What follows is an email I sent earlier today to NEC's Printer Supply Technical Support. I should perhaps explain that I have an NEC 4400N Color Printer that's made a few cross-country journeys with me and has generally been a great color laser printer. It is showing its age and as new catalogs come out I dream of donating it to a worthwhile charity and getting a nice new two-sided laser printer. In the meantime the little $58 part known as the fuser roller cleaner has reached the end of its hard working life. Three weeks ago I ordered a replacement from NEC's Printer Supply Store. You get the gist of what happened from my email to them.
Readers with an eye for detail will note that it refers to pictures that appear here as text. For some inexplicable reason NEC's support line wanted screen shots of my email showing the problem. Whatever... I think text would have been easier to deal with.
I'm perplexed as to why a picture of an email is more useful than the original that was attached to the message I originally sent. None the less, here goes:
On February 21, 2006 I ordered a part (Fuser Roller for NEC 4400N Printer). To date that part has not arrived. See "Picture 3" Attached. The confirmation number for that order was WWW0037000-29421.
From: supplystore@necsolutionsam.com
Subject: Confirmation of NEC Solutions America Order
Date: February 21, 2006 1:12:26 PM PST
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxThank you Joshua Brauer for choosing NEC Solutions America to order your supplies!
The order detailed in the attachment has been placed in our system for processing on 02/21/2006 at 03:12 PM.
The total amount of the order, excluding sales tax, is $63.00 which includes $5.00 for shipping via Ground Service.
All prices are in US dollars.The total listed above, plus applicable sales tax, will be charged to your Visa.
Your order number is WWW0037000-29421. Please keep it for your records and return to our site for easy reordering or if you have any questions regarding your order.
Expect your package to arrive via ground in roughly 7 to 10 days.
If you need further assistance please call 800-632-4650

On March 13 having not received the part I called the 800-number included (800-632-4650). The number does not work.
I proceeded to search for any way to contact the NEC Supply Store online lead to this page (https://printer-supplies.necsam.com/help.cfm?cfid=332500&cftoken=488790&family=supplies). It mentions a number to call for help three times on the page. That number is 916-636-5785. I called the number and listened to the menu several times. There is no option for anything remotely related to printers or ordering of printer supplies. I then chose option "5" for "other handhelds".
When choosing this option I spoke a support agent who attempted to help or at the very least placate me. Through a series of being placed on hold and his conferring with somebody "upstairs" I learned the following:
- The 800-number has been invalid for at least a year
- The 919 area code number supplied has not been doing any sort of printer support for at least a year now.
- My order number (WWW0037000-29421) was nowhere to be found in NEC's systems and in fact was one digit too short to be a legitimate order number.
- The only thing I could do is to place another order online.
- Only one item with this part number had been ordered in the last month and the order number was not close to mine.
- No record exists of anyone with my name ever purchasing from the online store (interesting since I have on several past occasions).
Following this call I placed an order on the website again. The order number assigned in the confirmation email was exactly the same length. This time, however, my credit card was charged for $78.35. I had only authorized a charge of $63.00 plus sales tax on $58 dollars. Since the tax rate here is nowhere near the 26% tax this represents there has been a further error and I am now forced to contest the charge with the credit card company in order to have it properly credited.
From: supplystore@necsolutionsam.com
Subject: Confirmation of NEC Solutions America Order
Date: March 13, 2006 9:02:38 AM PST
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxThank you Joshua Brauer for choosing NEC Solutions America to order your supplies!
The order detailed in the attachment has been placed in our system for processing on 03/13/2006 at 11:02 AM.
The total amount of the order, excluding sales tax, is $63.00 which includes $5.00 for shipping via Ground Service.
All prices are in US dollars.The total listed above, plus applicable sales tax, will be charged to your Visa.
Your order number is WWW0037052-29466. Please keep it for your records and return to our site for easy reordering or if you have any questions regarding your order.
Expect your package to arrive via ground in roughly 7 to 10 days.
If you need further assistance please call 800-632-4650

Along with having to work with the credit card company to reverse the charge, I also note that the order number is quite similar to the previous order which was apparently not processed.
One is left to wonder if I'll end up having to scrap a printer because the company that supplied it can't manage to ship a part that costs less than $100.