Steep and Cheap - Beware

[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!)

[emily_in_nc]

Emily, what ever happened with this?

Well, it didn't end the way I'd hoped it would, but I got *most* of my money back. UPS was able to retrieve my misaddressed package from my old address, but instead of sending it to my current physical address as promised, they returned it to SAC. I then emailed SAC twice more and asked them to please resend it to my correct address (either my PO box via USPS or my physical address via UPS). Never a response. At this point, five emails to SAC (which doesn't seem to have any customer service phone number - big red flag) had dropped into the bit bucket.

About a week later, I get one of SAC's automated emails saying that my return has been credited, so they treated the package as a return, even though I never opened it and it was misdelivered and returned to them by UPS. Naturally, they did not refund shipping, which I feared. I emailed them again about this, twice, and again I got no response, so I am just going to eat the $6 something shipping charge and NEVER, EVER order from them again! It's a small price to pay to put this behind me, even though I don't think I should have had to pay a penny.

I should add that I have ordered once from backcountry.com recently, and that went fine, and the one guy at backcountry whom I spoke with about my SAC problem when I called was semi-helpful. But given your problems with backcountry, I'll probably cross them off my list as well. I have great luck with REI, LL Bean, Outdoor Divas, Team E, and others, so there's no need to spend money at businesses that don't value customer relations. I'm really sorry about all the problems you've had and their unwillingness to make them right. Grrrrr! A bargain is no bargain if you end up losing sleep (or money, in the long run) over it!

Good luck -- I hope you get a refund from them. Sounds like their database (as well as their customer service) is seriously screwed up.

Emily

[Blueberry]

Hey Emily-

Did you address it with your credit card company? They might well get the $6 back for you (and it usually doesn't require too much effort on your part). Just a thought - I'd go after it on principle - not for the $6.

CA

[emily_in_nc]

Did you address it with your credit card company? They might well get the $6 back for you (and it usually doesn't require too much effort on your part). Just a thought - I'd go after it on principle - not for the $6.

Hi CA,

No, I didn't. I did think about it, but it just wasn't worth my time to make copies of everything and write yet another letter to the CC company to get back $6. Yes, it's the principle of the thing, but I had spent wayyyyyy too much time dealing with this already and was just OVER it.

I figured the best thing I could do here to feel vindicated is to post my story and hope that it stops one or two gals here from buying from SAC. I know most here love them, but it's pretty much a gamble purchasing from them. If all goes well, then okay (I still have a great pair of Smartwool tights I got from them), but if anything goes wrong, don't count on ANY customer service to speak of.

Emily

[Offthegrid]

You may want to reconsider disputing the charge with your credit card. It's so easy and trust me the credit card company isn't going to require anything other than, "Wasn't delivered and wasn't fully refunded." You can do this online in less than a minute. You don't need to write a detailed letter and give copies of everything. No way should you be penalized for shipping when all you wanted was your item.

I've only ever had to dispute one charge, and it was quick and painless. (And I won.)

[Grog]

I'm not sure, but I think merchants who get reports/complaints made about them to the credit card company can risk consequences with said credit card company when there are repeated problems (like paying higher fees or, if it's really bad, getting their accounts suspended). So it might be helpful to complain. But I understand Emily's point.

[susiej]

I'm not sure, but I think merchants who get reports/complaints made about them to the credit card company can risk consequences with said credit card company when there are repeated problems (like paying higher fees or, if it's really bad, getting their accounts suspended). So it might be helpful to complain. But I understand Emily's point.

They do. And I think you should challenge the charge too, otherwise SAC will remain unresponsive to customer complaints.

--SJ