Here is my rip-off story about Unique Mineral Cosmetic's:
I won a buy it now auction for $26.40 total on Ebay from seller lbhdhch3, aka: Unique Mineral Cosmetic's, on 6/5 and paid for this item with paypal on 6/7/06. Seller, lbhdhch3 delayed shipping for a while so I contacted them several times & they kept saying they would ship it soon. They also have a website with their business name.
The day I received my order, (which was 21 days after I paid) I sent an email to them saying I received my package but it was the wrong item. The picture & detailed description did not match what I received. They sent a much cheaper item in place of what I ordered. After waiting several days they replied by telling me to follow return policy & return to the store I purchased from. I told them I purchased from Ebay, not a store & they can pay to return it, and that I did not order it wrong, they sent wrong item and smelled like smoke.
There are other buyers I have been talking to that had similar or worse experiences with them and they have filed complaints with paypal & ebay and so have I. I had to file a dispute with paypal, and then turn it to a claim to receive only? My money back. It wasn't the amount of money I was upset about, it was the idea that I was being scammed, deceived, and ripped off. We feel we are all being ripped off & deceived by this company deliberately.
They have never ending sob stories/excuses, lack of communication, they are somewhat illiterate, very slow shipping & lies. Some people don't get all of their order & it is never shipped to them. I think sending the wrong product & missing product is fraud. I can understand mistakes—but way too many of them with this seller to be mistakes.
This company has received 5 Negative feedbacks in the past month, 3 of them being in one day. They went to private feedback as soon as they received so many negatives in a short time. Must have been hiding something! I think that says something for their business practices. My personal opinion, I don't think feedback should be allowed to be private. Buyers & sellers alike should know about the person they are buying from/selling to. And then... Seller lbhdhch3 holds back their feedback until the buyer leaves theirs first—then retaliation comes!!! If I paid right away I should receive POS feedback. But no.? They wait until you leave your NEG feed back, and then say you didn't follow their rules, or buyer needs help, blah, blah. And throughout this whole ordeal, they kept threatening to turn me into ebay law enforcement-for what reason I do not know. Then all of a sudden the removed their feedback privacy.
And just recently on 7/15/06, imagine that— they were booted from ebay for shilling—they were caught bidding with another username to get bids up higher.in one of the auctions that I lost, this other username won by getting the bid up higher. So many of us paid more than we actually had to because of this dishonest activity. Who knows how many customers have been ripped off by Unique Mineral Cosmetic's & don't report it, just let it slide. Well we have not let it slide & that is why we have reported to this rip-off website. Beware of this company-you may get ripped off too!
Here are the detail of ebay messages & emails that took place:
6/15/06 I wrote to them thru ebay messaging: Can you please tell me when my order was shipped for the jars? Thanks
6/16/06 seller's EB message: Hello, Your order will ship tomrw. Or Mon. We do not ship on yhe weekends.
Thank you for your question Customer Service Becky
6/16 my EB message: Why are you just now shipping it was paid for almost 10 days ago.
6/22 my EB message: Just wondering if my purchase has been shipped yet. It has been over 2 weeks since I bought them.
Thanks.
6/23 my email to them: Hello, I have paid for this order below over 2 weeks ago (June 7) & still have not received anything & no one is answering my messages thru EBAY. It says in your Ebay store that orders are shipped within 2 business days of payment received. I did get one message last week saying my order would be shipped last Friday or the following Monday & still nothing.
Could someone PLEASE respond to this ASAP & tell me when my order was shipped? If I do not hear back by next Tuesday am I am reporting this to Ebay. I am getting a bit disgusted that nobody is communicating with me. If you don't want this to affect your feedback-PLEASE ANSWER MY EMAIL RIGHT AWAY!
Thank you for your PROMPT attention to this matter.
PS Communication is what makes customers happy! I own a business also so I know it gets hectic at times but please communicate with me.
6/24 seller's EB message: hELLO,
Please let me know when you recive your package and pleae let me know if everything is allright.
Thank you, You are great,
6/25 my EB message: when was it sent please?
6/26 received email from paypal that a label has been printed for my package on 6/24, this does not mean it was sent yet.
