Online company not offering refund

JohnLock

Hello

I bought a product from an online writing company - it was a recipe book.
This company hires ghostwriters to write books for customers.
It cost £150.
I placed the order on 9th Jan.
Their terms say 7 day turn around time - this gives time for the writer to write my recipes.
I didn't receive the book within 7 days.
I emailed them - they said it was an error on their part.
OK fair enough, I thought.

One week later, still no order.
I was emailing them and their reply was that they had messed up and their writer wasn't responding.
Ok, I thought, bad luck - stuff happens - the writer they hired was to blame.
Then another week passed - still nothing.
Today, over 5 weeks later - they emailed me my completed order.

HOWEVER, it is nothing like the order I outlined at the start - the recipes have the wrong ingredients.
Also, it is missing chapters I outlined when I placed the order one month ago.
They have emailed me a substandard and WRONG order - which does not meet the requirements I outlined in my order.

So,
they have
1) Failed to deliver within 7 days.
2) Emailed me an order which doesn't include the requirements I included when I placed the order.

Clearly, they are at fault.

This company is based in Los Angeles (USA).
However, I ordered from them before three times and was pleased with the work - so I know it's not a scam.

However, I feel like they have scammed me on this order.

What action can I take in order to get a full refund?
I would like to send them an email threatening legal action - any ideas how I can do this?
Thanks.

KeithP

JohnLock wrote: »

I would like to send them an email threatening legal action - any ideas how I can do this?

Before you do that, can I suggest you brush up on your knowledge of U.S. consumer legislation. Not forgetting of course that California may well have specific differences.

Perhaps The Better Business Bureau can help you.

JohnLock

Thanks KeithP. I just wrote this email. Let's hope they respond and honor the refund...I threatened them with the federal trade commission.

_______________________________________________________

Dear X

We are writing to you regarding an order we placed on 01/09/2018.

Order number #1000.

Given your company's 7 days turn around policy, we should have received our order on 01/16/2018. We did not.

We understand there was some internal confusion that prolonged this deadline as outlined in a series of emails from us to your company. According to your revised terms & conditions emailed to us (see image below), we were now eligible for the "$10 refund each day our book was late!"

However, after communicating to your company via email, we both agreed to adding an extra 3,000 words to our order as "compensation" for late delivery. We supplied your company with a specific outline consisting of several chapters. You agreed to adding this to our order.

After 3 weeks of emailing, we received an apology from your company highlighting "internal error" as the reason for failure to deliver on time. We were assured in your last email your company sent to us that we can receive a full refund. You offered this.

On 02/13/2018, we received order #1000.

However, it was not consistent with the description we supplied your company when we placed our order. There are three mistakes with this order:

1) There appears to be only 91 recipes. 9 are missing. We originally ordered 100 recipes. The chapter entitled "Desserts" appears to be missing completely.
2) The order fails to take note of the "5 ingredients or less" requirement outlined when we placed our order.
3) The order fails to include the chapters outlined as part of the 3,000 extra words agreed to as compensation (see above).

Therefore, we ACCEPT your offer of a full refund in the amount of $195.
The refund should be processed to the original payment method: X. Email: X.

Should you fail to fulfil this request, given the above information, we will pursue legal action beginning with filing a complaint at the Federal Trade Commission until our case is resolved.

[Deleted User]

I doubt they will be quaking in their boots...

You might get a part refund, however.

KeithP

I see this sentence on the FTC site:

The FTC cannot resolve individual consumer complaints, but we have tips to help you get your money back.

Are you sure the FTC are the right people to help you?
It looks like they do a similar job as Trading Standards do over here - i.e. they look out for trends and target action against the more prolific offenders.

It looks to me that The BBB, as mentioned earlier, are better able to help you.

JohnLock

don't worry, I think my email worked.
they just emailed me.
It was hillarious!!
Some Chinese girl was calling me asking me not to report them.
I felt sorry for them tbh.
They gave me a full refund & offered a free book too.
Case closed I reckon.
Serves them right for trying to pull the wool over my eyes!!!
Thanks all for your help.

KeithP

That's amazingly quick, don't you think?

At 9:28pm you said "I would like to send them an email"

In under two hours you had not only written and sent an email, but had received a reply too.

Well done.

Stick around. Others could use your skills.