Appaling customer service from Sarissa Precision - PROBLEM NOW SOLVED

[shandy]

Hi!

So, I'm making this public because I'm angry and at a loss about what to do.

In April, I placed an order with Sarissa Precision for pick-up at Salute. Due to illness, I had to cancel the trip, which was quite a blow as it would have been my first Salute and I had been looking forward to it for a long time. I asked Sarissa (and a couple of other companies where I had pre-ordered something) to send me the parcel by post. They said they would do this and include a replacement for a broken kit I had bought earlier. They billed me p&p which I duly paid.

Then the parcel got stuck and was presumably lost by the carrier (visible in the tracking).

I corresponded with someone called Steve from Sarissa who said that he would sort this out, file a claim with the carrier and then either send me the parcel or a replacement. This was in May. I know that sorting things out with a carrier can take a while, so I was patient and waited. After a while, I decided to ask Steve what the status was. From that moment on, I never got an answer to my emails. I sent them three or four polite mails, but no reply. Last Monday, I phoned them. Steve told me that incidentally, this was on his list for today and he would get to it. Guess what? One week later, nothing. No mail, no notification of a parcel sent or a reimbursement.

Of course it is now much too late to file a claim with PayPal. The sum of the order is not extraordinary (about 100.- Euros including the broken kit), but it's quite significant for my hobby budget.

I have to say that I'm disappointed and disgusted by Sarissa. My wife has a small business and does a lot of mail order, so I know how difficult this can be. I was polite and patient, and now I'm being punished for it. Even being lied to in the face on the phone, which feels even worse than getting no replies to my mails.

I have no idea what to do except for venting my anger. Has anyone had any dealings with Sarissa? I'd appreciate any hints.

Thomas

EDIT: Thanks to modelwarrior's question, I just realised I didn't pay via PayPal, but via Paylife, which is my credit card provider. I just filed a claim, let's see if something comes of this.

[anevilgiraffe]

out of interest, where are you in the world? Sounds like you're outside the UK which is going to be different levels of arse....

[shandy]

I'm in Austria, Europe, but I order reguarly from Great Britain and never had problems. For example, Warbases also sent me a Salute pre-order without any troubles.

Apart from that, I'd say that answering emails is common courtesy and completely independant of the country I'm in. And if they offer shipping to Austria, they should be able to deal with it.

I think by waiting for five months I have been rather patient.

[anevilgiraffe]

no argument here, was just looking to clarify...

[Elbows]

That sucks.  Says a lot about a company (or at least one employee).  It's easy to be a good company when things are working fine.

[modelwarrior]

Sorry about your problems. Are you sure about paypal its 180 days to register a dispute unless I am incorrect ? You might still have time left ? Its 20 days after you register a dispute to claim.

[shandy]

Thanks for the hint. I just checked, it wasn't PayPal, it was Paylife, which is my credit card provider. I just filed a claim, I don't know how long it is possible with them, but let's see what happens.

[pixelgeek]

I corresponded with someone called Steve from Sarissa...

Was this to a generic 'contact' email or to his own email address?

[shandy]

Both. At first I answered to an email I had from another correspondence, than I wrote to the generic contact adress. It's both the same, as far as I can say. Anyway, he told me on the phone that he got my emails, so it doesn't really matter.

[Codsticker]

Yeah, that is not very good service. Odd though, as I have ordered lots of things from SP and never had a problem. They even sent me free replacements for bits that I had clumsily lost. Even if they are struggling getting courier to own up, they should at least provide you with some occasional updates.

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

Good chance the lost package is in a customs office.

[Grimmnar]

Shandy, PayPal is a 6 month limit i thought? I mean as you find you didn't pay that way, but if you did you should still be fine.

Grimm

[traveller]

I had a similar experience with Sarissa. I was going to order their new trench inserts and was asking for some info via their contact form. Steve answered ONCE. I sent several follow-up emails but this Steve seems to have gone AWOL and no one else bother to follow this up. I also do not like their shipping policy. "Postage from £5 GBP worldwide" seems not to be true. I have always paid more than 10 to Sweden.

[Iain R]

"Postage from £5 GBP worldwide" seems not to be true. I have always paid more than 10 to Sweden.

I don't see how this isn't true? "Postage from £5 GBP worldwide" simply means that postage to worldwide destinations *starts* at £5, not that it's the cheapest postage cost available to everyone everywhere in the world. Probably find that postage to somewhere like the RoI can be done for £5 at the cheapest, but you can't expect the cheapest postage to somewhere like Australia or Timbuktu to also cost £5. Sweden probably falls somewhere in the middle. "From" is the operative word in that sentence.

[manchesterreg]

As said above  "Postage from £5 GBP worldwide" EMPHASIS on the FROM. Just means basically £5 is the starting postage, not that it is £5