to update you I finally received a mail this morning:
thank you for your email.
We certainly understand that you are unsatisfied about the fact that your shipment is delayed. We informed you at the time of your order that the package would not be ready to ship right away, and we updated you accordingly when it became clear that the package would unfortunately not arrive in the estimated time frame.
In addition I informed you when you can expect to receive your package. As you know the postal shipping methods do not feature guaranteed arrival dates (the shipping procedure was explained in detail in your invoice receipt email). That is why I gave you an approximate delivery date (just like you received it at time of order). If the post offices would give guaranteed arrival dates, we certainly would forward this information to our customers!
An estimated delivery was not acceptable to you, as you clearly noted in your previous email.
For this reason and because you threatened to do a chargeback with your credit card company your order has been stopped and your payment was refunded in full.
I have to be honest and tell you that we have never had such a reaction from a customer in response to an order update. Normally customers appreciate that they are being kept up to date, and even if a customer is unsatisfied with such situation, which of course is more than understandable, there are always ways to work things out. Believe me, we are just as unhappy about the waiting time on this item as you are!
We can unfortunately not change this situation, but we can offer ways to make the customer happy after all.
In case of shipping delays we offer shipping upgrades (a shipping upgrade was already arranged for you), partial shipping refunds or discounts on future orders, depending on the situation and the customers preference.
One option the customer also has is to ask for a refund and to cancel the order or return the items, which is your right to do at any point, even after the products have shipped or after you received the products.
So you see we take all possible measures to fix such problems.
But a chargeback is an extreme measure that should only be considered if there is no communication with a vendor and if it becomes clear that the customer will not receive the product he or she purchased.
You did not ask for a refund, instead you informed me that you will initiate a chargeback.
In our opinion this means that you assume we will not refund your payment if you decide to cancel your order, which is quite disturbing for us. We are an honest company, we have earned our good reputation over many years with customers all over the world. For the case that things do not go smoothly the way they should we take responsibility and offer ways to satisfy our customers.
Considering that you did not find the estimated delivery date acceptable and you wanted to do a chargeback I saw no other way than to cancel your order and to refund your payment.
If you feel that we can find a way to come to an agreement and if you can accept the transit times for shipments to your area then I will be more than happy to re-open your order and release the shipment. But shipping products and knowing that the payment for these products will charged back is something I unfortunately cannot agree to.
Once again, I will happy to work with you on resolving this issue fairly.
Thank you
Katja
TM Tuning
my reply:
Hello Katja
Thankyou for your email
I have been talking with others whom have ordered and potentially ordering with yourselves and it has been a very mixed response, however that said your reply does miss the point of the earlier email of mine, the threat to cancel my order was due to the vagueness and lack of the information you had provided and the uncertainty of my standing and not the delay in receiving parts. I was left unknowing when the parts would arrive and after speaking to others you seem to be averaging around three weeks delivery so approaching five I had the right to be concerned, especially when you were informing me of further delays without any rough guide to actual arrival of the delivery at my end. The termination of funds would only have happened if the communication hadn't appeared, which it then did. This communication should have reassured me that you were 'out there' and listening but instead you chose to use it to inform me that you cancelled the order. This is simply a knee jerk reaction on your part.
I understand totally your position regarding the threat of the stoppage, all I required was an email, just a fraction of the information you provided in this latest email would have been the perfect response if you had written it initially.
With regards to the refund, I have no record of this as yet, if you could let me know the details I can chase this up with my card issuer.
With you saying you've never had this kind of response regarding a customer would indicate to me that maybe you should have paid just a little more attention to me if I was such an abnormality (google yourself and I think you'll be surprised with some of the feedback that's out there from previous customers), telling me that my shipping had been upgraded after you've cancelled the order and even then the actual date of delivery no different doesn't seem an effective choice of consolation.
to quote you: "But a chargeback is an extreme measure that should only be considered if there is no communication with a vendor and if it becomes clear that the customer will not receive the product he or she purchased"
All I will say to that is it's taken 48 hours (working days) to receive this reply. You do the maths. I'm not sure why you would expect me to ask for a refund weeks later when i wasn't receiving any emails from you regarding my concerns, as a customer i had lost confidence in you which brings my consumer rights into play and gave me every right to terminate if i didn't hear back from you
The risk of a chargeback for any company is an issue, but if the customer is kept informed during the delivery process and you answer your emails it would never arise.
i have currently spent £4000 on aftermarket products for my car with many more to come over the next few months, with my car being very rare it will be attracting attention at a lot of the UK shows this year, VW in my area having already used the car for a showcase within a main dealership. I am not a novice when it comes to shopping online, i have currently used many USA and Euro companies to collate the parts i require and have never encountered this either
I have learnt form this, I'm sure you have, and I hope you move forward with it positively to better your customer support
Thank you for your time, but I wont be requiring you to reopen my order as i will be using your competitors, please do confirm my refund with a transaction or reference number
Regards
Just need to see that refund appear now.
