Personalized for Baby This company received my payment via PayPal 1 day after my order, and I have yet to receive my item. Does not respond to phone or e-mail messages. I am dismayed to find the number of complaints, Stockbridge, Georgia
I ordered a personalized bookshelf for my daughter from Personalized For Baby (via personalizedforbaby.com) on January 18, 2011. I received an order confirmation e-mail immediately. I paid via PayPal, and the amount of the shelf plus shipping ($106.45) was deducted from my checking account the following day. The website had indicated that the item would take 2-3 weeks before it shipped and then 3-4 weeks for shipment.
I became concerned when after 3 1/2 weeks, I did not receive a shipment notice. I sent an e-mail to the address listed on their website for customer service, and received no response. After 2 more weeks, I sent another e-mail. Still no response. After waiting about a week for a response to my 2nd e-mail, I called the customer service phone number on the website. A voicemail message picked up immediately and said all calls would be responded to within 24 hours. That was 2 days ago, and I have had no response. I called again today and left a message indicating that I was becoming very suspicious of the legitimacy of their company, because nobody returns my e-mails or calls. I would not mind if the personalization was just taking a few weeks, but the fact that nobody responds is getting very suspicious and disturbing.
I then did what perhaps I should do before every internet transaction....I did a Google search for "personalized for baby and complaints". I was dismayed to find numerous complaints of exactly the same problem dating back to 2007 on multiple different websites. I can't believe that this company is still able to work with PayPal and Yahoo Marketplace with this large number of unfulfilled orders. They have my money at this point, so I'm going to do everything I can to either get the bookshelf, or my money back. I've started the process with PayPal which begins by sending a message to the seller through PayPal, so we'll see how that goes.
I guess I have been a blissfully naive internet consumer up until now....for years I've shopped on the internet and never had a situation like this. I do generally use PayPal when I'm able to so that I can limit who has my credit card information...in this case, I'm glad I did that since I'd feel even worse if this potential scam artist had my credit card number. I hope PayPal is able to help me resolve this situation.
If I ever do receive the shelf, or a refund, I'll update this.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
KP
Tampa,Florida,
USA
resolution
#2Author of original report
Thu, March 03, 2011
Personalized for Baby refunded my money via PayPal. They never did return my phone calls or my e-mails, but when I filed a dispute with PayPal, they issued a refund without any additional explanation. There was no attempt to contact me and try to get me the item I ordered. I still have no idea why I didn't receive my item, or what would have happened if I hadn't ordered through PayPal and had to try to go through my credit card company to get my money back. I am very pleased with how rapidly PayPal resolved the issue, but no way will I ever order from Personalized for Baby again.
How weird is it that I've been trying to find out what is going on with my order for weeks, with no response, but when PayPal contacted them...they just returned the money? Based upon many of the complaints I've read online, I might not have accepted it and demanded my money back if they told me the item was going to be delivered soon....because that seemed to be a delay tactic they used on some of the people who were still waiting for their order after 4+ months. BUT, I must say I was surprised that they didn't even try to pretend that they were making this personalized item for my daughter or planning on delivering it to me at some point.
At minimum they are incredibly unprofessional and perhaps just incapable of delivering upon what they are selling on their website due to overwhelming demand, personal problems, outside vendors, or some other explanation that I never received. At most sinister, they are stealing people's money without any intention of sending the ordered item and only responding to those customers who are persistent enough to follow up REPEATEDLY (and only remedy the situation after you pursue official measures (i.e. filing a dispute)). Either way, not a company I want to order from in the future!