You know the old adage: if you want something done well, you’re better off doing it yourself?

I checked my paypal account when I got home this afternoon and I still hadn’t been refunded my money by Pandora’s Choice. So I gave them a call and lo and behold, there was a human voice on the other end of the line.

Long story short, I spoke to the owner of the site and it seems she had gone away and left the running of the site to a member of staff, who, it seems, may have become a little overwhelmed with the orders. The owner came back, the member of staff is off sick and she has a mountain of work in front her; orders with no notes, emails and phone messages she will have to answer. The owner was very apologetic and understandable of how I felt and offered me 10% off my next order, should I wish to use the site again. I may do, remember I mentioned getting this. She also immediately refunded my account.

I was still a little miffed and I in turn apologised if I sounded short on the phone. Obviously it wasn’t her fault but I hoped she understood where I was coming from. She did take responsibility and said she would’ve felt the same way so that’s good to know.

Methinks she’s going to spend a good few days sorting out the backlog. I’d also imagine she’d be pretty miffed herself at losing money.

The saga with my suspender belt is, would you believe it, still ongoing. After two weeks they still haven’t been delivered to me.

When they hadn’t arrived in time to see Thursday’s client last week, I wrote them a polite email asking when I might expect them. No response.

When they still hadn’t arrived this past Saturday I called their sales line. The call goes straight to voicemail, not even a personal one, an automated one generated by the service provider BT. Remember, this is the number on their website, this is their sales line. I left a message.

When I got in from my volunteer job yesterday I thought at least there’d be some response to either my email or phone call, it being the start of the business week and all that. There was no response to either.

By this time I’m seeing red. I called them again yesterday, again reaching the BT automated voicemail. I left a message letting them know of my displeasure at not only at the suspenders not being delivered within 3-5 working days as I paid for, but that nobody had the time or decency to get back to me.

I then backed it up with an email – I’ve learnt to put everything in writing where I can. I mentioned that as a consumer I wasn’t very happy at their lack of response to a customer query and that if my goods cannot be delivered then I would like my money back. I even bluffed and blustered a bit and said that I was proficient in consumer law and that I was well aware of my rights. Not totally untrue; in my other job I have learnt a little bit about consumer law. For starters they broke their end of our agreement by not being able to deliver goods within the time they promised.

Guess what? Within an hour of my phone call and email I received both a phone call and an email from Pandora’s Choice, telling me that the suspender belt in my size and colour isn’t actually in stock and won’t be for another two weeks!!

To say I was annoyed is putting it mildly. No where on the site did it say they were out of stock. They took the money out of my paypal account and made no mention that they didn’t actually have what I’d just bought.

I’ve written back to them and told them that what they should’ve done was initially notify me that they were out of stock, not charge me until the sussies were actually back in stock like some other websites do and also give me the choice of whether or not I would like to wait a month for them, or go elsewhere. I’ve also told them that I would like my money back in full, including the postage and that if it doesn’t appear in my paypal account within the next 24-48hrs, then I will have no choice but to take things further. I have no problem doing that, as those long time readers of my blog will remember the saga with PC World.

It’s a good thing the weather is hot at the moment and clients don’t mind my not wearing my stockings and sussies. My feet are always pedicured and toes immaculately polished. I do have my pvc ones, but they have a couple of small buckles on the front with a zip, and they aren’t the most comfortable when lying on top of a client (or vice versa) and I’ve had to take them off during a booking.

I’ve seen the same suspenders on a few other sites so I’m off to order some now. Hopefully they’ll be here by the end of the week.

But what a way to run a business!!

(Edit – I’ve found a site called Stockings Direct and ordered my sussies. When I click on my size – 24 and colour – black, it says they have one in stock for immediate dispatch. Watch this space.)