"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me
twice, shame on me." Sometimes the old aphorisms are true.
Even after posting my
last
entry about LDS Leather, I still decided to give them a try
because I
really wanted a couple of their service dog
clip-on patches to go with my new Har-Vest. Boy, was it a big
mistake to give LDS Leather another chance!
I placed an order for two patches on August 1st. When I processed
the order online, I noticed that they were mistakenly charging me
Oklahoma sales tax (I live in Nevada), and put in the order notes
that they needed to manually correct this.
A day later, I received an invoice, still showing the wrong total,
followed by an email saying (in part):
In order to fill your order, we must be provided the
phone number associated with the credit card used for payment of
the order. Your issuing bank suggested that we not fill the order
until a proper phone number is provided.
This sounded fishy to me, since I have an unlisted number and don't
provide it to
anyone on a routine basis. This has never
been an issue before with either my bank or reliable vendors, so I
sent back the following response:
My issuing bank does not HAVE my telephone number; it's
unlisted. I've been successfully performing such transactions
without giving out my unlisted number for many, many years. The
problem is more likely to be with your merchant account or payment
processor.
If it is *your* company's policy that is preventing the
transaction, that's a different conversation. However, if it truly
*is* the bank, please provide me with the transaction number at
issue, and I will raise the roof with them directly. This has never
happened before, and I can absolutely guarantee that if it *is* my
bank, it will never happen again after I speak with them.
I look forward to some further illumination on the issue from
you.
As you can see, I was willing to assume that there
was a
legitimate problem processing the transaction, and was more than
willing to help LDS Leather resolve them. I even let them know
that, if they were trying to enforce some internal policy, that
this wasn't the right way to go about it. However, they weren't
done yanking my chain.
In response to my reasonable email, I get this back from "Karen" at
LDS Leather:
I spoke with your issuing bank. We view your entering a
phone number such as 999-999-9999 as intentionally providing
inaccurate information to a merchant you wish to accept financial
risk on your behalf. It is clear that you do not wish to provide
either email or phone contact information. We do not wish to
provide services under such circumstances. Both your issuing bank
and our processing company vigorously support our level of
security.
So, despite that fact that we're clearly communicating using a
working email address, she states that I won't provide an email
address. She's still going on about my unwillingness to provide a
cagey and unresponsive vendor with a telephone number that I don't
provide to anyone, and asserting that it's
my bank that's
raising the fuss instead of owning up to it herself. One should
also note that she made a point of not providing me with the
authorization number for the transaction that she claims was
declined by my bank, which I'd specifically asked for; I thought
that was highly suspicious under the circumstances.
So of
course I immediately called my bank. I had them look
up the transaction, which they said had already been approved for
payment several days ago. So, not only had LDS Leather lied to me
about there being a problem, they had already processed my payment
and were now refusing to send me the patches I'd paid (and
overpaid!) for unless I coughed up my unlisted telephone
number.
I don't know what Karen could possibly have been thinking. Did she
really believe I couldn't simply call my credit card company to
find out the truth? This seems remarkably naive. What could she
possibly gain by trying to mislead me about the source of the
problem? I was mystified, and more than a little angry.
I wrote another email, setting out my expectations at this point.
*I* just spoke with my issuing bank. They tell me that
they authorized a payment of $31.03 to you on August 2, with
authorization number [redacted]. So, not only did you overcharge me
by improperly collecting sales tax, you have told me something
patently untrue: that a transaction has been declined when you have
in fact already sent it through and received approval.
Because I'm a reasonable person, I will give you a choice:
- You may complete my purchase for $28.73, unless you are
authorized to collect sales tax for the state of Nevada.
- You may cancel the purchase and refund my money in full.
However, unless we reach an immediate accommodation, I still
reserve the right to contact both the Better Business Bureau and
your state's Attorney General regarding deceptive business
practices. Lying to customers--or potential customers--is never
acceptable, and taking money for products you don't intend to
deliver is surely actionable.
The fact that *you* don't like the working email address I've
provided, or that you don't respect my right to an unlisted
telephone number, is quite beside the point. You could have
accepted or rejected the purchase based on that, rather than
resorting to deceptive and possibly illegal tactics.
I await your response.
After sending the email, I did something I should have done in the
first place: I cruised on over to the
Oklahoma BBB to
see what they had to say about LDS Leather Company. I should have
done this before deciding to do business with them, as they clearly
have an
unsatisfactory
record with the bureau at this point in time.
Regardless of what happens next, the whole situation has left a
very bad taste in my mouth. This whole experience stands in sharp
contrast to the positive experiences I've had with other SD
equipment vendors such as
SitStay,
Har-Vest, and
Raspberry Field. I'd
definitely recommend these three responsive and responsible
businesses over LDS Leather any day.
Sometimes being an advocate, whether for privacy or disability
rights, means "taking one for the team." I certainly think I'm
doing that now, and hope others can benefit from my
experience.