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$40k order gone wrong
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I made the mistake of placing a $36,000 ($40k by the end of it) astrophotography order with WH. It went wrong from the start. Because I placed the order over the phone, Farah, the owner, refused to give me store reward points, citing her margins. If I had placed the order on the site, the points would have appeared. Four days before delivery of the scope and mount (a heavy crate), I tried calling and emailing WH to get them to tell the shipping company to switch to inside delivery. They did not answer multiple emails or return calls for ~four whole days~. Farah was supposed to own this and completely fumbled it. The delivery company left $20,000 worth of gear in my apartment lobby unattended, without obtaining my signature, and Farah refused to own up to the mistake OR do anything to get the scope into my apartment. Curbside delivery was not what was discussed when I placed the order. She claimed she didn't know it was an apartment (disingenuous and irrelevant) when my address clearly had an apartment number in it. when I told her I don't know if the scope was damaged because I didn't get to inspect it, her response was "if you open the crate to check, you can't return it". What?!? You would think that spending this much would at least get you basic communication, a little bit of honesty, and most of all, the absolute basic minimum of actually fulfilling the order. Weeks went by without getting any other parts. The first time I called in to check status, much to my surprise, they said they had stock for some parts. I realized over the next few weeks that Farah and crew were not filling my order as they got these hard to get, 1-3 month backordered parts in stock because they simply ~forgot~. How does that happen? If you know a customer who placed a massive order with you is already upset because you botched the delivery and first fulfillment, wouldn't you put that order on your list of priorities? Wouldn't you try very hard to not mess up any other part of the order? Wouldn't you try to not repeat the same mistakes when you are specifically told multiple times- here are my problems: you don't respond to emails, you don't return calls, and you aren't monitoring stock to fill my order? Nope, not in Farah's world. The same pattern of calling and emailing with no response & failed promises of callbacks happened for literally FIVE months. It was like pulling teeth to get every last incremental bit of the order and they neither learned nor changed behavior at any point. It's only when I got Farah on the phone directly and forced her to check stock and give me a tracking number that I received parts of the rest of my order. She was audibly put out by it every single time. Sorry I made you actually fill the order I paid for months ago, Farah. Once, she failed to ship out a Chroma filter that had an 8-10 week lead time TWICE when they got it in stock. I had to cancel it and spend $300 elsewhere to avoid waiting another 2+ months. I could not trust that they would actually ship it out when they got it in stock. Another time, I was promised a replacement for a missing part, and had to call in literally 5 days in a row to actually get Farah on the phone because weeks had elapsed with no response about the replacement. It was shocking when I got her on the phone to find out they had my replacement in stock, and again, just forgot to fill my order. This need to constantly call in to monitor the basic promise of fulfilling my order is abhorrent. The emails and tone from Farah were all about absolving herself of responsibility. She doesn't understand or care about customer service in the least, and it shows when you speak to her or anyone else at WH. She wouldn't even entertain free shipping on small items to make up for any of her failures. WH has no concept of goodwill when they mess up an order. I will absolutely never do business with WH again, and I know I am not the first person in the astro community to have these sorts of problems. Take your money elsewhere.
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