Howdy, Pards,
I DO NOT want to comment on any vendor's situation in particular, but would like to say something in general about custom makers of any kind of goods. There are Federal Trade Commission rules about companies doing business in interstate commerce. Vendors are supposed to state delivery times in their catalogs/ads. If the vendor cannot deliver said product, the customer has the right to ask for his/her money back. That does NOT mean you should automatically expect your money back on the day following the expiration of the time period stated. But it DOES mean that if you request a refund IN WRITING (I don't know if e-mail counts as "in-writing"), you should get a refund within a week or so after the letter has been received by the vendor. (One way to determine if the letter got there is to mail it Priority with either a Delivery Confirmation slip or by Registered Mail, Return Receipt Requested).
Now, as a one-man maker of custom leather products, I do state that delivery should be within 4 to 8 weeks time. BUT there HAVE been situations where, due to health problems (temporary) or other conditions beyond my control, I have been unable to make the deadline. In those cases, I have contacted the customer, generally by phone, and explained the situtation, offering to refund their money and cancel the order, or if they wanted to wait a REASONABLE amount of time (say another few weeks if I was under the weather). In MOST of the FEW instances where this occurred, the customer elected to wait for his order to be completed.
Another thing that helps customers AND, IMHO, the vendor, is if payment is by credit card. I ask for the credit card info SENT BY USPS MAIL, or on the PHONE. I DO NOT and will not take credit card info by e-mail!!!! That is for everyone's protection. I ask for the information at the time of the order, but DO NOT CHARGE the card account until I'm just about ready to ship. Credit card allows the vendor to be paid almost immediately, without waiting for checks to clear the banks, and the customer has the ability to protest the charge if there is a dispute that can't be ironed out.
In summary, I would suggest that IF you have a problem with contacting a vendor of custom goods, you send a registered letter, return receipt requested, asking for an update on the status of your order and/or cancelling the order and requesting a refund IN FULL within 5 business days. If you get no response, then you may want to contact the FTC... Do keep in mind, that if a one-person operation has HEALTH problems, he/she may not be a position to reply, and care-givers may not know anything or may not have signature authority (bad practice on the vendor's part!
) to do refunds. NOT SAYING IF THAT IS OR ISN'T THE CASE WITH ANY PARTICULAR INDIVIDUAL... I don't KNOW!
Hope this is of some help...
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