Is this a bunch of crap?

[smithers_0990]

I ordered a Bosal Exhaust from ARD about 3 months ago. To my knowledge they were in stock. I waited and waited two weeks passed and nothing so I e-mailed 'em and asked what the hold up was. So I find out that they are on back order, ok great a few more weeks untill it comes. Wait and wait...nothing...e-mail 'em again. Ohh, it will be the end of July! AHHH, ok though, just a little more time to wait. Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc. End of July rolls around... taa da! Nothing. E-mail 'em again! "Whats the deal, when is it comming?"
"Not sure, possibly the end of August."
I leave for school (in a nother state) in 2 weeks and don't return for ohh about untill christmas! So I sent ARD an e-mail telling them that I want to cancel my order and refund my money and then everything would be allright.


:mad: "We can not refund your money because it was a special order." :bs: :wtf: :mad: I DID NOT KNOW THAT IT WAS A SPECIAL ORDER WHEN I ORDERED IT! :mad: :wtf: I was not informed before I sent in my money that they don't do refunds on certian objects.

My parents are pissed because they think that ARD is a scam. They also want me to report ARD to the Better Business Bureau.

I don't know what to do.
All I want is my money back.

(argh) (getsome)

Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[YellowMP5]

Did you use a credit card? If yes, just call your credit company and tell them that you won't pay that. I never had a problem with my credit company before. They pretty much do evertything i reguest. Nice to be a platinum card holder

if you used a check. stop payment on the check. might cost you $20 but its not couple of hundred.

 

[LambOfSilence]

Sorry to hear that man~
But do definitely call the credit card company if you used the card to pay for it.

 

[Sir Nuke]

richie is a stand up guy....ARD as he is known on the board....screw e-mail....pick up the phone and call him....talk to him....he is good people....and will work with you.

maybe all you NEED to happen is have him change the address to which the exhaust is shipped...

its been a known fact that Bosals have been on backorder from the FACTORY for sometime......its not his fault.

 

[APEXistud]

Just to drop you a little info on the better business bureau, if the company you are reporting isn't a member of the BBB, the BBB won't be able to do anything for you. We found this out when a Subaru dealership in Michigan curbed one of my friends Volk TE-37's. We tried to report them to the BBB, nad the rep for the BBB informed us that since this particular dealership wasn't a member of the BBB, they couldn't help us out.

I had the same problem with a back order on my Tenzo Shu's for my EK Civic. It took me 7 weeks to get my rims. What I did was call Tenzo direct and get some info about how long I was going to have to wait. If you want questions answered, your best bet is to call Bosal direct and see what's up. It would also be kind to call ARD and inform him that you're contacting Bosal so he at least gets a heads up.

Goodluck bro. (drinks)

 

[JcsMP3]

Ok well it seems that customer service is on the back burner for these guys. They maybe stand up guys or whatever and are better over the phone then by e-mail. I am in sales and trust me, you need to service the customer.... I mean you find something out boom you call them up and let them know. You don't sit there and wait for them to contact you.

It may only be a $300 some dollar muffler to most, but he did pay for it. Now it's costing ARD some bad rep on this board right now. Honesty is the best policy with a customer, I got screwed over with my last Mazda dealership telling me 2 weeks, 1 month and it ended up being a total of 4 month wait for my MP3. I don't go back there what so ever.

If you haven't signed for anything if you have a credit card purchase then call up your credit card company. If you have given thema checque and it's cashed well sorry your out of luck.

Jc

 

[nramsey]

That is rediculous. I have ALWAYS had the option to cancel my order if something is on backorder everywhere I have ever bought stuff. It's not like they won't be able to sell the exhaust they ordered for you to someone else. Either this is a misunderstanding or some pretty poor business in my book.

 

[Don]

its been a known fact that Bosals have been on backorder from the FACTORY for sometime......its not his fault.

Sorry, but I agree with Nate.

He gave an "expected delivery date" and when he couldn't meet it (for whatever reason) he should have contacted the customer, informing him of the delay, and offering the opportunity to cancel the order, should the customer not want to wait longer.

