Hi guys, I just thought I'd share my bad experience with you all...

I recently purchased MINIMADNESS header locking nuts. The only option available for shipping method was UPS. Now it was calculated at US$97.97 to send 8 bolts weighing 1lb in total to Australia.

I thought this was a little over capitalising, so I contacted MINIMADNESS directly, as I had before, and asked George to arrange USPS postage, at a more realistic price - which he agreed to do.

A few weeks later, after a follow up email to verify the status of the order, i took delivery of the nuts. I was happy!

3 weeks ago, I got the credit card statement in the mail, I was extremely shocked to see MINIMADNESS had billed me US$152.97 for their efforts.

I emailed George to see why this had occurred and what could be done about it (I would have been happy with a voucher or something in lieu) but NO REPLY EMAIL in the past 3 now going on 4 weeks.

I have the USPS docket here in front of me, and it shows the cost of postage for MINIMADNESS in this instance was US$26.22, yet I was charged US$97.97!!!!!!

I want to share this with you all, because i believe it to be dishonest, and fraudulent. Even worse now that I have had no reply from MINIMADNESS with any explanation what so ever.

I will be now with emails, and postage dockets in hand taking this up with my VISA Company, and treating this as a FRAUDULENT CHARGE. I really don’t care what implications this has for MINIMADNESS, I have sent them plenty of requests now over the past 3 weeks, and no reply.

Thanks.

 

If there is no customer support, then there are no customers!
MiniMadness needs to step up.

 

Have you tried the telephone? A Private Message (PM) through NAM?

 

That is Madness ( pardon the pun) keep us posted on your progress

 

How many E-mails did you send to them? While you should only have to send one, it would not be the first time an E-mail was accidentally deleted or marked as SPAM by the receiver. Clearly their system charged you the default UPS rate, so I don't think they are out to rip you off, just an accounting error. Once you reach them, I would expect everything to be quickly resolved.

 

This same problem (of communication) happened between another NAMer here on the forum and MM ...

If you do a search for something like "ripped off by minimadness" you'll find the thread.

Minimadness responed that somehow in their move from one IT server to their current one, a lot of ***** were dropped and they made things right with the person who posted the thread and all was well. I bet they'll do the same for you when you finally make contact.

I'd call them or do a pm here from the forums because I'd have to agree; that's a little much for postage!

 

Sounds like maybe something is uncontrollably messed up on the OP's end? Few vendors, if any, engage in fraudulent conduct. But once again, here we are with mistakes, miscommunication, poor communication, and now accusations of yet another vendor being dishonest and a fraud.

The way of the Net is not an excuse. If one runs a business, even mom and pop, one has to run it just like a big retailer. There are no excuses, no passes. The simple fact is, as they say in my federal court, absent being on one's deathbed, there is no excuse for failing to give good service to the client or customer.

In my business I make speeches around the nation that in my opinion 80 to 90 % of my colleagues perform "C" work or below. Part of the reason for the poor grade is lousy customer service [failure to communicate, failure to respond to e-mails.]

In the days of the Net, and here, specifically doing business on the Net, a vendor must now expect and accept that any failings [perceived or justified] in the way one conducts business may result in a public posting taking the retailer to the woodshed [aka a public trashing.] And rightly or wrongly words like "fraud" "rip-off" and "steal" may be plastered on Websites such as this, charges leveled against people by name.

That all said, I have a USPS account with international shipping access. Seems to me that while Australia is expensive to ship to, it is not as much as you paid. I'll go into my shipping calculator and see what comes up. I am curious.

In any event, if there was an agreement on estimated shipping and that was breached, you are correct to be livid. [For me, having bought on eBay, I don't like inflated shipping and "handling" charges where the seller is trying to profit rather than collect actual costs.] So this [appx. $70?] extra charge is unacceptable. But was this innocent error? I don't know.

Like they say in federal court here, unless one is ill and unable to check e-mails, there is no excuse for not responding to you.

I find more interesting that if this is NOT a large retail vendor, it was very easy to recall your concern about shipping, especially if the vendor would not be able to meet his estimate to you on what shipping would cost. So that seems odd to me, to not communicate with you that there was a shipping issue. [Assuming there was. Did you say the shipping invoice from USPS shows $26 was actual cost?] If it was $26 then there was no issue on extra cost, you were overcharged.

I note their Site says they ship both UPS and USPS, international. They also mention that if you can't contact them via e-mail then to call, but that is a toll call to them. A retailer cannot and should not expect international customers to pay for expensive toll calls to resolve questions.

All just my opinion [and I have to do a lot of writing today, so had to warm up the engines, by writing this post. Sorry for the ulterior motive.]

 

I note that they do not have a toll free line. It's an expensive international call for this person to contact the vendor.

