My sister bought several items from them for my birthday. She was charged for all even though (unknown to her) at least one item was no longer available. It was not shipped until after my birthday, despite timely order.
The 10" hollow floater bowl looks like glass in the pictures and is described as glass.in reality it looks like, and pings like plastic. It had light scratches all around the top rim, as though it had sat upside down and gotten scratched. (Turns out for the opening on the bottom that you fill, there is no cover, so you have to turn it upside down to fill and manuver to turn it back right side up.) The shape turned out not to have much room for a floating candle.
I looked at their website for return instructions, which say to mail it back for refund. I wanted replacement or return of postage since it was defective, so I called. It's an answering machine. It doesn't include hours of availablity. I got the sneaky feeling that they call back only who they want to (such as secondary sellers or buyers). Sure enough I left three messages, and tried several more times over the course of a couple weeks and never heard from them. I left both mine and my sister's phone and addresses, and the order number. I left general messages and specific ones.
On the machine you can press choice one or two, for sales or for customer service with no difference in results. I later also found a non-800 number for them and got the same machine.
Eventually I had my sister write to her charge card for refund. After a letter back from the card asking us to re-verify the information, she got the credit. The CandlePeople never contacted the charge card or us. Happy ending, but it did ruin the surprise she thought would be waiting for me on my birthday, and left us with an unpleasant memory to share.
I wasted time looking at their website, thinking I'd need to find a substitute item. Also, thinking of writing them, sending it back and hoping for the best, etc. Basically after all was said and done they came across not honorable nor decent merchants. It just took a while for it to sink in for me. It was when I saw several other problems reported in various places on the internet that I realized we needed to just go straight to the charge card before the 60 days time period was expired to ask for credit. (With the card I explained that we called for Return Authorization or Instructions and couldn't reach them. That was adequate.)
0 comments