Complaint Review: Dr. Bongs

On September 4th 2006 I decided to place an order with a website called Dr. Bongs. I had ordered from them eariler in the summer and encountered no problems and assumed they were a great website.

So I ordered two items one was a bong and the other was a pipe as described below from the website:

Big Yellow
Height 42cm approx
Price: 39.95 or $63.92 Canadian
Exotic, eastern, traditional yet post modern, Big yellow gives big bong hits. Not for the timid. Big Yellow Ref: TS-BY
Aprrox 39cm high. Big beautiful bong, big hits, big highs, Big Yellow.

Frog Pipe Ref: frog/1
13cm Approx
Price: 9.95 or $15.92 Canadian
Colour changing glass pipe. Hand made and very beautiful
Hand made, colour changing glass pipe with frog decoration

These items came to a total of 55.85 or 120.70 Canadian

After placing my order I waited to receive the email which tells you an order number and when your items are shipped. This never came first nor last.

So the wait began. One month quickly turned into three and I became more and more nervous. I found out that I missed the boat on getting my credit card company to get my money back for me. 90 days or less they told me.

So I began emailing them from the three addresses I had:

helpdesk@drbongs.com
customerservice@drbongs.com
helpdesk@spiritualgate.com

And I never received any response to my repeated emails. One short, distressed email I sent did get a reponse requesting more details, which I quickly sent out and heard nothing after that.

Then when the 7 month mark had passed I wrote a long email detailed all information and how I hope this matter could be resolved.

And I received an answer, quickly this time, though it was short. It said they would send me out another package. And that was pretty much it. No date on when or anything.

Also it was another email address that sent out the message:

spiritualgate@btinternet.com

So I sent back another email asking for tracking information, when it would be sent, etc. I've waited three weeks since then and gotten no answer on even if they sent anything out at all.

I also found out they have a thawte authentic site button on their site, but now when you click it this message comes up:

[ organization ] Darel Internet Trading
[ domain ] www.drbongs.com
[ country ] Great Britain
[ current status ] Expired
[ valid from ] 2002.03.15
[ valid until ] 2004.03.14

All over their site they tell customers that if any issue arises they will fix it and they also say that it should only take 7 - 10 business days to receive an item.

This site is full of lies and they don't care about customers. Not one email I sent to these people was rude or angry. All I wanted was what I ordered or a refund.

Don't ever put your faith in this site. They lie and mislead you!! This company has been the only online company that has ever ripped me off. I am very disappointed and upset!!!!!

Kimberly
Stephenville
Canada