West Coast Roaches – Another Customer Service Disaster

I recently had an encounter with an Ebay seller, jarmstrongwcr, of West Coast Roaches. It was apparent to me this person has no comprehension of what good customer service is…or customer service at all really. I’d like to share the interaction below:

Sent Date: Sep-22-11 07:41:01 PDT

Dear jarmstrongwcr,

Hello,

I hope all is well. I received my package yesterday, however, every single one of the roaches were dead. Can you please send more or give me a refund?

Thanks,

– maydaypictures
______________________
Sent Date: Sep-22-11 08:09:22 PDT

Dear maydaypictures,

We can replace the order. I have added a copy of our live arrival guarantee policy. We require notification of the dead item with in hours of receipt. This way we ensure they have not set in a box in the heat for half a day.Its not very common that they die in transit, we lose less than 1% of what we send out.

“blah blah blah, shipping policy”

– jarmstrongwcr
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Sent Date: Sep-22-11 08:15:54 PDT

Dear jarmstrongwcr,

I’ve read your terms, however I was unable to notify you within the six hour period because:

a. I wasn’t expecting them to be delivered until today, and
b.I was unable to make it home form work until late last night.

They were stored in a room at 73 degrees before I was able to open them. They were dead when I did. Will you be replacing them?

Thanks,

– maydaypictures
______________________
Sent Date: Sep-22-11 08:28:03 PDT

Dear maydaypictures,

Yes w will replace them, they leave out beginning of the week.

– jarmstrongwcr
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Sep 22, 2011 at 10:34 AM

Dear jarmstrongwcr,

Thank you very much! Sorry about the trouble.

Thanks,

– maydaypictures
______________________

OK, so at this point I figured it was taken care of and that would be it. Well then, the person who received my bugs told me something very interesting:
______________________
Dear jarmstrongwcr,

Hello–

I was just informed by the person who received the bugs earlier this week at my house that the mailman had delivered them directly into the mailbox. Was there not a signature requested? Are you requesting a signature this time? I don’t think it’s a good idea to deliver bugs to a mailbox. Who knows how long they were in the mailbox before we realized the mail had been delivered? They should probably be signed over to someone who can immediately bring them inside. If this isn’t the way you run your shipping process, please let me know so I can leave a note on my mailbox for the mailman not to leave them in the mailbox.

Thanks!

– maydaypictures
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Sent Date: Sep-23-11 12:10:29 PDT

Dear maydaypictures,

Multiple Order Upgrades
Buy 2 packages- 2oz water crystals FREE
Buy 3 packages-get 100 more dubia roaches FREE
Buy 4 packages-Get 200 more dubia roaches FREE

At regular price, we follow this method. Buy 3 at regular price, we give you 100 free, buy 4 at regular price get 200 free.IF not regular priced, you get just the roaches.

– jarmstrongwcr
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Sent Date: Sep-23-11 12:38: PDT

Dear jarmstrongwcr,

I wasn’t asking about water crystals or free roaches. I was asking about your delivery stipulations.

-maydaypictures
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Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 9:27 AM

Dear maydaypictures,

Good Morning,
Thank you for your recent purchase with us, We understand that your Dubia roaches arrived dead.
We will replace the Dubia free of charge to you, however we do require that you cover the cost for a shipping label in accordance with our live arrival guarantee policy.
This policy is posted on every item on Ebay and posted on our websites shipping and delivery policy. Once you have completed the transaction, we will ship your feeders out on Monday.
You can complete the transaction for the shipping of your replacement by visiting the link provided below.
We thank your for entrusting us with your feeder needs and look forward to providing you with quality feeders for many years to come. To review full copy of our live guarantee policy you can visit the following link.

Live arrival guarantee
http://www.westcoastroaches.com/article.php?article=122

Complete the transaction by visiting the following link.
http://www.westcoastroaches.com/promos/replace.php

Copy and paste the link to your browsers address bar. If you have any questions feel free to contact us at. If you have problems we can also invoice you via paypal, just send us an email letting us know you would like an invoice.

