ComplaintsforAmerican Patriots Apparel Llc

• Initial Complaint

  06/21/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Delivery Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On June 18th I placed an order for a T-shirt from this company. On June 20th, I received information that would no longer have me at the address originally addressed for shipping. I notified this company as well as a couple of other recent online orders placed. I requested that the shipping address be modified so that I can assure I’d be in receipt of the item. That request was denied my the chat person. I then requested a simple order cancellation and refund. This request was also denied. My order had not been shipped nor had I received any further information regarding shipping since I placed the order. A tracking number had not been generated for my order. I will not be able to be on the receiving end of this order. I feel that this company was being overly complicated. They could have just canceled my order.

  Business response

  06/21/2023

  This lady ****** ******* placed an order on June 18, 2023 @ 4:28 pm. We promptly placed the corresponding order for the T-Shirt she ordered with our supplier so that it would be sent out to her ASAP. All we were doing is trying to send her the T-Shirt she ordered to the address she ordered it to be shipped to. Our supplier can't always update orders shipping information after a certain amount of time because the product is already in production and that's just how they do things. We have knowledge of this from prior interactions with them. So, we simply informed the customer that unfortunately it is too late to update the shipping address since the supplier typically has that policy and since they are almost ready to ship the order. She then asked if she could cancel the order. So, I referred her to our Returns and Exchanges policy on our website * ************************************************************** *particularly to the first bullet point under #5) stating that we can't issue a refund at this time. That bullet point reads as follows, "The determining factor pertaining to whether or not we issue a refund in this scenario or not is whether or not the product(s) in your order have already been moved into “In Production” status on our end (you can’t see this status). If that has happened, then it is too late for us to issue a refund. Generally speaking, we give you a two hour grace period but again, if a given product in your order has already moved into “In Production” status, then we do not issue a refund even if it is prior to that 2 hour grace period."

  You can also see a screenshot of the aforementioned policy attached as a screenshot to this response.

  We have these policies set up as a small business for a reason. If we cannot be issued a refund then we take losses. Therefore, if that is the case, we naturally can't offer the customer a refund all the time in that scenario which is why we clearly communicate and post our policies online for instances like this. What happens is (no offense here) but whiny customers that are unreasonable like this may even be scamming the whole system. Here's what they do...

  1. They (in this case she) threatens your business with bad reviews and does in fact leave them simply for a company like us merely trying to deliver the product to the address she ordered it be shipped to and enforcing our policies.

  2. She disputes the card with her credit card and gets them to refund the money.

  3. Since the product is already ordered and it's too late for us to cancel with our supplier or update the shipping address, the product still goes out to the customer which essentially means she gets the product(s) for free and even worse than that, if we are forced into issuing her a refund because she opens up a claim with the credit card company, then we may even have to pay a dispute fee later. It's sabotage and it's totally unfair to merchants who run e-commerce stores like ours.

  I could endlessly go on here and provide more attachments, screenshots, etc. but honestly, this one lady who is well, spazzing over the fact that she wasn't on the ball enough to have a T-Shirt delivered to a proper address. She mentioned she would be able to pick it up after the fact at the address. So, I don't even know what her. problem is beside a slight inconvenience that she herself caused by not thinking ahead of where she was going to need the product shipped. 

  In conclusion, we told her this is out of our hands since we can't update the shipping address, and since we can't be issued a refund at this time by our supplier. We can't just take losses all the time and stay in business. Again, all we are doing is communicating and enforcing our own policies that are in place for a reason. Also, see our other policies (i.e. Shipping and Production * **************************************************************** Privacy Policy - *******************************************************, and Terms of Service - ***********************************************************

  If anything I think this lady probably knows how the system works and is trying to sabotage my business and has some sort of chip on her shoulder when people don't just give her everything she wants. Not every company or every supplier works the same. So, if others who she says she recently ordered with were able to update her shipping address and issue a refund that's potentially because they gave into to her unreasonable threats and bullying and/or because they have different suppliers who have different policies and/or because they as merchants have different policies than us as an organization. I'm sorry for the lengthy response but I just wanted to be clear as to what happened here in hopes that you will probably discount this woman's assault on our organization for merely trying to deliver a T-shirt to the address she had for a shipping address in her order (see attached screenshot).

