I manage a business in Bossier City, Louisiana that handles many items ranging from Lawn mowers to swimming pools. Trampolines are just a very small part of this company but we have been selling them for 13 years and people have come to expect us to carry them. We started to have problems with this company long ago. Orders were never shipped, or late. Payments were "lost" in the mail.
The real problem began this November. We ordered a special order trampoline and some stock trampolines to sell for Christmas. When we never recieved the order I personally called to check on the order. I was told that they were shipped and they should be there in a few days. A few days later... I called back to tell them they were never recieved. Same response, they had been shipped and they would be there in a few days.
The next time I called to check if they were coming I was told that they were on credit hold. Which was news to me. But. I needed the trampolines so I sent them a credit card to pay for the order so they would ship them to me. Again, nothing happened. SO I called back. The credit card had expired within the last few days so the order had not been processed. Which was unfortunate, but again I sent them a new credit card with an ample limit to cover the expenses and three years until the expiration date. This time the credit manager told us that they would release 30 trampolines to us while they waited for the new credit card to arrive. We did recieve 30 trampolines, but NOT the special order that we were waiting on.
The demand for trampolines this year was great and we soon realized that we would need more in stock. WE called and ordered more trampolines and reminded them about the special order. Since the other trampolines arrived we did not think there would be a problem recieving this order which was smaller thatn the first. They told us there was no problem. They would be there in a few days. This was in the middle of December. We called back a few days later and the cycle repeated itself. They were shipped, of course! Right. A few days later no shipment. We called and called. But no matter who we talked to we never got a straight answer. ON the 21st of December we were desperate. WE called and asked if they had the trampolines and they said they did. We asked if we could send someone over to pick them up. This is about a 3 hour drive (just one way). They said they could not release them to us however, because we were on a cash only basis. Which was complete news to us because we had never been on a cash only basis. I finally spoke to someone who said they could release the trampolines to us and to go ahead and send the driver. Richard left Bossier at about noon to make it there before they closed at 4pm. An hour after he left they called us back to say that they could not release them.
I spent the whole rest of the day on the phone, back and forth, with company representitives in at both the trampoline division Mesquite, Texas and thier headquaters in Utah. THe head of the trapmoline division kelp insisting that he had no authority to make decisions. (kind of hard to be the head of the division and not allowed to make decisions) and that I had to speak with the credit division in Utah. The people in Utah told me that I had to speak with the people in Texas because they had no power to make decisions. Turns out the people in Utah were having a Christmas party during business hours (about 2:00 pm there) and the people in Texas just didn't feel like helping us. The swithboard operator in Utah obviously didn't have a clue and was just tried of dealing with me, so she randomly sent me to extension after extension. I even spoke with the head of Customer service for "Nordic-Trac" which had nothing to do with what I was doing.
After four or five hours on the phone during one of our busiest days in the year nothing had been resolved. At this point I was willing to do anything, even pay with my personal credit card for trampolines we had already paid for to get the order home. No one I spoke to had any authority whatsoever and they refused to give me the name of someone who did. My driver arrived in Mesquite, Texas shortly before 4:00. Where he was told by the head of the trampoline division that I had cancelled the order and to go back home. My driver called me, angry, and asked why I had cancelled the order. WHich, again, was news to me. He was standing in the trampoline department at the time and I asked him to please let me speak with the head of the division, who wasn't even man enough to get on the phone and explain why he had lied to my driver.By that late in the day he had probably told so many lies he couldn't remember which one was which.
MY driver pleaded with him to just talk to me on the phone but he refused and so Richard headed back home again empty-handed.
Luckily, the people who did not recieve their Christmas gifts were reasonable, intellegent people and after we explained the situation did not become angry with us. WE gave back their money or promised them that we would try to resolve the situation and get them a trampoline.
We have tried since then to call and resolve the situation, but are recieving no help. No one seems to remember ever speaking to me or halding the situation. They just continue to dodge the problem and pass it on to the next person.
0 comments