Gut check time.... opinions?

[Coytee]

Scenario:

You are looking for something.... Let's say a pair of shoes. You find a dealer who advertises that they stock the shoes so you call them. They say they're currently out of stock BUT... "have an order in already for 16 pair and of the 16 pair, 8 are already spoken for so if you want to reserve a pair you should put your order in (and prepay)"

You debate it for about.... 1 moment....and say yes since you know you want them.

You make this order on July 13, 2011. Give them your credit card number.

To cut the rest of the story short:

On August 25 you make a general inquiry..."how much longer" (We'll let you know shortly)

Sept 9, "you advertised free shipping but I was charged" (We'll look into that....oh, and so far, no update from the manufacturer)

Sept 9 (Checked with manufacturer (importer really) and it looks like they might be getting some in October)

Oct 5 (I know it's been a while but here are the exact words from our importer "as soon as we receive anything that relates to your order (my vendor) I will have it shipped immediately to you")

Oct 25 (I understand you're frustrated with the time...so are we however, I have another pair of shoes I designed that we feel are equally nice, I could swap them for you) (no thanks)

Somewhere verbally, I was told "November" and when I called in December... "we don't know what to tell you right now"

So, to recap to me what is a very important point... was one of the initial quotes "We have an order in already for 16 pair"

So now the issue...

January 17: I send another email. I'm to the point of simply saying just return my money. I'm trying to be nice about it and not show what is in fact my genuine frustration. It's one thing to be told "they will take 7 months" but, I don't respond well when you tell me next month....oops, I mean next month.....oops, I mean NEXT month....oops.....I know the manufacture put them in between this rock & hard place. they don't want to be there, I get that.

So, the initial response I get back from them about just cancelling my order for something I ordered 6 months ago and yet to receive is:

If you need to cancel the order, you can simply let me know.
Just to let you know, as this is a special order, there will be a 20% charge
for canceling as we will be charged the same from the manufacture.

Let me know how you would like to proceed.

Huh? Really? 20%?? You just caused the hair on my neck to stand up and the little bulldog in me to pause...

So I send a response back to this person AND the owner of the shoe company (felt the owner should know my comments as much as the other person since he'd find out about my comments/intents soon enough anyway)

From the owner, this part is verbatum but I truncated the 2nd half which isn't relevant to my concern:

---------------------

I
just saw this email and wanted to make sure we are all on the same page as we
always want happy customers.

While
we have ordered 16 pieces back some time ago, those pre orders have been
committed to clients like yourself and we in turn pay for them in advance to
secure our order with the manufacturer.

We
have cancellation fees to cover our time and also as there Re processing fees
on transactions,

As I
said when you placed the order, the manufacturer has long lead times and
generally takes a whole to get these units.

As
you had inquired about the process of order cancellation Dan gave you our
standard practices. We can grant a refund without exercising the special order
cancellation fee.

In
this case we would issue the refund within 14 days without fees. Bear in mind
we pay 2.5% when we took the order, and we get charged 2.5% when refund is
processed.

-------------------------

I responded back pointing out that I don't want them (or anyone) to suffer ANY expenses because of me changing my mind. However, this is a stocked item by them, they (per their own words) had already put in an order for 16 pair so there was NOTHING about my order that was special nor, any way 'extra' to their efforts. I was simply reserving a pair that they had already jumped through the hoops/expenses to order.

At least they did not call this a 'restocking' charge else I would have put Amy after them!! [6]

Oh, another part of an email not shown here, they say that the manufacture will charge THEM (the vendor) to cancel the order. The very order they put in prior to MY order?? I pointed out that I have a hard time believing the manufacturer will care about what their customer does with their order as the manufacturer is only concerned about selling to the vendors.

For the record, I'm not angry at these guys at all. Nada, zippo.

As of the last communication from him, it looks like they're going to do a 100% refund (which I've not recieved yet) and that's good. Here's where I'm wondering.... I'm presuming he's talking about a 2.5% credit card transaction fee on the purchase. I get that. I am ALSO under the belief that on a refund, they get that 2.5% credited back to them, not charged again??

Anyone know about that?

If they have in fact somehow incurred 5% on my purchase then I feel compelled to reimburse them for my change of mind. Given that this amount will be $200, I don't want to do this without knowing the truth.

Thought I'd see what other opinions are.

[Guest " "]

these guys are catching their own passes. if you put the order on a credit card, just do a charge back.

[Wrinkles]

I did not know Stilettos were so expensive. [] Oh, was I not supposed to say anything[^o)]

[Guest Anonymous]

I agree expensive shoes. Take your money and run.

[USNRET]

Yea, thanks. I am going to bed now thinking of Richard in $$$$$ stillettos

heck, just the fact that I'm going to bed thinking of Richard is worthy of a few dollars of shrink time

and NO Richard you owe them NADDA. Make the call to your CC company.

[Coytee]

That's funny... both in that it's funny (above comments) and to call the CC company.

I intially called them yesterday just to get educated. Seems you have 60 (90?) days from billing to dispute a charge. This was done six months ago. I was charged AND paid the card off.

They did however, say that since I've had continuous statements from the vendor that they'd go by last date of contact (which was yesterday) instead of date of transaction.

To reiterate: I'm not bashing on the company who sold me the shoes at all. It's not their fault this is taking so long, I get that.

My only real concern is the 5% comment.

I called my card again tonight to ask specifically about that and after about 90 minutes between being on hold, talking to 4 different departments AND being disconnected & having to call back to start it all over again...

I never reached a single person who could say with any conviction "we do (or do not) charge a company on the refund side of a transaction"

He was very agreeable that they charge them some percent, different rates for different vendors, on purchases.....but on refunds?.....

never did get a solid answer.

Now, where did my red pumps go... AMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY put them back!! [:@]