Sincerely,
WestCoastRoaches.com

– jarmstrongwcr
______________________

What? Charge me shipping? I understand customers are responsible for shipping on replacement orders, but I’m not going to pay shipping for something directly related to a mstake made by him. So I send this:
______________________
Sep-29-11 09:22:37 PDT

Dear jarmstrongwcr,

Hello,

I have still received no response to my email. Either you replace the roaches I purchased for free, completely free, and require a signature, or remove me from your mailing list and expect to receive a bad feedback rating on Ebay. It is not my fault you didn’t require a signature for the delivery. I should not be held responsible for the shipping to replace them either.

Sorry for the sternness, but I can’t wait any longer and I keep receiving what seem like auto respond messages form you. I need the bugs.

Thanks,

Meredith
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Sep 29, 2011 at 11:38 AM

Dear maydaypictures,

We only require signature confirmation on the orders that go to places that have vast temperature swings, extreme heat or extreme cold. Our replacement procedures are detailed on the auction multiple times.If the feeders die, we replace them, but we require the buyer to pay only for the shipping. A signature confirmation does no good if nobody is present to receive them and they go back to a stiffing hot post office after riding in a mail truck all day. We are more than happy to replace the feeders, and even double the amount we send for your troubles, but we ask that you help us with the shipping. I should also mention that our policies state the time frame in which to contact us for the replacements. We can’t guarantee live delivery if they sit in a hot mailbox all day and get contacted the next day about it.Again I am totally willing to replace the entire order, and even overnight them to you, but we need you to meet us halfway as the buyers availability to receive the live items is beyond our control and directly effects the mortality of the feeders. There is no need for negative feedback as we are trying everything humanly possible to work with you. I hope that we can come to some type of agreement on getting your replacement order to you as quickly as possible.

– jarmstrongwcr
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Sep-29-11 09:57:17 PDT

Dear jarmstrongwcr,

I’m living in Fort Worth Texas where this year we have broken all sorts of records regarding record high heats! There was someone at the residence to receive the package. However, the mailman just put them in the mailbox. It makes no sense for you to expect I should’ve known you weren’t going to require a signature. You state specifically in your shipping policy that a signature would be required. I’ve bolded it below for you.

“Live delivery is guaranteed to area in the U.S. where temperatures at time of delivery are 85 degrees and below. If shipments are going to location that fit into this category a signature at delivery will be required to accept package. All packages that are not accepted with a signature at time of delivery, the shipment will returned to the local post office and held for pickup. All shipments returned to postal offices will need to be retrieved within 6 hours of delivery attempt.”

You broke your shipping policy. You need pay to reship. Simple as that. If you fix this issue, you can be assured I’ll buy more, so you’ll make up your loss in a few months.

Thanks,

Meredith
______________________
Sep-29-11 10:07:55 PDT

Dear maydaypictures,

Fine, I will replace them. They will shipp priority mail on Monday. Since you paid a lower rate on the first purchase.(11.50 not the regular price of 14.99) I will require a signature confirmation, and I will not be guaranteeing live delivery for the replacement.I will ship exactly 100 smalls without water crystals and without the plastic container. I will do this if you leave positive feedback on our Ebay listing before we ship the replacement.I don’t like being held over a barrel over feedback. Also I have provided the portion of the policy that states the time frame for contacting us when no signature confirmation is required.

You must contact us within 6 hours of receipt of any package to dispute and receive a replacement.
This is for all transaction regardless of weather condition, location or any other in which you did not meet.

– jarmstrongwcr
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Sep-29-11 11:11 AM

Dear jarmstrongwcr,

Let me get this straight. You broke your shipping policy, you’ve taken your time in responding to my emails even sending responses that were completely irrelevant to my questions, you’re planning to reship without even a container on the condition that I provide positive feedback BEFORE you ship…and you claim I’m holding YOU over a barrel? That is absolutely absurd.