6/26, package left Goodman, MO
6/28, I received my package
6/28 my EB message: Just letting you know (sent an email ALSO) THAT after all this waiting I received my order today but it is not what I ordered.instead, I received these cheap, ugly, semi-transparent jars & I ordered the nice clear ones with the black trim. If I do not hear back from you about sending the correct ones by 2 pm Thursday June 29 (24 hours from my earlier email today) I am turning this in to Ebay/Paypal & leaving negative feedback. I expect to receive them ASAP without charge & you can pay to have the ugly ones shipped back also because all of this is your fault. I can't believe how many people have left good feedback for you. I have been very nice & patient up til today when you sent the wrong items and partial orders to other people I have had contact with. This is no way to build a good business.
6/28: my email to them: Well I received my order today but it is the wrong item. I bought the clear jars with black rims & sifters. These are some CHEAP UGLY semi-clear containers without sifters. Can you please send the correct item so I can ship these back? These do not even go with what I already have for my business. I think you had better straighten out your packing & shipping department, as it appears they do not know what they are doing. The other people that have bought from you that I have had contact with have only received partial shipments. That is no way to do business. If I don't hear back about this within 24 hours I am turning this over to Ebay.
Thanks so much.
6/28 email from Crystal: Hello,
If I have already answered your question please disregard this email... I know you will receive your item on wed or Thursday. If your order was jars they do not ship for 7-10 days after purchase, and we had a disaster with shipping dept. And lost half of everything, so we feel a little behind. If you wish to purchase in the future from us in bulk you can join our private wholesale buyers list. We have to many high demands to be dealing with so many buys from ebay.
Thank you so much for contacting us with your concerns.
Owner / C. Holly
6/28 email from me: Subject: Re: please respond ASAP concerning my Ebay purchase!!!
Hi Crystal,
I am not trying to cause problems or give you a lecture here... Just trying to help you out!
Just for future reference... If you have problems, you need to communicate that with your buyers instead of ignoring their emails & Ebay messages. That just pi$es them off & makes them think bad of you & they leave negative feedback. You could have just dropped a quick line saying due to warehouse shipping problems, blah, blah...
I have been talking to a few others that did not receive their items from you longer ago than mine and they are very hot about it. I don't blame them; I was ready to file a complaint with Ebay also if I did not hear back from you this week.
So please communicate with your buyers better in the future if you don't want negative feedback & ticked off customers. Bad word of mouth spreads 10 times faster than good. I have had my own business for a few years now & it's not a good thing to make customers mad. I know it's hard to tolerate some people sometimes, but we have to —to make our business survive. I have had so give out free crap to people I couldn't stand so they didn't spread bad word about me.
Yes my order was jars-hoping to see it today. MO isn't that far from me.
Thank you for responding personally to my email, I appreciate it.
6/29: from Becky: Yes your email is so true, But the sending items over and over to people is only tolerated twice buy me, That sheila what's her name I know she is gripping cause she writes me daily and calls me words I would never dream of saying and also shared hers hopes of my father hurrying up and dying so she could receive her items, so she is claiming she never received anything she has already lost 2 disputes because she tried to claim she received nothing but I provided tracking numbers to ebay, now she is threating negative feedback if I do not send her bronzer and I think it was our Pearl Mica Powder and I just stopped talking to her and turned her in for harassing... I rather just let one of the other girls deal with ebay I have no patients for uneducated people.
Thank you for the sweet tips though,
Becky
6/29 email from Becky: Hello,
I will have to ask my Boss and then shipping about this I need to check your item description
because I notice the title on the invoice is natural sifter jars and that is the frosted 5gm, so let me check cause I have to make sure what the right thing to do is. Yes the shipping dept, is a little off that is where we had most of the damage from the storms and lost a lot of inventory and a lot of items. And as for other buyers discussions of my sales they are mainly having temporary memory problems because it was in big bold letters in the front page of the storm that some departments were damaged and so we will fill orders with what we have and back order the rest, most of the buyers well I have nothing to say I know there is a buyers gossip club one of my main wholesalers have been talking to you all too and trying to let me know what is going on because she is a witness for me because of all the violations being pulled on ebay I would like to say sorry in advance if you get drug into the investigation cause I do not know if you are one of the 7 that are being investigated by ebay law enforcement, but I had to do something because there is a law of defamation of character and there are some naughty girls that have been doing that really bad. And we are getting rid of the store on ebay cause we do not need a bunch a little strung around orders we have to many main stores and salons and actually just bought a new building in New Hampshire we are to busy unless one of the other girls want to do it, we have 5 other stores on ebay that the girls are running so if they have time more power to them. So anyway's I will do what I can on my end and get right back to you.
