I had a negative experience with Deep Discount years ago and chose not to deal with them again. I appears the OP had a similar experience. Live and learn, I guess. Sorry to hear others have had negative experiences.
I had a negative experience with Deep Discount years ago and chose not to deal with them again. I appears the OP had a similar experience. Live and learn, I guess. Sorry to hear others have had negative experiences.
QFFTOriginally Posted by Facelift
And you spread the word and badmouth their bad customer service to everyone within earshot. This has always been a pet peeve of mine. I'm not the type that complains or raises a stink when I feel I get disrespected or get bad customer service. If the food isn't that great, or the vibe in the place is sucky, I leave a bad tip, and keep it moving. I'll never return there, and never recommend the place to anyone. Usually these places have a website and there's always a "contact us" section. That's where I get my pound of flesh, I write 'em a nice commentary on how bad my experience was.
When you say you were refused cancellation by them, how did that happen? Did you call them? Did you email them? How did you contact them?
The fulfillment company I work for (which shall remain nameless, but is not Deep Discount) takes orders through our web store and also through Amazon. They have the option of emailing us or calling us directly. If they email us, we usually respond within 24 hours. Messages that have the word "cancel" in the heading get top priority when we go through messages every morning. We do that so we can cancel orders before they are even printed so we don't have to refund the customer, cancel a printed label, or pull a order from the bins that have already been picked and packed.
There are several issues that prevent us from immediately cancelling an order. The most common is the failure of the buyer to include their order number when they request the cancellation. When that happens, we send them a standard "Need order #" message.
The second most common issue is if the order is still in a payment pending status when we receive their request. At that point, we can't do anything to the order.
We can hold the message for a few hours and check the order later, but we only do that once. Usually payments clear within 2 hours. If it is pending after a few days, there is likely a problem with the account that is beyond our control.
Another major issue is people blocking our emails with spam filters. Occasionally, we will have multiple messages to buyers through Amazon. We reply to them numerous times and they act like we are ignoring them. Then they file an A-Z claim against us saying we have not responded to their inquiries. It is only when we email the customer through the A-Z messaging that we are able to determine whether or not the buyer is actually receiving their emails.
I've had a few customers who had their Amazon emails blocked. When this happens, Amazon automatically denies the buyer their A-Z claim. This is because their Amazon account requires the buyer to have an open email account with Amazon so they can be contacted by Amazon and its venders.
It's not exactly fair to a vendor to say they are ignoring you if your spam blocker is blocking their emails to you.
I'm not saying that is what happened. I am not saying DD did or did not screw you. I am simply pointing out that there are other possibilities in this situation.
BTW, if you paid via PayPal, you can file a dispute claim.
I couldn't call them until they opened. I ordered when they were not answering their phone aka non
biz hours okay? When I realized that I had mistakenly ordered 2 cds of this same album I clicked their cancel order button and it said: THIS FUNCTION NOT AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME! So, I couldn't do anything but write them what happened and I did that within a few moments. About 3 hours later I get an e-mail saying they have no record of me ordering anything and don't understand why I wrote them. They have no record of the order,but they hit my ATM card for $36.56 with no problem whatsoever??? What kind of a circus are they running? I checked my e-mail when I woke up and saw that it had already shipped and decided it would be useless to call now. So that is why I let it arrive and had heard of return to sender for decades being a method of sending something back. It was my favorite Elvis song growing up in fact. I didn't know that it would be 4th class with no way to track it though until I called the post office. I still have no idea where the package is or why it didn't get returned yet. May 7,was the return date and it's now June 1. I can't cancel my card to make a claim because I have some major bills that need to be paid online. So,for now I'm stuck and screwed. Some of your comments were great and I appreciate all the knowledge even though some of you were less than sympathetic you are correct that it's my fault it happened because I was trying to not have to pay shipping twice. In the end I screwed myself but I will state this one final time. Deep Discount has epic fail all over it because their cancelling system was totally worthless and they have tons of money and can easily afford to send me back my money to keep me as a loyal customer. I think they blew it.
Rand, other than checking out what their return policy is (if, indeed, it's actually posted online), I think the massive criticisms of your actions are completely unwarranted. In the new millennium, an online shop should allow cancellation of orders, as amazon does for example, unless it is already in the process of being dispatched. If ordered by mistake and you are unable to cancel before that happens (again, using amazon as the yardstick), you should then have clear instructions as to what to do...and in the case of a problem being your fault, as this clearly was, allowing you to return the item but having to eat the return postage (if the error is the vendor, they should eat return postage).
