So frustrated! No stones for 6 months!

[lovedogs]

I just need to vent. I ordered cut-to-orders stones from a known vendor on insta/Etsy in July. Ordered 4 stones and did a recut of one, for a total of $600+. I told him no rush, but he said they'd be done in a few weeks. 6 MONTHS LATER and no stones. I've asked for updates, and every time he says he'll ship "today" or "this week". I tried to be nice, but I'm opening a dispute with CC/PayPal as of Friday if I don't have tracking info. I'm just so irritated and needed friendly people to vent. At this point I don't even want the stones (except the recut bc stone was mine), I just want my $ back. GRRRRRR.

 

[2Neezers]

I’m sorry you are going through this! I would be frustrated too, especially since they have lied to you by telling you they would ship your stones “today” or “this week” and didn’t follow through. I hope there was at least some type of explanation as to why they didn’t ship as promised. Did you let the vendor know you plan to file the dispute? Hopefully it will be resolved one way or another by Friday!

 

[lovedogs]

I’m sorry you are going through this! I would be frustrated too, especially since they have lied to you by telling you they would ship your stones “today” or “this week” and didn’t follow through. I hope there was at least some type of explanation as to why they didn’t ship as promised. Did you let the vendor know you plan to file the dispute? Hopefully it will be resolved one way or another by Friday!

Yup, messaged him letting him know. He had lots of reasons for not shipping...been sick, been busy, having issues polishing can stones, etc. But every time it was "I'll ship this week" or " today". And I'm just done.

 

[strawrose]

I’m so sorry for that experience. Would you be willing to reveal the vendor? I have a cut to order stone coming from one of those people too...

 

[elle_71125]

Yup, messaged him letting him know. He had lots of reasons for not shipping...been sick, been busy, having issues polishing can stones, etc. But every time it was "I'll ship this week" or " today". And I'm just done.

At some point, enough is enough! I’d say you’ve had more than enough patience. You need to get your stone back and money returned.

 

[pwsg07]

The same situation has happened to me. Is the vendor a young man?

 

[Wewechew]

I'd be done as well. I think starting a claim on Friday is the best course of action. I'm sorry you're having to deal with this and I hope you get your stone back!

 

[lovedogs]

Thanks, all! Instagram told me he read my message, but no reply from him yet. I hate to "call people out", but I think others need to know about this, because it's just unacceptable. Its "exotic gemstones" on Instagram, and he has an etsy store as well.

Timeline is as follows:

Mid July we agree on stones, prices, etc and I pay. He says he'll have them done in 1 week (but maybe longer). A few days later I send him my stone for a recut.

4-5 days later (late July) he says he finished 1 of my stones, but the recut stone didn't come in the mail yet.

1 day later the recut one arrives.

3 days later (still July), recut is finished and he sends me a video. I pay his recut fee.

August 19th he says he's finishing today and he's shipping tomorrow.

August 26th I ask what's up, and no reply.

Sept 25th I ask what's up, no reply.

Oct 28th I ask again, and he says he's shipping them "shortly".

Nov 5th we talk about random other things (potential future stones).

Dec 11th I tell him I'm really concerned. He says he will ship today.

Yesterday I tell him enough, and that I'm filing the PP dispute Friday.

 

[strawrose]

I’m so sorry for the situation. Thank you for giving us important information.

Thankfully, mine wasn’t from him.

 

[strawrose]

Also, did they just close their Etsy?

 

[lovedogs]

Also, did they just close their Etsy?

No idea, his Etsy was never that active. He has a website with stuff on it though.

 

[Wewechew]

Also, did they just close their Etsy?

It appears so.

 

[ChaiK]

I hope all goes well. How irresponsible and dishonest of them. They are dishonest for lying to you about sending it out “today”. Thank you for telling.

 

[Burmesedaze]

So sorry to hear about this. If he is unable to provide an acceptable explanation after all this time, it's time to file the dispute.

 

[chroman]

Arrrg! How horrible!

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

So sorry @lovedogs. You have been more then patient. Glad you shared your experience so others can be warned and avoid this vendor.

 

[PinkAndBlueBling]

I have purchased from him before. I've even returned a stone to him and had it replaced with one more to my liking. Right now I'm waiting for him to cut an aqua for me. I paid ages ago. I also noticed he hasn't posted on his Insta in almost two months, which is rare. He tends to cut all his orders, then mail them all out, instead of mailing as he cuts. He is slow, but I've never been worried about him. I will reach out to him and to the PSer who has used him a lot, and see what's up, if anything.

 

[Rare gem lover]

He makes good eventually, and he’s been quite ill for a while now. Had a major issue I don’t need to talk about on such a public forum. I’m positive you’ll get your money back if that’s what you really want. Really Sorry about all the trouble you had to go through, but this person you are talking about is not unethical.

 

[PinkAndBlueBling]

I heard from him. He's been sick. Very. I will say that he is a nice, responsible young man. He has always responded quickly to my messages. He is NOT dishonest, and that descriptor is not fair. Please don't judge him by this or ruin his reputation. That would be awful.

 

[lovedogs]

I'm certainly not trying to ruin his reputation! I like him, and think he's a nice person. However, it just isn't ok to have 600+ dollars and not at least send the stones he's finished. Or to not give me a refund.

 

[lovedogs]

Update. He responded saying he's been very sick and that he will have them l shipped by Friday. We will see if I get tracking info by then, because if not I feel like I have no choice but to file the dispute .

 

[amoline]

As a casual observation... Though I've not been around as long as many posters here... it seems that vendors never tank in the eyes of PS'ers for being slow. They do, however, careen off the edge when they suddenly stop communicating/replying.

