poor dealings with a vendor.

[monoxide]

Hi guys,

im not quite sure how to go about this but i ordered an 80mm refractor from a vendor a bit over 2 months ago now and after sending the payment through and being told the item was not in stock things went a bit downhill.
i sent a few emails after i got another one saying they weren't quite sure when my scope would be in and now i'm just not getting any response at all.
so at the moment they have my money and wont talk to me :help:
im going to try to call them again tomorrow but im not sure where to go from there if i don't get anywhere.



ps. this isnt meant to be a vendor bashing thread, its just a call for help and to let everyone know to be careful. the vendor will stay unnamed.

[h0ughy]

ask for a full refund - if refused then go to consumer complaints in your state and get them to enforce the retail association codes of practice

[Dennis]

If you paid by credit card and the vendor is clearly not honouring the purchase order, you can complain to your credit card company and obtain a refund.

I have done this twice now, successfully, where one vendor did not provide the goods in a timely manner and the other one overcharged against the items delivered. One of these was a well respected, household name, global software company.

Cheers

Dennis

[monoxide]

thanks guys,
i haven't even been able to get in contact with them since the 19th of feb.
the payment was made via net banking so i will have the details on my statement.

its like they just disappeared of the face of the planet.

[iceman]

Definitely call them. Email is not always a reliable way of communicating. Perhaps an email spam filter is now blocking your emails?

Call them.

[monoxide]

Hi Mike,
i exchanged several emails with them before losing contact but i'll definately be trying to call them again.

[Davros]

If at all possible walk through their shop door, they will have great difficulty fobbing you off if you are standing there.

[leon]

Consumer affairs and/or the Office of Fair Trading in your state will definitly help you.

I had bought, and paid for a very expensive item, in excess of $25.000.00, it was faulty, and very poorly manufactured, I complained to the business that sold it to me, and they didn't want to know about it. :mad2:

When I directed my problem to The Office of Fair Trading, the business concerned talked very quickly. :whistle:

I was given a full refund, to the very last cent.;)

Leon :thumbsup:

[PCH]

Jeepers Leon, what was it you bought for that price? Must have been some piece of kit (assuming it had been to the expected standard).

Cheers,:thumbsup:

[Ian Robinson]

Probably all very innocent and a miscommunication somewhere down the line.

Try calling them AGAIN on the phone (ask for the owner or manager , salespeople will just give you the run-around) and ask for a firm delivery date , be nice , honey attracts more bees than vinegar , so keep your cool for now.

The scope is probably in a container on a boat somewhere and wont be far off.

If they can't supply the scope soon , ask them for a refund or a credit on something else.


If all this fails or they refuse , or wont respond , take it up with your bank , building society or credit union , and if you bought by cheque or credit card , ask for the transaction to reversed .... this is a last resort .

You could perhaps suggest that you will be taking it with The Fair Trading Tribunal or Consumer Affairs (not sure what they called) and name and shame them here.

If you bought through internet banking ... as you suggested ... they may never have recieved your money , it may have been stolen by someone else .

[csb]

Actually, you make a complaint to the Consumer Affairs in the state that the business is in.

I bought an item from NSW, I'm in SA, and the item wasn't as advertised, on ebay. I had to go through NSW consumer affairs. They contacted me after 1 week and got me a refund that day.

I made an application online - very painless.

[Alchemy]

good advice..... but im guessing its not close by :sadeyes:

phone them , if they dont respond favourably then fair trading, you can download a whole bunch of documents and stuff pertaining to your problem, i did this with a company i dealt with once and after a month and a half of ignoring me ...fixed in a couple of days. Just let them know you fully understand your rights as a consumer and will take it to the next level.

i usually say be nice first... but ithink youve tried that.

[monoxide]

thanks for the responses guys,
im going to try calling them in a couple hours in the hope i can get a hold of someone.

its been a bit of a circus really, first i was told that there was none in stock, then i got an email saying that they found one on the shop floor and would give that one to me discounted, then another email saying that the one on the floor was damaged and that they had no idea when they would have another one in, i dont mind waiting at all but you like to be able to keep in touch and know something is happening on their end.

i checked my records and i actually paid using paypal so it should be fairly painless getting my money back if it comes to it.