If he's already charged the credit card, or cashed the check, he's a pretty sorry retailer, and if he's refusing to refund your money now, months later, he's not only sorry - He's undefendable.

Don

 

[ARD MP5]

I agreed to refund Bryan's money before even seeing this thread so I don't understand what the problem is. I stated our policy to him and he replied that he was not aware of the terms due to a lack of a website. The terms would have been shown on the invoice. If you want I can mail that invoice to you and you will read the terms. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS ON THE FRONT BURNER. At this point I'm unhappy with your "venting" and am tempted to mail the system to your folks when it comes to prove to them that we are not a scam. If you need the money you too can sell the system. Why didn't you finish reading your e-mails before posting? Complaining to the board isn't going to help you it will only work against you. Especially when I agreed to give you what you want. Look at things from a business perspective and work with us.

I am a good man and want to keep my people happy. I made an exception and this whole situation was not my fault. What's a bunch of crap is people acting hastily when they hear something they don't like. Policies are policies. You should feel special that I made the exception. I'm adding a terms and policy page to our yahoo photo page and will direct people to agree to those terms prior to sale. These are common policies in the industry. Check your mail.

It really sucks for us because we relay information as we get it and as a result we look like the bad guys. Bryan pointed out that the terms of sale were not relayed to him so I agreed to refund the money.

BTW, the checks have to be deposited as they are only valid for 90 days. Don't make false comments about us when you don't know the situation. Be careful of what you say as it can be viewed as slander.

"If he's already charged the credit card, or cashed the check, he's a pretty sorry retailer, and if he's refusing to refund your money now, months later, he's not only sorry - He's undefendable." We are not a NOPI and don't have the financial backing of a major corporation. Our policies are polices common to small businesses in this industry.

We are happy to exchange the system for another. I gave a couple of options. Now that it's supposed to be coming at the end of the month he wants to cancel the order. Bryan was well informed that the system was not available at the time I had received his payment and at that time relayed the waiting time to see if he wanted that system. He opted to wait. He was never given an exact date as I was never given an exact date. He was informed of the ETA, estimated time of arrival. OR the Supposed time of arrival.

I don't understand what's up with people jumping to conclusions without resolving situations with me first. Have your parents call me if this is how you plan to take care of the situation. These are the ways of the Aftermarket. I'd get used to it. Otherwise I'd suggest just waiting til the systems are in stock so you are not special/backordering the system. I put a system on hold for bryan before even receiving the check.

So what do you want me to do now Bryan? What's the new address for you at school?

Rishie

 

[nramsey]

Rishie, thanks for posting your comments.

I still question how you can expect your buyer to understand your terms of service when you don't publish them. I really would be benificial to get a web site up if at all possible. In fact, you don't even seem to list your Yahoo photo page in your profile.

Just so we are clear, what is your policy on issuing refunds on items which are backordered? Like I said, every other vendor I have delt with (both small and large) does not charge the customer on backordered items until the item ships, unless the item is being custom made (such as having it painted a special color for that one customer, or a custom fitment designed for that one person etc). If you do take payment up front on backordered items, what is your policy on issuing a refund when the item delivery is delayed for extended periods of time (such as in this case)? I would expect the a refund to be gladly given. It should not be a "favor" IMHO to be issued a refund on an item which is not delivered in a resonable amount of time, whether it's your fault or not. I know crap happens and all you can do is relay the info you're given, but I think you must see it from the perspective of the customer as well.

Perhaps I have high expectations at the stellar experiences I have had dealing with the Mazda Miata aftermarket companies. All of the ones I have delt with have not charged my credit card until the item I have ordered has shipped, except on custom items or very large dollar items (like full turbo kit etc). Or perhaps I have misunderstood some of what you have said.

I appreciate what you have done for this community even in my short time being around here, however I do think there were errors on both sides of the coin here from both your response and the original poster's info given.

