It's currently April 11, 2012, and my wedding is on April 21, 2012. A mere 10 days away.
I ordered $262.17 worth of wedding favors from ImpressivePersonalization.com on March 9, which is when I also received my confirmation email, and my bank account was charged by the next morning.
Oh wait - I forgot. My bank account was actually charged twice that morning. I, of course, immediately contacted Impressive Personalization and was assured it was no big deal. This was the email I received back from them, in a prompt manner, I might add: "We have checked our record and you have only been charged once. However, with debit cards, they sometimes do show up as one charge and one authorization and the authorization will automatically fall off within 1-2 business days. Therefore the duplicate charge you see should fall off on Monday and Tuesday. We have checked that there's no error on our end. We will also make a call to confirm that this is the case on Monday when the bank is open.
Regards,
Ricky
Impressive Personalization"
Thankfully my bank took one of the charges off so that was resolved and I assumed it was all some fluke within the system. And before I go any further, let me say it's taking all the self control I have to not make an immature joke about how the company should really be called "Unimpressive Impersonalization." Am I right? Sorry. Moving on with the real issue here.
Even though I was led to believe my order would not only be shipped with 7 to 10 business days, but DELIVERED within that time frame, on March 28, 19 days after placing the order and being charged for it, I began to worry and contacted the company again. I was extremely polite and nonchalant despite the worries I was feeling inside. I received this response, again, very promptly: "The order is in processing and will be shipping from Canada. It will be there before 4/21. Thanks."
Phew. I felt relieved.
Then, on April 9, exactly a month after placing the order, I still hadn't received it and the tracking link indicated it hadn't even been shipped yet, I sent another email that started with "Hello! I hate to nag..." about the status of my order. I asked if there was anything I could do to expedite the process and again, reminded whoever was reading (or not reading, for all I know) that my wedding was coming up in less than two weeks. I got no reply.
I sent another email on April 10 after I had clicked the link that shows you the status of the shipping on your order. At the top of the page, it said "This order has been cancelled." I certainly never cancelled it or took any action even remotely close to cancelling it. So I sent another email asking someone to contact me immediately so we could straighten everything out. Again, no reply.
Today, April 11, 2012, I sent another email. I wanted to be forceful without sounding like a complete jerk so I said I still wanted the favors and I understood if they wouldn't be here in time, but that I needed to know either way so I could make other arrangements for favors and get a refund if necessary. I also mentioned that if no one got back to me, I would need to look into legal action if it came to that, although that was not what I wanted.
After consulting some coworkers, they urged me to Google this company, and sure enough, there are several other reports from people all experiencing the same issues as I am, and all have been fairly recent, as well. So, I sent yet another email, telling whoever saw it that I was aware of these claims and I did in fact want to officially cancel my order and demanded a refund. Not so surprisingly, I have not received a response yet.
I also forgot to mention I tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to contact the company by phone and not only did no one ever answer, there's no way to leave a voicemail.
I have every intention of contacting the California Attorney General's office in addition to taking several other steps to stop this sad individual (or individuals) from doing this to other innocent people trying to support a business in good faith. While I've accepted I may never get my money back, I hope others see this before they make the same mistake.
And in the unlikely event that someone from Impressive Personalization sees this, I just wanted to say that I hope you used my money to feed your family or do something else as equally important, because you obviously need it more than I do. That amount of money is significant for a person like me on a limited budget, but it won't bankrupt me or ruin my life savings and I won't lose sleep at night over it. Regardless of your motivation, you are certainly a horrible business person, but most importantly - you are a thief and a coward. As you sow, so shall you reap.