Thursday, February 12, 2004

Dynamic Forces = Thumbs Down

I don’t think I’ve ever before, in my entire life, been so completely frustrated and angry with one company before. I’m also quite sure that it’ll be pretty damn hard for any other company out there to be a worse business than Dynamic Forces. Since I can’t get a hold of anyone at their company, I’m going to get some venting out of my system here. Sit back and be prepared to be amazed by the completely and utterly appalling business practices of a supposedly upper echelon comic retailer.

A little bit before Christmas, DF was running a special where any new orders would have a $25 gift certificate to use. I thought to myself, “sweet! I’ve got $25 to play with to order some comics I’ve been wanting.” Little did I know of the horrors to come. Since this seemed like a really good offer, I told my brother, parents, and Kristin about it. That way each of them could put in an order too. So in total, there were six orders made by five different people (I accidentally made one order without using the gift certificate, but I thought I’d make the order anyhow). All of these orders were made between the 19th and 25th of December.

In their ordering policy, they stated that all orders placed could take 4-6 weeks for delivery. It seemed like a small price to pay for using their gift certificate. Oh, it should also be noted that everything ordered in all six orders was in-stock (or at least they claimed it to be). Anyhow, I waited until the beginning of January to check the status of the orders. All of them but one said they were processed and waiting to ship. Great! They would soon be on their way. Mid January rolls around and it says there is a problem with my dad’s order. I call them up and find out that his credit card number was invalid (which it was), so I gave them a new one. The rep then told me my dad’s order would then be mailed out. I asked what the progress of one of my orders was and I was told that I was also shipping.

January finally wraps up and February starts. Wondering why none of the orders have gotten to their destinations, especially my dad’s, I call up DF again. Everyone was busy so I left a message. I also sent an email. A few days pass and no response to either. The orders should have arrived at their specified places by now, especially since all of our credit cards had been charged (mine on the 20th of January). Finally, half of my dad’s order shows up. I then call to see where the other half is. No one there again so I leave yet another message. Two days later the other half arrives. That’s good. 1 order out of 6 has arrived.

This entire week, wondering where all the other orders are, I called the DF number 3 times a day, each time given their answering machine. I should take the time to note here that their telephone number is not toll free so I’m accruing long distance charges while trying to get a hold of DF. I left a message each day with an order number, name, and phone number to call. There has still been no response and no orders have shown up. It is well past the 6 six maximum stated that it would take to ship. I am going to look into filing claims with the Better Business Bureau to try and reclaim the money spent on the other orders.

I tried calling again this morning. Their customer service line again kicked me to their answering machine. There’s always been an option to press the 0 key to be connected with their operator, so I thought I’d try it. It rings and I get kicked to their answering machine. I will leave another message when I call again today. I am beyond furious at this point. Why is it so impossible to get a live human being at their company? If it comes to it, I would love to try to take some sort of legal action against DF because they’ve pushed me beyond my sanity limit in the way they’ve handled my family’s orders. In the words of the Simpson’s comic book guy: “Worst customer service experience ever!”

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