The following is the sequence of events with regard to my horrible experience ordering gymnastic rings from Tyler Hass, www.ringtraining.com, and Power Athletes LLC.
Sunday 20th May 2012
I placed an order for one set of EXF Rings Pro on Sun May 20 04:29:15 2012 (Pacific time), Order Number: 39383, ShopSite Transaction ID: 49776-1337488151.
As I needed the gymnastic rings urgently for my travel, I wrote on the order form the following comment:
IMPORTANT - Please ship using courier service (for example Fedex, DHL etc). I
need these urgently for my travel (within 10 days). Will pay for the courier
service. Thanks!
And just in case he misses it, I wrote the following instructions again on the Ordering Instructions section: Please ship to me using courier service (for example, Fedex, DHL etc). I need
these urgently for my travel! Thanks! I am willing to pay for the courier
service accordingly.
Monday 21st May 2012
Tyler Hass replied on Monday 21st May 2012 with the following note: I saw your note about the shipping. Do you have a UPS account number we can bill to? If not, I can add the charges to your card. I would estimate it will be between $60 and $80, but I will need to get a formal quote to be sure.
Wednesday 23rd May 2012
I was glad that the order was acted upon so quickly after one day of waiting. So I waited for his quotation from UPS. After 2 more emails to Tyler to ask for his UPS quotation again, his reply finally came on the 23rd May 2012 despite the urgency.
Tyler wrote, I'm sorry for the delay. I just received the price quotes for shipping to Singapore. Of the couriers, UPS was the cheapest at $121. USPS standard shipping takes 2-3 weeks and costs $25. USPS Priority takes 7-12 days and costs $46. Please let me know which option you prefer and I will ship it today.
On receiving his reply, I wrote him immediately, saying that I will now purchase 2 sets of EXF Rings Pro instead, and that I wanted to ship via UPS courier. My reasoning was, since I'm paying UPS courier, I might as well buy 2 sets one off.
Thursday 24th May 2012
Tyler replied on Thurdays 24th May 2012, For 2 sets of rings, the shipping cost is $196. Since you already paid $25, it is $171. And the extra set of rings is $95, so the total extra cost is $266. If you can send that via PayPal, it would be great. My account is tyler at powerathletesmag.com.
Readers would have noted that I needed my rings within 10 days from the day of order (by 30th May 2012). As it was already Thursday, I chose to use UPS courier at USD$196 (quoted by Tyler Hass) hoping that he would honor his word to ship out immediately. Money was sent to him via Paypal within minutes of receiving Tyler's email.
Friday 25th May 2012
Eventually, Tyler replied on Friday 25th May 2012 with the following email, I checked with my warehouse and it will ship out today. You will receive an e-mail with a tracking number as soon as it ships out.
So according to Tyler's word, he would ship out my urgent order on 25th May 2012 using UPS courier. I would be able to receive the order in time if he would keep his word.
Fast forward to Tues 29th May 2012.
First Problem is: Tyler Hass lacks integrity when it comes to promising something to a customer. He had promised earlier, I checked with my warehouse and it will ship out today (25th May 2012)."
Here, Tyler lied about shipping my order out on Friday 25th May 2012. He finally shipped out my order NEXT WEEK, on Tuesday 29th May 2012. And he used UPS international expedited which would take at least 3 to 5 business days to arrive in Singapore!
Why would he make me waste my money (USD$196) on UPS courier knowing that the order would never arrive on time (within 10 days of my order)? He could have refunded my money (USD$196), apologized about the delay, and shipped my order using a more economical method.
He made me pay USD$196 for UPS courier international expedited (which was more than the cost of the 2 sets of ring), sent it out 9 days after my initial order, and all this while knowing that I needed the products within 10 days of my order, and that the order would arrive well AFTER the deadline.
This is horrendous customer service at best, and a probable ripoff if I may add.
Second problem.
I felt USD$196 (SGD$252.60) was a little too high a quote from UPS, so I checked with UPS for a quote for courier service via international expedited for my parcel. UPS replied with an official email that the estimated freight charges are $220.54 SGD under expedited service. That was more than SGD$30 difference from what I had to pay Tyler.
In view of the discrepancy, I wrote Tyler twice for a copy of the invoice on the actual amount paid by him for the courier service. Up until today he has refused to furnish me with a copy of the UPS invoice.
Could it be that he might have something to hide with regard to the UPS quote he gave me?
As of today 31st May 2012 (more than 10 days after placing my order with Tyler Hass), I haven't received my rings despite paying USD$196 for UPS courier. Such is the customer service and integrity of this company.