Unfairness

I just wanted to write about a really bad experience I had with a company called Price USA. It’s a company that will buy things on your behalf from USA websites that don’t ship to Australia then ship these items to you. From what I can understand the main lady is based in Australia who has an agent in the USA, it’s the agent who gets things shipped to him/her who then forwards them to you. I don’t want to go on and on about what happened, I just want to write about my experience and get it out there as I feel I have been treated very unfairly.

So I ordered 3 necklaces through Price USA from Anthropologie.com. I received them about 3 to 4 weeks later only to discover that 1 of the necklaces wasn’t what I had ordered. I received one that was very similar to the one I wanted but not the one. I paid about $250 for it so I didn’t want to settle for the wrong necklace, naturally I wanted the right one, especially for $250! So I emailed Price USA the next morning (I opened the package the previous night) and advised them that I had received the wrong necklace and could I send it back. At this point Anthropologie had actually started shipping to Australia and I had gone onto their website to look at the returns policy. They only offer refunds or credits, so it didn’t make sense to me to send the necklace back to Price USA (I couldn’t return it myself because Price USA doesn’t give you original receipts, etc), get Price USA to get a refund then order it again and forward it to me. I'd have to pay postage for Anthropologie to ship it to Price USA, at their USA address then postage again for Price USA to forward it to me in Australia. I would have had to pay 3 shipping amounts (also for me to send it back to Price USA). I emailed Price USA and asked if I could just get a refund, once I had received my refund I was then going to buy it myself direct from Anthropologie.

I sent the package back the next working day, the necklace is made of glass beads so I wrapped it in bubble wrap many times so it didn’t get damaged in the post. I just want to say at this point that when I received the package the necklace was just in a plastic bag, with no bubble wrap or cushioning in the parcel. The package would take 10 working days to reach USA. About 3 weeks later I hadn’t heard anything so I emailed Price USA, I didn’t get a response. I emailed them again a few days later and she said she hadn’t heard anything from her agent. Then a few days later she emailed me saying her agent had received it and that it was broken, she said "Yes, I have received this. I just opened it and went to call anthropologie; however, I have some concerns. The necklace is actually damaged. I'm unsure how it happened. I would send it back as-is and would just still claim it's because they sent the wrong one; however, there are pieces missing which makes me think it broke when the customer had it. I'm worried if I send it back they may not give me a refund". So they basically accused me of sending it back broken and trying to get a refund from a broken necklace. After many emails they said they would send the necklace back to me as they couldn’t return it to Anthropologie broken. I asked for them to send me pictures because I didn’t understand how it could be broken, it definitely wasn’t broken when I sent it back and I wrapped it up so well to avoid it breaking in the post, I mentioned above that when I received it, it wasn’t wrapped up or protected in any way and I didn’t receive it broken so it’s hard to understand how it could get broken wrapped up? I received some pictures from them a while later and there are 2 broken pieces and 2 loose pieces (broken off) in the pictures but they are saying that there are more broken off pieces that weren’t in the package.

So it’s been 4 weeks and I haven’t received the necklace back? I am still trying to think what happened to it and the only reasons I can think is that someone at the post office opened it, broke it and packaged it back up but not with all the broken pieces, which I actually find hard to believe. Or that Price USA received it then accidentally broke it or dropped it and didn’t want to pay me $250 to replace it so are accusing me of breaking it and sending it back with only some of the missing pieces, which to me doesn’t make sense at all? I would have to be quite stupid to send back only some of the broken bits and not all of them? I have no problem with accusing them of breaking it because they accused me of sending it back broken. They didn't just say that they received it broken and can't return it, they said they received it broken and I must have done it. That's what makes me really angry about this situation, that they so easily accused me.

I have nothing against the company, I think they offer a good service and their prices are reasonable. I just think they have terrible customer service and that they shouldn't have outright accused me of what they 'think' happened. I'm sure they have many happy customers, I guess I just got some bad luck (which I actually seem to get a lot of when it comes to shopping). I hope I get a response from them soon regarding the whereabouts of my necklace because it's just plain unfair. I was hoping once I received it back I could see if my postal insurance covered the damage but it's been about 2 months since I sent it back so I don't like my chances.

Take care shoppers, hopefully something like this never happens to you.

Ishia

Update (29 April 2010)
I am in total disbelief right now, utterly shocked and feel sick to my stomach. I finally heard back from them about the whereabouts of my necklace. So... they pretty much still have it and haven't sent it back because I have to pay the return postage. They said over a month ago that they would send it back and they never said anything at all about me having to pay postage? If I hadn't have emailed asking where it was were they just going to keep it forever? I am totally over this whole situation and am so blown away with how they have managed this and their lack of basic human customer service. I think I'll go cry for the rest of the day.

God help me.......