Thank you, and have a great day. Becky
6/29 email from me: Becky, You didn't get right back to me.
Oh believe me, I checked on the item description right away & it is the clear jars with black rimmed lids. I expect to see a shipping confirmation by tomorrow-Friday. Maybe you can fed-ex this at your expense, but I want to see results now or am contacting Ebay & paypal. And it had better not take as long as the first order. I am tired of being nice & patient about this. Enough is enough. I have been patient way too long, as have other buyers. I have a business to run & these were ordered for my minerals for retail.
I can't believe a business would treat their customers this way if they want repeat business.
Looking forward to hearing back SOON on my corrected order.
Have a great day
6/30 my email to them: I haven't heard back from anyone yet on this-what's going on? It is important you keep me updated on this or I have no option but to turn this into Ebay, plus negative feedback. If I don't hear back by 2 pm today, that is the direction I am heading. So then your feedback will show more than one negative on the same day, I am sure you don't want that.
Please take care of this-I have been more than patient until now. This is no way to treat customers if you want them to keep spending money with you.
I also know someone that is posting her problems with you on a fraud website. So if you don't take care of me today, I will also. Which in turn may affect your new website!
6/30 email from Crystal: If there is a complaint on your order please follow return policy at the store where you purchased, and contact seller through ebay messaging only...
Thank you,
Crystal
6/30 my EB message to them: CRYSTAL,
Once again ANOTHER message as you requested thru ebay messaging. This is a copy of my email I sent you:
I did use ebay messaging & nobody responded!!!
I did not purchase at a store, I purchased thru EBAY & YOU sent the WRONG item! So please send me the correct item immediately. This is in NO WAY MY FAULT!!! I am getting sick of your BS. I have no clue why anyone gives you good feedback! My paypal receipt is the last email below; click on the item & it shows you what I was SUPPOSE to get. I received some ugly, cheap, crappy semi-transparent jars as stated in several of my emails if you would bother to take the time & read them! You are the owner-act like it and treat your customers like YOU would like to be treated as a customer.
6/30 my email to them: same as above message.
7/1: I opened a dispute with paypal
7/4 my EB message to them: Crystal,
Have you gotten any of my emails or ebay messages? I have not heard back form you yet.
I have put in a dispute thru paypal & ready to turn it to a claim & leave bad feedback soon. You need to contact me by Wed. Noon or I will hold true to my promise. I never wanted this much trouble-just wanted some nice jars. Which I thought I was getting by the picture & DETAILED description. You need to double-check it again because it does describe the black-rimmed jars with sifters.
Thank you
7/5 email from someone? ; I too was hoping this to be a descent recovery, I hate to say that I have had to turn several of the buyers into ebay law enforcement due to unreasonable contact with prior buyers from my store and discussions that effect my business... I have sent my emails also showing proof that I offered exchange for you to receive other jars and you have not acted upon the offers...
I have left it up to you, on 6-29 at 2:07pm you wrote and said you received the jars and they were not correct and you said" can you please send the correct item so I can ship these back."
ebay rules are for sellers to state on there websites there return policies and mine is 7 days and I have offered and offered...
7/5: I raised the dispute to a claim
7/5 I emailed to them: Crystal,
You asked me to use ebay messaging-why aren't you? I sent to both because my Ebay message was not working at the time that I tried to send it, but yet I did not hear back thru ebay from you.
This email is such BS & you know it. You are nothing but a liar. I have only had contact with 2 buyers that have had similar problems with you and you gave them the same run around that you give me—lies. You have NEVER offered to send the right jars-only told me to return them to the store I purchased from. I purchased from Ebay & YOU screwed the order up—nothing here is my fault & you know it. YOU should correct YOUR faults, not I. You have NOT offered & offered. I have kept records of ALL contact with you on & off Ebay. This has just turned into a claim, & now I just want a refund & I'll return the crappy jars that smell like smoke as soon as I get it. I guess we'll let Paypal decide the rest.
Hope you are happy with yourself because some of your customers are not.
7/5 email from? No name: Hi,
I have never came across anyone as upset as you.
