So, what do you think of this?
Buyer Beware! I recently had a very unpleasant experience with a website online. As luck would have it, our 4 year-old kitchen faucet stopped working properly; the handle wouldn’t swivel, it was hard to pull out & the whole thing was so out of whack that I couldn’t even get hot water from it. My handy-dandy hubby decided that he was going to fix it for me. I took everything out from under the sink & he proceeded to take the faucet apart. Upon close inspection he found that the mounting bracket had rusted out & some other parts were apparently damaged. “Get a new faucet, & I’ll install it for you”, he said. I went online & did a search for kitchen faucets. Lo and behold, a website: http://www.efaucets.com, which had photos of hundreds of faucets by all different manufacturers, popped up! I looked through it & clicked on “pull-out kitchen faucets” and came upon 2 attractive faucets that looked identical but had 2 different model numbers & prices. I looked at the description of both and they sounded the same. Naturally, I was confused, so I asked my hubby if he could detect a difference. “No”, he said, “The cheaper one is probably just last year’s model, why don’t you call & ask?” I did that, but since it was a Sunday night, they were closed. The less expensive of the faucets had a caption that said, “Hurry & place your order, as there are only 10 left in stock”. I did as suggested & gave my credit card number & all other pertinent info. Something still nagged at me; I went back & re-read the description. That’s when I noticed the word “prep”. What could that mean? I received a confirmation email stating that orders are shipped the same day if placed before 3 pm but if placed on a Saturday or Sunday it would be shipped on Monday (I placed my order at 7 pm on Sunday). I called the company the very next day as soon as they opened & asked what the difference was between the two. The lady at the other end said the one I ordered was a smaller bar faucet. I told her that I wanted to change my order because I didn’t realize that and she said: “Sorry, it’s too late as it has already been shipped, besides, it plainly stated it’s a “prep”. I explained to her what my confirmation email stated regarding shipping, etc. Her answer was that even though the company was closed, the shipping dept was open 7 days a week, blah, blah, blah and so I would have to pay shipping charges & a 15% re-stocking fee if I returned it, or a 25% fee plus shipping if I didn’t accept delivery. I then asked for a tracking number & she said she didn’t have that yet as they don’t get it until the following day…but this was the following day! Realizing I was getting nowhere fast, I hung up & called back ½ hr. later. I asked to speak to a supervisor & got the same story except that she was kind enough to offer me a 5% discount on the other but much more expensive faucet when I re-ordered; all other charges applied. I told her this was not a fair return policy & she haughtily said that it was clearly stated on their website. Having had enough of this nonsense, I called my credit card company who told me the purchase had been approved but not posted yet which is further proof that the item had not been shipped. They noted it on my file and asked me to call back once it was posted so they could dispute it. I called e-faucet once more & told the lady this. She was very nasty & said: “fine, they can talk to our legal dept” I replied, “OK, lady” & hung up. But wait, there’s more! Approximately 20 minutes later I got a call from a very polite & apologetic voice telling me that her name was “Amy” from e-faucet and that they would be happy to exchange the faucet for me for the other model, that it was not too late, that it was all a mistake, blah, blah, blah. She even offered to ship it overnight mail at “no extra charge”. “Sorry”, I said, “It is too late as I’m no longer interested because the whole incident left me with a bad taste about your company. I will buy it locally, and furthermore, if you don’t credit my account, I will not accept delivery & the transaction will be disputed. You then will have to pay for the shipping both ways, so what will it be?” “I will take care of it immediately” was her reply. To make a long story short, I finally called the Delta Company, which is the manufacturer of my original faucet & found out that it has a lifetime warrantee. They are shipping me all the replacement parts for my “old” faucet free of charge. Now my hubby has one more item on top of his ‘honey-do list’.
Public Comments
- Good for you. Never put up with rude businesses.