  Business response

  06/26/2023

  In no way whatsoever did we spaz as a company. No one forced this lady to pay the price for the T-Shirt. The price of the shirt was actually $34.99. Shipping was $9.99 which is a flate standard shipping rate. That is what brought it to a total of $44.98. If you ordered one shirt or 10 it would have been $9.99 that is a way we try to encourage people to buy more products. If you buy more then only paying $9.99 doesn't seem bad. If you buy less it seems a bit high but only by a few dollars. We have chosen this as our business structure for this reason. Our polices are all stated on our store. You don't get to determine our polices. If we place an order with a supplier, then they tell us we can't update an order, then it is what it is and we can't and we couldn't especially since they had said they were about to ship the order and did only a little after a day of the night we had this communication via chat on our website. The order shirt/item was delivered in or at the mailbox at 10:22 am on June 22, 2023 in GREENVILLE, SC 29607 by way of USPS tracking # ********************** ****************************************************************************************. That is less than four days after the order was placed. It seems like this lady ***** wants to continue to be unreasonable and mandate her own policies on our company as if it is hers. We will continue to enforce our own companies clearly communicated products so that we don't go out of business as a small business when difficult customers like this one decide to do things that sabotage our business. It seems like she could care less that our business had already paid money to our supplier to get the shirt ordered and that we couldn't cancel the order since it was about to ship based on similar interactions we've had with them when other more reasonable customers have requested the same type of thing. We communicate the same thing to those other customers and they understood that at that point we would take a hit and lose money which is why we don't issue a refund (again which is why we communicate this on our website). Strangely enough we checked our records and we had only one other person thus far order something from Greenville, South Carolina and that other woman complained as well asking for a refund. I don't know if there is something in the water there or if maybe it's the same lady under another name (fake name) or what. Either way, the thousands of other customers we have are mostly happy with our store. There will always be the few who aren't. I'm moving forward focusing on the thousands knowing we do the best we can as a small business and feeling great that we had this product delivered in less than 4 days.

  Lastly, in the chat on our website ****** ******* (you) had said that you would make arrangements to pick it up after it was delivered and that you could even though it would be an inconvenience. Then you asked for the refund and we sent you to our policies page and explained why a refund was not possible at this time. You just didn't like it because you couldn't get your way. Honestly, I'm not sure what the big fuss is all about. Simple transaction... she (******) ordered a shirt. It was delivered less than 4 days later and you probably already picked the shirt up since it was now delivered four days ago. Next time be more on the ball so that when you place an order you put in a shipping address that you can actually pick up your shirt at without problem only 4 days after you place the order. Our policies aren't going anywhere. They are setup to protect our business. We aren't some rich company or some big business and we can't operate the same way they do for that reason and just allow everyone to return everything at the cost of us taking financial hits. If we had that open of a return policy then we would go out of business and not be able to sell any products to anyone. It sounds like that is exactly what this lady ****** ******* wants and could care less about anyone else but herself. Unlike other business who are all about money, our business isn't but we have to stay in business. Since we aren't all about the money, we don't think the customer is always right because clearly this is an example of them being wrong. I encourage people who are troublesome not to do business with our company because as a small business owner that is more trouble than it's worth. I would rather focus on the countless happy customers who love our products and have no problem with our policies than writing essays like this to defend our own common sense policies that are clearly outlined. Honestly, BBB do with this what you will. I hope you rule on the side of sanity and understand companies have the right to set policies and enforce them. We did nothing wrong here. I will be moving on and continuing to run my business. I've said more than enough and much more than I wanted to.

   

  Best Regards,

  Steve B. *********

  Owner

  American Patriots Apparel

  Customer response

  06/28/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  This business did not handle the issue properly from the start. I do not have an issue with the price of the shirt and I am well aware of the price breakdown. Additionally, like I previously stated my request was not off the wall. Inconveniences happen for the both parties sometimes. I gave them 2 options and they were unwilling to compromise with either. As far as the allegations and unnecessary comments about being from Greenville I assure you that this was my first and last time ever ordering from this company, however, I will be sure to share wherever I can how they feel about there potential Greenville customers. 
  I also find it interesting that they said this was delivered on the 22nd of June. I did not even receive tracking information until June 22nd (email attached) and when I tried to click on the tracking information the company has me blocked from seeing anything. I have not taken to Google or social media my opinions about this company and had not planned to but after reading the nasty unnecessary comments I definitely will at this point. I was only seeking resolve for my issue. I can not confirm or deny in this moment as to if the shirt is in the mailbox of that address but I will say that I never received tracking information until the 22nd (supposed delivery date) and the company blocked me from being able to see the information (forbidden access).  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ****** *******

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