[monoxide]

wow.

cancel that.. looks like i have an ED80 on the way :)

after a bit of a disappointing phone call trying to sort out the price difference between when i paid and the price now i got a phonecall back saying 'how about i just send you an ED80 for all the trouble'

an ED80 for a bit more than a 80mm achro, not bad..

[RB]

Great news !

Congrats to you and a big well done to the dealer too.
:thumbsup:

[Stephen65]

I find the concept that a vendor would actually charge an amount to your credit card before they had the scope in hand and were ready to ship it out the door more than a little disturbing.

I've never paid in advance for a scope or any equipment, at the most I have paid a small deposit and I have never had my credit card charged for an out of stock item until the vendor is ready to ship.

[shane shaw]

great deal mate. Glad to see you had some resolution on the matter and for the pain and suffering you have endured a bonus from the vendor . Well done

[leon]

Paul it was a Caravan, I had it built to my specs, they stuffed up everything. :mad2:

Leon :thumbsup:

[Bassnut]

I cant stand this :P

Now that theyve done the right thing, no, more than that, give us a really, really criptic clue as to whom eventually did the right thing, make it hard :D.

[monoxide]

lol nice try Fred,
i've had a few pm's but i cant really say because i don't want to get myself into trouble. :)
even though the problem has been resolved a lot better than i was expecting it still might put people off.
plus, i havent got the scope yet :P

in the end im very happy though, they didn't have to do that at all but they did.
we had already agreed on another achro before i got the phone call asking if an ed80 would be ok
full props to the manager/owner for that, what a champ :)

[Matty P]

That's great news,

It's a real bonus for all the problems the vendor gave you. I haven't had any problems with any vendors and I hope to keep it that way.

[erick]

These days, the cluey ones will be monitoring the fora - perhaps this one was. Glad it worked out well for you Tj :thumbsup:

[MrB]

I was going to say exactly the same thing.

It's surprising how many retailers I see in the various forums I haunt.
Some of the forums even have a retail section where the retailers can start threads for feedback and discussions and they have 'Retailer' in red under their username (like where mine says 'Registered User') so you can tell if they're a bit biased or not in a particular discussion on their product(or someone elses!).
*EDIT, actually, it says 'resU deretsigeR' ;)

They are out there.

[whmacs]

Hi Guys,
Just a bit of info that might help out in the future with credit card purchases. If you buy something on a credit card and do not receive the goods, ring your bank and say that you would like a 'charge back' on an item you didn't receive. The bank will send you a stat dec form to fill in. Once you send the form back they will refund your card and go after the merchant. All the major banks honor 'charge backs' in Australia, its just not that well known.

Regards,
Stephen

[matt]

Yes.

'Charge back' is a good option and don't be afraid to use it if you believe a vendor's behaviour is beyond the pale.

I'm of the opinion you shouldn't have a charge processed against your credit card unless the item has shipped. Pure and simple.

I'm sure there are different opinions on this, though. That's the nature of opinions:)

[MrB]

That reminds me of a service provided by a photography classifieds magazine, the service acts as a third party in transactions, you pay the third party, the goods are sent to the third party, when both have arrived, they do a 'crossed arms' thing so the vendor gets the cash and you the goods. Costs more obviously, but great for expensive purchases.

I reckon there's a massive opportunity there for someone(with a big warehouse ;) ) to start a business offering the same service for everyone, like for 'fee-bay' purchases etc etc.

[monoxide]

Hi guys,
just thought id let you know i recieved my ED80 today and just had first light :)

although pretty awkward as i don't have a diagonal around the place (this is my first refractor), the view i just had of M42 with my 24mm Pano was excellent and i can see that it will replace my 6" newt on the HEQ5 as the focal lengths are fairly similar

[Ric]

Hi Tj, I'm glad to see it all came good for you and first light was enjoyable.

Hi Stephen, thanks for mentioning about "Charge Back" I had never heard of that before but it sounds like a very handy thing to know about.

Cheers