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crimsonrat

Might Stick Around
Jun 3, 2014
67
0
Disclaimer: I hate badmouthing places for the most part, because I believe they provide a valuable service to myself and others, but this stuff aint right.
On the 6th, I saw where paylesspipes.com had some Esoterica stuff in, so I decided to grab a bag and 2 tins of Penzance. People who know me will know I don't care for lat blends, but I pick this stuff up as either trade fodder or gift it away. I don't sell it on eBay and crap like that.
After not seeing a shipment notification yesterday (the 8th), I decided to call. The guy on the other end let me know that they did not ship my order, but it was still there, because they were not able to verify me (first time customer). They didn't call or email me all day on the 6th, 7th, or 8th to let me know where my $80 was. I asked how I could prove who I was: various licenses, etc..., and he later(on the 9th) let me know they use a third party company named Veritas that uses public records to verify people. I go by my middle name, which will never show up on public records. He assured me my shipment was still there. He told me he would contact his manager to go forward with the appropriate steps, and verified my email to let me know.
I hear nothing all day, so I decided to call. The guy tells me they need my full legal name to verify who I am. I ask again if they are sending it to a third party, and he says no, then relents and says it is done in-house by veritas. I ask if they own veritas, to which he replied, no. Yup, third party. All of a sudden he "gets an email" from his boss saying that my shipment is no longer there. Poof. 3 minutes and it disappears, apparently.
Only once did he apologize, and only to say: "I hope to hear from you again." Nah, man, I think you already know the answer to that, I replied.
Do I understand that companies need to protect themselves? Absolutely. Should I have been notified somewhere that they were going to send my information elsewhere? Legally, I don't know, but morally, I think so. I've been the victim of a "public records check" fubar before(job related). Should I have been notified at least sometime during the day on the 7th or 8th? I think so. Is this likely a few and far between thing that happened at this place? I don't know and I won't find out. They didn't give enough of a damn to call/email me to let me know what was going on, so I don't give enough of a damn to try again.

 

crimsonrat

Might Stick Around
Jun 3, 2014
67
0
He said it was refunded, but it has not shown up yet. If it doesn't: http://www.shitsenders.com/order/

 

rickpal14

Lifer
Jun 9, 2011
1,432
2
When I dealt with them in the past it was a one man operation. He never verified anything and does not now; probably kept your order for a favorite customer. Hope you used a method which will reimburse you.
Paylesspipes used to be located in New Orleans but Ed retired a year or so ago and now the operation is located in Nebraska.

 

mrenglish

Lifer
Dec 25, 2010
2,220
72
Columbus, Ohio
It can take longer for the credit to show up, depending on the banks it could be a week or more. They are much faster at taking money than returning it. Sorry you had a bad experience with them, it tends to leave a bad taste.

 

weezell

Lifer
Oct 12, 2011
13,653
49,163
They are much faster at taking money than returning it.
The retailer can refund back to your card, hand you the refund slip, BUT...the BANK may take a week or more to return back to your account...

 

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,569
15,216
SE PA USA
So...have there been any recent positive experiences with payless?
3820


 

zitotczito

Lifer
Aug 12, 2014
1,128
175
I purchased from them 3 months ago(my only ever purchase) and all went well. Sorry you had such a problem from the. I had a couple other etailer's do that to me and after the hassle and getting the refunds, I have of course never considered purchasing from them again. Mistakes I can understand, stuff happens but lously customer service really trips my trigger as well as precharging my CC even before they know the product is actually in stock.

 

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,569
15,216
SE PA USA
Chances are you possibly used your middle name instead of the name that is on the cred....
Chances are he was handing you a pile of cow dung. In the end, he damaged his business to a much greater degree than just the crap he put you through. Perhaps there's some solace in that, except that he will probably never realize, once the budiness fails, where it all went wrong.

 

JimInks

Sultan of Smoke
Aug 31, 2012
60,847
553,761
I've seen several complaints about them in various forums now. This is the worst yet. Thanks for letting us know. I, too, had been promised an order twice, and had it canceled, but I had no money issues with them. I also will not give them another chance.

 

crimsonrat

Might Stick Around
Jun 3, 2014
67
0
Eh, hopefully it's isolated to me. No, this has never happened before. I place my order at smokingpipes, thepipeguys, etc... using my middle name, but my cc info that I put in the billing section is correct and is legal. They had no issues charging the card. Saying that, is it my fault that I was not contacted when there was a problem? Absolutely not.

 

nurseman

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 8, 2014
187
2
There were a few Scam sites in the SLR camera world that would sell you a Nikon for $100 less than usual ... they would call you the next day to " verify your credit card " but what they really did was attempt to sell you massively upcharged extras . In my case they tried to sell me a $100 battery claiming it does not come with one ( untrue) . When you dont buy the extra's the camera was suddenly " out of stock" . Dont think that was the case with you but who knows .

 

pipebaum81

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 23, 2014
669
235
On the 6th, I saw where paylesspipes.com had some Esoterica stuff in, so I decided to grab a bag and 2 tins of Penzance
On a whole other note I wonder if they had Penzance left to fulfill your order. Checking back on the site they are not showing any right now. PipesandCigars states "It's so popular that when we receive it, it's literally all sold within an hour." We all know how popular the stuff is. If this was the case they should have contacted you informing you of the sad news.
Instead they may have passed the buck and blamed the third party. Again I quote PipesandCigars website "As a part of meeting that commitment, we use a non-affiliated third party age and identity verification company, Veratad Technologies, LLC, to assure that you are of legal age to purchase our products and are who you say you are"
Age verification is an indusrty standard. It protects the retailer and supposedly protects the minor.
j/B

 
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