 

[ARD MP5]

I would never say that I am doing a "favor" when refunding the money. A money order was mailed and it was deposited. If the product is defective or damaged we are happy to exchange the product. The reason for these policies are a direct result of our club/discount/racernet pricing for you guys. What we have is a policy against returned items or cancelled orders. A policy that is seen in several places. I understand that there are extenuating circumstances and those are taken into consideration.

You are correct about the CC thing when an item is backordered.

If we were extremely marking up our items we could probably afford to just give money back when people asked. At this point we just can't do that everytime. I understand that there's a delay and the terms were not noted so I've agreed. All will be published on the site and ETA's will no longer be ETA's. I hate it when vendors arrival dates continue to change as it has a poor effect on our business and reputation.

Thanks for understanding,

Rishie

This wasn't even a big deal until it comes to the board. Now I have to spend time trying to explain things and I loose more time which means I'm wasting time that can be used more productively in other avenues related to our community. Don't you agree? For future reference I would expect clients to wait for a situation to resolve before posting and "crap". Had he waited a couple minutes he would have seen that he got what he wanted and I would have made changes to our photo page as well so this would not happen in the future.

 

[TexP5]

Chiming in here...Two weeks ago I bought a Racing Beat exhuast from Rishie. When I received it there were some small scratches on the muffler. I jumped on Rishie and he IMMEDIATELY offered to return my money or replace the system or to give me a cost reduction on the scratched system. And I mean Immmediately, I had four or five e-mails from him on the afternoon of my complaint offering solutions.

I have no idea what happened with the customer involved in this thread, but tend to believe that Rishie responded more fully than is being stated here. I don't have any reason to believe he would respond to me so quickly and positively and let another customer hang out to dry. I mean it certainly could have happened, but I think we're starting with "guilty until proven innocent" and that's not right.

 

[JcsMP3]

ARD MP5

Sorry to pass judgement so quickly. I should of known better then to pass judgement on a one sided story. Now that both sides are shown, I can see that you did put effort into this.

I am full of apologies today cause I was on the receiving end today of a few rants so... my head isn't on straight..... back to work I go...

Jc

 

[nramsey]

Thanks for taking the time to answer Rishie. I still don't know what exactly happened here, just trying to get info from both sides. It appears this issue has been resolved, so there isn't much point in continuing this discussion

I still take issue that a customer isn't allowed to cancel an order before it's shipped to him without questions, but if that's the way you have to do business for whatever reason I can accept that. But it would probably be a good idea to make that info a bit more prominent so folks know what to expect. I see that you will be taking steps to do this which is good.

 

[ARD MP5]

Thank you gentlemen. And thanks to Sir Nuke and Tex for giving me a heads up. I greatly appreciate it.

We will make sure to note and I will look into policies of other companies as well. We will follow suit with companies simlar to ours.

Our prices are very good and we spend a lot more time with our clients in comparison to the majority of "online" retailers who just ask, "So how are you paying." I do not consider us to be an online shop. We are old school in our ways and have not encountered any issues like this in the past year and a half that I've been working with my RX7 guys' forums. I guess I need to catch up on online policies and procedures to protect ourselves as well as the customer. This has been a learning experience this week.

Thanks for understanding once again,

Rishie

I have yet to receive an e-mail from Bryan following this thread. I know you're out there and have not responded to my last e-mail. Please let me know where you stand. I want you to be happy and go back to school without stress. Your education is much more important than a measly exhaust system. I am very sorry that we were unable to get the system to you. I'll give you a heads up when they are available and with reference to Bosal we will only receive deposits on backordered items.

 

[smithers_0990]

I myself am not "Con ARD" I understand that backorders happen, I have nothing bad to say about ARD, the only thing that could be improved is their informing people of delays. My parents now believe me that ARD is a reputiable company. I would still do business with them. The only reason that I got upset is when ARD told me that they won't refund my money. Like they are making up rules as they go along.

Once again I have no bad feelings twoard Rishie or ARD.

Thank you Rishie for understanding where I was coming from.

Thanks

 

[ARD MP5]

Much appreciated Bryan. I will return your money as per my e-mail.

Thanks and have a nice day,

Rishie