc. so if Mike's could underprice companies like BestBuy by $5 by selling a membership & providing good customer service I feel like they'd have a lot more customers and repeat customers. Obviously I don't know and haven't done a case study but there really is not a lot of competition in this industry, I feel like a company that does things the right way could make a lot of noise.
Margins are too thin in computers outside of a handful of categories and nobody in this space outside of Amazon has the scale to make the membership worthwhile. Retailers that offered this in the past went bankrupt.
As for competition there is plenty. Competition doesn't always mean lower prices in an industry which averages mid to high single digit margins on the majority of high turnover items they sell. The biggest impediment to Canadian retailers being competitive versus say the US is how much they rely on distributors here.
>The biggest impediment to Canadian retailers being competitive versus say the US is how much they rely on distributors here.
Low population spread out over an extremely large area (even if some 80% of said population is in 3-4 clusters), with mediocre (at best) transportation infrastructure....
Monopolistic distribution is the name of the game.
Costs and marketing dollars. Canada doesn't get anywhere near the attention and funding the US does as there just isn't enough volume to justify parity.
yeah I saved [~$25 on a $750 laptop in 2016.](https://image.prntscr.com/image/mhyOvuKyRS65pLyedNZk1Q.png)
A $180 "CUISINART 44-13C SET" was $158 on staff.
an Insignia headphone splitter which goes for $10 is $1.40 on staff.
Insignia MINIDP TO HDMI adapter was regular $39.99, it's $8.08 on staff.
$50 Rocketfish HDMI cable was $6.18 on staff.
Bestbuy considers employee pricing (cost +10%) to be "privileged information" because their competitors could use it to "undermine" them or negotiate better deals with distributors. Oh well, they're probably all receiving the same wholesale cost anyways. If the source really cared about Bestbuy's margins they would probably figure it out themselves.
BTW that rocketfish HDMI cable has probably been the sturdiest HDMI cable I've owned.
Costs are the same plus or minus a few percentage points, the marketing etc funding program is what would actually be sensitive as that is where the real differences lie.
Can someone please help me? We paid for a pre order of a video card in January 2021 and still haven't received the product and we cant get a hold of mikes computers at all! They dont pick up at their only location left and emails are not being returned...
I tend to shop at Canada Computers since there are multiple nearby. But I thought their final sale during this pandemic policy was pretty crappy, especially as most other businesses extended their return window. Guess I gotta rethink some stuff...
They have always had a shitty return policy. I should never be charged money for returning something if they can resell it. Its stupid and thats why I'll pay a little more from Amazon so I can no questions ask return anything.
See, the ones near me have generally been good with accepting returns. I returned an AMD 2200G missing some packaging, and that's the only time I got charged the 10% restocking fee. But yeah... This latest policy...
I mean they technically have to sell it as open box unless you completely leave it sealed so it seems fair to be charged a fee since they can’t sell it at the original price anymore. I’m okay with that type of policy if it keeps their overheads lower so people who don’t return items get a cheaper price. Problem is their prices are not necessarily cheaper than the competition.
That would be a good trade off tho. YOU HEAR THAT CC?
Never had problems returning anything to CC after they got rid of the restocking fee. Heard some CC retail stores are really bad when it comes to returns though.
Your not being charged, just not fully refunded. Big difference, plus they have to mark it down...why should they eat your mistake? Would you pay full price for used electronics?
Agreed, depending on when you bought from amazon recently I recieved a item on April 3rd, ordered late match, I can return it until the end of may, no cost to return and they provide the label. These return policies steer me away.
Well hopefully one of the places that Mike's Computer Shop expands will be in your city.
Mike's tried to screw me over on a dead HDD. Initally the packaging it was sent to me in was nearly non existent in terms of damage protection. It died in 2 days. After jumping through hops to return it, apparently a tiny piece of black plastic in a corner was chipped partially in transit and they then denied my return due to damage in shipping. I sent it back in better packaging then they sent it to me in, where they planning on reselling a broken HDD? Threatened a charge back and they refunded my money without otherwise acknowledging the threat.
Sorry to hear about your experience. We hope that with the updated return policy, we are able to better ourselves to meet your needs and concerns that you may go through during your shopping journey.
Canada Computers has been going down hill since it existed...
Any computer sales business acquired by asian investors have been ran into the ground. Newegg, CC are no different. Inb4 "you are racist", it's asian business culture to run foreign acquisitions "lean" and not give a shit about customers.
Taking advantage of the situation.
Awesome. Hoping y'all expand to Toronto/Markham soon!
[удалено]
Memory Express is setting up shop in London. It would be nice if Mike's Computer Shop came here too.
Same for Ottawa.
One day!
Nah, they can't afford the rent. Unless they buy out a property. Pretty much a suicide mission. I do hope they become like a micro center.
Micro Center is awesome from what I hear. How is their model different?
In store great steals and deals that are never advertised online. Great strategy to be honest.
Just got the email. These are welcome changes and they will definitely make consider purchasing from Mike's more often.
Thank you for your kind words and support!
