I decided to be Go Go from Kill Bill for Halloween, since I already have a slutty schoolgirl outfit & they have a ball & chain at the dungeon where I rent. I bought a mini samurai sword online from hanzoswords.com, because she had one & I always wanted a sword. It was $11 + $11 shipping so I was pretty happy. When it arrived, though it looked good, it couldn't be opened. I tried for a couple days but it was jammed. I left a voicemail for them, which wasn't returned, & then emailed. They replied in a few hours, telling me to get another person & try to open the sword that way. I thought that was kind of stupid, because if I can't open it on my own, regardless of my strength, the sword is useless. Who wants a prop sword they can't even pull out of the scabbard? & if I open it once with someone else, it's still inoperable all the other times. Anyhow, I told them I wanted a replacement by Saturday at the latest. This was Tuesday night. Sexy Englishman, his housemates & I are throwing a huge Halloween party on Saturday so I need it by then. They email back that it's no problem, they can do that. I ask again to confirm that they can guarantee it will get here by Saturday. They say yes, they just need a tracking # for the one I have when I send it back by 6:30 pm eastern time Wednesday.
On Wednesday, I take care of it by 3:30 for $20 because that's the cheapest way I can get a tracking #. I don't know much about shipping so I sigh & say, fine whatever send it FedEx as long as I get it out on time, just do the least expensive way. I email the site. No answer. I email again at 6:30 to make sure they got the first email, because I want that sword in the mail tonight. I get a reply at 9:30 saying "Oh sorry, didn't have time to check mail before I went to the post office this afternoon, we will have to send it express tomorrow (Thursday) & that will cost about $20, but we'll reimburse today's shipping costs since it was our mistake." I said fine just send it to SE's apartment because I won't be home much the next few days. I comment that they must have a great deal with the post office because it took me that much to send to them, & the unfriendly reply is "Oh. No. I did not ask you to send it express. 2 lbs should have been $7. I will only give you that much." I'm already pissed off at this person for not checking her email in time to send the thing out earlier, which is costing them more & entirely their fault. I don't know anything about parcels, the corner shipping store told me what they could do & $20 was my lowest option if I wanted the tracking # hanzoswords demanded.
I feel that I've been quite reasonable & clear up to this point. They send me a defective sword - I ask nicely for a new one. I said I wanted a new sword only if they guaranteed delivery by Saturday - they said yes. I shell out $20 without complaint & email the tracking # as requested, twice before the deadline - they mess that up, won't reimburse most of the shipping & act like I'm the one in the wrong. I email SE's address twice for them to send to - & today I come home to a notice from the US Postal Service saying "Sorry we missed you! You have an express mail package." TWICE I told her the address. I understand that they're busy for Halloween, but this was very simple & they fucked up repeatedly. This means I have to come back to my post office, among the myriad things we need to do to get SE's apartment ready for 300 partygoers, to pick up the damn sword that should have been ready two weeks ago. Fuckwits is a word that comes to mind.
Update: customer [dis]service tried to argue with me over email about this. I told them I wanted someone to call me last week since no one ever returned my voicemail. They said there was nothing to discuss, please pay the bill for shipping, we did everything we could. I explained succinctly & politely why that was not the case & got another dimwitted "please pay the bill, thanks for your business" message. I said I didn't want to keep going back & forth over email & to please call me. All I've gotten since Monday is PayPal reminders, which apparently they send out 3 at a time. Keep digging the hole deeper, dummies...
Update in March 2008: hanzoswords found this post & commented on their side of the story at length, but they used my name so I had to delete it. I told them they were welcome to re-post if they took out my name. It seems like they still don't quite understand what happened, but they canceled the PayPal bill for the shipping & at least made the effort to apologize to me, so maybe it's just their one employee who is messing things up.
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11 comments:
Correction, Just checked your order and you did choose US mail in your original order, so I am really still not sure why you used Fedex to ship it back to us. Anyhow, all's good now we hope.
Hey ,
Here's our side of the story, which is only fair, since you are telling the world our web site "sucks ass" and that we are dummies.
