Complaint Review: LONE STAR DEALS

I was thrilled to get an offer for some Juicy Couture, through a mailing list I had signed up for. I contacted the seller and asked him for some Photo's of the merchandise. He assured me that they were wonderful tops and he had seen them sell for $70 on eBay. He said that he had no photo's of the stock. This was a lie. He had been selling the merchandise himself on eBay, under user ID lone_star_deals. He had photos all the time of the stock. I only found this out when things went wrong.

Assured that these were the HOT items,, I purchased 150 of them for a total of $1350. I paid him immediately through Paypal. I received the stock, and upon opening the box, I contacted him and asked him again , if these were firsts? He assured me that they were. They were not.

When I wrote and told him my dissatisfaction, he wrote back , and only then did he state that ALL SALES WERE FINAL.

I went to the website where I found the intial offer and wrote on the forum they have. I asked questions about the company. No one knew anything about them. On asking about the deal I had made, most of the wholesalers on the site claimed that they would have taken the goods back and given me a full refund.

After much pressure Sean made an offer to take them back at a 25% restocking fee, because he had no faith that I had personally damaged the goods. This is proposterous. I have links on the internet to show the quality of the goods purchased. When we accepted the offer 2 days later, he recanted on his offer. The reason being was that I had caused his business irrepairable harm. I did nothing but state my case. He did his own business harm by not standing by what he sold.

He made many claims as to the 'greatness' of the stock. He had such faith in the merchandise. He faith never stood by his stock.

Here are some of the links to the rejects I was sold:

navy top with missing laces :
http://imageshack.us/images06/loops missing from rings.jpg

red top with missing laces:
http://imageshack.us/images06/missing loop top on.jpg

what it should look like:
http://imageshack.us/images06/correct looping detail.jpg

missing buttons on black top:
http://imageshack.us/images06/missing button.jpg

missing buttons on red tops:
http://imageshack.us/images06/missing buttons.jpg

missing sleeves:
http://imageshack.us/images06/defective sleeves.jpg

holes:
http://imageshack.us/images06/holes.jpg

misaligned labels:
http://imageshack.us/images06/labels mispositioned.jpg

own size marking;
http://imageshack.us/images06/resized with marker.jpg

own sizing:
http://imageshack.us/images06/sizing in marker pen.jpg

threads;
http://imageshack.us/images06/threads.jpg

labels that extend beyond the edge of top:
http://imageshack.us/images06/label stitched above neckline.jpg

sample stock:
http://imageshack.us/images06/sample garments.jpg

I even offered to pay the shipping for the goods to be returned, so that he would have been no worse off.

He never did offer to resell the stock at the same price. His first offer to me after refusing to take back the stock, was to offer me $4 per top , as he had a customer to take them all. I was sold these at $8.23. He made this offer and I refused to take it. This offer was made a week after I complained. Only when he realized that his company was being reported did he say that he would relist them, and try sell them to a third party, but on condition that I removed all the threads I had posted.

Here are some of the emails that passed , with Sean offering to take back the merchandise.

Kim -
I have seen your postings and I have seriously considered posting dozens of photographs and positive feedbacks, but that really does not get us anywhere. I have plenty of documentation and samples that will easily show the quality of the tops that were sold to you and others, as well as the original distribution source that will attest to the authenticity, etc.

I have previously offered to resell these tops on your behalf for the same price you paid. You have refused. So I am going to make one final offer to you -
I will allow you to return the tops and refund your money less a 25% restocking fee. We will have to carefully sort and inspect these tops. The restocking fee is appropriate as I currently have very little confidence that the tops you return will be in the same condition as we sent them to you.

As I mentioned before, we try to maintain and impeccable reputation so this offer is predicated upon your recantment of the statements given and Paypal and who ever else you may have contacted. The only reason that I am even extending this offer is to maintain our integrity, honor and reputation. It has absolutely nothing to do with the allegations that you have been spreading around. I will, however, address one of the more ridiculous claims - The clear plastic bags that a few of the tops are wrapped in were added after the tops came in. We used them to protect tops that were mailed ... That fact that the bags were made in Hong King is meaningless.

Sincerely
Sean Arnold
Lone Star Deals


from Lone star deals and Sean Arnold

Sean,

You may as well answer my emails or send your reply's to Kim with a CC to myself. All correspondence regarding this transaction unfortunately crosses my desk anyway since I am the funding source of many of Kim's purchases.