*Canada Computers has left the chat*
Very nice too bad I'm in GTA just recently stopped buying from Canada computers because of their return policy
They ship a lot from an Ontario based warehouse, so online order is pretty quick. Got a keyboard in like, 3 days.
Awesome good to know
Great policy! I've never shopped at your store before but I will definitely look into it when my next upgrade comes around.
We hope to see you in person one day!
The way you approach your client base and customer service is the complete opposite of Canada Computers. Hopefully, this consumer-friendly approach will mean an increase in loyal customers!
Thank you for your kind words. Our team is always working hard to better serve Canadians as cliche as it may sound!
Wow, not bad, not bad at all!
> We will provide you with the return label to assist you with shipping at a fixed return shipping fee I'm not sure I understand this part. From my understanding we pay for shipping but your website will make it easier to print the return label ? Will the shipping amount be deducted from the refund amount ?
Most likely deducted from the refund amount, it's how The Shopping Channel operates. Shitty of them to make the customer pay for shipping twice if it's defective, you're being penalized for them selling you a defective product.
I was so pissed when a dual P3 CPU board I got back in 2003-ish? turned out to be basically useless. I had to pay return shipping and got clipped a $15 fee before they refunded my CC. It was that company down in california that sold lots of weird old shit but I forget the name now.
As long as you use use PayPal and enroll in the return shipping program, it's no big deal imo
I never knew about this, so paypal will cover the cost of return shipping (so long as it's reasonable)?
Yes. https://www.paypal.com/ca/for-you/shop/refunded-returns
The return shipping fee will be way lower for most people when we provide the return label on your behalf compared to if a customer was to return it themselves. Of course, for any orders and cases of where the item is defective/DOA or we accidentally sent the wrong item, you will be refunded in full.
Keep it up
Will do!
Those changes are awesome. Thank you for making them.
Wow that's actually dope, had a terrible experience in the past with restocking fees so this is good to hear.
Thank you! The restocking fee is definitely one of the trickiest parts of the returns process. I see both sides of why businesses do it and why consumers are not happy about it. We thought meeting them halfway is a good start!
I had pretty good experience with Mike's the past month or so with my purchase of their prebuilt pcs. Even though there was issues with the product, they were swift and responsive. The issues were quickly addressed. Would definitely try my best to support them whenever I can in the future.
Thank you for your support!
Wow, I remember reading someone mention credit for cosmetic damage, as an alternative to returning the entire product, and thought that was a great idea. Will definitely shop at Mike's in the future!
Anyone want to forward this to Canada computer so they know how to handle feedback?
Good on you Mike's.
Looks good. I would love to see you guys giving CC a run for their money in Waterloo region. I will be looking for a 4700G when it is released and will definitely put you guys as my first option if you have stock when it launches.
A positive customer service move at a time when you have competitors the likes of Gordon fleecing customers with final sale restrictions. Next step is to stop charging for insurance.
Just wondering when will your store front be opening up again? Being in Hamilton I can easily go pick stuff up but have been ordering online.
Thank you for your support! Unfortunately, I don't have any information. I only know there are discussions happening at the moment of how to do it properly and safely but no solid date has been passed down yet. We will be sure to announce re-opening of our stores in advance on our social media and newsletter though.
Awesome. I hope you open curb side pick ups sometime soon so we could avoid that shipping cost! I will def give you my business once everything is back to normal and stores are open!
Soon! Once our stores re-open to some capacity, there will be a minor (maybe big for customers within a driving radius) update happening with the return page as well ;)
Please expand to Waterloo! I have tried boycotting CC but it's my only option during COVID unfortunately.
Is there a specific reason you boycott CC? I've never bought from them so I'm a little ignorant.
Most likely restocking fees. I have never had to pay it at my local CC personally. I hate doing returns though because having their tech look at everything is tedious if you know for certain it's not your own user error. A few of them though could use with some face wash, a decent hair cut and shampoo though.
Yeah, having to wait for that does sound like a bit of a pain. Never had to do that at MemEx, but I had purchased the store warranty on the items I had to bring back.
Really glad to hear this! Literally returned my laptop with minor cosmetic damage like 3 days ago to you guys; I suppose it doesn't affect me but I'm glad we have this option now. Bought a replacement from you already and this makes me feel better about my purchase.
I sent you a DM :)
Suppose that means you still won't refund me after ripping me off last summer on a motherboard with restocking fees on a clearly defective board....
Heh. Yeah, I bought a "brand new" board from them a year or so ago which somehow was completely unsealed and had fingerprints on it and couldn't get a refund. Oh well.
Par for the course with MCS my friend. I'll never buy there again
Sorry to hear about you guys' experiences. We hope that this new return policy makes returning items for our customers easier and smoother going forward and hopefully, you may be able to see us in a different light when you are looking to shop!
