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Summitsource.com - Sky MarketingSummit Source - Sky Marketing Ripoff scam cancellation fee hidden bandit snare Fort Wayne Indiana
I used the summitsource.com web site to place an order for a satellite dish for my RV. I chose this merchant because their site stated that they had been in business for over twenty years, they had a good price on the item and most importantly, because their policy stated that orders are usually processed and shipped "same day" if received before 2:00PM EST. I needed this within a week for a planned trip so this was the determing factor.
So far, so good. I immediately received email order confirmation. Four days later I decided to call and check on the status and was informed that they would investigate and email me the status. An hour later I was emailed that they had "just received" my order and that it would be shipped that day. Shortly thereafter I received another email informing me that the item was "temporarily out of stock" and that they would have to have it drop shipped on me by the manufacturer. It further stated that there would be "at least" an additional 8 days of time required by the manufacturer.
I immediately emailed them back that this was too late for my situation and that I would like to cancel the order and purchase the item locally and asked that they please release the authorization for $241.99 that they had placed on my credit card.
They following day I learned from another email that I would be charged a 15% restocking fee if I cancelled my order because it was a "Special Order Item". Nothing I had seen while ordering this item indicated that it was out of stock or that is was a special order item. I also learned that they had charged my credit card for the full amount AFTER I cancelled the order.
They want to charge a restocking fee for an item they never stocked? In my opinion this is nothing more than a snare for unsuspecting consumers. I would expect a cancellation rate at or approaching 100% by consumers expecting same day shipping (this is expressed in bold and enlarged type on the site) when placing orders and only after they are locked in being told that the order won't be filled for weeks. That's the scam. They can make 15% any time they aggrivate a customer enough to cancel an order. In my opinion they would rather do this than fill orders and they likely make a higher profit margin since the cost of goods sold is zero.
I have placed this matter in dispute with my bank and hopefully this internet bandit will not be rewarded for this scam.
William
Virginia Beach, Virginia
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Alex
Fort Wayne,Indiana,
U.S.A.
An online consumer's typical failure to communicate
#2REBUTTAL Owner of company
Fri, March 26, 2004
We were sorry to be informed of William's unpleased opinion of his transaction with our company. As stated in his review we have been in business for over twenty years, and have done so by offering great quality product to our customers at a very competitive price. To do so we must continue to keep our cost of doing business as low as possible. We have found an area where our company must control looses do to the cancellation of orders on a mere whim. The high costs of personnel handling have forced us to institute and order cancellation fee. As stated in his review, we are not charging him a restocking fee or any fee based on the status in which the order was placed. The charge is a simple and clear order cancellation fee, which is clearly stated in red at our terms and conditions page. He made no attempt to contact us to confirm the inventory status of this product prior to his placing the order.
Our orders received and paid for before 2:00PM EST are usually shipped the same day on all in-stock items. We stock most every item listed on our website on a daily basis, but we cannot guarantee that every item listed on the website is available to ship in any quantity on every business day of the year. We have had considerably greater than average number of orders for the product he purchased, and were simply out of stock. If this customer needed the product on a very short time span, an attempt to contact us would have informed him that we were out of stock and the expected delivery time for the product.
We have thousands of very satisfied customers across the country and overseas. This issue is a rare and unfortunate occurrence that we do not have any control over.
CEO
Summit Source
www.summitsource.com