Complaint Review: Cat's Meow - Internet

Unfortunately, my report is just like the others. In sum, I went online to order one Cat's Meow. The ordering process was very confusing. On one page, you click if you want to order. On another page, they ask how many you'd like. Then on the next page, they ask if you want the deluxe version for a few dollars more. After that, your credit card gets charged without your being able to review it. You can review your purchase only after they charge you! That's how I discovered I wasn't charged the $19.99 I had intended to spend - I was charged almost $100! 

There is no email contact on their site - just a form you fill out. When I filled it out, I got a message back saying that my order had not yet been processed. So I tried calling. The woman with whom I spoke said the same thing and encouraged me to call back in the morning. I called my credit card company to see if they could somehow refuse payment, but they said the order had not gone through yet.

Well, the next morning, the order did go through and my card was charged the nearly $100 amount. I called Cat's Meow right away. The lady with whom I spoke told me she would cancel the order and told me to just return the items when they got to my house. I told her to go ahead and do so. 

I then went online to check the website to see what the return process would entail. On the website, it said I would still get charged a processing and handling fee - which, according to my receipt, was over $30! At that point, I found this website and then got very nervous about the other stories I read because I was feeling like this entire company was engaging in some very deceptive practices.

I called Cat's Meow back. This time, I got a very hostile customer service representative. I wish I would have caught her name because I would post it here. I told her my situation and said I would like to speak with someone in charge about the misleading website. She told me, "Ma'am, you are speaking with her." So I said, "You mean you don't have someone who is above you?" And she said, "Yes, but I'm not going to let you speak with him because I can take your report myself." I told her that wasn't acceptable to me and that I wanted to speak with her manager.

She got really angry with me, refused to do so, and then told me she didn't know what my problem was because her records showed that they were issuing my credit card a full refund. I again explained to her that I merely wanted to speak with someone in charge because they needed to know that their website was misleading. I also told her I wasn't the only one with this problem and that there was an entire website filled with complaints. I told her I felt like I was being ripped off and I needed to speak with a manager. She again refused and kept repeating that she could take my complaint over the phone. Once she realized I wasn't letting up, she finally slammed the phone down and got her supervisor. 

The supervisor's name was Mike. He was pleasant enough on the phone and allowed me to explain my situation to him. He assurred me that I would be given a full refund and that I wouldn't have to pay the processing and shipping fees or anything else for that matter. He just told me to refuse delivery of the packages and that the delivery guy would send them back to Cat's Meow without any problems. 

Next, I told him about the misleading and deceptive pages on their website. He told me he knew it was a problem and that they tried re-wording the pages to make it less confusing for people, but no matter what they did people still got confused. I told him about this website and that they should probably look into it and into a different format for the website because a lot of people were unhappy with the tactics they were using. 

Anyway, I am going to wait and see if I truly receive a full refund. I am also going to write to the company with a more formal complaint. I'm also going to let them know how I was treated by their nasty customer service representative. Hopefully they will do the right thing by me. 

I honestly don't know why it is so difficult for them to make their ordering process more straight forward. Plenty of other websites do that without any trouble. I truly believe this company is using deceptive practices to try to get more money from people. I will not ever buy anything from them again, and I will be encouraging everyone else to do the same. There are plenty of You Tube videos out there with the toy on it, so I may go and post comments about the deceptive practices there as well. People need to know this company is problematic.