I have been in retail for 30 years and have owned my own businesses, three of them including a physical storefront, since 1996. We are a corporation and our company name is trademarked. I am no newbie to selling. I have over 200 vendors I deal with on a monthly basis without any problems. Until now. I placed an order with this company for over 500.00 worth of jewelry. This was on July 3rd. I actually wanted to change my order within minutes after submitting it, as the site provided a link to change the order, but when I clicked on it, it said it was too late as it was in processing already. Highly doubtful at 10 pm at night before a holiday. On the 5th the site says item was shipped. Tracking came up as invalid. I emailed them twice, politely asking if this order had shipped as the tracking was dead. No response to two emails asking about the order. On July 11th I felt I was being scammed because no goods, dead tracking and no return emails. I emailed them this note-
This order says shipped but still tracking says invalid. This supposedly shipped on July 5th. Please just refund my credit card charge. If I don't see a credit asap I am going to file a chargeback with my bank. I am also filing a complaint with salehoo.
No, it was not friendly, because the last two polite please and thank you emails went unanswered. This is what I received minutes later from them-
Excuse me but if your going to be in business you might want to learn
how to talk to people with some respect and understanding before you
start threating them. There was a simple typo in the UPS tracking
number. We are human and we do make mistakes, unfortunately we are not
as perfect as you are. Below is the correct tracking number and
information for your package which is rescheduled to be delivered today.
We have no more control over UPS ground delivery times than you do. You
can file a compliant with saleshoo or anybody else you like as we are
not even a member of that site. We also have no tolerance for people
that communicate with us this manner and we have terminated your account
on our site which means you are no longer allowed on our site or too
purchase from it.
UPS Tracking Info
Your package is on time with a scheduled delivery date of 07/12/2007.
I was stunned. I was more than angry. I expected an apology and what I got was them telling me they terminated my account. I then emailed the following to this person who did not give his last name.
Dear Steven (no last name),
Perhaps if you had answered my emails I sent to you over a week ago I would not have thought you simply don't care about your customers. If you would like me to resend the emails I'd be happy to do so. They were more than polite. I received no response. None.
I have been in business since 1996 and have never received an email such as this from any of the vendors I have dealt with and I must say I am shocked. You are going to terminate an account because one of your customers has sent you emails, that went unanswered, their credit card was charged on July 3rd with no receipt of merchandise, and they become upset? I am stunned this is how you take care of your customers. I don't believe I have ever spoken to any of my customers in this regard and I have over 10,000 of them. When a customer is upset the best thing to do is to find out exactly why they are upset and try to help them, not give them a lecture and treat them like scum. I really am blown away by this so called customer service. I wanted to have a long term beneficial relationship with you but it appears that you could care less about a brand new customer putting in a small test order.
signed, my name
(I sign my last name and would like yours as I would like to speak to a supervisor about this issue)
I then was so angry I called their CS line. I was sickeningly sweet. I told this no name person that since they have terminated my account I feel it's best that I simply refuse the order as I have no recourse for any refund if something is in error. This no name person agreed and said to refuse and they would credit my card IN FULL.
I then followed up with this email because the more I thought about this, the less I trusted them, after being treated so rudely.
Dear Steve (no last name),
I just spoke to someone who didn't identify himself at your company either. Seems to be a trend. As agreed, I am going to refuse this order, since I will have no recourse if anything is wrong with my order as you terminated what could have been a very lucrative account. I am no newbie in business. In fact, I have been in the retail business for over 30 years. I have never, EVER, been 'spoken' to in this regard by any of my vendors, and I have over 200 vendors that I deal with, two websites, and one physical storefront.
The fact is, this order was listed as shipped on July 5th. The tracking came up dead. I tried emailing you asking about it and received no response. That was last week. I waited and waited and it seems the only way to get any response was to notify you that I would have to file a chargeback with my bank. Sorry but I am not willing to kiss away over $500.00 as it appeared that this order didn't ship and there was no response to my emails asking about it. As a customer, what would you think?