I run my photo business. It's a 20 second ordeal to post on your FB/website/email sig "Attention clients -- Hey folks. I have been seriously ill recently, and as such a delay of up to XYZ may impact services. For any information on how this may impact you, or any concerns, please contact..."

^ literally 20 seconds.

Edit to add - I naturally hope the vendor recovers soon, and of course nobody wants to ruin his reputation, but on the other hand there are a great many steps as a vendor that could (should) be taken before a PS thread like this ever gets made.

 

[lovedogs]

As a casual observation... Though I've not been around as long as many posters here... it seems that vendors never tank in the eyes of PS'ers for being slow. They do, however, careen off the edge when they suddenly stop communicating/replying.

I run my photo business. It's a 20 second ordeal to post on your FB/website/email sig "Attention clients -- Hey folks. I have been seriously ill recently, and as such a delay of up to XYZ may impact services. For any information on how this may impact you, or any concerns, please contact..."

^ literally 20 seconds.

Edit to add - I naturally hope the vendor recovers soon, and of course nobody wants to ruin his reputation, but on the other hand there are a great many steps as a vendor that could (should) be taken before a PS thread like this ever gets made.

This is exactly how I feel.

 

[elle_71125]

As a casual observation... Though I've not been around as long as many posters here... it seems that vendors never tank in the eyes of PS'ers for being slow. They do, however, careen off the edge when they suddenly stop communicating/replying.

I run my photo business. It's a 20 second ordeal to post on your FB/website/email sig "Attention clients -- Hey folks. I have been seriously ill recently, and as such a delay of up to XYZ may impact services. For any information on how this may impact you, or any concerns, please contact..."

^ literally 20 seconds.

Edit to add - I naturally hope the vendor recovers soon, and of course nobody wants to ruin his reputation, but on the other hand there are a great many steps as a vendor that could (should) be taken before a PS thread like this ever gets made.

This exactly! I understand that he's been sick and that's truly unfortunate but he had multiple chances to let @lovedogs know what's going on (over the course of many months) and he chose not to. As someone who runs a business, that is unacceptable. Communication is key!

 

[marymm]

Yeah, I don't really care about the vendor's personal/health situation, it doesn't excuse the extremely long delay, it doesn't excuse the repeated false promises of completion/shipment ... these things translate to the vendor being unethical; that's exactly what he is being. And, if he truly has some kind of personal situation causing months' long backlog, he should have been transparent about it particularly with people who already paid, and it still doesn't excuse his repeated false assurances of "it's done, it's almost done, it's shipped, it's being shipped." Simply inexcusable in my books.

And to the posters sticking up for him - are you kidding me? A 6 month delay? Repeated lies about project status/shipment? Do you not know the definition of unethical? Unethical = unfair, fraudulent, dishonest, wrong, deceitful. And just because you happen to be "in the know" (supposedly) about this vendor, why on earth would that color his treatment of OP and other similarly-situated customers as valid and acceptable? I really don't believe you posters who are supporting this vendor because you "know" him and his supposed backstory would be okay with this kind of treatment yourselves from any vendor who kept your money for months and lied to you about shipment.

 

[strawrose]

I learned over the years to no longer purchase things through friends who make things themselves. One completely forgot an order and the other I had to push to finish on time, because they didn’t even start until 2 weeks before the wedding (dress). Just because you like them, it doesn’t mean they are responsible people.

 

[sydneyatl]

I thinks lovedogs has already been extremely reasonable about the situation (and far more patient than I would have been, for sure). I don’t see her blaming him for being sick or for having personal issues or having to delay projects for the aforementioned issues. The mistake is in straight up lying about shipments and progress that clearly hasn’t happened.

This reminds me of the whole DanielM debacle a few years ago. Personally I will not be putting my money towards either of these vendors.

 

[whitewave]

As a casual observation... Though I've not been around as long as many posters here... it seems that vendors never tank in the eyes of PS'ers for being slow. They do, however, careen off the edge when they suddenly stop communicating/replying.

I run my photo business. It's a 20 second ordeal to post on your FB/website/email sig "Attention clients -- Hey folks. I have been seriously ill recently, and as such a delay of up to XYZ may impact services. For any information on how this may impact you, or any concerns, please contact..."

^ literally 20 seconds.

Edit to add - I naturally hope the vendor recovers soon, and of course nobody wants to ruin his reputation, but on the other hand there are a great many steps as a vendor that could (should) be taken before a PS thread like this ever gets made.

It sounds like he is very sick, like maybe cancer sick? My DH had cancer when we were in our late 20s, so it does happen.

I hope he can get some help where either you can get your stones back, or a refund.

 

[lovedogs]

I thinks lovedogs has already been extremely reasonable about the situation (and far more patient than I would have been, for sure). I don’t see her blaming him for being sick or for having personal issues or having to delay projects for the aforementioned issues. The mistake is in straight up lying about shipments and progress that clearly hasn’t happened.

This reminds me of the whole DanielM debacle a few years ago. Personally I will not be putting my money towards either of these vendors.

This. Of course I don't blame him for being sick, and I'm very sorry for any hardship he's experiencing. However, he has a complete recut of my stone (which I paid $200 for the stone and $50 for recut), that he's just not sending, along with others that may or may not be complete and also not sent. If they are complete, why not send them? Ups will pick up from your house to send. If the others aren't complete, he needed to tell me that and offer a refund. Honestly at this point I just want my money and recut stone back.

 

[digdeep]

If you are the sole proprietor of a business you are wearing many hats and what's simple when life is 'normal' can be nigh impossible in a storm.