Steep and Cheap - Beware

[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.

[miffy'sFuji]

There is a post on the steep and cheap forum today saying that the SAC email function had been down and that they were unaware fo the problem until today. Supposedly all emails are being rerouted and addressed.

Hope that you hear from them, Emily.

[emily_in_nc]

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

Yes, I realize that. However, my previous two SAC orders were delivered to my post office box, US postal service mail. Normally, if a site allows a PO box in their shipping address form, they ship US mail if you enter one; otherwise, they may ship UPS. So, it wasn't that I missed that note on the form, it was that I didn't want my order shipped UPS.

(Sorry if I sound ticked at you - I'm not. I'm just trying to explain why I entered a PO box. If a site doesn't allow PO boxes at all, of course I will not enter mine, but this site didn't disallow it and in fact used to ship to PO boxes. They probably still do - I think someone just got careless.)

Perhaps my emails will get an answer now. Leave it to me to have a problem with a company when they have an email problem!!! Sigh....

Emily

[emily_in_nc]

So, SAC never answered my three emails/inquiries. No matter what ends up happening here, I will stand firm in my resolve never to order from them again. Terrible customer service: bzzzzt, goodbye!

But, I did call backcountry.com's customer service today at last and (very politely) spoke to a decent guy, Matt. Although he didn't apologize for what had happened, he immediately took action by putting in a tracer in on my package to UPS. At home tonight I got a call from a very friendly UPS rep in Salt Lake City. She apologized several times for the mix-up and was able to confirm that my package did indeed go to my 6.5 year ago address in Cary, NC. She was also able, at my request, to put my new address into their system so there would no longer be an association between my PO box and my old address (how that association ever was made, I don't know, but I suppose we got our PO box shortly before moving).

The next step is for UPS to contact the folks who live in our old house now to attempt to retrieve my jersey and redeliver it to my current address. The thing I wonder is, why didn't they contact UPS already to report a misdelivery? They've had the package since 9/27, over a week. I would certainly have done that if I'd received a package with someone else's name that I had not ordered!

So, we shall see if it turns up, and if not, what the next step is. Hopefully it will all work out. Perhaps I'll see that jersey yet (but whether it will fit me or not is another matter entirely!)

Emily

[xeney]

Emily, what ever happened with this?

I am having similar problems with Steep and Cheap all of a sudden. I bought my mother's birthday gift from Backcountry.com last week, and had it shipped directly to her in Arizona. No problem. I've made three orders (one each from SAC, Backcountry.com, and the outlet) since then, and two of them have been shipped to her when they were supposed to be shipped to me. I have no idea where they are getting this, because when I put in that shipping address and was asked if I wanted it saved, I chose the "no" option. And I keep changing it back, and Steep and Cheap/Backcountry keeps defaulting to my mom's address.

The Smartwool Saratoga zipneck sweater got set twice ... once to each of us. And they charged me both times. (My mom and I are the same size so I told her to keep it, as a thank you for going out of her way to send me my other order that went there by mistake.)

I just noticed that they also changed my billing address -- it is now my name, my street address, but my mother's city, state, and zip. How are those charges even going through, since they don't match what is on my credit card? I have grave doubts about the security of their site at this point.

And customer service was 100 percent unhelpful. They told me that I had chosen to ship these items to that address and it wasn't their fault and not their problem. They did not believe me when I told them that their website's address function is really screwed up.

Ugh. My husband and I are both in such dire need of winter clothes that I have not been able to resist the really good deals on some things, but I think I need to take my business elsewhere. This is ridiculous.

(Although my mother is making out like a bandit!)