Same thing happened to me, I also am working with Pay Pal to get a refund. He didn't respond to an e mail until I threatened to contact Pay Pal. It's been "waiting to be shipped" according to them, for about a week and a half, give me a break. I ordered 5 weeks ago and never had a response. Go to www.mattmanenterprises.com , those guys are AWESOME! Very nice, even bumped my plate up to production the day I ordered it because they felt bad that I was scammed. I am not convinced at all that Europeanplates.com is an honest business.

 

That link dosnt take ya to a plate site

 

Sorry you had the same issue...

It IS true though - Europeanplates.com DID in fact ship out to me within a few days after they finally replied to my mail. I have no idea what the delay was though - my wife sent them an inquiry mail asking about the plate, and then when she received no reply, she send a second mail several days later. A third followed several days after that.

Europeanplates.com says that "if you email us several times a day your address will be added to our spam filter - don't do it", but my wife mailed them 3 times in like 7 weeks - if that's excessive then I think they need to reset their mail server settings. According to them, her email must have been added since day one. I'd say is was because it was a Yahoo account, but I have one of those too and MY mails went through...

I also tried calling them, (no phone number liated on the site - I had to look it up in other ways) but the number just rolled to a message "thanks for calling but we can't accept messages".

Sorry, but this is absolutely terrible customer service, IMHO. Why have the number in that case? I understand that as a small business your time is prescious, but if you get so many inquiry calls that you can't even find the time to record them and listen to them at the close of business or in the morning or something then that should tell you something right there.

User "Europeancardriver" PM'd me to let me know that I never let people know that I got my plate - but I DID let people know in post #11:

So... I will say, the plate they sent me does look great and installed perfectly. If not for the snafu about shipping, I would have been very, very happy. As it is though, I'm 100% certain that if *I* had not mailed them from a different email address that they'd still have my money and I'd not have a plate. I couldn't call them because their site had no phone number, and even after I looked them up other ways I couldn't speak with anyone or leave a message.

Now AstroCoop has the same issue? Looks like their order fulfillment process still needs a bit of work - even with a great-looking final product, you need to get it delivered fast and efficiently to keep the customer happy.

 

This guy is not making many friends out there. Before you dismiss this as hate mail and pass it up, I just want to say I have spent the time looking into this to see if I was the only one who has had this problem. It is important to what I do for a living in e-commerce. I really don't have it out personally for the guy; I just want what I was charged for.
These problems appear to go back several years. How in the world is he still in business, and why does he claim to be one of the largest in his market segment ? I have never had such a poor experience in dealing with anyone on the Internet, and I do it every day for a living. Still haven't gotten anything from them since I placed my order and was billed on March 18 2007. Here's what I found after some digging around:

http://www.dtmpower.net/forum/buyer-...line-scam.html
http://s14.net/forums/showthread.php?t=5583
http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?p=749421#post749421
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-591597.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1544978#post1544978
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/239/ripoff0239206.htm
http://www.resellerratings.com/store/EuropeanPlates
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3264622
http://www.e90post.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-18562.html
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1640171
http://forums.thecarlounge.net/zerothread?id=3230534#38771245
http://forums.audiworld.com/performance/msgs/76372.phtml
http://www.8thcivic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25465
http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-14447.html
http://forums.roadfly.com/forums/bmw/bmw-m3-e30/6118627-1.html
http://forums.focaljet.com/exterior-modifications/550377-europeanplates-net.html#post6083395
http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/permalink/357260/357260/ShowThread.aspx
http://forums.subdriven.com/zerothread?cmd=print&id=3230953
http://forums.fourtitude.com/zerothread?id=3230953&postid=38464856


This is the only automotive enthusiast forum I am a member of ('05 MCS darksilver, blk roof, stripes) but anyone can clearly see he doesn't discriminate when it comes to which car owners he has pissed off. Yes it's custom work, and yes it goes through customs (or so he says). But if that's the case keep your customers in the loop. This is not a case of coincidence or supply-chain woes, this is textbook jackass. It's funny to me how some of the thread responses talk about him on a personal level, or that they had positive experiences with his company. How can the range of customer service be so high and so low ? Is he bi-polar or off his meds ? Geeze, at least he could be consistently bad at what he does; but no, he has to be good every now and then. Maybe he delivers immediately after some consumer protection agency cracks the whip. I don't get it, and I'm an internet domainer and I was a business major. At least I know the theory behind good business models. I like the idea of showing up in Seattle. I may even call up Dog the Bounty Hunter to get my plate. Now that would be cool.

 

First of all -- Welcome to the forums!! Sorry your first post was a negative experience, and I hope that you'll find lots of kindred MINI enthusiasts to talk to here!

Wow... guess I should have checked him out beforehand, but I too deal with online merchants all the time, and generally I have a good experience. At least the plate (when it arrived) was exactly as I expected and seemed of good quality. I hope you get yours soon and it's as nice as you hoped.

 

This order was sent and returned due to non pick up at this point ( sat at post office for 15days) we have justed refunded his money and seeking legal action agaisnt him for libel, I have every email and and our lawyer has recommended we do something as he has posted to most every website and misinformed many future customers. I personally think it is time to stand up to false post on forums. We would not sell 10,000+ plates and stay in business if any of the #$%^ where true.

As to other posters still not happy I have explained to any to PM me and I will resolve any issue. Astrocoop in particular to say we are dishonest is BS.



