12 Years in the business and I have never had so many complications with an order...not even the ones from India where customer service is known to be notorious. I'm sorry to be writing a poor review within the industry.
Last year I placed an order for some gems, and everything was fine. Last month, I was excited to place another order with this company. I emailed them and received no response, so a week later I emailed them again. The original rep, Odile, sent short unprofessional email responses during our correspondence, and her curtness indicated to me that she must be busy. Although off-putting, I figured she might be swamped with orders from the recent Tucson show and I remained patient. She then started addressing me by someone else's name, so I asked her to make sure she is not sending the wrong person the wrong order. No response: emails ignored.
Two weeks later rep #2, Stephanie, emails me out of thin air with an invoice. NOTHING on that invoice was from my order. At this point I am quite annoyed that no one has heeded or even acknowledged my warning about the mix-up. I write them both back regarding my disappointment with the way my order is being handled.
I receive a call from the customer service manager, Carolyn, who apologizes. At this point, I think things would get better, but they only get worse.
One month after placing my order, it finally arrives. The packaging job is messy and impractical. Heavy boxes within boxes (on my dime), random junk, newspaper, and partially shredded documents with other people's information. Two items are missing, and two items are not what I ordered. Just like last time the weight they charge on these items are often higher than the actual weight that the scale reads, but I am too irritated to rebut. Regardless, I keep 90% of the items and have a few returns. These returns are not items I don't want, but items that are damaged, glued back together, cracked etc. I will upload photo samples to show you what I mean. ERRORS ARE FORGIVABLE, BUT POOR SERVICE IS NOT...
Being in retail myself (online, and previously a store front in San Francisco), if we were to sell a customer a broken item, we would be profusely apologetic and give them a full refund for the item and all shipping costs, along with bonus credits, gifts etc. (A rare occurrence in our store). This is NOT the case with Madagascar Minerals/Norcross Madagascar. I did not expect any special bonus, but was surprised when they inform me that I can:
RETURN THE BROKEN ITEMS AND PAY A 25% RESTOCKING FEE, OR EXCHANGE THEM AND PAY ALL SHIPPING FEES. REGARDLESS OF THE FACT THAT THEY SENT BROKEN GLUED ITEMS, I WAS FORCED TO PAY ORIGINAL SHIPPING, RETURN SHIPPING AND REPLACEMENT SHIPPING.
So on top of my original shipping costs, I was charged an extra $50 in shipping to send them back and get replacements, on top of the original $180 shipping charge. I was also made to sign a form of agreement of these terms before the exchange could happen.
At this point, I want this transaction that has been dragged on for 5 WEEKS to just be over with. There is no use arguing with their terms, so I ask them to send me the replacement and wipe my name from their system thereafter. I will not be doing business again.
I receive a call from Carolyn apologizing. WHAT is the point of this call again? She apologized but does nothing to remedy the poor service or make the customer satisfied. Whereas my solution as a business owner is to give the customer free gifts, credits, and most definitely free shipping charges if something is our error... her solution was to reduce the restocking fee of returning broken items from 25% to 20%. Am I supposed to feel better now that I can pay you just 20% in fees AND all shipping costs on these broken items you sold me?
Throughout this long laborious process, I have asked them 3 times to update my shipping address. These requests were ignored, and my latest invoice was billed to an address no one lives at.
I came in with hopes of becoming a long term top member, and wanted to refer 2 other businesses to them. Now I hope to put this ordeal behind me and never have to deal with them again. read more