And as for the jars they better not smell like smoke because we do not take back nor do we accept merchandise that is damaged or opened... And atleast when people want to discuss you with me I am a professional and tell them that I am sorry but I will not speak of anyone about anyones business, unless future problems arise to force me to do so... If you would follow ebay rules on in the return policy then we would not even have this problem, you could of returned the jars and got your correct ones instead of wasting all this time, sometimes I just do not understand why people make the decisions they make...
Thank you for everything
7/5 email from me: Wouldn't you be upset if a business treated you in this way?
The jars smelled like smoke when I RECEIVED them. They are not sealed as you say on EBAY; they are in a plain ZIP LOCK bag. I did not have to open them to smell the smoke. I do not smoke nor does anyone in my business-they came that way. I read another comment on your feedback as well that their product smelled like smoke when they received it.
You have never once said you would send the correct jars-just told me to return to the store I purchased from. As I already stated-You or someone in your company made this mistake & you need to correct it at your expense. I purchase them from Ebay-not one of your stores. Besides that you just said you wouldn't take them back if they smelled like smoke-once again they came from your company that way.
You are far from being professional as far as I can tell. I spoke to others that had similar problems with you & that is not unprofessional, that is watching out for my own good. I'm sure you would do the same in my position.
7/5 email from me: Oh... Look...'Sheila what's her name' that you were talking about in one of my emails left you negative feedback. Oh that's right you don't talk about other people in your business do you. Let me quote you from one of your previous emails sent by Becky on 6/29: (then I pasted that email here)
7/6 email from oh? No-name again: I read every return policy anywhere I purchase from... And I have received the wrong products before and I ship back and receive correct items, On one occasion I did miss the deadline for a return and got turned down, But I thanked the store and still bought from them. And as I believe you read through all my feedback and seen a smoke complaint and jumped on board. We even have questions from buyers as to why there items smell like orange or cedar it is cause sometimes when we are mixing the aroma is so strong through out the building that you cannot help it spreading..
I believe this transaction has gotten so out of line it is beyond fixing.
I will comment on the rest later I am waiting for a reply from something.
7/6 from someone; There has been more than 6 Sheila that have purchased in the last month.
7/6 refunded? Of what I paid
7/7 email letter addressed to me only not all her customers: To all my customers from ebay:
I am so so sorry for your delayed package, I do not
want to bother you with my excuse but whether you
believe me or not I will tell you, my fathers battle
with cancer had really hit its worst this past 2 weeks
and I lost him Saturday and I have dedicated myself
to him completely and I have fallen desperately
behind on all my orders, I miss him much more
than I could of ever imagined but, I am desperately
trying to push all feelings aside and take care of my
now top priority (my customers)...
I am so sorry but to be honest about it is easier than
telling lies or not letting customers know anything
about there orders.
I will understand if you are upset and I accept that
with
full responsibilities...
Thank you & I am sorry for a tiresome experience!
Customer assistant w/Unique Minerals
Becky
Thank you,
Welcome Back anytime!
Business Contact [email protected]
A quick Link to view your purchase or check
on the status of your order click here: www.uniquemineralcoasmeticsbilling.com
Or Go to home page:
www.uniquemineralcosmetics.com
7/14 the day before d-day (they were booted from eBay on the 15th)
I got this EB message from them, no name signed again:
I want to know can you tell me, I am really excited to read it. You know the (Seller dishonest-Has a usacomplaints.com-contact me4details)
There are 4 of you customers that just seem to be anxious on giving up just the right information I need that has been requested from the law enforcement and ebay security. You all are making it so easy. I would like to give a special thank you to you. Do you want to give me more evidence? Oh Please do. How can I see the report about me that you wrote?
I did not respond to this but reported to it to eBay instead, for? Unwanted email'.
Feedback I left for her on 7/6: (I had to squeeze it all together because you only get so many spaces to fill)
SlowShip, Sent wrong item w/smoke smell, poor communication, filed claim& got?
7/13 Reply by lbhdhch3: Buyer not return for exchange, No Smoke here, must be her trailer park group
7/13 Follow-up by me: NoTrailersHere-Just Condos! Seller dishonest-Has ausacomplaints.com-contact me4details
Retaliatory feedback she left for me on 7/8/06:
DiD not follow store policy & return item - I even refunded money got? Feedback
7/8 Reply by ME: Retaliatory, She got3NEG in1day-Filed claim&got1/2refund4WrongItemSmokesmell, Lies
So beware buyers of this fraudulant mineral makeup company!
B
Eburg, Iowa
U.S.A.
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