Wicked Lasers - wickedly bad service?

[carmangary]

I ordered a pair of goggles from these guys. The pair I ordered was the 650nm Sport Elite goggles. The specs on their web page say OD1.5 in the 650nm area which is good for my application. I received the goggles and written on them it says OD5+ in the 650nm range. I can't even see my red laser with these things. I have no problem with the quality of the goggles but they are clearly not what was advertised.

I write to Wicked to let them know of the error and they say they upgraded me because the LaserShades were not in stock. The "LaserShades" are a cheaper pairt of goggles they sell but NOT the ones that I ordered or got charged for. So, they are very wrong on that.

I wrote back and told them I expect a full refund (including shipping). It took a couple days but they wrote back and said they would "refund my order in full". They also said to use Global Express mail so it could be trackable. I did as they asked and it cost me $20 to ship them to them.

They have now received the goggles and refunded me for the price of the goggles only. They did not refund the shipping charges to me or from me. I have lost $39.98 on this deal due to their error in advertising.

Their communications are also very poor. When I placed the order, I never received a confirmation, even though I asked for one. I just received the goggles a week later. Written on the customs form it said "Sunglasses - value $0". That is a bit shady, as well.

When I returned the goggles, they told me to write "Defective inkpen - value $0" on the customs form.

This company will lie in the advertising.
This company will lie to you about refunds.
This company will lie to customs about what they are shipping.

In short, this company lies. You MAY get some good service out of them but you may be better off to just avoid them.

I will never do business with this company again.

[BoomDog]

Hi carmangary,
I won't even try and pretend I'm not biased about WL, and I'm sorry you had such an experience. I can even agree with you on a few parts, but I think you are being rather harsh.

I've purchased multiple lasers and equipment from them, including goggles, and I do agree with you that they have issues with sending too high of an OD than advertised; I've had it happen myself. I also agree with you that their shipping methods are less than favorable, as you are right about the customs declarations.

Having said that, I don't know a SINGLE company that will EVER refund shipping charges, and anyone who expects that over an online transaction is, in my opinion naive. That's just something that you expect and risk when you purchase things online.

Also, having purchased/received multiple several lasers and goggles from them, I've had my fair share of returns and complaints. I had one laser arrive DOA, which although shipping costs had to be paid they upgraded me to the next highest laser for free. The goggles they incorrectly sent me (wrong OD) were also quickly replaced with no questions. I've found that if you respect them, they respect you. Now unfortunately you'll always have cases that fall through the cracks, which is regretful. But after being around their forums for 18 months I've heard much much more positive results than negative when it comes to returns.

Are their customs methods unusual and sketchy? Certainly, and I always feel strange submitting an RMA in that method. Can they make mistakes? Definitely, I've seen it too; I don't know of a single company that doesn't. But they almost always come through and are always working to improve their services and products, which is more than I can say for alot of laser (handheld or otherwise) companies.

[carmangary]

I have always been refunded shipping charges when it was the fault of the company that I had to return an item. Also, I specifically said I expected them to pay for all shipping prior to making arrangement for returning the goggles and they agreed.

A customer should NEVER EVER have to pay for the mistakes of a company. Anyone who lets a company get away with it is naive. Wicked Lasers lied to me and are unethical. Period. As an example of acceptable service; I just recently had a watch break due to a poorly designed wristband. It was bought online and the company is sending out a replacement watch with a postage paid label to return the broken one. No shipping charges for me to pay.

Also, they have not even given me an explanation for why they did not refund the shipping. The only notification I received was the PayPal notification that showed that they did a PARTIAL refund.

[BoomDog]

I would love it if all companies refunded shipping charges due to their mistake, but I've just learned the hard way over the past few years that the reality is that the chances of getting such charges refunded are few and far between depending on the products you buy. If they weren't, I'd probably have at least $100 more of my own money (and mind you I'm talking about online vendors in general, not WL). I think it's just one of the things that have become 'standard' over the internet, and anything better is an extra courtesy and should be highly revered. I've complained for hours over the phone, sent email after email, and have talked to several managers but the problem is that these companies are so seemingly disconnected from the rest of the world that it is nearly impossible to force them to change their ways, even for a single transaction. When that happens, I merely choose to never do business with them again, just as you have. That's just my 2 cents though.

Best of luck resolving your situation.

[carmangary]

You're missing the point. I asked them and they agreed to refund the shipping charges BEFORE I ever sent the goggles back. If they didn't agree to it I would have just kept them and sold them on Ebay or at the least I wouldn't have paid extra for Global Express mail with tracking to send them back to them as they asked. I would have used whatever was cheapest.

[carmangary]

Well, I resolved my situation with Wicked Lasers... or at least we came to an agreement. I was refunded all the money in the form of PayPal and Wicked Bucks. Maybe I'll try the cheaper/weaker LaserShades... or maybe I'll just take it as a loss.