Dear S3@rs,

Dear S3@rs,

You may possibly have the worst customer service I've ever experienced. I ordered a dress a few weeks before Christmas as a new Christmas present for myself. My credit card was charged and I assumed the order was on it's way. A few days before Christmas, I still had no dress so I went and bought one somewhere else. A few days after Christmas with no sign of the dress, I called to inquire about it. Some guy told me to be patient and said the order was fine.

A few days later, still no dress. I called again and the customer service girl told me there was definitely something wrong with the order and that it hadn't shipped, but that she had to fill out all sorts of paperwork and open an "investigation" before they could refund my money.

This week, I called them again inquiring as to my order and refund. A different customer service woman says something like, yeah, your order never shipped. I don't know why. I see that they did fill out the investigation forms to get a refund. Then I ask for my refund and she tells me they have to do another investigation in order to refund my money.

Finally today, I get an email telling me that they've refunded me for my order, MINUS the shipping. What? They never shipped my order and they are keeping my $7 in shipping. That is totally not ok with me.

I called them up and got this wacked out customer service guy. I argue with him out how it is fraud to keep a customers shipping costs when they never actually sent me anything. Then he gives me this line about how as a service to me, they'll give me a gift card in the amount of $7 to use on my next order with them. Seriously? They actually think I'm going to place an order with them again? And I want my $7 back. I don't think it's ok to keep it when they never actually sent me anything.

I told him that a gift card was absolutely unacceptable and I wanted that money back on my card now. He gives me this load of crap about how he has to open an "investigation" to determine if I can have my extra $7 back. So then I told him that it was unacceptable to keep it when they didn't ship anything and it needed to be refunded now. Meanwhile, the guy is like heavy breathing on the phone sounding winded or like he's huffing something while he types and hard to follow or understand. Finally after arguing with him for a while longer he says, ok, I will refund your $7 and it should be on your card in the next few days.

You can bet that if it isn't, you'll get one final phone call before I go fill out a dispute form at my credit union, and a complaint with the Utah Consumer Protection Agency.

Had this been my first awful order with you, I might've considered a gift card in addition to a refund, however, having experienced what I would call a second awful customer service experience with you and your website, I don't think I ever want to do business with you again.

The first experience, I placed an order online and selected in-store pickup. This required a phone number for some crazy reason. Then after charging me, I got an email informing me that the items were not in stock and that my money would be refunded. I was fine with that, EXCEPT that I got a 5am wake up call the next morning informing me that my items were ready for pickup and I needed to pick them up. And then I got the same phone call a little later.

You know, I am one who likes my sleep. If someone is calling me at 5am, they better have a very good reason. A pickup on a canceled order is not a good reason. I called customer service and let them know I didn't appreciate it but I understood there were system glitches and to please not let it happen again.

I know there is a three strikes you're out thing, but in this case. I think two is sufficient to determine that your website and your employees are incompetent, unprofessional, and obviously trained to squeeze every bit of money out of a customer and not give it back, even when the customer is completely in the right.

I can definitely see why your stores and your stock is hurting. Why would anyone shop at your stores given the experiences like the two I've had? Unless your products are on sale, they're overpriced. And your customer service is more like armed robbery. In addition, your website is clunky and now that you've opened it up for other people to sell products on your site, one search brings back thousands of items and it's difficult to sort through which ones come from you. Although with your "investigation" requirements in order to get a refund, I'm not sure it matters since apparently skimming shipping off the top of non-shipped orders seems to be your forte.

Good luck in your future endeavors. I imagine we will see you bankrupt in a few years on the news.

Your former customer,

Les