Howdy,
Just a comment about this kind of thread. I am not going to discuss who was in the right/wrong here. Nor is this directed at anyone in particular. It is just a general comment.
All too often, I see a customer that has unrealistic expectations or something doesn't go exactly the way they think it should, and then they go nuts and start telling everyone they can find how horrible the vendor has been. Personally, I don't much care for this except in extreme cases.
Vendors work very hard to make a good name for themselves. They are human though and they will make mistakes on occasion. How they handle the mistakes is critical to their continued good name. If they refuse to make good, then I think everyone should be warned. But that assumes the customer's idea of "make good" is reasonable. I have seen to many customers that think if the vendor messes up something, that somehow entitles them to get everything for free, or something equally ridiculous. If the vendor does not satisfy these ridiculous expectations, then the customer somehow thinks the vendor has screwed them over.
As the old saying goes, there are always two sides to the story. With the advent of the internet, email and boards like this one, it is far too easy for a ticked off customer to start "Spreading the word," and they can easily destroy the good name of a business, sometimes even a good business. The business on the other hand really has no effective way to counter unjustified slander. Often I have seen a customer fly off the handle, the business makes good, and then sometime later the customer shows up online and makes a sheepish apology about losing it and how the vendor did do right by them. But this is like newspaper retractions to headline stories. Unlike the original story, they don't get seen by very many people or spread like the original story. However, the damage is still done!
You may feel justified in trying to steer as many people away from them as possible, but there are likely a lot of people on the vendor's side of the equation that will get screwed because of your actions and they had nothing to do with your problem. I am always amazed at what people can do to others without regard to the consequences when the offended party feels "justified"!
The point of all this rambling is that I would ask all of you to carefully consider the situation BEFORE you go online and start railing against any particular vendor. Remember... Patience is a virtue
Adios,