Steep and Cheap - Beware

[emily_in_nc]

I placed my third order with SAC recently for a women's Zoic jersey. Previous two orders went fine, no problems. When I ordered this I used my normal shipping address -- my PO box -- just like before. Only this time, they sent it UPS. Now, most shipping departments could be reasonably expected to know that UPS does not ship to PO boxes, but someone made a mistake.

So....after not receiving the item for nine days after ordering, I checked the UPS tracking. There is a long entry from UPS about the address containing numerous errors and that they are attempting to correct it. The next entry indicates that they corrected the address, and the one after that, that the item was delivered. Only problem was, it was delivered to a town I don't live in! A town, I, coincidentally or not, lived in six and a half years ago. So, UPS made the second mistake.

I have emailed SAC three times now. First on Saturday, then on Sunday, then last night. I provided my order number and details of what happened. I was courteous but asked that my credit card be reimbursed since the item was shipped UPS with a PO box and was delivered to the wrong address. I have not heard one word from them. So, the third mistake has been made. I think 48 hours (business days only) is very reasonable for a reply from customer service.

My next recourse is to dispute the charge when my credit card bill arrives. I printed out the UPS tracking details and will explain exactly what happened. Hopefully MBNA's investigation will bear out my side, since I did nothing wrong. I shop on-line for about 90% of my purchases, and normally, if a business does not ship to PO boxes, they state this when I fill in my shipping address - and most web forms won't even allow a PO box entry if it's not allowed. And besides, they have shipped to my PO box in the past!

So, be careful. Yes, SAC has good deals, and yes, if they get it right, all is well. But if they get it wrong....customer service may leave you in the lurch. I personally will not be ordering from them ever again.

If they do come through, I'll make sure to update this thread.

Emily

[vinyl]

I've been ordering from backcountry.com (which runs SAC) for years and have never had a problem with their customer service. My suggestion would be to call their customer service ((800)409-4502) directly.

[Running Mommy]

After not getting my 150.00 worth of skorts they said they were "looking into it" with fed ex and I've never heard from them since. Let's just say the Terry catalog now goes in the recycle!
Apparently fed ex says they delivered it, but I was home and it NEVER CAME!
I guess my beef should really be with fed ex, but since Terry told me they would take care of it, I left it to them to resolve...
All I know is I now shop TE exclusively for my stuff!!
Susan and the gang are THE BEST!!!

[CyclChyk]

You can dispute the charge with your credit card now. You just need to call the number on the back of the card. You don't have to wait for the statement.

I'd be raising cain!

[emily_in_nc]

I've been ordering from backcountry.com (which runs SAC) for years and have never had a problem with their customer service. My suggestion would be to call their customer service ((800)409-4502) directly.

Thanks vinyl - when I have a chance to get all the information together yet again, I think I'll do that. Certainly worth a try, altho they may tell me I have to deal with SAC directly. I think it says something about SAC that they do not include any contact phone number on their customer service site - only an email form, that apparently goes right into /dev/null.



Emily

[HipGnosis6]

You guys could also file a claim with UPS or FedEx. A company with good customer service would do it for you, but it's not outside the realm of possibility to do it for yourself.

[xeney]

Ugh. What is it with bicycle related mail order? (Other than TE, of course, never had any problems here.) My husband tried twice to have a set of track wheels shipped, and the company kept shipping them to a blank address, and after the second try they stopped responding to e-mail.

I did finally get my problem with GearLink resolved -- they shipped my stem to the wrong address but were only going to refund my shipping charges, not the price of the stem. Yesterday they told me that they could not refund me until I sent back the stem, and I flipped out and sent them an e-mail with MANY CAPITAL LETTERS and they refunded me this afternoon.

Usually I try not to get mad with companies, but sometimes it does help.

[Bad JuJu]

Certainly nobody beats TE for delivery and general customer service. But that's interesting about the problem with Terry, because I've also gotten great service from them. In fact, I've actually had someone from Terry call me, to resolve a delivery problem, without any prior knowledge of the problem on my part. Then again, that was about a year ago--lately I shop as much as possible at TE for cycling gear.

[Kimmyt]

Actually, SAC does say that UPS won't deliver to PO boxes. Right at the top of the shipping form that you fill out.

It's not in bold or anything, but it's pretty obvious... I hope, though, that you can get the charges reversed so you're not paying for something you never recieved!

K.