Ducati Monster Forum

Buyer beware - especially if importing to US

Purchased pants from Motocard, based in Europe, to ship as a gift to the United States

Item was IN STOCK and said to ship within 24 hours - placed order, got charged, received order confirmation - so far so good

6 days later... no updates.  No shipping confirmation, no emails, nada.

Emailed customer service, they responded within 24 hours (very good) saying my order won't be shipped unless I pay $39 USD MORE in shipping costs (in addition to the original shipping cost I paid, which was $7) because they made an error.  Not so good considering the item purchased is only like $70.

Okay, mistakes happen.. I understand that.. but the customer should be notified in a timely fashion, NOT 6 days later after I send off an email asking where my order was.

Geez.  There's one Christmas for someone ruined.

you can always just give 'em an empty box:

http://theswca.com/images-toys/figuretoys/ebkit.html (http://theswca.com/images-toys/figuretoys/ebkit.html)

;D

Boo. That sucks.

[thumbsdown]

Will they give you a refund?

OKAY...I have been sitting on this and stewing it a lil bit....

you were expecting to capitolize on the mistake of an automated system when you knew you were being undercharged for shipping for a set of pants to be sent internationally for the same general rate as ground service within the continental U.S. and are acting surprised at being called on it?....REALLY?....most normal people would have Emailed them upfront to double check the shipping rates quoted for to be able to send internationally, as some vendors in the UK for example have their sites set up for shipping, but will generally not ship outside of Europe due to declaration of tariffs and various other reasons....especially if they had even the slightest inkling that the shipping rate quoted seemed low...

now, I am not excusing them from not contacting you...they should have...but it is a 2 way street here in my opinion, and they perhaps were trying to keep up with the holiday demand or other various aspects of their day to day business....

maybe I am in the minority here...but I say boo on you for trying to pull a fast one and it is your fault you left yourself in the short side for international shipping of an item that you won't be able to give at X-Mas...

Lots of places globally run "shipping sales" to boost holiday sales. It's reasonable to think there may have been a shipping promotion at this time of the year.

no matter who they are all online sales should automatically generate a confirmation at least.  I would have to think there's a problem with their system.  I normally check my card within 24 hours of placing an order online if no confirmation is sent and then cancel the order and stop the charge.....I'm a little weird about online purchases since someone stole my ATM card numbers.


how is the buyer responsible here?  If it was posted and said so on their website it's the company's responsibility to know and monitor.  Most reputable websites I've seen overseas clearly have an international shipping policy, even if you sneak into the local country's link when you check out it will recognize your card and deny your charge.  My opinion is that if you advertise you are responsible for the content.

just guessing at the timeline here...but if in going backward he placed this order the week of the 6th thru 10th ( basing solely on his posting and taking the count backwards from there), and he didn't hear anything after a couple/few business days ( as you even suggested he should in follow up or something) he left himself short on trying to get something in time for X-Mas with an unreasonable timeframe....not sure how many people here have ordered overseas, but the timeframe of delivery can wildly vary and I myself have learned to cover my ass in terms of follow up with overseas shipping by allowing myself a buffer zone for the case of if it got stuck in customs or any other situation...

like I said, I know I am the voice of dissent on this, and the O.P. is mostly venting(or so it seems to me), but there is a duality of fault in this situation that doesn't solely fall on the web vendor alone IMHO.

 If it was posted and said so on their website it's the company's responsibility to know and monitor.  My opinion is that if you advertise you are responsible for the content. (Quote from Muskrat)

Don't mean to thread jack, but I had customer service problems through online purchase with US Ducati parts supplier (one of DMF sponsors).  [thumbsdown]

 
 
 
 

Hey, no worries, not looking for everyone to blindly jump to my side... but given that the pants were on holiday clearance, they are a large multinational European chain, and the fact that their system automatically detected I was ordering from the United States and adjusted VAT, and all amounts accordingly, I had no reason to doubt $7 was outrageous.  I've imported things from large European retailers, and especially around the holidays, it's very common for them to run shipping promotions (as most large US online retailers do).  I mean, these large copanies don't pay the same rates we do to ship items (OMG, Zappos is offering FREE overnight shipping righ tnow.. for FREE w/ no minimum order, maybe I should call, and double check to see fi they're legitimate)

I was never tryign to "pull a fast one" , thanks for pointing that out.

