Apparently, MUCH harder than I originally anticipated.
Ready for a long story? 🙄
I have wanted a new keychain for just about forever now. I am still using a dorky Marine Federal Credit Union lanyard I think I found while working at Staples—which means I’ve had it for about six years.
I was sick and tired of being boring and utilitarian—that just doesn’t scream JEN, right? 😉 So I had taken to looking at keychains whenever we went somewhere, but nothing ever hit the spot. So, I decided to start a thread on my frequented-forums, asking for other people to show me their keychains so I could get some ideas. And one did actually hit the spot—I just thought it was cute and neat—and the owner gave it a glowing recommendation:
Troika Jumper
Hers was blue, but with some research, I found it was available in green! YAY! Of course, I also discovered they had cats and dogs which were totally adorable, but since I couldn’t decide between the cat or the dog, or which color, I went back to the green jumper. And then I thought about it. And thought about it some more. Because $16 + S/H is a lot of money for a silly keychain. But then I decided that I had been using a “freebie” for six years, so I could justify spending the money on a new one that I loved!
Well, the only place the green jumper was available was on the actual Troika website, so I created an account and ordered it. I thought it was a tad strange that the only way to pay was via PayPal (and not straight via credit card), but I have no problems with PayPal, and lots of businesses use PayPal, so it didn’t raise any flags. This was on April 15.
Right away I got a confirmation of my account creation, as well as the “initial notification” email from Troika, saying I had to finish via PayPal (which I actually already had by that point). Then I got the PayPal confirmation…which was a little strange: The order description was Troika USA and the Invoice ID was troika-usa_xx, but the Business Information contact was Suntime3, LLC. Again, a tad strange, since I thought Troika would have been the contact, but I figured maybe an outside company did the actual order processing…so honestly, nothing to really cause me any real misgivings.
Eight days later on April 24 I emailed Suntime3, LLC (via the email from the PayPal contact confirmation) asking for the status because 1) I hadn’t received any shipment confirmation and 2) I hadn’t received the item. They wrote back that:
That [contact information] should have been changed. The company handling that site now is called Pevazi and you can reach them at…
Nothing about refunding my money (which was obviously paid to them) or “Sorry there has been a mistake”—just simply “Here’s their number.” Now I started to worry. At that same time, I tried to login to my Troika account, and it didn’t recognize me OR my email. Uh oh.
So now it was about April 27, and I contacted Pevazi, and after a quick explanation, the girl took my order info and said she would call me back the next day. Nothing. I called about two days later, it was the same girl and she remembered me, and this time asked for me to email her ALL the information and emails I had received so she could look into it, as my name and/or order number matched NOTHING in their system. I compiled a huge email and sent it off. She replied she would “get to the bottom of this, ASAP” and that it might be the next day.
This morning, May 14, I got an email from her, asking if Suntime3 (the original company that apparently got my payment) had contacted me to resolve the issue. I told her that I hadn’t heard anything from anyone since I received her last email saying she would be working on this. Within 10 minutes, I received this response:
Ok, I don’t know what happened with this. The monies got paid to a different company and that company said they didn’t know anything about it and they would contact you. In the meantime, what product did you order? I am going to send you the product you purchased and will settle the rest with Suntime.
Now THAT is customer service. ❗
So I emailed her what I wanted and they are shipping it out ASAP. And they get to try to figure out how to get their money. So sometime in the near future, I will FINALLY get my keychain!
I certainly hope it’s worth all this trouble. |-|