Thank you,

Tyler

 

I don't understand how you were being honest at all. As someone else said above, my plate was magically shipped after a week of threatening with PayPal action and it came out incorrect. Even then it was weeks past the time stated it would take. After another e mail back I have recieved nothing 6 days later. To top it all of, no mounting screws. Honest?

 

There is no magic we ship orders when they are complete, did you order mounting screws?? The order was wrong, what was wrong? Did you contact us to restamp or resolve it. If not let;s resolve the order right here.

Thanks,

Tyler

 

Maybe I was under the assumption that screws came with it, nice thought huh? Anyway yes I did try and contact you by e mail and I have not been replied to. I was sent the wrong Great Britan plate. I ordered the plate with GB and a Union Jack flag above the letters, not a circle of stars.

 

Astro,

I can send the Union overlay if you would like (Self appliable) or we can run another plate and swap them out.

Tyler

 

I think there are some take-aways from this thread for Europeanplates.com:

1. Customer service is very important. To paraphrase the Duke "your fault, my fault, nobody's fault - you're gonna get blamed".
2. A working telephone with either an active messaging machine (circ. 1979) or better yet a real live (non-outsorced to India) person.
3. Better spam filter.
4. MINI owners are very particular and not prone to quite mumbling when one percieves an injustice.

I got to say I think the quality of their product is great. I love mine and I had no issues with the order. I think the fact that Europeanplates.com has joined NAM to at least be in on the conversation is more then some vendors have done.

 

But look at what they said in one of their posts...

that they were looking into legal action because a customer sent out warnings to multiple websites saying be careful of this company because their customer service is far below par. I don't know if that really counts as joining the conversation, but rather simply adding fuel to the fire.

 

Europeancardriver is PM-ing me as well, accusing me of "not telling the entire story". Personally I can't imagine what I have NOT said about this subject.

To recap events (so hopefully Europeanplates.com will get a frickin' clue):

On 4/4 I put this thread up because I was ready to file with Paypal to return my money. My wife's previous emails went unanswered and I had no way to call them. Prior experiwence with less-than-scrupulous online merchants had me worried I was being scammed. I put up the thread to warn people that might think about ordering from this merchant.

On 4/6 Europeanplates.com replied to my mail telling me that not having a working phone was "standard practice" for online merchants. I say "bulls*it on that", but that's just my opinion (what do *I* know? I'm just a customer). Their reply let me know that the package was on the way. I reported this in a reply here.

On 4/9 I post that the package arrived and that it looks exactly as I expected it would. I even went so far as to say that it looked "great" in a reply here. Yeah, I am SUCH an asswipe, am I not? Really... I should be flogged.

Then nothing happens until 5/26 when "Europeancardriver" (someone named Tyler from the PMs I've been getting) creates an ID and starts this up all over again.

Honestly, I'll say here what I told Tyler in my last PM - I'm sorry but online vendors that make it actively difficult for their customers to contact them, then react with hostility when those customers express frustration are in my experience a dime-a-dozen, and I refuse to give them any repeat business or recommend them to my friends. Leave that Micky Mouse bulls*it to the e-Bay losers - at least I expect that I'll have to deal with a bit of aggrivation in order to save a few bucks.

I'm still happy with my plate from Europeanplates.com - it's still on my car and I get plenty of compliments on it - but I'll never recommend them to anyone until they do a major overhaul on their customer service area. I think that their joining NAM is a great move, provided that they actually LISTEN to the feedback they're getting - God knows the last thing I want to see isa NAM vendor that posts thread replies about how they're suing their customers for libel. I mean, honestly, do you really think that makes people want to order from you? Wow...

 

Must have been trained at the PU school of customer care....

 

I say all of the following with a background in high level escalations and customer support for a huge company:

I have to agree that there is major backpeddling going on here on the behalf of the vendor (I used to work for the phone company and can backpeddle with the best of them ). It's become obvious that there have been situations where the orders are not shipped, AND the customer is not contacted until AFTER they complain about the excessive turnaround.

The vendor's website clearly states:
"We stock 90% of our products listed on our webpages and ship out daily using
USPS priority mail. Our custom orders such as plates and certain decals will require
up to 3 weeks for delivery, international order will take longer due to customs and
shipping times. Please email us before you order if you require faster shipping
on our products using Fed Ex."

http://www.europeanplates.com/europeanplatescompany.htm

However, that's NOT what's been taking place, and the customers are NOT being notified when something is going to take longer than 3 weeks. A simple email or phone call BEFORE the customer complains that says "Hey, sorry about this but custom orders are taking a little longer right due to _____________ (insert excuse here), do you still want us to process your order or would you like a refund?" is not out of line.

In fact, in the US it is ILLEGAL for companies to hold a customer's cash for more than 30 days without the customer's written consent. This is why, when mail-order companies have items backordered, they do not charge the card until the items ship - otherwise there is the potential to have to refund and recharge again and a general logistical nightmare. And when a backorder that HAS been charged (from an upstanding company) takes more than 30 days, you get a little card in the mail asking if you are still interested in having the item backordered - they have to do it!

Also, posting the TRUTH is not libel. I don't believe that the vendor has even spoken with an attorney because the attorney would tell them that - if it's TRUE, it's not libel, and in these cases the customers have reported their own cases. If the vendor doesn't want to read negative stories about their service on the internet, then they need to step it up.

 

+1 to MLWagner's post. Any company that threatens to sue its customers because they complain clearly has a problem..... (But, I don't want to mention PU again).

 

Good for you!