Speck Products makes and sells a variety of cases for different devices, like iPods and cell phones. I had seen a promotion for an iPod case that my wife had wanted and I ordered it.
The first problem I had was that their shipping email, which provided a link to view my order status, which had a button labeled "Track", which led to a UPS page that couldn't track my order b/c Speck had not provided one. I sent numerous emails to customer service, left a message on the general manager's voice mail and registered a negative review on Yahoo! Shopping. Finally someone contacted me w/a tracking number (12 days after I had placed my order.) As it turns out, it was very helpful to have the tracking number b/c UPS had misplaced/misdelivered my order and Speck had to send out a new one. I finally got it. The iPod case was as advertised and my wife has already gotten plenty of use out of it.
So, even though it was extremely difficult to get a hold of customer service and I should have been able to track my order from the time I received my shipping notification, I figured I'd give Speck another shot. After all, once I actually spoke to someone they were very helpful and the product was of good quality and very functional.
This time my wife wanted a rubber case (the RAZR Skin Tight) for her Motorola RAZR cell phone. At $30 S&H it seemed a bit pricey, but if it was anything near as good as the iPod case it would be worth it.
It was not worth it.
First of all, I encountered more of the same shipping, tracking and customer service problems. I received a shipping confirmation on 12/27/05... No tracking number... Again. Numerous email attempts to contact their customer DISservice department were met with the sound of crickets chirping. I finally received my order on 1/5/06... Seven business days after they CLAIM to have shipped my order (six if you give them credit for 1/2/06 being a holiday.) Who cares if I paid almost $7 for 3-5 day shipping, right?
Clearly this is a systemic problem for Speck. That is, unless they were just out to get me. A quick look at the other negative reviews for Speck on Yahoo! Shopping put my conspiracy theories to rest and I put my tin foil hat back in the closet.
As angry as the aforementioned problems made me, nothing could prepare me for what lay ahead.
I opened the package and marveled at the craptasticness of Speck's RAZR Skin Tight case. My wife's first reaction? She said it looked like a pink condom.
Except, this condom would have fit like a pee-wee size on a magnum man and your "boys" would be swimmin' all over the place. The opening for the outer screen buckles and gaps when the phone is "closed." This not only looks bad, but it leaves a large opening for objects to get lodged between the case and the phone.
As if that wasn't bad enough, when the case is on the phone it prevents the user from being able to CLOSE THE PHONE! That's right, you read that correctly. This wonderful case (alsonotreally) prevents you from being able to fully close the clamshell design of the phone. The whole point of buying this case was to PROTECT the phone while it was in my wife's purse, not to expose its inner screen and keypad to GREATER RISK OF DAMAGE!
I have given up on Speck. I am not paying for this crap. I am not paying for their late shipping. I am not paying to ship a poorly designed and defective product back to Speck.
Nor am I going to continue to waste my time trying to correspond with a company who clearly doesn't value or respect their customers enough to respond to numerous email inquiries in a timely manner.
I have already disputed the charge w/AMEX. Let Speck dodge their correspondence from now on.
Dave
Edgewater, New Jersey
U.S.A.
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