The Daily Ping

It’s not every day that I want to buy a USB mug warmer. But the opportunity presented itself a couple of weeks ago when I spotted a 2-for-1 deal on dealnews: Meritline was selling two, count ’em, two for the low price of $8 shipped. As a bonus, the mug warmer had a 4-port USB hub. Brilliant!

I figured that I’d keep one and give one to my wife. Nothing says love like plastic electronics.

I was excited when the package arrived but… there… was only one! Where was the other one? I wrote Meritline and their reply was, “You got everything you ordered.” I wrote back and said, “Uh, no, it was a 2-for-1.” Their reply was, “Uh, no, not the one you ordered.”

What had happened was that, for some crazy reason, Meritline was selling the same USB warmer under two item numbers. One was a 2-for-1, one was not. Same price, description, everything. I had navigated away from the dealnews link at some point. When I returned, I did a search for “usb mug warmer” and chose the first item on the list. I suspect most people would, given everything was the same… except for a “2-for-1” tag added to the description.

I was still bugged by this though, as it should have been made a little clearer – the item numbers were even one digit off, which ain’t much of a difference.

So I wrote Meritline once again. I explained to them that yes, I did make a boo-boo – but their site was pretty darned unclear. I asked that, if in the interest of consumer goodwill, they’d consider still sending the second one. After all, this was the same item at the same price – I wasn’t really “getting” anything from them.

On Thursday, I got a phone call from them, and my mug warmer was being shipped! Awesome.

The upshot is that because of this positive experience, I’ll think of Meritline when I need other USB gadgets and general plastic electronics. I’d say that’s a win-win.

Posted in Consumer Commentary