Specifically with their state’s attorney general office? This company has demonstrated very shady business practices with an order that I placed with them earlier this year. After trying very politely and with a positive tone for a few months to get them to fulfill the order, I finally called them so they know I’m not a happy camper. They told me they don’t do refunds, and apparently expect me to just suck it up (around $1,000). Because they invoiced me (and I paid because at the time I didn’t know they were going to be like this) for the merchandise and carrier freight when I placed the order back in April, I suspect that I can no longer file a dispute with my credit card. I still plan to file a dispute because maybe the issue is flagrant enough that they’ll work with me.
My question here is if you guys think I should contact the company one more time for resolution, and tell them politely but bluntly that if they don’t send me what I bought by the end of the month (or whatever soonish date) I will file a complaint with the OAG?
All seriousness aside, I doubt if threatening a complaint is going to do any good if they aren’t acting in good faith.
Sometimes the business model is “stall and hope they go away”. Maybe the OAG will be too busy to deal with this, and you will have to sue in small claims court. And maybe by that time, the shady company will be out of business.
Nah, don’t tell them, just do it. I don’t know what kind of transaction this is, but I’ve gotten really good results by reporting people to the BBB.
As for disputing it with your credit card, yes, absolutely do that, now. If there’s some kind of time limit that’s expired when you try online, call the number on the back.
Don’t threaten them or give them an ultimatum. You’ve already asked them, how many times, to resolve this. They refused, now you need to go to the next level. Also, you may consider taking them to small claims.
Talk to your Congresscritter’s office. Sometimes all it takes is the words “Congressional inquiry” to get them off the dime. My parents had a major hassle with insurance billing that disappeared the second Feinstein’s office got involved.
I had that happen with one company. I didn’t like a product I got. I called them up and told them I’d like to return it. They gave me an RMA and had me ship it back. A few days after they got it, I called to inquire about my refund. The very first thing they said, before asking my name/phone/RMA was “Did you mail it with something trackable”. I did, I gave them the UPS tracking number, I could here her enter it into a computer (looking up the tracking number on the UPS site, I assume) and then confirm that they got it. I firmly believe if I had sent it by standard mail (no tracking), they magically never would have received it.
Anyway, they tell me I should get the refund in 5-10 days. On day 11, I call and she said ‘No, 5-10 business days’. On the 11th business day, I called and she said ‘I don’t know who told you that, refunds take 30 days’. On day 31 I called, and she changed it to 31 business days (that would be 6 weeks). I know I’m not crazy, I know she was changing the amount of time it was every time I called. I disputed the charge and got my money back. When I disputed it, we were already a month out, I assume she was just stalling until I gave up or some time limit passed.
Okay, thanks all! I’ll just do the credit card dispute and OAG complaint. The company is in California (and I’m in Virginia) so I think I should file with the California Attorney General, right?
Some of this is my fault in a “buyer beware” kind of way. For example, I was so excited to find this company making one-of-a-kind items that I’ve been looking for, that I didn’t notice some early red flags. Flags such as no posted shipping, refund or return policies.
Even so, the customer shouldn’t have to constantly chase you down to get you to fulfill the order. It’s totally on them that they kept telling me (effectively) “it’s shipping soon” over and over again but it never actually does. And when the customer finally calls you tell them “we don’t do refunds, so sorry”. Yeah, they might not intend to be complete scammers but that’s exactly how they appear.
Anyway, I have all of the time-stamped emails to use as documentation, as well as copies of their invoices.
Yep, I did quick searches on this topic and found that there is a 120-day or 60-day time limit on credit card disputes, depending on what the transaction was.
I also saw something that said a company should not charge your card until they’re close to being ready to ship (which this place obviously didn’t). I hope that I win my case on that alone, since they billed me for the merchandise in April knowing that they were custom-building (which they didn’t tell me, I thought the items were in stock) them for me, and also billed me for special carrier shipping (because the freaking things are too big for UPS, USPS or DHL standard freight) knowing that they were nowhere close to being able to ship them out.
At this point, it’s more about the principle of it rather than getting my money back.
Yes, you’d file the complaint with their AG, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to CC yours as well. If you were to sue them, and I could be wrong, I’d think you’d sue them in your own state, which almost guarantees a default judgement against them, unless they’re big enough that they have representatives in other parts of the country.
