stay away from elgo bay

i had a whole lot of ANGER recently over tyren’s xmas gift…long story, but i’ll try to shorten it. (key word, “try”)

i ordered a space station toy for tyr at elgo bay on monday the 15th. i put in the notes of the order that i needed this in time for xmas. (1st time i told them) didn’t create an account because it said that i didn’t have to. didn’t think about the fact that they would only be able to contact me via my paypal email since that’s all that i had given them…my paypal email doesn’t work anymore. (well it didn’t, i’ve since recreated it. during the recent move to a new host, i just didn’t recreate the email.) so they called me that same day and said that i needed to fix this. but i didn’t have my cell on so i missed that call til the next day.

ok fine, my fault. i was a dummy for not giving them a valid email and not having my phone on.

so they cancelled my order and refunded my money because apparently they have to have a valid email to process my order. fine.

so i went in as soon as i could on tuesday the 16th and created an account and emailed them about the new account so they knew that i could be contacted there…and would it still be possible for me to order and get the thing in time for xmas (2nd time i talked to them about needing it for xmas). they responded yes, that they were just in L.A., no problem.

so i re-placed the order that same day. (although the paypal transaction didn’t go through til the next day, wed…not sure why that is…my mom even says she remembers me placing the order while she was over picking up maeven for nana time, which is on tuesdays.) and again i put a note in there that i needed it for xmas. (3rd time i told them this)

anyway…so then i get confirmation and notice that it was being sent from a warehouse. didn’t say where the warehouse was…and again they told me that they were located in L.A. and it shouldn’t be a problem. (remember this was the THIRD time that i told them i needed it for xmas). that’s 2 times now that they responded to my email address (which they obviously had at this point because they were communicating with me) that yes, they are in L.A., so no problem getting to me by xmas.

then i get a fed ex message that the estimated time of delivery is DECEMBER 30!! and that is was being shipped from PENNSYLVANIA!!!! (i’m in california)

i paid for USPS priority mail, by the way…and apparently its now being shipped fed ex ground. no one told me this ahead of time.

ok i get that sometimes items are drop shipped from different places…but TWICE they told me it would be coming from L.A. and don’t worry about it. TWICE!!! they even acknowledged this in our pissy back and forth emails about this situation…apologized for saying it would come from CA!!! (by the way, for those that don’t know, i live only about 4 or 5 hours north of L.A.)

i get an email back that i shouldn’t point the finger at them because *I* was the one that took my time responding and reordering….uh NO! i remedied (i thought) the situation the very next day!!

and he even had the nerve to tell me, and i quote: “Even if the gift arrive late for christmas, he will have the gift soon after.” (bad grammar was in his original note…i think english is a second language for him…so that’s understandable. i’m not suggesting anything negative about english being second language…just that i think that’s the case.)

um.

YOU tell my 3yr old that he doesn’t have a gift from Mommy and Daddy to open on xmas!!! And please explain to him that he has to watch his sister open her gift but his will be here in just 5 more days, don’t worry sweetie. !!!!!

i was so mad i was spitting fire!!!

i told him in no uncertain terms that he had his info incorrect, and that i was NEVER told that it would be shipped from elsewhere and that i paid for priority shipping and was never told that wasn’t possible! (after we started emailing, he tells me that the vendor doesn’t ship USPS and has to do fed ex. ok fine, but tell me that ahead of time! he claims that it was stated when i made the purchase on the site. nope. it wasn’t. and it STILL says, on HIS site, in my account transaction record, that its shipping USPS priority mail.)

he hemmed and haw’d:

“We are sorry for telling you that the item will be shipped from California. Item ship, origin location is subject to change, item availability and type of item ordered.”

um, nice to tell me this NOW! after the item is now in fed ex’s hands!!! and after i told you not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES that i needed this for xmas!!!

after i told him that i would refuse the product and i expect a full refund after its back in his hands, he said:

“We can issue you a partial refund of $10 after you receive your order. You might even be able to pickup your order from FedEx facility in California if it gets there before Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed.

If you refuse the shipment and it get returned, you will receive a refund minus 30% restocking fee, per our Return Policy.”

so basically he’s going to force me to keep it. i just checked his info on the site and its 20%, not 30% restocking fee, since the item would be unopened. 30% is for opened returns.

ugh. like i’m not stressed enough these days with all our money problems…and we were (at the time this was going down) essentially OUT of xmas money and not even close to done shopping. going handmade for most everyone but still need to purchase a few supplies for printing the photos for them. (making bookmarks, etc to give to family….thought they’d like it and its a lot more affordable then a bunch of random items.)

so now we’ll be dipping into our “house money”, which is the money that we borrowed from adam’s mother to finish the big room. the room that has been in limbo for like a year and a half now. and which causes me stress quite regularly cuz we have no access to most of our art supplies and no place to work on projects without first clearing a space…and i could go on and on but i digress. that room has been a headache for so long and now the money that was supposed to help us finally get that room back is going to start getting chipped away for xmas! *sigh*

and most likely will lead to us having to borrow MORE money to finish the damn room.

and tyren doesn’t have a room until that’s done.

and i already spent twice what i wanted to spend on tyren’s gift. (i alotted just $20 per child for a gift from Mommy and Daddy…but that gift, with shipping was nearly $40, but its what he’s been asking for…a space station. and they were sold out all over the net and i really didn’t find it cheaper anywhere, not that their price was more than a couple dollars cheaper…and had i known they would be such insensitive ASSES, i would have stayed far away!)

anyway, here it is monday, a week after this whole thing started…and guess where, according to fed ex’s website…tyren’s space station is now? STILL IN PENNSYLVANIA!!! i’m seriously hoping that they are slow to update their site or something cuz if its still sitting there and they got it in their hands (according to their records) on the 19th…that’s beyond ridiculous!

my last email to elgo bay has not been responded to. i went off on him about how it is NOT out of his hands (he last told me it was out of his hands)…that it absolutely is IN his hands and he is fully capable of still giving GOOD customer service and fix this. he could refund me the FULL amount RIGHT NOW so i could go buy something for my kid to open from Mommy and Daddy on xmas…he could order me a new one and ship it one day service at his expense to make sure we have one in our hands on time. he could at the very least admit they made a very big error and at least TRY to do something to fix it instead of trying to make this all MY fault!

this is the most deplorable customer service i’ve ever encountered. so much for the good will of this season. i told him repeatedly that we are tapped and i spent the last of my xmas money on this gift for my 3yr old and now its not going to even get here in time??? luckily, that’s now changed…but that just happened after i emailed him, and he showed no real sorrow for the situation. even said that he “loves kids” and has 10 of his own and understands their “expectations at this time of the year” or something like that. sorry, but my 3yr old doesn’t yet HAVE expectations about xmas. this isn’t about his expectations…this is about what will happen on christmas day when he might have no gift to open from mommy and daddy but his sister does!

i am still so completely enraged by this whole situation and i’m not sure how else to deal with it except to warn others to STAY AWAY FROM ELGO BAY!!! BAD BAD BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE AND NO HEART!!!