Halo - Defective or wrong product issue : scscheib

[scscheib]

Company name

Halo​

Date of your initial complaint to the supplier.

14 February 2014​

How did you contact the supplier

Email​

Ticket number (if you were issued one)

1033111​

General nature of complaint

Defective or wrong product​

Briefly describe your problem or issue

On February 14th I received the Triton variable voltage battery that I had ordered. Upon attempting to charge said battery I discovered that it was in fact a defective product. This same day I sent an email to Halo. The next day I received an email with instructions on how to send the defective battery back to Halo. I did this the very next day. Upon receipt of the defective battery, Halo contacted me and said they would process my refund, which is what I requested. After several more emails and requests as to where my refund was I asked for them to send me proof that the refund was processed. They sent me proof for a refund of $5.32 of which I was suppose to receive a refund for the price of the Triton Variable Voltage which cost $33.81. They even assured me in a prior email that I would receive this amount, the $33.81, as that is what I paid for the defective battery. Again, even after they said that the only proof they sent was for a $5.32 refund of which I did receive at my bank today 4 March 2014. I have sent yet another email asking where my CORRECT refund of $33.81 was. I have yet to hear back from them in regards to getting my correct refund.

This is beyond unacceptable. When we have to pay for their products our money is received immediately and yet here it is the 4th of March and not only do I not have the correct refund, I do not have anyone contacting me to explain what the problem is, of which there shouldn't be one other than the fact than I DID NOT RECEIVE MY CORRECT REFUND AMOUNT!

In my opinion this is not the proper way to conduct business.​

 

[Cinder Ella]

Hi Scscheib,

Sorry to hear you are having these issues, let me take a look into it and what i can find out. We actually just changed both the way we process refunds and the person who is actually processing them so it may just have been a small oversight. Just to confirm...you did get the refund, the dollar amount of the refund needs to be adjusted from $5.32 to $33.81...correct?

Also, im not sure this would be considered "the way we conduct busniess" as we are not in the habit of just refunding completely random incorrect amounts. Much more likely it was simply a mistake that can be easily corrected.

 

[Cinder Ella]

Hello again, I just spoke with the accounting department and they confirm that they did accidentally refund the incorrect amount initially but this was fixed last night, a receipt was sent to you last night as well as again this morning and it looks like you were actually refunded the $33.81 in addition to the $5.32 as our apology for the confusion. Looks like this was all taken care of before you even started this thread.

Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with.

 

[scscheib]

I really like how you try to circumvent the issue by stating that this shouldn't even have been posted by stating that it looks like this was already corrected. Let me state what is really going on. Yes I did receive that receipt, AFTER I POSTED THIS HERE AND DREW ATTENTION, and the $5.32 was for the shipping fee that should have been refunded anyway. I just now checked March 5 2014 at 534pm eastern standard time and the $33.81 is still not posted. Now I will digress to the point that this could just be that my bank needs to post it, and if so it will be there after midnight tonight. My point is, instead of trying to transfer the blame of this not being posted here, which indicates that what I have stated should not be a problem, you should take a more pro customer approach and just OWN the problem. I understand that business's have problems and adjustments need to be made. The fact that you are on here posting for Halo is a very positive stance for the company and I salute that. However, I think it would be better that you own the mistakes and just correct them. I will be very happy to come back here when the money posts and we can show this particular issue has resolved, but that does not mean that it did not happen.

 

[Cinder Ella]

Thanks for your response, I just want to clarify a few things...

- Your product arrived back at our office and it was determined that you were eligible for a refund and a request for this refund was sent from CS to accounting on 2/24.
- Accounting refunded the amount of $5.32 on 2/25 (unfortunately the incorrect amount) and an email was sent to CS to let them know that the refund had been processed. At this point there had in fact been a refund so your continued statements of no refund are false.
- Your follow up email stating that there had been no refund was on 2/27, CS verified that the refund had in fact been processed.
- You requested a receipt for the transaction on 3/1 which was responded to on 3/4 as we are not in on the weekends, the receipt was sent to you on 3/4. It was then that it was determined the accounting department had accidentally refunded the incorrect amount of $5.32. The amount of $28.49 was then additionally refunded for a total refund of $33.81. (The $5.32 would not have "been refunded anyway" as we do not reimburse for shipping. Because we made the mistake and refunded you the incorrect amount in the first place we did not recharge you the $5.32 as it was our mistake. You should have only received a refund for $28.49 not $33.81.)
- 3/5 it was again confirmed that the additional refund of $28.49 had been processed on 3/4 and your refund was complete. We have no control over how long your bank takes to post it, it could take 1 day or 2 weeks, that is entirely up to your banks policies.

Up until 3/4 you simply kept saying there had been no refund at all to which CS replied that there had, because there had. It was not until 3/4 that you notified us that the problem was not the lack of refund but rather the incorrect amount of the refund which was corrected within a few hours. I am in no way denying that the situation happened simply trying to clarify that it was a simple mistake of initially refunding the incorrect amount. Mistakes do happen and we greatly appreciate you bringing it to the attention of our CS rep so it could be corrected. You posting this thread had absolutely no impact on the entire situation as the entire amount had been refunded on Tuesday afternoon and in fact the receipt had been sent to you on Wednesday morning before myself or anyone else was even aware of this thread. While we apologize for the confusion and delay the issue has now been completely resolved and I would like to again clarify that this was an isolated mistake and not "the way we conduct business". Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

 

[scscheib]

