Company name
Nicotine River
Date of your initial complaint to the supplier.24 December 2014
How did you contact the supplierEmail
Ticket number (if you were issued one)-
General nature of complaintBilling
Briefly describe your problem or issueI'm an Indian resident and it's hard for me to get hold of good quality DIY eliquids and I have been purchasing most of the vaping products from US and UK retailers. Wanted to buy DIY vegetable glycerine and Propylene Glycol from NicotineRiver because their prices looked good and the quality seemed to be good too. Had plans of buying in bulk and share it with my friends here in India.
On December 17th 2014, I paid for VG and PG (gallon of each + USPS Priority Mail Express International) and the total with shipping was 177.93 USD. NicotineRiver.com has a Visa AVS check system (Address Verification System) that checks the shipping address entered by a customer against the address in the Visa system. I believe, this system is implemented in order to avoid any fraudulent transactions.
There was a slight difference in my correct address (Zip code with my CC company is slightly different from my actual Zip code) and the address with Visa (my CC company). So the transaction did not go through and the sale was declined. However, I did get a SMS from my bank for a $177.93 transaction. Called up my bank and asked them if the sale went through. They mentioned it may take some time for the transaction to show up in my account. Requested my bank to fix my address in their system. For the next few days, the address verification was done, my correct address was updated, yada yada.
On December 22nd 2014, I again tried to buy VG and PG through NicotineRiver and the same products, the same amount $177.93 .. The transaction again got declined. I have no idea why the AVS system triggered another cancellation of the sale. I again received a SMS of $177.93. I thought of just giving up on NicotineRiver and try to buy through some other merchant.
This time when I checked my CC account, I was definitely sure that the money was deducted (I'm not even sure if it's two transactions or three. Have a feeling that I tried to buy three times: twice on 17th and once on 22nd). So called up my bank and asked them to see what's going on. They advised me to wait for 20 days and the amount will show up in my account since the transactions never actually went through. My bank also advised me to check with NicotineRiver and see if they approved those transactions or declined them.
On December 24th 2014, I wrote an email to NicotineRiver.com (the email address mentioned on their website) and explained what happened. Requested them to check with their bank and inform if they approved those two transactions. This is the reply I received from someone (there's no name mentioned in the reply).
Then I contacted my bank again and was again advised to wait for two weeks but lost my patience on January 8th.
On January 8th, 2015, I replied to the email I received earlier from NicotineRiver and requested them to check with their bank again. This time I received a very positive reply from someone at NicotineRiver:
But never received any emails from them after that. Have been contacting them every couple of days and been requesting them to check with their bank. No replies whatsoever.
Yesterday talked to my bank and talked to some senior officials. They informed me there are at least 2x transactions charged and approved by NicotineRiver.com's bank. Requested them to talk to NR's bank and get those charges removed and the money to be refunded. My bank is talking to NicotineRiver's bank.
I understand, it's my fault somewhat that I should've made sure the shipping and billing address were same. I should have not tried to make another attempt of buying when my first attempt was cancelled. But what I'm bothered about is NicotineRiver's approach to help their customer. They promised to check into it and help me get the charges removed. Their bank should have declined and not approved those transactions but they did. No merchandise was ever shipped to me and nobody at NR is even attempting to help me. Since January 8th, there is not a single reply from the merchant. So disappointed with this merchant.
On December 17th 2014, I paid for VG and PG (gallon of each + USPS Priority Mail Express International) and the total with shipping was 177.93 USD. NicotineRiver.com has a Visa AVS check system (Address Verification System) that checks the shipping address entered by a customer against the address in the Visa system. I believe, this system is implemented in order to avoid any fraudulent transactions.
There was a slight difference in my correct address (Zip code with my CC company is slightly different from my actual Zip code) and the address with Visa (my CC company). So the transaction did not go through and the sale was declined. However, I did get a SMS from my bank for a $177.93 transaction. Called up my bank and asked them if the sale went through. They mentioned it may take some time for the transaction to show up in my account. Requested my bank to fix my address in their system. For the next few days, the address verification was done, my correct address was updated, yada yada.
On December 22nd 2014, I again tried to buy VG and PG through NicotineRiver and the same products, the same amount $177.93 .. The transaction again got declined. I have no idea why the AVS system triggered another cancellation of the sale. I again received a SMS of $177.93. I thought of just giving up on NicotineRiver and try to buy through some other merchant.
This time when I checked my CC account, I was definitely sure that the money was deducted (I'm not even sure if it's two transactions or three. Have a feeling that I tried to buy three times: twice on 17th and once on 22nd). So called up my bank and asked them to see what's going on. They advised me to wait for 20 days and the amount will show up in my account since the transactions never actually went through. My bank also advised me to check with NicotineRiver and see if they approved those transactions or declined them.
On December 24th 2014, I wrote an email to NicotineRiver.com (the email address mentioned on their website) and explained what happened. Requested them to check with their bank and inform if they approved those two transactions. This is the reply I received from someone (there's no name mentioned in the reply).
Then I contacted my bank again and was again advised to wait for two weeks but lost my patience on January 8th.
On January 8th, 2015, I replied to the email I received earlier from NicotineRiver and requested them to check with their bank again. This time I received a very positive reply from someone at NicotineRiver:
But never received any emails from them after that. Have been contacting them every couple of days and been requesting them to check with their bank. No replies whatsoever.
Yesterday talked to my bank and talked to some senior officials. They informed me there are at least 2x transactions charged and approved by NicotineRiver.com's bank. Requested them to talk to NR's bank and get those charges removed and the money to be refunded. My bank is talking to NicotineRiver's bank.
I understand, it's my fault somewhat that I should've made sure the shipping and billing address were same. I should have not tried to make another attempt of buying when my first attempt was cancelled. But what I'm bothered about is NicotineRiver's approach to help their customer. They promised to check into it and help me get the charges removed. Their bank should have declined and not approved those transactions but they did. No merchandise was ever shipped to me and nobody at NR is even attempting to help me. Since January 8th, there is not a single reply from the merchant. So disappointed with this merchant.