You ordered on Sunday 10/14/07. We shipped it out on Tuesday, 10/16/07. Halloween and Christmas are very busy times for us, but we managed to ship in 2 days.
It arrived on 10/18/07, but your postal person, is smart enough not to leave it at your apartment outside your door when you are not home. He/she left a notice. You picked it up on 10/19/07.
Delivered NEW YORK NY 10021 10/19/07 4:55pm
Notice Left NEW YORK NY 10021 10/18/07 4:28pm
Arrival at Unit NEW YORK NY 10021 10/18/07 9:47am
Electronic Shipping Info Received ONTARIO CA 91761
10/16/07 8:07pm
We received your email and replied to all of them within 24 hours, even on the weekend when we are not in the office. I apologize if this was not good enough.
Since you needed it for something the weekend of the 26th, we came up with an idea, you ship back the broken sword, and we would ship you a new one express since you needed it for a certain event. We would never have asked you to give us any monies for a replacement or shipping a replacement. For this particular instance, you wanted it extremely fast, so we had to ask for the money for overnight. It would not have gotten to you in time any other way but overnight, which we discussed with you through email.
We never asked you to ship the return by express. We asked to ship it back and send us the tracking #. Most anyone knows you can ship an item with a tracking # (delivery confirmation #) with US mail, priority mail. I wish we would have suggested this method to you, so that you were aware of your options. If this is our fault, we apologize that we did not suggest that you use US mail. I am not sure why you chose to use Fedex
The mini sword is 2 pounds, and it was no more than $7.00 from NY to CA by US mail. Once the tracking # was given to us, and we knew it was sent back, we overnighted the new sword to you, so it would be there for your event. We discussed through email, that you would pay the difference from the shipment you sent minus the shipment we were sending express, and you would pay the difference. You agreed.
I am not sure where you are getting that we were going to send it Fedex and that you were going to get it in time for your event from California to New York. It takes 4-5 days to receive something from California to New York using Fedex ground. It also would have possibly not gotten there if we sent it out on Wednesday by regular mail. To ensure you got the item in time, we suggested overnight in the first place.
Fedex was $40+ to send a 2 pound package overnight, and we did not think you wanted to pay this money, if you did, we apologize that we missed this.
Your replacement that you needed asap, was sent out 2:30 p.m., by Express mail on 10/25/07, and arrived at the original shipping address at:
NEW YORK NY 10021 10/26/07 11:23am
When you replied to all of our emails, with your Blackberry, it jumbled all of your responses and our responses into one huge paragraph. If anyone has communicated with someone through regular email from a blackberry, you know what I mean. It was extremely hard to read responses from you like this. We apologize again, that we did not see a different shipping address then what you had input into your order.
We tried very hard to accommodate your request and to get your sword on time. We do not offer express mail on our web site, but we went out of our way to try to make you happy and to get you the sword.
We paid out of our pocket $20+ to overnight this to you. We asked you for the payment for overnighting the item by US mail, minus $7.00 (It should have been no more to send the mini sword back using US mail).
We replied as soon as we could, I am sorry if the reply 5 hours later was not good enough.
We are very sorry you feel we "suck ass". We tried to accommodate your requests during our busy season. You received your sword, to the shipping address you originally provided, you never paid the balance of the shipping you owe us, and we never followed up to receive the money rightfully owed to us.
We did loose money on this transaction, but that is business. We try to make everyone happy, but for every one person who loves you, there are two who do not, no matter what you do. We thought we were going out of our way, above and beyond to accommodate you, and we apologize if we let you down. Since you feel that we "suck ass" and that we let you down, we will cancel the money request in our PayPal account that has not been paid by you.
I believe both of us had miscommunication somewhere in our communication, causing some confusion. We are, after all, all only human, and mistake happen.
We are forgiving the bill in hopes that you will realize we don't suck as much ass as you think. And we hope that you will revert back to your original statement about our website that you provided in your checkout, which was, (by you:) "great site! i was looking for go go's little sword, which i wished you had, but this mini sword will do almost as well. & I'm glad your prices are so reasonable."
