Complaint Review: Sun's Tea - Internet

It really shouldn't come to this over 40 bucks worth of merchandise.  The fact that I even feel the need to highlight Sun's Tea dishonesty results from how bizarrely and inexplicably underhanded and unprofessional they have been over such a trivial matter.  Please keep this story in mind before you consider buying products from Sun's Tea, whether through sunstea.com or through their Amazon presence.  There are plenty of places to buy this type of glassware that probably don't involve a month's worth of head-scratch-worthy lies and diversions.  It's gone from aggravating to comedic.

Let's keep in mind what we're talking about here: TWO pieces of glassware that are selling for $40.  That's it.

They were purchased for us as a gift, directly from sunstea.com.  They were clearly packed very poorly with no cushioning, as they arrived - quite literally - as a box of glass dust in a thin cardboard box.  Hey, it happens, as I'm sure every shipper has a bad day where they forget that glass can break, especially when that shipper is in the business of shipping glassware specifically.  Best to just throw two glasses into a box together so they can smash into each other over a cross country trip until they resemble confectioner's sugar.

A very pleasant email was sent in accordance with Sunstea.com's very generous-appearing return/replacement policy, letting them know the problem, the order number, and sending pictures of the package, asking whether we should return the original package as part of arranging for replacements.  The email was sent on July 12, and several days went by with no response.  Considering their website looks like a Geocities retread from 1997, they probably just don't check their email that often.

As much as we didn't want to bother the gift giver with this issue, we let him know the glasses had arrived broken and that the company was not responding to us.  He wrote the company an email threatening to open a Paypal dispute with Sun's Tea.  All of a sudden, as if by some miraculous coincidence, I received a response to my first email by someone named Wendy Yang offering an apology and letting me know replacement glasses were being sent.  All's well that end's well, right? 

 Another week goes by, and nothing.

Then another week.

I write an email asking for the status, and I'm told the glasses were shipped on July 25, and that Wendy will find a tracking number for me.  They're sure to arrive any day.

Another week goes by.

Then 20 days go by.

I ask for the tracking number again.  I receive a response confirming the shipping address - it's the right shipping address.  But no package.  So, may I have the tracking number?  Seeing as how Sun's Tea sent these items (I mean, they said they did, so it must be true!), that tracking number could show me exactly where poor Sun's Tea was screwed over by the USPS or UPS or Fed Ex, as the case may be, and we could both share a good cry about it.

Then I ask for the tracking number again.

The tracking number never comes because they clearly never actually mailed replacement glasses.  A strange strategy, I have to admit, to resolve customer disputes: "maybe if we say we mailed them, and we never do, this dude will die of old age waiting for them and we can retire on those forty dollars on some tropical island."

I ask for the tracking number again, and offer that in the alternative, they can refund the purchaser.  Wendy tells me they'll just refund the purchaser - again, 20+ days after claiming to have sent replacements - a tacit admission that they never sent replacements at all but will try to throw a new bone in a different direction to see if that works.  What is happening here?  Is this real?  Has Kurt Vonnegut come back to life, and decided to retool his gift for absurdist satire to focus exclusively on attempting to buy double-walled tea glasses over the internet? 

I ask for confirmation that the purchaser has been refunded, reminding Wendy this shouldn't take more than a day, as we're kind of off on the wrong foot, where every attempt I make to resolve this drags on for days of silence, followed by an underwhelming response of surreal storytelling.  Nothing.  Three more days go by and I request confirmation that a refund has been issued.  Still nothing.

For $40, people.  FORTY BUCKS.  Sun's Tea is an interesting company, for sure.  If this is all some terrible misunderstanding, where Sunstea.com was just the victim of some cosmic bad luck, I'll be sure to send them an apology note.  If it doesn't arrive within a month, I'd be happy to provide them with the tracking number.