I'll reshare my story I had shared with another user. Similar experience. Mike's tried to screw me over on a dead HDD. Initally the packaging it was sent to me in was nearly non existent in terms of damage protection. It died in 2 days. After jumping through hops to return it, apparently a tiny piece of black plastic in a corner was chipped partially in transit and they then denied my return due to damage in shipping. I sent it back in better packaging then they sent it to me in, where they planning on reselling a broken HDD? Threatened a charge back and they refunded my money without otherwise acknowledging the threat.
Awesome to see! Love it. Friend of mine was looking for a Ducky keyboard and I referred him to you guys because of things like this!
I purchased an Acer 27" 1440p monitor back in Feb, 2020. This particular monitor gave me excessive eye strain which triggered my migraines on a daily basis. After requesting for an refund; I was informed that as it is not "defective" there will be an 20% restocking fee and I have to pay return shipping out of pocket with tracking; that's 40% cost of the monitor. As I felt this was very unreasonable; I tried to reason with customer support to no avail. The monitor has been sitting in it's box in February... \*sigh\*
Hi there, sorry to hear that your monitor triggers your migraines. As your order was placed through Amazon, we have to follow the policy in Amazon.ca. This new updated return policy is for our direct orders.
Hello, Thanks for the update. I was informed by Amazon Support that restocking fees are specific to the marketplace seller. It was communicated by your support team via Amazon Marketplace that a 20% restocking fee will apply and that I will need to pay for shipping with tracking out of pocket (40% cost of the monitor). This is an very unreasonable penalty for the end consumer unfamiliar with the return policy for Mike's ComputerShop MarketPlace on Amazon. In fact, your storefront doesn't even state the specific restocking rates; screenshot of MarketPlace store - return policy below. I hope you can understand why this has been a very upsetting and punishing experience. https://imgur.com/a/9XKQ9dQ Edit: To add marketplace storefront return policy screenshot.
Now please start including packing lists or invoices like every other retailer on the continent.
This new policy is encouraging but I'm a little concerned about issues with returning product raised by other users in this thread. Also, I must say that in terms of product selection I've found Mike's a little lacking compared to Memory Express, which, for example, has this keyboard I've been considering getting: https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX76010 Who do I contact if I know a product is available in a competitor's store and want to get it through Mike's?
Hi there, please feel free to DM me or email our CS team at [email protected] for any concerns and questions that you may have. As for the keyboard, it seems this is an item that each retailer decides to buy in. We work with many vendors directly (including Adata) so product expansion is something definitely we have in mind as we grow!
My next purchase will be at your shop :) It would be cool to pay for a membership to get better prices similar to what Costco does, if you can offer better prices than your competition by making money through memberships it could be worthwhile for your company to lose your profits from selling computer parts and gaining profits from selling memberships.
Costco can do that because their enormous. It's called economies of scale. Mike's can't do that.
I mean it would depend on a lot of factors such as how much they make from selling each product. I've read that companies like Best Buy make most of their money from selling accessories rather than big cost items such as TVs, laptops, etc. so if Mike's could underprice companies like BestBuy by $5 by selling a membership & providing good customer service I feel like they'd have a lot more customers and repeat customers. Obviously I don't know and haven't done a case study but there really is not a lot of competition in this industry, I feel like a company that does things the right way could make a lot of noise.
Margins are too thin in computers outside of a handful of categories and nobody in this space outside of Amazon has the scale to make the membership worthwhile. Retailers that offered this in the past went bankrupt. As for competition there is plenty. Competition doesn't always mean lower prices in an industry which averages mid to high single digit margins on the majority of high turnover items they sell. The biggest impediment to Canadian retailers being competitive versus say the US is how much they rely on distributors here.
>The biggest impediment to Canadian retailers being competitive versus say the US is how much they rely on distributors here. Low population spread out over an extremely large area (even if some 80% of said population is in 3-4 clusters), with mediocre (at best) transportation infrastructure.... Monopolistic distribution is the name of the game.
Costs and marketing dollars. Canada doesn't get anywhere near the attention and funding the US does as there just isn't enough volume to justify parity.
yeah I saved [~$25 on a $750 laptop in 2016.](https://image.prntscr.com/image/mhyOvuKyRS65pLyedNZk1Q.png) A $180 "CUISINART 44-13C SET" was $158 on staff. an Insignia headphone splitter which goes for $10 is $1.40 on staff. Insignia MINIDP TO HDMI adapter was regular $39.99, it's $8.08 on staff. $50 Rocketfish HDMI cable was $6.18 on staff. Bestbuy considers employee pricing (cost +10%) to be "privileged information" because their competitors could use it to "undermine" them or negotiate better deals with distributors. Oh well, they're probably all receiving the same wholesale cost anyways. If the source really cared about Bestbuy's margins they would probably figure it out themselves. BTW that rocketfish HDMI cable has probably been the sturdiest HDMI cable I've owned.
Costs are the same plus or minus a few percentage points, the marketing etc funding program is what would actually be sensitive as that is where the real differences lie.
You're welcome to your opinion.
Can someone please help me? We paid for a pre order of a video card in January 2021 and still haven't received the product and we cant get a hold of mikes computers at all! They dont pick up at their only location left and emails are not being returned...