Quite honestly, this transaction seems to be heading down a loose-loose path. As an observer in this debacle, it appears that you may be the one receiving the biggest hit against your "impeccable reputation". As I mentioned in the other email that I wrote to you, we're not dealing with a large sum of money here. It is time to sort this out fairly, and move on with life.

I can assure you that in spite of your insulting accusation that you have "very little confidence that the tops you return will be in the same condition as we sent them to you", these tops are in exactly the same condition that you sent them, and will be returned as such. By making such a statement, one might presume you will try to make it a point to lay claim that the condition of the tops has deteriorated since Kim has had them.

Once again, as I pointed out in my last email, Kim was very interested in having these tops for the Christmas selling season. Unfortunately, they do not meet her expectations and quality standards.

There was no mention of "All sales are final" at any time prior to Kim purchasing this lot of Juicy Couture tops from you. I believe you brought the "All sales are final" position in to play after Kim had complained to you about her concerns with the quality of the tops on her second or third contact with you after receiving them. We do not deal with "All sales are final" vendors.

Its time to do the right thing. The only acceptable offer I can think of is a refund. If you are confident in the quality of these tops, that shouldn't be a problem. Furthermore, the longer this drags on, the more difficult it will become to recant any of the statements previously made with any level of believability.

Here is my proposal: Kim will return the tops to you in the same condition as she received them. I believe the price she paid with shipping was $1,350.00. Kim estimates it will cost around $50 in shipping costs to return them, bringing the total monies involved to $1,400.00. We will return the garments to you C.O.D. for the amount of $1,050.00, payable in the form of a cashiers check or money order. (after all, Kim paid for the goods up front, sight unseen, you can do the same) Upon confirmation of payment, Kim will post the outcome of this refunding process.

I trust we will be able expedite the closure of this transaction. The longer this drags on, the more ridiculous it undoubtedly will become.

Regards,

Craig Filion

From: Lone Star Deals

Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 9:57 AM
Subject: Re: Juicy Couture


Craig and Kim -

Although we adamantly disagree with you over the quality of the tops, we have made three different settlement offers to you. You have refused all of them. In fact, "your proposal" below is the same refund offer that I made to you a couple of days ago. Instead of taking that offer you decided to post my letter so that you could add more ridicule and accusations.

Your postings have already caused irreparable damage. There is no longer a satisfactory solution for both of us. We are finished communicating with you and are putting this sad chapter behind us. I really do wish you the best of luck with your sales and truly believe that if you would just try to sell these tops, you would be surprised at how well they are received and how happy buyers are to have them.

Sincerely,
Sean Arnold
Lone Star Deals


To: Lone Star Deals
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 10:37 AM
Subject: Re: Juicy Couture


Sean,

I'm not sure it would be good business to bail out on this transaction just yet.

Apparently you didn't do the math. We have essentially accepted your last offer. Kim paid you $1,350.00 including shipping to receive these Juicy Couture tops. Add $50 to that number for shipping the tops back to you and the number now becomes $1,400.00. $1,400.00 less 25% equals $1,050.00. What part of that didn't you understand?

I was unaware that Kim posted that last email. In asking her why, she wanted to get an indication from other members of the forum if they thought your offer was fair.

I can understand the restocking fee as I have gone through that with one of my suppliers recently. I had over purchased approximately $5,000 worth of materials for a project. The restock fee cost me $1,250.00.

The only caveat to accepting your offer was that the tops would be shipped back to you C.O.D. and the amount involved would include factoring the round trip shipping costs of $100.00. Since the tops were purchased in good faith, and paid for sight unseen, it seems only fair that the return should handled in the same manner.

Regards,

Craig





Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2003 10:22 AM
Subject: Fw: Juicy Couture


Sean,

I am taking your lack of reply to this email, as your reply, and will proceed as I see fit to try to recover the monies involved.

One thing we will do, is to share with the rest of the internet community the result of this transaction and your lack of commitment to follow through with your last offer.


Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2003 10:28 AM
Subject: Fw: Juicy Couture


Kim,

Post this string of emails so that other may be aware of Sean's "impeccable reputation", and willingness to satisfactorily resolve a problem with his product. Or, should I say, lack thereof.

I would like to see this resolved with Sean Arnold taking back the rejects he sold me. The way he has handled this gives the industry a bad name.

Kim
BOTHELL, Washington
U.S.A.