ComplaintsforVirginia Candle Supply

• Initial Complaint

  03/22/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I placed an order on 3/9/24 and received 2 confirmation emails that the order was ready to pick up on 3/11/24. I placed this order because my sister would be about 40 min from there and agreed to drive that distance to help me out as I needed this ASAP for an order that I’ve now lost. Upon arriving my sister found that there was no one to answer the door. I told her to try to drive around back and see if she could see anyone. She did and saw someone going in the back and got her attention and asked about my order. She was told there would be no orders available to pick up this week because the manager was out of the country and it said so on the website. My sister called & put me on speakerphone. I asked the woman if she could give me the number of the manager so that I could talk to them. I had my sister show her the screenshots of the emails that stated I could pick up my order between the hours that were shown for pick up on the website. Her name was Raysha. She said there was no way to pick it up and I should not have gotten the email. After many emails back-and-forth with the manager they are not willing to cover the $***** shipping charge. I feel they should cover it because I provided them with screenshots of every Part of their website and there was nothing that said they would be closed and nothing that said you could not pick up your order that week. Also, the person who has emailed, accused me of cursing the employee. I have a video that has audio of the entire off screen conversation. I did not this day and I have never once in my life nor has my sister cursed any employee anywhere at any time. It seems that any business that would find theirself in this situation where a customer bought something and was told it could be picked up and drove to the facility to pick it up and they were not there and nothing was posted where the order was taken online Would be willing to ship it at their expense. But I had to pay the extra ****** and I have paid.

  Business response

  03/26/2024

  We appreciate the customer's business and regret that she was inconvenienced in any way when she was unable to pick up her order on the day that she arrived to pick up her order. We had posted on our social media (attached social media posts) on February 28 and March 12 stating that our retail store would be closed. We are not sure how the customer received an email stating that her order had been shipped. We think that the order was accidentally marked as shipped, and this was an error on our behalf. Unfortunately, when the customer arrived at our facility to pick up her order, the order was not ready and we did not have staff available to prepare the order for pick up. The front door was locked, therefore indicating that we were closed. Just because there were people in the building, did not mean that someone was available to assist the customer. If you go to Wal-Mart and the doors are locked, do you drive around back to see if someone can let you in the building to get what you need? 

  We had more than one employee tell us that they were cussed at when the customer was not allowed to pick up the order. We apologize if this was not the case, but it is what we were told happened; by a very reliable employee. Maybe there were not cuss words used, but getting hateful and yelling at the employees was not the proper resolution. Normally, if a customer chooses to yell at our employees, we will no longer do business with those people. In this case, we sent an email and apologized for any inconvenience that was caused by the miscommunication that the order was "shipped." We have told the customer that she can pick up her order; pay to have it shipped to her; or we will refund the order. However, we will not cover the shipping cost. 

  Our business was closed. We had posted that we were going to be closed for weeks in advance of our being closed. The doors were locked, and this does not mean to see if you can find another way to get what you want. Unfortunately, we were short staffed during this time and no one was available to prepare the order. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this caused the customer. 

  Customer response

  03/26/2024

   
  Complaint: ********
  I am rejecting this response because:
  Still, there is no adequate acceptance of responsibility from the business. It cannot be just good enough to post on a social media site if you’re going to be completely closed. There are many of us that do not have social media accounts and even some having them that do not look at them on a weekly or daily basis. If I order and pay on the company website, that should be where information is given.  If I receive 2 emails saying it’s ready, why would I assume otherwise? Who would think, “oh I should create a Facebook and check that to be sure they are open” That is absolutely Absurd. The payment had cleared, funds were debited from my account. No information stated any type of delay. It is useless to argue about the “cussing”  (I am fairly sure the proper word is cursing) just false accusations to which I have audio proving otherwise. I have offered to send this recording from the dash camera to the manager, but she had no response to the email. I cannot send it via email as it is a video file and too long to attach. I’m sure she did not want to see it because the allegations of yelling and “cussing” her verbiage, are intentionally falsified simply to have a recourse to the bad management. The fact of someone on speaker phone talking loudly is not the same as yelling. I told her more than once I’m sorry I’m very frustrated and I know it isn’t your fault. She said the manager is out of the county and I’d need to email her.  If I had paid for my items, had a pick up scheduled at Wal-mart, got an email saying it was ready to pick up, and nobody was there to bring it out, yes I would call. If nobody answered I would try to find someone to help. If in my business I was in the opposite place I would have said, this is my fault, I apologize for the confusion and delay in your products arriving and I will gladly ship your purchase at my expense bc this was an error on our end in several ways. Sadly, I fully expect this business to be closed in a year. I hope the owner, if different from the management will see this and make some modifications to their management. 
  Sincerely,
  
  ****

• Initial Complaint

  09/11/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I received two rancid bottles of oil (Fraser Fir) from this company. I lost a batch of candles because of it. The manager was awful to deal with and offered little to no resolution. First, I don't mind sending a sample in for them to test, but it should be at their expense. I was challenged and made to feel as though I wasn't being honest because she stated they checked the batch in the warehouse and all was good. I asked for the name of the owners so I could correspond with them directly and was told they hadn't been at that location in over two years. She refused to give their names which I later found on Linkedin. I've worked customer service for over 34 years managing resolution calls and always treated my customers with respect. No return label was offered and no credit to my account or refund offered once they find that the oil truly is rancid. We are a small business, but have large client base and spend a lot of money with this company. I'm very disappointed at how they handled this situation. They never responded to my original email or voicemail I left them to address the concern. The girl who answered my call is the one who should be managing. Morgan, the manager, was just awful to work with.

