Gathering Ground

I have a beef.

I really like good customer service. I think it’s important for a business to build a good relationship with customers. Even if it’s dealing with a person who won’t necessarily ever have the opportunity or need to buy there again, a business should try to deal well with its customers.

Businesses should at least try to listen to a customer’s problems. Obviously they can’t fix every little thing that goes wrong, but they can work on the important problems, or the ones that really don’t take a lot of extra time, money or effort to fix. It may even be as simple as making an apology.

It’s the Golden Rule. People treat each other well so that they get treated well in return. Why ruin a business transaction if there’s even a slight chance that you might end up dealing with the same person you worked over just to make an extra buck.

It’s called courtesy. It keeps the world running smoothly so people don’t kill each other.

Anyway, customer service is important.

A few weeks ago I ordered some cards online from GatheringGround.com: 4 Dark Confidants and a Duplicant. The Confidants were a good price, the best in comparison to other sites. I’d ordered from them before, late last summer when I got 6 dual lands. Now, I would think that a $150 order would get me some respect, even if I don’t order every month or make a huge order. I guess not.

The cards came in good time, well packed in a box. In the box were the Duplicant, 2 boosters of Ravnica, and 3 Dark Confidants. I sent an email about the missing Confidant to GatheringGround at sales@gatheringground.com, saying that my order was incomplete and that I’d appreciate getting the 4th Dark Confidant.

In response, I got a message saying that the two packs of Ravnica were sent in place of the Confidant and that if I didn’t want the packs, I should send them back and they would issue me a credit. They said this should be okay because the two packs cost more than the Dark Confidant.

Of course, if you think about it, that’s not really what matters between buying packs and buying singles. People pay more for singles because they’re paying for the certainty of getting the card they want. Knowing that one card is more desirable or powerful than another makes people pay even more for the certainty of getting that card; it’s why Gifts Ungiven is $20 and Evermind is, uh, not. So paying for a Dark Confidant and getting two packs of Ravnica isn’t really the same thing because, while there’s a chance that, yes, I could get a Dark Confidant (or a tapland or another chase rare), I don’t want that chance.

I want a Dark Confidant.

Further, sterner emails to GatheringGround.com got only a reiteration of their first ideas: send back the packs if you don’t want them and we’ll give you a credit.

So I thought about it. I can send $7.50 worth of packs back on my own dime for a $5 credit, which if I use in a future order might almost pay for shipping. (Gathering Ground insists on sending a white box rather than, say, a bubble envelope, so their shipping costs are high.)

Does anyone else see the problem with this? I get my money back, minus my own shipping costs, and I have to use the money on further purchases from a store that I’ve had an unsatisfactory dealing with? Nah, I’ll pass.

Why didn’t they send me an email saying something like, “Hey, we’re out of Dark Confidants at the moment. We can send the rest of your order now, which will have the last 3 Dark Confidants. You can get the rest of your money back or we can send you two packs to make up for it or you can wait and get a full order once we get more Dark Confidants in stock. Please email us with your decision or call us at our sales number.”

At this point, I’ve checked their website and see that they have Dark Confidants in stock for the same price, so I really can’t figure out why they didn’t send me a 4th one.

I send an email to customerservice@gatheringground.com because I can’t think of anything else to do. It reads in part:

“I realize I have no realistic recourse against Gathering Ground aside from shaking my fist and saying, "I'll never buy from you again, and I'll make sure to tell all my friends not to buy from you either," which probably won't affect you much. Still, I hope you hear and understand me.

“Here's hoping a loyal customer and future business is still worth more than $5 + s&h.”

I haven’t heard from them since. Which annoys me. I’m upset about not getting a complete order and I’m upset that I keep getting blown of and I’m upset they can’t make a reply from their customer service address.

As such, I’m never buying from them again, and I encourage you and anyone you know to boycott them as well. There are so many websites that sell Magic cards, and lots of them have good prices, even better prices than GatheringGround.com, so it takes just a bit of effort to find another site.

Get the word out. Post about this on message boards and talk about it in chat rooms. Gathering Ground needs to know that they’ve done something wrong, and the best way to get that message through is to have them hear it from a lot of people and miss out on a lot of sales.

Thanks for listening to me rant for a while, and thanks in advance for helping the campaign.