Hangar,
1. It is true that the grace period applicable to your Nebula purchase will not prevent you from being charged interest on your previous balance, but your grace period WILL prevent you from being charged interest on the portion of your balance that is your Nebula purchase until your grace period is over. In other words, your grace period is always effective, but only on the amount of the purchase in question.
2. I don't see my Nebula pre-sale order placement as being akin to a typical out-of-stock order (where what you're saying would be true). I placed my pre-sale Nebula order to not only take advantage of what I seen as being a "Thank-you-for-helping-me-to-name-the-Nebula" discount offer, but to also ensure that one (no, two) of the first Nebulas to be received would be mine. And because of this latter reason, I did not then, nor do I now, have any qualms about pre-possession payment; nor do I see any basis whatsoever to suggest some form of unethicality on Ben's part. If I did, then I would take Ben up on his public offer of a refund; but I have absolutely no desire to be the guy who cancelled his order the day before the shipment arrives - only to have to turn around and wait for the NEXT shipment.
3. In the absence of any concrete reason to do otherwise, let us try to keep our NAS experience a positive one by not aspersing our friendly and communicative supplier.
I'll be honest here...I normally have no interest in arguing with someone who tries to convince me that my points are not being taken as valid but this is becoming to be like a thorn in my side...as I said, I've been around the block enough times and I've been in business long enough to know right from wrong, period.
As for argument number 1, either tell me which bank is currently offering you this fantastic deal (so i can sign up) or try re-reading the back of your billing statement one more time as its possible you may be mis-reading it. My new purchases accrue interest from day 1 unless the entire balance on the account is paid in full by the due date...but i also think you miss the entire point here...its not so much the few extra dollars of interest to be paid but the principle behind it. I should not have to ask for a refund (when i still want the product), and then wait for it to first post to my bank account after however many days, when in fact the seller never had the product to sell in the first place.
Which brings us back to argument number 2, a typical out of stock order is exactly what it is...and if he wants to go against what is typical billing policies and ethics in online e-tailing then his website should say so on the order page...such as "your credit card is about to be charged for an out of stock item. As soon as this item is back in stock your order will be reserved and promptly shipped. If you do not want to be charged for this item until it is ready for shipping then do not continue with this submission".
At least then he's being more clear on what his intentions are and the consumer can make a more informed decision for themselves. Regardless of how ok you are with letting a retailer play with your money when he's not able to deliver what you've paid for...i can promise you that the majority of consumers coming here from outside of the
ecig community would NOT be ok with it.
Im just one of them who thought it right to actually speak up...because its MY money and i would never allow my addiction to get in the way of whats right and wrong. I can always import the item myself, and if it were only going to be a 1 time thing then id probably do that...but im looking for a longer term relationship and it annoys me to know that my supplier thinks its ok to take money for a product he doesnt own yet himself...in retailing you just dont do that unless you make the customer fully aware of it first...because it is not the norm. I was hoping to at least get some simple acknowledgement from Ben that he's aware of this and he's taking steps to make sure it wont be the norm for future sales.
and again...i really do want to try this product...and i wasnt trying to give ben a hard time either...but i felt fair is fair. Yes...offering a refund is the right thing to do naturally, but that doesnt make it good customer service when thats not really what the customer wanted in the first place.
Next time when you have either a pre-sale or pre-order offer, Ben...please give a better indication on your shopping cart how the actually billing will work. Ive been pre-ordering items for many years on the net...literally many dozens of times...and i can honestly say this is the very first time i have been charged in this fashion.
If you cant appreciate what im trying to say, or my extreme patience in trying to explain it and still sticking with you...than i can easily take my money elsewhere i suppose, but that was not my intent.