Why in the hell would I want to receive a package full of roaches that are not contained? Furthermore, what makes you think I am dumb enough to provide positive feedback to you before I receive anything positive from you? Especially when you’ve point blank told me they’re not going to be guaranteed alive. I need some of whatever you are smoking, my friend.

How about this, forget about replacing the roaches. I wouldn’t want you to have to abide by your own shipping policies or actually provide the service that someone paid for. I am sorry I encountered you on Ebay in my hunt for a good provider of Dubia roaches for my Tokay.

Have a good day.

– maydaypictures
______________________

Here, I was pretty much infuriated. I couldn’t believe the nerve of this guy. Bad customer service is one of my biggest pet peeves. I decided to let it at that, then I went and left my feedback, just like i do for every other interaction I have on Ebay. Well, I’ve never left negative feedback before, so I was surprised to see the prompt Ebay was giving me after I left the feedback to open a case against the seller. I went ahead and filed a case, to which the seller pushed through to Ebay customer service before waiting the three day grace period, and Ebay immediately determined I was entitled to and gave me a refund. Unfortunately, I don’t think the seller was held responsible for the refund, as he states in his emails below, but nonetheless, he goes on to sending more emails to me making threats a what not. What an absolute ass.
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Sep-29-11 13:25:34 PDT

Dear maydaypictures,

Since i supply all the other sellers, I will be sure to let them know you are coming. They all have the very same policy since the use mine. Good luck on your quest.

– jarmstrongwcr
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Sent Date: Sep-29-11 13:47:12 PDT

Dear jarmstrongwcr,

So instead of just taking your loss and fixing your business practices for the next customer, you’re going to email and threaten me? Even more absurd and idiotic. If you actually believe you supply “all the other sellers” and it makes you feel better to threaten “warning” them about me, a customer who simply wanted to get what she paid for, you’re worse off in the head than I originally thought. By “all the other sellers”, are you talking about the 9 people who like your Facebook page? Guess your pull isn’t as large as you claim.

Ebay wouldn’t have given me a refund if you had been running your business properly. If you had followed your own shipping instructions, there wouldn’t have been a problem.

Good luck and just remember, good customer service goes along way–lies and bad customer service leads to no customers. No customers as in ZERO. Zero as in nine less than how many like you on the Facebook.

🙂

– maydaypictures
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Sep-29-11 03:19 PM

Dear maydaypictures,

LOL Ebay, Facebook, or our website is not the bulk of our business. We supply all the sellers on Ebay with roaches. They are our marketing force.They resell for us for their profits.We provide weekly shipments to them. SO your roaches will still come from the same place.If it makes you feel better to poke at our website and such feel free. Our ability to reach our markets does not depend on a website or a single customer. As for a loss, I lost nothing. The refund was issued by Ebay and was not deducted from us in anyway.We still got paid.As far as the negative feedback, it just shows that you did not read the policy. Everyone who sees that will know that.In a weeks time nobody will even see that remark.I hope you enjoy your refund and your weekend.

– jarmstrongwcr
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Thu, Sep 29, 2011 at 6:23 PM

Dear jarmstrongwcr,

The only thing you are right about is LOL.

Sounds like business is going SO great in the fact you have the time to try and argue and threaten a customer…after you already lost the case, might I remind you. I understand the policy you set forth, which includes the statement that a signature would be required for receipt. Maybe you should read it. If your blatent disregard for the policy you set forth is what caused me to need a replacement, then I should not be held responsible for shipping the replacement. There is a word for that–scam.

Probably, these sellers you are speaking of are just you. Good for you.
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Wow. I will never ever understand how any business or company, regardless of size or type, could be okay with treating a customer this way. It just makes no sense.

UPDATE ABOUT WEST COAST ROACHES
The owner of West Coast Roaches reached out to me after I posted this blog at the Fauna Classifieds on a thread where there was another complaint from a former customer. I’m glad to say after further consideration, the owner decided to replace my roaches completely for free. I received them and they were all alive.
You can view his response here.