The order will be refused however since we don't get orders of onzies and twosies, it's going to take our shipping clerk some time to get through our pallets to find the order coming from you. As soon as it's found, we will notify UPS to come pick it up with our normal customer shipments. Pardon me if I don't wait for your credit, but I will be filing a chargeback against your company anyway. Why? It's simple. The way I was treated as a new customer makes me very nervous. I don't want to deal with a company that is this uncaring about their customers. Remember the adage, the customer is always right? It's the way I train ALL our employees. Had one of our employees spoken to one of MY customers in this regard, they would have been out the door. The fact is, you made two mistakes. You failed to answer my emails to you asking about this order. When I emailed you again, you were not apologetic about this 'typo', you turned this around on me, the customer who paid YOU over $500.00. That's pretty bad customer service. A simple, we're sorry, there was a typo in the tracking and we are sorry we didn't get back to you last week, would have made me happy, and you would have had a nice account with us. Now all you have is a return order, an upset former customer, shipping charges to eat. I am stunned this is how you do business but it's your business. Good luck with it.
I then called my bank and they agreed to take the charge off my account including shipping because midtown was the party to terminate the agreement. The package did arrive the next day and it was completely smashed up. The driver commented on it and said she knew I would refuse it. Told her that wasn't the reason I was refusing but it just added to it. This is the email I received from midtown after my last email to them. Real nice, professional, people here. Enjoy the read-
We did not receive an email from you last week or it would have been
answered!!! Since you are one of those know-it-all people from the north
east you might want to figure out that emails do not get through these
days! It is simple being polite and business like to open a second email
with did you get the last email I sent and restate your concerns or
questions? It is rude and useless to send an email starting out with
threats and ultimatums. Especially when you do not even know if we had
received your prior email or not before going on a ridiculous triad of
threats and ultimatums! It is know wonder you have been through so many
vendors if you think this is the way to treat them or anybody for that
fact. I have no trouble with new customers or small orders! However I do
have a problem with people that think they can threaten and bully us
because they may become a customer in the future! Your attitude and
email mimics an eBay seller with absolutely no business inexperience
what so ever...
We are liquidators selling real closeout jewelry at below the
manufactures original wholesale prices in LARGE quantities! You are a
small retailer and you may haver to put up with your type of BS, but as
liquidators we do not have too nor do we have the time for this type of
BS! Midtown Closeout has been in business for over 17 years and our
annual sales volume far exceeds yours. As liquidators we work on a low
margin large volume business model. I do not care of you want to throw
a temper tantrum and refuse the order because I will not kiss your rear
end as a potential customer. I hope that you understand that your refund
will be less the shipping to and from since you are refusing the order
as stated in the terms of sale. I am not upset with you nor do I hold a
grudge as you seem to. We simple do not have the time or margins as
liquidators to deal with your type of expectations, lack of
understanding and civil communication skills. I wish you and your
business all the best in the future. By the way, I am not a customer
service rep, a customer service rep wouldn't have the authority to close
your account! I am an owner and your email was forwarded to me by
customer service because it was completely out of line and unreasonable
regardless of what you think.
Best Regards,
Steven
Midtown Closeouts
I was out of line to tell them to refund my card after my card was charged over 500.00 on July 3rd, emails went unanswered until July 12th and was only answered when I told them just to refund my money? Yes, I was upset that it took the promise of a chargeback and a complaint to get them to respond. I admit it. However, I do not think the email they finally responded to was out of line in light of the situation. He mentions a second email? That's laughable. I sent him two polite emails. no response. I guess he couldn't be bothered. I find it laughable that he's telling me how low volume my businesses are. Does he have access to my financials? Give me a break bud. I sell thousands of dollars worth of merchandise a DAY. Ebay sales is something I do on my own and we don't sell store merchandise on Ebay. This guy is a clown. His northeast comment was incredibly ignorant as well. This guy is mentally imbalanced and has a rage problem to say the least.
Sorry for the long post but I think you all should know what a temper this gentleman has and how utterly unprofessional he is when dealing with a new customer who could have purchased thousands of dollars a month in product with his company. His loss.