There’s a million websites out there that tell you how to file a dispute and the best way to win them (and plenty out there for the merchants as well). Take a look at them, see what makes sense, but ultimately, just explain what happened. Again, this might be easier if you call and talk to an agent as they can ask you the right questions while writing up your complaint. Honestly, several months later and the product still hasn’t been delivered…I can’t imagine you won’t win that. If the CC company mentions anything about the time limit, just push back a little. I think they’ll understand.
Never threaten, always play nice.
When playing nice isn’t an option, the hammer blow should always come swiftly and from behind to minimize the possibility of escape.
I recall an issue I had where the card was Discover. The item never shipped. I initiated a dispute well after 60 days after the charge, and the result waxDiscover reversing the charge.
Last night I started printing out my documentation and highlighting dates and pertinent details. Pretty sure I have a rock solid case.
As a fellow small business owner, I hate to do this to someone. On the other hand, they’re so amazingly unprofessional they deserve a smackdown, and maybe give all of us small businesses a bad name. To all potential customers: We’re not all complete scammers!
Don’t feel bad. Unless you honestly think the product is about to ship, they’re just keeping your money. Something else, sometimes this is a sign that the company is in it’s death throes. They may not even have that much money anymore. All the more reason to dispute the charge and let them own their processor the money, not you.
Since they ship via a long-haul freight shipper instead of USPS, there’s no mail fraud (I assume).
I didn’t want to get into too many details here, but since the discussion is continuing (and it really is kind of interesting, I think, as a case study for how NOT to run a business), I know this because they actually did ship me part of my order. I ordered two items from them, and they (finally, after I pestered them) shipped one of them. It was only when I got it that I discovered it was gigantic and unusable. And because of the size and special shipping requirements (it’s actually too large for standard shipping - only freight shippers will handle items this size) they wouldn’t take it back.
The items were dog mannikins that I was going to use in my shop, both for modelling merchandise in my in-person events and for taking product photography. I ordered a greyhound and a labrador. The one they sent me was the greyhound and it was twice the size of a real greyhound so none of my products would fit on it. (Because of the shipping issue, I also couldn’t re-sell it online and had to unload it locally through Craigslist.)
I was so surprised at it’s size that I went back through my order documentation and their website to see if I missed sizing information. None was posted or ever mentioned, and when I spoke to him on the phone about it he commented “I guess I should have told you it’s size before you ordered.” (My assumption - and again, I know this is likely an aspect of buyer beware - was that if anything, it would be smaller than life size.) He tried to tell me that it was the size of an average greyhound, not knowing that I’ve been working with retired racers for more than a decade and have seen the full range of sizes. Even a 95-pound “monster” dog (and I have met a few) wasn’t as big as this thing. I don’t hold it against him that he doesn’t actually know how big the actual breed is, but he should have sizes posted next to the photos on his website. I checked it again yesterday and he still doesn’t have sizes posted with the photo captions.
Anyway, since this thing was so enormous, I assume the labrador would be also unusable so I asked him to cancel that one and refund me. He said they don’t do that and they already started building it for me so I couldn’t cancel it. Funny that I haven’t heard boo from him since then, and no labrador in sight. So I’m done with this company.
Well, you probably won’t get anything back from the Greyhound, but I’d still dispute the charge for the Lab and let the processor figure it out (or the entire charge if it was together).
Let them explain to their processor why they charged you for it months ago and still haven’t shipped it.
Now, if it were me, as soon as I contact an AG or dispute the charge, I wouldn’t communicate with them anymore. However, if you do, ask them to email you a picture of it, in progress. That’ll tell you a lot. Is it, honestly, almost done, or have they not even started it yet.
Yep, I don’t really expect to be refunded for the greyhound since they did technically deliver what I paid for there.
One more detail that just shows at best sloppy business practices or at worst an actual scam is that the reason they didn’t ship both together as they originally claimed they would, is he told me that the labrador was “damaged post production” so they had to build another one for me. The actual mental picture I get from these people is that they have no prior business experience and don’t really know how to run a business selling merchandise. Just sloppy and clueless.