I don't know what an international call [and hassling with the time difference between Australia and Pacific U. S. coast] cost compared to free calls that one can enjoy with discount cell services or a merchant toll-free line.

So while a call seems a good idea, generally, I would NOT think it reasonable for a vendor to expect the Aussie customer to make phone calls, notwithstanding the vendor solicits international business. Both sides are pretty much stuck with the often unreliable e-mail system, especially of the OP had called once already to discuss postage. Even if that was a $3 call, it adds up.

And of course, your suggestion of a PM here is a great additional step. Maybe the OP did that, but did not mention all steps he has taken to get contact of the vendor.

The OP was not very complete in his self-described "rant." Did he only send one e-mail and expect a response? Obviously, that would be a failing on his part, to send one e-mail. Even MINIMADNESS says that e-mail is unreliable since many communications get tossed into spam folders. So I would be curious [as well his credit card company will be] how many attempts the OP made to resolve the situation.

 

I will forward this thread to George at M-M. I am certain that he will correct this error immediately, without all the drama that this seems to have stimulated.

Next time, you might try sending a second email, or a PM via NAM, before screaming about a minor goof in front of the whole world, and falsely accusing someone of fraud. George doesn't do fraud, and you are over-reacting, IMHO.

 

i dont understand, you said you called the first time to arrange for proper pricing...
why wouldnt you call the second time to ask for a correction.....
you just send an email and hten wait 3-4 weeks for a response?
....something doesnt sound right on your part....

 

Roland we refunded the shipping error overcharge 5 days ago! International credit cards sometimes take between 6-10 days to show up. We emailed you this information when we processed the credit as well as on a few days ago in response to your email question about it. Please check your junk mail filter because it seems like your missing our emails.

In the future if your not getting email response's don't hesitate to call.

 

I have to take up for George here. I have never had a problem and we do business across the continent all the time. I have called and got the machine a couple of times but less than 2 hours later he called me back. I think everyone gets involved in a mix up in some way or another once in a while. No reason to gang up on him. Give him a break and hey if you are really that pissed, just shop somewhere else. Good luck finding someone else with the same quality.

 

3-4, 1 then follow up emails after about 2 weeks.

 

Contacted directly via email. cheers

 

Thanks for the reply George/MINIMADNESS.

Unfortunately, i haven't received any emails from you or MINIMADNESS. Is it possible to have them resent?

I will endeavour to verify the refund with VISA.

 

I agree, I had have nothing but positive praise for MINIMADNESSbefore this hickup. That is why i didn't hesitage to do business with them again.

 

Thankyou to you all for your varying opinions.

I do accept, and always have accepted that errors happen. I know they do. And everyone deserves the benifit of the doubt, at least once!

I was happy to have it corrected - somehow, but was getting the feeling i was being taken for a ride, when there was the apparent no communication for the period mentioned.

So, hopefully the matter has been resolved.

For anyone who stumbles across this thread, and feels as though they shouldn't trust eCommerce or MINIMADNESS, or anyone else for that matter, hopefully this thread will demonstrate that yes, errors do happen from time to time, but they (in this instance) do get resolved leaving everyone happy. So have faith in reputable vendors.

Thanks

 

Same here... The system that George has does not do APO very well and I generally have had to send e-mails and or call. So far I have never had a problem with MM or their products.

I would think that George did as he said and you are just waiting for the reverse charges to show. It does take some time.

 

If MINIMADNESS has followed through, i will happily apologise for bringing their good name and ethics into the public firing line.

Thanks again

 

Removed

 

If George is reading this too, well he owes me money that UPS refunded him and he was supposed to refund it to me on my part as well in which he never has, this was like 2 years ago...still...nothing...

 

Since every word in these posts show up in the search engines, maybe you want to edit your original post and take out the words "dishonest" and "fraudulent." Of course, leave those words in if you think that the vendor is lying in here too. [about having given you a credit days ago.]

That seems a more effective "taking the knife out" rather than a follow-up apology that will come only, as you say, when you see the credit back to your account.

Bonus Tip: You can call your credit card company to see if there is a pending credit. Sometimes it takes days for them to post a credit that's pending.

 

Ouch.... who is George? Is he the owner of the Company?

 

Based on the last two posts from customers, sounds like maybe you did NOT get the credit.

That kicks this all into a different realm if there are that many victims out there.

 

Correct we agreed 1 year of advertising in exchange for a header, unfortunately we never got the full year of advertising as promised, believe me we were checking. Luckily we were out of stock on headers when this whole ordeal occurred. If I am correct you sold your company a while ago as well, gomotoring.com to MC2 magazine. To bad it didn't work out for the both of us but you never saw us get on and bad mouth your or gomotoring.com, go figure.