  Business response

  09/28/2023

  We regret that the customer was not happy with the product that she received, and feels that the fragrance oil she received was rancid. We did request the customer to send us a 1 oz. sample of the fragrance that she received so we could send it to the lab for further testing and to verify that she received the correct fragrance. We did not intend to make the customer feel as though she was lying about the fragrance oil being rancid; however, we did verify our stock and there were no issues with the fragrance oil that we had in stock. This is why we asked her to send a sample and explained to her that if the sample proved to be rancid or indeed was bad, we would issue a store credit for the fragrance oil, as this is our policy. Our policies clearly state that any returns are at the expense of the customer. If there is something wrong with the product, we would then be responsible for the return shipping.

  It is not our company policy to give out the names and phone numbers of the owners of our company. The names of the owners were given, just not the personal phone numbers. The owners names are public knowledge, so there would have been no reason to not give this information. This would be like asking for the owners personal phone numbers from any company; it is not generally given out. So, I'm not sure why this was such an issue. The owners (Phil & Sherri Mowdy) are retired and do not report into the office on a regular basis. The do not handle the day to day operations of the business. This is handled by 2 managers that are on site. Whether or not the managers are related to the owners should have no bearing or importance regarding this issue. 

  The sample of the fragrance oil was received from the customer on 09/15/23. We immediately opened the sample and smelled them. The fragrance oil sample that was received smells exactly like what is in our stock and like it has always smelled. In our opinion, there was nothing wrong with the fragrance oil sample that was returned to us. We have sent the sample to the lab for specific testing to see if we are missing something. This was sent out to the lab on 09/18/23. The lab testing process can take 2-3 weeks to get results. 

  It should have been communicated to the customer that if the oil was found to be rancid, she would receive a store credit on her account for the fragrance oil. However, if the testing proved that the fragrance oil was as it should be; there would be no refund or store credit for the fragrance oil. We apologize if this was miscommunicated. 

  We regret that the customer was not pleased with the way the customer service was handled. Morgan ******* is a very good manager, and most of our customers are happy to deal with her. We have never had any complaints regarding how Morgan deals with customers and she is usually able to rectify any situation without there being further issues. 

  We address all voicemails and emails in the order they are received; and try to respond to all messages within 24-48 hours. In some instances, due to staffing issues, we are not able to respond in this time period. If you called back before the original email and voicemail were answered, this was probably the delay. 

  We have attached a screenshot of our terms and conditions, which every customer must agree to before they are able to complete an online order. We will reach out to this customer again when we receive the results from the lab for the testing of the Fraser Fir fragrance oil. 

  Business response

  09/29/2023

  Again, we are sorry that you feel this way. We would like to reach a resolution that it good for both of us. We appreciate your business and do not want to see you take your business elsewhere. The manager being the daughter of the owners has nothing to do with how this is being handled. She could be wrong, just like anyone else. As described in the earlier email, upon initial scent test, the Fraser Fir smells like every other ounce of this that we have in our building. We have sent the sample that you sent to the lab for further testing, but this could take 2-3 weeks to get a response. Your time and ours is valuable, so rather than going back and forth, I would like to offer a 50% refund for the Fraser Fir. I feel this would be fair to both of us until we get the results from the lab. If the lab deems that the Fraser Fir is bad, we would then offer you an additional refund for the balance. I look forward to hearing from you. 

  Customer response

  09/29/2023

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********* and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me at this time. It appears to be the best resolution they are willing to offer. I will still buy our wax from them (which I placed an order today for about ******), but I will not buy any other fragrance oils from them. The process is just to time consuming for the consumer when other companies make it much easier. 
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Julie S*******

• Initial Complaint

  07/10/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I placed an order for my company on the 2nd of July. Being a holiday I gave it a bit to get here. The monies were taken out of my account immediately. I called twice during business hours multiple times and left 2 messages and no one called me back. I finally today 7 days after order, emailed their support email. I have the emails still, they said they would try to find my order? This is as of today unacceptable. I have emailed them for the 5th time today asking for a call or refund the monies paid for shipping and the product. No response. I have all correspondence from them should you need it.

  Business response

  07/31/2023

  We spoke with the customer and explained what happened with the order. We also explained that she had not received a response because our offices were closed when she attempted to contact us. We reshipped the customers order to her after verifying her shipping address. We believe the customer was satisfied with our resolution. 

• Initial Complaint

  01/23/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I placed an order for wax it is supposed to be 11.25 pounds. I weighed it when I got it it is 10.6 I called they said they would credit my account on my next purchase. They didn't I have pics of the product as well if needed.. today I went to get on thier site to find out how to return an item from the order they didn't credit. They put an Ip block on me and I have no access to thier website. They need to fix this and refund me my money because now it's for a full product and partial for the one they ripped me off on.

  Business response

  01/25/2023

  We have attached copies of all the invoices for the 2 orders that Mr. Rogers is complaining about, and a copy of the page from the website that explains why he only received 10.65 lbs. of wax instead of the 11.25 lbs. This weight is approximate, and it says that in the product listing where he purchased the item. We have also attached a copy of the full refund for his most recent order. In addition, we have replied to Mr. Rogers with an email explaining the issues with his orders, and have included a copy of the email that we have sent to him. Mr. Rogers has called our office almost every day for the past 2 weeks, and some days called 20-25 times. We tried to answer the phone and address his issues; however, this was very hard to do when he was screaming, yelling, and cussing at the person that answered the phone. On several occasions, we asked him to please quit screaming and yelling and cussing or we would disconnect the call. Today when he called, he threated to drive to Tennessee and "kick our ass" and "take us to court." In our email, we asked Mr. Rogers to please take his business somewhere else because we do not wish to continue to do business with anyone who treats our team members this way. 

*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. ↩