Thursday, July 30, 2009

Rude Business

Wow. It never ceases to take me by surprise when a business is rude to you.

Especially when it was they who did something wrong.

I ordered a t-shirt from a band I like, The Killer and The Star (they're new-ish; lead singer/songwriter is formerly of the band Cold). I paid via PayPal, and my credit card was charged that same day. This was June 25.

Five weeks later, and I still haven't received my shirt. Five weeks - that's more than a month.

I've been patient. I understand shipping takes a while. But I'm starting to think something's wrong. So, as PayPal suggests, I attempt to contact the seller first.

I send an e-mail on July 21 (last Tuesday, three weeks after the order). You know, just a "Hey! Haven't gotten my shirt? Can you help me?" sort of thing.

No response.

So today, I open a dispute with PayPal.

And today, surprise! I receive an e-mail from the seller:


Your Shirt‏
From: The Killer and The Star (tkats@sonicstarrecords.com)
Sent: Thu 7/30/09 4:55 PM
To: myemail@email.com

Your shirt is being shipped tomorrow. The website said shipping time was 5 weeks. Please in the future if you have questions about an order contact us instead of opening a dispute with paypal. This all could have been easily avoided with a simple email to us. Please go to paypal and drop the dispute so we can ship out your shirt. The money is frozen in our account until the dispute is resolved.

Thank you.



I have two problems with this - outside of the snotty tone.

1. I did contact you first, bee-yotch! Over a week ago!

2. Wait, I'm sorry - did you ask me to drop the dispute because the money has been frozen by PayPal? How about I get the damn shirt first?

My response:


I guess I didn't really think about how long 5 weeks is; it's rare to wait over a month for something.

I ain't dropping the dispute until the shirt is in my happy little hands.




2 comments:

Hips Unhinged Ltd said...

Good on you for raising a dispute with PayPal, and on time, too. Last time I got involved with a dodgy company (when I was buying that gorgeous backless dress, if you remember), I waited weeks and weeks, buying into their twaddle about having sent another one. I was way too trusting, and by the time I decided to get PayPal involved (because up until then, I'd wanted to keep things 'nice'), it was too late. That's forty pounds - and a dress - that I'll never see again and there's not a damn thing I can do about it.

"Please go to paypal and drop the dispute so we can ship out your shirt. The money is frozen in our account until the dispute is resolved."

Call me paranoid after my own experience, but that doesn't sound like PayPal froze their account to me, but rather that it's a threat to you - drop the dispute or we ain't doing nuth'n. You stick to your guns, girl.

Jen said...

Update: I did cave - I dropped the dispute because I love the band and want to support them, but I made sure to make it clear to PayPal that I was pressured with a threat to drop it or not get the shirt.

If I still don't get the shirt, I'm calling American Express - they'll reimburse me.