And in your defense, I will say that I have heard from amazon marketplace vendors who, when I've accidentally ordered something and been unable to return it because it was already in dispatch, have told me to do exactly what,you did - return by simply marking, on the unopened package, 'Return to Sender.' I don't know if this is DD's policy, but my point is that it was not a completely unreasonable idea on your part, because that's exactly how some vendors do work.
When you emailed them, did you include your order number? If not, did they request your order number in their reply?
Did you order through Amazon, or directly from the Deep Discount site?
Also, did you receive a order confirmation email from them? That usually has the order number for future reference.
One thing to keep in mind when ordering online with a credit card is that there is a two step process. The first step is called a "pending" transaction. The amount is not taken out of your account, but it is removed from your currently available balance to cover the payment once it clears. The second step is "cleared" transactions. This is when the pending amount is completely removed from your account and payment is actually transferred to the seller/payment recipient.
If you order from a third party seller on Amazon, they are unable to cancel an order until it clears pending status. Also, the financials for all orders placed on Amazon (third party seller or not) are processed by Amazon.
Most fulfillment companies do not (usually can not) process an order until the payment has passed pending status. Even then, payment is usually not transferred until the seller prints the shipping label.
We cancel orders daily. We often have buyers claiming they were charged for the order when there was only a pending placed against their account. Pendings prevent you from accessing that amount while it is still pending, but it does not mean the money was taken from your actual balance, only your AVAILABLE balance.
Pendings are usually cleared within 2-3 days. Policies regarding pendings are usually controlled by state or local banking laws and your bank.
Rand, I'm sorry to hear this happened to you. Just keep in mind that Return To Sender does not guarantee that the package will actually be delivered back to the company it was ordered from. We keep records of all returns, whether they include an RMA or order number or not. We are unable to look up orders by name or address on Amazon. It is simply impractical to expect that. From my experience, there are numerous returns that never make it back to us. Reasons may include incorrect address, insufficient postage, poor packaging, and just plain incompetence and theft by US Postal employees.
That is why we require that all returns include the RMA AND order number INSIDE the package and that the buyer is responsible for insuring that the package is delivered back to us. This includes tracking information if requested.
BTW, anything shipped First Class at 3 ounces or higher can include tracking. You DO have to ask for it if you take it to the Post Office.
Their return policy is clear, easy to find, and I posted a link to it on page 1.
Cancelation is another matter it seems, and obviously Rand would not have had to return it if they had not f'd up the cancelation process (as it appears) to begin with.
WANTED: Sig-worthy quote.
Good points for anyone who buys online.
WANTED: Sig-worthy quote.
Missed that; mea culpaI just found the lash-out against the OP to be a little excessive.
Absolutely. And many stores say if it is already in prep to be shipped it may not be possible to cancel. And while it does seem odd, I have to say I have made orders with amazon and, on rare occasion gone in to cancel within 10-15 mins only to find it was already being prepared for diapatch....slow day, I guess
But worst case, Rand should have been able to return and had to eat return shipment, and I think everyone is I'm agreement that he shouldn't have simply did the Return to Sender thing without confirming that would be acceptable to the vendor (as, as I said, I've found the case with some amazon marketplace vendors).
Cheers!
John
NEVER EVER use your ATM/debit card online. A credit card is MUCH MORE secure, and then you wouldn't have your accounts tied up.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Yes - great advice that unfortunately still needs to be repeated from time to time.
A person should never use a debit card to make purchases - especially with all of the data security breaches that have been happening lately.
Get some kind of rewards credit card and use it for everything you were using the debit card for. Just make sure to pay it off every month.
The repurcussions of ID theft on a bank card... that is a really unnecessary headache, and it has the potential to get a whole lot worse than just a headache.
Now this I didn't know. I have 2. One with GE Capital to pay on my minimoog. And one from Amazon,which I never use. Is using the checking account i/e. account/routing number better than the debit card or no? Btw, I sent the order No. in all my communications Jubal.
NEVER GIVE ANYONE ACCESS TO YOUR CHECKING ACCOUNT!
Honestly, Rand, I can't believe that you've never heard this - especially given the recent string of hacking scandals. Bottom line, if you're going to make purchases online, always, always use a credit card or something like PayPal.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Scott, I thought that if I used a site that uses SSL I would be safe.
If the Target hacking incident has proven anything, it's that you're not safe anywhere.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Good point. I will see if I can get a Capital One card then. Btw, I just contacted by phone the USPS and DD and both told me that they don't have it so it is en route and DD suggests I wait until Wed. to see if they have it. USPS suggested I go to my bank with a print-out of the transaction/track. no. etc. and file a claim for the $36.56. And I want to thank jkelman for sticking up for me on this....DD dropped the ball here....because I wouldn't have had to do any of what I did had their stop order button actually functioned.
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