I was sent an email from your company that stated that the $5.32 was a refund for the postage. Not once did they say I should not have received that. I wasn't expecting it nor did I request it. We can go back and forth with dates etc. I could attach each email that I was sent, I have them all. The fact is this, I contacted my bank today. They still do not have any credit other than the $5.32. You stated that the refund, that I still don't have, should be for $28.49, then why did I receive a receipt from a company called "use pay" I assume that is who you are referring to as your accounting department that they refunded $33.81? I understand that you say you have no control over how long my bank takes to credit my account whether it is 2 days or 2 weeks, I understand that. I have credits on a regular basis with my bank and they will regularly post them that night after midnight or the next day after midnight depending on what time of day they received the credit. You are stating that this issue is completely resolved. You state that without even knowing that it really is. Your going off of what this "use pay" is telling you. What if they still made a mistake, or sent the money to a different account by accident? I am just stating possibilities here since I still do not have the correct refund. I am a customer of your company. I have spent a lot of money on your products and you are just dismissing me like I am making things up here. That is what I find troubling from a customer service stand point. This issue is not completely resolved, unless you are really not concerned whether I actually receive my proper refund or not. That is the impression I get as you are more interested in arguing about dates rather than if I actually have the refund.

 

[scscheib]

I just wanted to add that my bank has sent me documents to show the dates in question. They have the $5.32 reaching their branch on 28 February 2014. Then there was the weekend so it makes sense that it would not be posted until 3 March which would be that following Monday. They have no record of any other receipts of refund from that same entity. I am just informing you of this, so you understand that I am not simply making things up and that there is obviously a disconnect somewhere and that I find it very wrong for you to say that this matter is completely resolved.

 

[Cinder Ella]

Good Morning,

When our CS rep emailed the accounting department to request the refund the accounting department misread the email and incorrectly refunded you for shipping ($5.32) rather than for the product ($28.49). As I explained previously, you should have never received a refund in the amount of $5.32, this was incorrect on our end, the original refund amount should have been $28.49, since we made the mistake in the amount, instead of re-charging you the $5.32 and then refunding the $28.49, we just refunded the additional $28.49 for a total of $33.81. It was two separate transactions, the $5.32 on Feb. 25, which you say showed up in your bank on the 28th and the additional $28.49 on March 4 which if it is consistent with the previous transaction would make sense that it show up again three days later...that being today March 7. How these show up in your account as two separate transactions or one is completely out of my control.

I am not saying you are making things up or dismissing you, simply trying to clarify that the actually issue was just the dollar amount that was refunded, which has been corrected. The initial refund was processed the day after your request, and you say it is showing up in your account and your bank does have record of it so there should be no worry about the additional funds making it to your account.

"Use Pay" is not our accounting department, we have a full accounting department on staff, use pay must be the name of the credit card processing company. I am looking at the receipts from our accounting department, one for $5.32 that you mention is already showing in your account, another for $28.49, totaling $33.81. They have both been completely processed on our end and we have no control over them anymore. From our end it is resolved, all transactions have been processed, we are all just waiting on your bank to post the funds to your account, which again could take any number of days but from the previous transaction seems to take three.

This is a matter that should have been continued to be dealt with through customer service and I see a chain of emails here that confirm that our CS rep was responding to you very quickly and doing everything she could to make sure this was corrected for you. There was never any point where your emails were ignored or when we ever said that the full amount would not be refunded. Again as i previously mentioned, as soon as we were made aware that the total dollar amount was incorrect (the morning of March 4th) the correct dollar amount was refunded (the afternoon of March 4th) in addition to the incorrect amount so you are actually getting back $5.32 more than you would have.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions. Also, please feel free to continue working with CS as we try not to discuss personal information on such a public platform.

 

[scscheib]

One of the items that you have been trying to say towards this issue is to make it sound like the credits were done much earlier than they were. My bank does not take a long time to credit accounts and do not hold money for any certain periods. What you just stated above in reference to the time frames is actually correct this time. I just got back from sitting down with a representative from my bank and they received the $33.81 on 5 March, credited to my account on 6 March and it was available for me to see this morning online the 7th of March. However, the amounts are once again different than what you are stating. Yes the $5.32 was received as a shipping reimbursement even though the actual shipping paid was $5.80. You say that should not have been refunded, ok, if thats your policy then that is understood. It has not been my experience when I receive a defective product that I will still be charged the shipping charge and as you have done they are usually refunded and I appreciate that. You also stated in your last post that the amount for my refund should have been $28.49. Why would I only be refunded $28.49 for an item that I paid $29.99 plus shipping of $5.80 not $5.32. The fact that the item is defective is not my fault in any way, I received it that way. Maybe its that you charge some other fee for a returned item whether it is defective or not? I posted this to this public forum so others could see what happened in my situation and how Halo handles complaints. Thank you for your time and attention. This matter may now be considered resolved. Which in my opinion if a matter needs to be resolved then there was a problem to begin with, which is what I wanted to share. In addition, I would be more than happy to give you back the $5.32 since you continue to state that I should not have received that. I do not want to receive something that I am not entitled to. Please PM me if you would like me to send you that $5.32 back. Lastly, Halo makes the best liquid in the Tribecca, absolutely love that stuff. I simply can't find anything better. Please know that it was this particular situation that I am not fond of and I am not trying to say that Halo as a business functions consistently like this. This is the only time I had a defective item and it just was not a easy process, that is all I am trying to share here. Thanks again for your attention to this matter. Peace be with you.