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| - Their product is nice enough (though not at all in my budget) but their web service is REALLY poor. there are several glaring issues on their website and with their customer service communications that made the ordering process a bit of a headache.
I live in Calgary and ordered a painting as a Wedding/Christmas gift for a friend in Regina. The shipping information on the site is confusing. Some items are available for free shipping if you spend over $99, others qualify for a flat-rate of $25. When I placed the order, I hit the "recalculate" button to determine what the final cost would be. As the shipping cost line on the order remained at $0.00, I assumed the order qualified for free shipping. I thought that was great, it would save me a trip down to the store and to the post office. I indicated that the item was a gift and placed the order.
The next day I received an e-mail from Michelle at Cushy Life saying that the website was wrong, and that the finish on the painting I had ordered was listed incorrectly. I had ordered the glass coat finish, but that would actually cost $150 more. The knife gel coat was what I would have to order if I wanted to keep the price down. I'm definitely not Cushy Life's usual mid-upper class customer demographic, I had saved for a year to get this painting for my friend, so I was disappointed but just couldn't afford to go any higher price-wise. (As an aside, it's been a month since I placed my order, the website still has not been updated to fix this error.) I went ahead with the new coating, Michelle verified that it was to be shipped to Regina, no other issues or charges were mentioned.
Immediately after placing the order, a pending transaction for the total cost that was listed on the order confirmation and the invoice appeared on my credit card statement. I thought that was odd because their website said nothing would be charged until the day before the item would be shipped - seeing as the painting had to be brought in, it didn't make sense that I was being charged right away. But I shrugged it off, thinking, no big deal, it's paid for now, I wont have to worry about it later. A week later I checked my credit card statement again, and the charge had disappeared.
Five days ago I received a shipping confirmation e-mail from Jonathan at Cushy Life. It included a link to my invoice and tracking for the shipment. When I clicked on the link, my invoice total was the same as when I first ordered the piece. Good, good. There was no tracking info listed for the shipment anywhere. Which was frustrating. I checked my credit card statement - I had been charged $42.70 more than the invoice total. I e-mailed Jonathan back immediately to ask him about the charges. He never replied. Over the next 5 days I called several times but no one ever returned my calls.
I sent another e-mail to Cushy Life's general mailbox this morning, and Michelle replied right away. She informed me that I had been charged $25.00 for the shipping and then Saskatchewan's taxes on top of that. I replied that I was frustrated that at no point were these charges ever communicated to me. Not on my invoice, my order confirmation, my e-mail correspondence, or my shipping confirmation. What's the point of the "Recalculate" option on their website if it's not actually updating appropriately? Had I known all this I would have picked it up and shipped it myself for far less. And they knew it was a gift, why am I paying Saskatchewan tax rates on the order if I've bought it from Calgary, where I live? If I go to Market Mall and buy a gift for someone in Regina they don't charge me additional taxes. Michelle said that they were "at the mercy of Revenue Canada" and had to charge me the extra tax. And that she "always e-mails the order copy" of the invoice so she's not sure why she didn't this time.
THEN she said that I could come pick up the order in store instead if I wanted a refund on the shipping and extra taxes. So essentially I have received a shipping confirmation AND have been charged for an item that hasn't even shipped?! Strangely, I haven't heard back since. At this point I'm trying to cancel the order. I see Chintz and Company has the same painting on sale now. I'll make sure to pick it up myself this time around.
UPDATE: Still no response from Michelle. I e-mailed again and called a couple times, no luck. I called my credit card company to see what I could do as I hadn't authorized payment of that amount and obviously my order hasn't shipped. Unfortunately they can't dispute the charge for two weeks. But they did offer to try and contact Cushy Life for me. Strangely enough, their call got answered! How weird! The girl who answered the phone informed me that Michelle had been "sick all day" and "probably wasn't sitting right by her computer". I said that I found it strange that suddenly Michelle was sick as soon as I said I wanted to cancel my order. Astounding how complicated this process is there.
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