Abe’s of Maine High Pressure Post-Sale Tactics

Abes of MaineI got a call today from Abe’s of Maine that was quite disappointing. But let me start with a little background info…

At 1:30am on Tuesday morning (4/10/2007) I ordered a new $3,379 Canon XH A1 Prosumer Camcorder from Abes for two reasons.

  1. First, I’ve purchased from them in the past (about 2.5 years ago) and things went OK, although the extremely high end Sony Receiver I bought from them ended up having problems and needing service I felt I couldn’t hold that against Abe’s.
  2. Secondly they were offering the Camcorder for about $100 less than Amazon or NewEgg.

Now, the problem started today around 6:30pm CST when I’m shopping at a retail store and I get a call on my cell phone from a “customer service” (732-225-1777) representative from Abe’s “…just wanting to verify my shipping address”. He asks me if I’ve ever purchased from them before and when I say yes, he is surprised and “can’t find me in their system”. After he “verifies my address” he begins pressuring me to purchase all sorts of add ons. And remember, this is a three and a half THOUSAND dollar purchase.
[Read more...]