..and also, YES, I do realize international shipping time varies wildly and I was NOT expecting it before Christmas.  I am saying I'm disappointed because the pants are not available in the United States and now I can't afford to purchase it PERIOD, not the fact that it'll be delayed.  There's a big difference between a ~$80 gift and $120 (for my budget, anyway)

I already mentioned it, but I wasn't expecting the pants to arrive before Christmas - I've imported before and know dleivery times vary - especially around the holiday season.  The issue is the price point... now, I'm not expecting the pants at all because it falls outside my budget.

So now I'm the one at fault, and in addition, I'm an idiot because somehow you somehow came to a conclusion I'm outraged because it won't be here in time for Christmas (and NOT due to the fact that they provided ....lackluster.... customer support) .. and YES, considering they held onto my money for 6 days and didn't tell me my order didn't / wouldn't ship qualifies as lackluster service.  Hell, they still have my money now... no pants, no response.

Wait,wait, wait... now it's HIS fault?!

Muffinman, how DARE you order from us, become a customer, and NOT call us to make sure you have sufficeintly bowed to us. How dare you do not call to check our prices, after all... we are in the land of kings and queens, thus we are a much higher life form than you.

How DARE you assume we know what we are doing even IF we confirmed your order electronically. Do you even know how difficult it is to correctly program a website!!?? DO YOU!!??

Next time order online, call us to confirm, and follow up with a certified letter confirming the confirmation.

If you EVER order from us again and do not double, nay TRIPLE check that we are, in fact selling at the correct price with the correct shipping we will forever block you from EVER being a so-called customer again! GOT IT??!!

Have a great day and thank you for shopping with us!

[his fault... geeze]

i'm pretty sure he said that there's fault on both sides.

"...geeze"

 [roll]

muffinman- up till your last post- I, as a reader in the audience, never gleaned any hint or otherwise about the affordability figuring into this situation/equation, because that was a detail left out...not that it is necessary, but it does change the tenor of your venting a lot from my point of reception as a reader....just sayin....

and yes, I certainly am the type of person that generally tries to shop within a budget....I am not always successful, but I do try...

I thought the original post covered that .. or at least implied it:

"Emailed customer service, they responded within 24 hours (very good) saying my order won't be shipped unless I pay $39 USD MORE in shipping costs (in addition to the original shipping cost I paid, which was $7) because they made an error.  Not so good considering the item purchased is only like $70. "

.. but yeah, I was a bit frustrated at the time and wrote up the original rant quickly.. not sure everyone would be intersted in the minute details ;) Understandable though, no worries.

it's everyone's fault.....there, settled.  >:(

ESPECIALLY YOURS!!!

;)  J/K

I'll stand my original opinion that it's not muffinman's fault. He's jut being nice by saying both are at fault. Okay... All done from me on this. NEXT!!!

In Europe we blame it on "society" (so it's really no one's fault)

or better yet: the government [thumbsup]

Haha, didn't mean to cause any trouble with my thread, apologies.

Pretty damn lame how they charged our card immediately, emailed an order confirmation and didn't say a word for 6 days until I emailed them. 

Isn't it illegal for a company to charge us and HOLD ONTO OUR MONEY without notifying the customer they have no intention of shipping it?  The hell.

no trouble, just being a smart ass and by the looks of it more are on their way.  [evil]

not too sure how legal it is, but then there is always the option of reporting it to your card company and letting them charge them back in fees and putting your money back.

one would think it would be, but you'd have to check the laws is the country the vendor resides in.

Thanks for the support

Quick update.. it's been 2.5 days now since my original email to customer service, and Motocard has repeatedly ignored my numerous responses.  Trust me, the emails were more than polite.. until this last one.  I've been demanding that a refund be issued to no avail... looks like I'll be reaching out to my credit card company soon.

Prolly already issued the refund...it takes a few days to actually show up.

I just wanna know....what part was it???  ;D