Rachel
Seattle,#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, February 03, 2005
Hi, I am a former US yesmoke.ch customer and was chagrined to read so many allegations that they are ripping off US customers following the recent events in federal court. I never had a problem with their service, so I went to their site and did a little research... Per yesmoke: "Refunds: as we have already notified you, must be obtained by request from you [sic] credit card company. Be advised that all orders received starting from December 8th have not been charged to your accounts." HERE IS HOW TO PROPERLY REQUEST YOUR U.S. YESMOKE.CH REFUND: 1. Call your bank that issued the credit card or other form of payment for the yesmoke.ch order that you have not recieved. 2. Inform the bank that you would like to request a refund of the charge (you will want to have the transaction date and amount handy) due to non-receipt of merchandise. (Some banks will call this an un-authorized transaction complaint and/or may require notification in writing.) 3. Your bank will give yesmoke.ch a certain amount of time for research and to issue the refund. Normally, banks will promise to credit your account (or deny your request based on merchant-supplied proof of delivery) within 10-30 days, depending on who you have your account with. Note: If the original yesmoke transaction caused any overdrafts on your account AND the exact amount of the original transaction is credited back to your account by the merchant, almost all banks will refund all of the resultingx overdraft fees! Even that bad, nasty greed-monger Wells Fargo! You will have to wait for the refund to actually POST to your account and even then you may need to request to speak to a supervisor to accomplish this... just re-iterate FIRMLY AND POLITELY that the recent refund is proof that it was an unauthorized transaction and that if they feel they must charge someone, they can bill yesmoke.ch for it! NEVER YOU MENTION that had it not been for the Feds shafting yesmoke, it would have been a perfectly acceptable transaction! Keep POLITELY moving up the food chain of customer "service" rep.s until you get one with a brain/conscience. It always works for me. Hell even Wells Fargo does it without a battle now... but I think they flagged my account as one not to be F'd with! (Teehee!) 4. Your bank should already have all of yesmoke's contact info, but if not, the only contact info listed on yesmoke.ch are the following: [email protected] and Yesmoke Tobacco S.A., Casella Postale 208, 6830 Chiasso 3, Switzerland. The Federal Trade Commission, accessible online @ http://www.ftc.gov, may be contacted as a last resource, IF you cannot resolve this issue using the above steps. BY THE WAY, Yesmoke's U.S. refund procedure information has been available all along at: http://www.yesmoke.ch/news/231204_customer.php. Although, I'm sure you'll note, that it is a mere two-line postscript to a seemingly "blah blah blah" message to former US customers... so I sent the message (appendixed below) via their online form at http://www.yesmoke.ch/contacts.php. Hopefully they will soon post better, more readily accessible info on the yesmoke.ch site for all of you still awaiting refunds. Hope your accounts are credited in a timely manner... if not, SUE THE HELL OUT OF THEM!! And do it fast, before all 50 states jump on the bandwagon and sue for their lost taxes which will surely bankrupt Otamedia (see http://www.yesmoke.ch/news/pressroom/050114_kgvcom.php). I JUST HOPE THEY DON'T MANAGE TO SUBPOENA CUSTOMER RECORDS - WASHINGTON STATE SENDS TAX BILLS! (I received a nasty warning from our state tax office a year or so ago, after they won a lawsuit against dirtcheapcig.com and subpoenaed their records!) d**n THEM GREEDY BASTARDS! There oughta be a citizen uprising by smokers to reserve our rights to buy what we want from whom we choose ...and to die younger but NOT poorer! =) Here's that copy of my message to yesmoke.ch: Have you seen this? (link below) Many of your former US customers appear to be confused as to how to initiate a refund for orders placed prior to 12/8/04 and are listing yesmoke.ch on the Ripoff Report site (below) to warn other consumers not to do business with you now or in the future. Obviously, they have missed the following blurb from yesmoke's apology to US customers: refunds must be requested by your credit card company'. I will be posting a reply on Ripoff Report with info to this effect momentarily because I loved doing business with you while you were able to ship to the US and don't want to see 1) your name needlessly slandered nor 2) anyone pay for an item they never received. Here is the link to the complaints against yesmoke: http://www.ripoffreport.com/results.asp?q1=ALL&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0&submit2=Search%21&q5=Yesmoke&submit=Search. I highly suggest you either post your own rebuttal, listing contact #s and resources for former US customers still awaiting their refunds or make info to this effect more accessible on the yesmoke.ch site. Thanks for hearing me out... and good luck in your efforts to regain the right to sell in the US - you always had the best deals on cigs! d**n the greedy bastards that shut us down!
Kathy
Springfield,#3Consumer Suggestion
Tue, January 18, 2005
I have never had any problems with this site either until recently when the US government seized 150,000 cartons of cigarette orders at JFK and it clearly states on their web site to go through your credit card company and ask for a refund, once my order was late and I had paid for expedited shipping and it took awhile and they gave me ALL the money back even when I objected and said I only wanted the 2.00 extra shipping charge I had paid per carton ( Usually it is free unless you want it fast then there is an extra 2.00 per carton charge), I too was frustrated when my last order did not arrive, They have ALWAYS until very recently responded to Email, I think they were overwhelmed with all the lost orders, I considered that they did not Email back to protect me from the US seizing records, that is why they clearly state on their site to go through your credit card company for a refund, they will not oppose it, that was the easiest way for them to refund the money to EVERYONE, I have found this company to be honest and even when my last order did not arrive, I had NO problem when I asked my bank for a refund, as they asked all customers to do via their web site, they are working now to re-open sales in the US