We hope that you enjoyed your sword and you were able to go pick it up at the shipping address in your checkout.
Thank you for your business.
OWNER
The one who was emailing you for the transaction.
well i bought a sword from hanzoswords.com and i must admit it was difficult to open at first but that is just because the scabbard was only just made i have had it for about a year now and the sword comes free without any effort at all i suppose you tried but maybe you should try a bit harder before you go dissing a website that is always loyal to its customers/
Anonymous - I guess you missed the part at the beginning where I said I tried for a few days. & who cares if a website is "loyal?" What does that mean anyway? I care if they provide a working product or live up to their promises, which they didn't. & people who don't want to be dissed should either not screw up or fix things quickly and reasonably.
October 15, 2009
Products Ordered:
w036 - M-50014-2 Greek Fighting Wooden War Sword & Wooden Spartan Shield - Great for Cosplay, Conventions, or Halloween
Price: $49.99
Qty: 1
November 12, 2009
Good News! Your order has been Shipped! We'd like to thank you for your business and patience!
November 18, 2009
The shield arrived but not the sword. When can we expect that?
November 24, 2009
We did not receive the sword we ordered, nor a response to the last eMail that we sent. Please advise.
December 5, 2009
This is the third eMail I'm sending regarding my order. We ordered a Greek Fighting Wooden War Sword & Wooden Spartan Shield. We received the shield but not the sword. Please either send the sword or refund the money for that part of the missing order.
December 15, 2009
Once again, we received the shield but not the sword. If I do not receive a reply soon, I will have to look for other options to get our money back - or the sword.
Response: We'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you.
December 24, 2009
This is ridiculous! I read internet postings about other people having problems with ordering from your website but overlooked them for the sake of my son's wishes. I will now be forced to add my negative feedback to the site as well as report you to the Better Business Bureau. I'm very disappointed!
It is now December 30, 2009 and we have not received a response NOR the sword. BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY!!!
Regarding the lady with a missing sword, we tried to secure additional sources and ended up giving her a refund of two times what she paid for thie missing item as well as offer to take her other item back for a full refund if she so chooses.
We are not perfect, nobody is but we try very hard. when you sell at a high volume like us there are going to be bumps in the road. When this does happen we make up for it at our expense always. To date I've only seen 2 or 3 complaints for our company online out of thousands of orders between our site and ebay. Id say we are doing something right. If you google for some other sword companies/competitors (who I won't name) you will see dozens of complaints for some of them.
We do make the occasional mistake but even Amazon does as well and they are a multi billion dollar corporation. We also own up to our mistakes as I have done here in this blog.
Diva I have read your post and think you are a moron. Period.
p.s. fuck you
I have bought from hanzoswords.com many times over the past several years. I have no complaints there was an instance once with shipping delays but I was notified that the item was on back order.
Out of curiousity I googled hanzoswords.com to look for complaints and could only find one in two places. That's not bad at all Im sure Amazon gets several thousand complaints per month. It's how the company handles their mistakes and complaints that counts as it is inevitable that all will eventually make a mistake.
Do a search for Kingofswords.com and see how many complaints you will find and you will now know the difference.
I have had similar experiences with HanzoSwords.com. I did a simple order for a machete and stand. Three weeks later, no word from them on a ship date for items that were supposed to be in stock. Followed up again. They said it would be shipped "tomorrow". Absolute lie. Three more weeks and still no word. Followed up every day for several days. Few emails were answered. Claimed they shipped. Another week passes. No shipment. Finally shows up and the order is incomplete and the USPS tracking of the ship date proves that they lied about when it was originally shipped. It was not shipped until a few days previously. Several weeks of repeated lies. I send them another email, noting the deficience in the shipping. Where is the stand. That finally arrives about a week later. Don't trust these guys. No apologies. No breaks in price due to late shipments and incomplete shipments. No offers to make anything "right". Callous disrespect for customer.
It's the lack of communication on YOUR end! Your site boasts how quick you are to reply to email. BUNK.
You blew off 6 messages from me plus a phone call. Don't tell me this is not intentional. I got a really quick reply when testing you from a different email account.
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