(no subject)
Five months ago, I ordered some materials from Passion for Birth, which is a childbirth education company run by a very well known CBE named Teri Shilling. The stuff I ordered was actually intended to be a Christmas present for Kim; I was planning ahead, so I began the process of getting her present in October.
Teri emailed me within a few hours of placing my order, and explained that she was out of the country and wouldn't be able to mail my order for several days. I wrote her back to assure her that I could wait, it would be no problem. She didn't write back after that, so I assumed we were good to go.
December rolled around, and I still hadn't received the order, so I sent her another email to check the order's status. No reply. I waited a little over a week, and emailed her again. No reply. I tried to place an order for the items with another vendor, and they wrote me to let me know that they were out of stock, and were refunding my payment.
Last month, I called and left two messages to try and get someone's attention at Passion for Birth. No response.
This month, I looked around the PayPal site about how to dispute a charge. Basically, the time frame for dispute leading to a refund has lapsed, and the best I can do is log a complaint which may reflect negatively upon the seller.
Not only am I out nearly fifty bucks, I didn't get the materials I ordered, Kim didn't get a present for Christmas because I ran out of time waiting for the one I ordered in the first place, and I have no idea how to effectively deal with this situation in the end. If I log a complaint, I'm possibly alienating someone who's SOMEONE in the birth community. If I don't, well... I'm remain right where I'm at now (see above).
And I'm upset that someone who, even though it's a remote connection, is part of a community I consider myself to be also a part of - someone I should be able to trust - and she shafted me. It's not right.
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Update 4/13/10: I got an email today from Teri Shilling via PayPal - she refunded my money, explaining that something had gotten out of hand with her online store, and she was shutting down the operation until she could sort things out. I'm grateful to get my money back, and she has my sympathies...
Teri emailed me within a few hours of placing my order, and explained that she was out of the country and wouldn't be able to mail my order for several days. I wrote her back to assure her that I could wait, it would be no problem. She didn't write back after that, so I assumed we were good to go.
December rolled around, and I still hadn't received the order, so I sent her another email to check the order's status. No reply. I waited a little over a week, and emailed her again. No reply. I tried to place an order for the items with another vendor, and they wrote me to let me know that they were out of stock, and were refunding my payment.
Last month, I called and left two messages to try and get someone's attention at Passion for Birth. No response.
This month, I looked around the PayPal site about how to dispute a charge. Basically, the time frame for dispute leading to a refund has lapsed, and the best I can do is log a complaint which may reflect negatively upon the seller.
Not only am I out nearly fifty bucks, I didn't get the materials I ordered, Kim didn't get a present for Christmas because I ran out of time waiting for the one I ordered in the first place, and I have no idea how to effectively deal with this situation in the end. If I log a complaint, I'm possibly alienating someone who's SOMEONE in the birth community. If I don't, well... I'm remain right where I'm at now (see above).
And I'm upset that someone who, even though it's a remote connection, is part of a community I consider myself to be also a part of - someone I should be able to trust - and she shafted me. It's not right.
---
Update 4/13/10: I got an email today from Teri Shilling via PayPal - she refunded my money, explaining that something had gotten out of hand with her online store, and she was shutting down the operation until she could sort things out. I'm grateful to get my money back, and she has my sympathies...