Complaint Review: Abc Distributing - Miami Florida

On December 6, 2005 I received one of the promotional emails abc distributing sends out regarding some items available for purchase on sale. According to the promotional email, there was still time to order holiday gifts. I placed an order the same day, within two hours of receiving the aforementioned email. My order was processed, the items were tagged as being in stock and my money was accepted.

On December 18, 2005 I logged into my account online to check on the status of my order and saw that my order was marked as shipped USPS Parcel Post on December 14, 2005 and was given a tracking number. I used the tracking number at the USPS website and the package wasn't able to be found. I assumed that the tracking information had simply not made it to the site yet and waited another two days. On December 20, 2005 I logged back into the abc website and the date of shipping was changed to December 19, 2005 and the tracking number remained the same. Again, USPS had no record of the item being shipped.

I waited for the package to arrive, expecting it to come before December 25, 2005, as it was Christmas presents. When it did not arrive by Tuesday, December 27, 2005, I made a phone call to the USPS regarding the package. It was explained to me that the tracking number I was given to track my package was not a valid tracking number for the USPS.

At this point I called abc's customer service phone number, a long distance call for me. I sat on hold for 40 minutes waiting to speak to a customer service agent. Unfortunately I did not think to write down the name of the operator that answered the phone, but from the very moment she answered the phone she was rude. Perhaps she was overworked, but regardless of the reason, she made it very clear she wasn't interested in assisting me. I explained the situation to her and her first response was that she'd have to put in a request for more information and someone else would get back to me.

I asked her to help me understand the reason why the package wasn't even shipped until 6 days before it needed to be available to me, and why it took 13 days to process the order, but her only response was that it wasn't abc's fault that the post office hadn't delivered it yet. I asked to speak to her manager.

After being on hold for approximately 10 minutes, a supervisor answered the line. I explained the situation to her and she informed me that it takes a minimum of 10 processing days for a package to be shipped out. I asked why then they would have sent me that email claiming that I could still order holiday presents and she was unable to give me any sort of explanation other than to continue to tell me that the processing time had been normal. She then explained that the package cannot have a tracer put on it until it has been missing for 21 days.

I waited until January 9, 2006, 21 days after the package had allegedly been shipped and made yet another long distance phone call to abc's customer service line. I waited on hold for 30 minutes and Danielle answered the line. I explained that I was looking for a missing package and she looked up my information. She explained that the tracer couldn't be placed until 21 *business* days after the package had been shipped.

Because the last rep was unable to assist me, I assumed that this rep would be unable to, so I said that I would need to speak to a manager because I wasn't willing to wait that long to find my package. She began to snap at me that I didn't have any reason to speak to her manager. She immediately "put a tracer" on my package (a service I had been told twice wasn't able to be done until 21 days had passed).

At no point had anyone explained to me that a "tracer" was just a fancy way to say they were mailing me the paperwork to send back to them to have my money refunded.

I didn't recieve an apology, much less any admitance that abc had any fault in misrepresenting their shipping times or the loss of my package. No one is willing to figure out why I had a bogus tracking number or why I had two separate shipping dates in my status information online. I was treated rudely and my situation has not yet improved. I'm very disappointed.

Deborah

Thonotosassa, Florida
U.S.A.