Customer Service of Questionable Quality

I have an Averatec 3250 laptop computer. It is convenient and very lightweight, which is why I bought it.

Recently, the AC adaptor has gone wonky, so I tried to order a new one. Neither Future Shop nor Tiger Direct in Canada carries them. So I tried to order one from the Averatec website, only to receive this message:

Dear AVERATEC Customer,

I humbly apologize for the temporary unavailability of our online store. The store is undergoing enhancements that are intended to improve your shopping experience.

Our online store will resume service before July 31, 2005.

Thank you for your understanding.

If we can be of further assistance, do not hesitate to contact us at mailto:sales@averatec.com or 714-429-8900.

Warmest Regards, Jessie Labayen

So I called their phone number to order the adaptor, only to get a message service. I left a message with my phone number, telling them exactly what I would like to order. They failed to return my call.

Fortunately, they did respond to an e-mail:

Our website store was being handled by a third party shipping company called ShipItForYou. ShipItForYou has closed their doors and so we are in the process of switching online fulfillment companies. We will have a new web store up on the 30th of this month. At that time you can reorder the product(s) you are interested in. Once again we're sorry that this has inconvenienced you.

In the mean time you can purchase many of our accessories from major online resellers such as Buy.com and Amazon.com.

Amazon.com's link wouldn't ship to Canada, but Buy.com did indeed provide a supplier who (for a hefty shipping fee) would do so.

Too bad Averatec didn't just provide these links on their own site. They'd have had a much happier customer on their hands.