Wicked refusing to refund

I ordered the Arctic ages ago and just over a month ago asked Wicked Lasers (and repeated the request several times and via several channels) for a refund, but have been totally ignored; not even a refusal, just totally blanked.

Do I have any kind of recourse? Has anyone else had this experience with WL?

How did you pay for it?

Visa debit card.

EDIT: Actually I asked for a refund the very day before I was sent an email announcing the G2 was ready to begin shipping. I'd be happy to just get a G2 instead of a refund, though I certainly won't do business with Wicked again. Has anyone been receiving their G2s at all?

Call your bank as soon as possible and see if you can perform a chargeback, though depending on how long it has been and the bank, that option may already be closed. When possible it's better to pay with a real credit card as they have better fraud protections; debit cards tend to vary widely depending on the bank.

Good luck.

It's entirely possible that you may still get the laser, I know a couple people were fighting to get a refund and had the laser delivered.

Aizen said:

Visa debit card.

EDIT: Actually I asked for a refund the very day before I was sent an email announcing the G2 was ready to begin shipping. I'd be happy to just get a G2 instead of a refund, though I certainly won't do business with Wicked again. Has anyone been receiving their G2s at all?

Click to expand...

Several members have received G2s. Do a search.

I've just trawled through my statements online; I paid for the laser on July 30. I first asked for a refund on August 13, and again on both August 15 and 19. I also requested a refund via the "live chat" feature of WL's website several times; I don't have dates for those attempts.

Is it conceivable that WL's backlogged emails of attempts to bail when the G2 seemed to be vaporware could really result in a (so far) delay of a month in refunding? Is there some kind of innocent explanation?

For one of my failed purchases I used my debit card. I had to file an erroneous charge form. My card was then canceled. It cost me $15 the price of a new new card and I had to wait two weeks for a new card. I got all my money back though. Now I strictly use my credit card or paypal for online transactions.

Hope this helps
Udanis

No innocent explanation.
I tried for weeks to get a refund from Wicked Lasers (via email and the chat) to no avail.
I then filed a charge-back with my credit card, and the next day I got an email from Wicked saying that they sent my G2 Arctic.
4 days later I had it in my hand, so I canceled my charge-back with my bank.

I think at this point Wicked is playing "hardball", so file a chargeback with your bank to get Wicked to send you your laser right away. :thinking:

I honestly think that maybe WL haven't seen your emails, or at least the right person hasn't.

This is because others have posted about successful refunds, even after receiving their Arctics, but only when they actually had their request read.

Have you tried their Livechat service? I've used that a few times from the UK. I always tried it around 9-10pm GMT.

Try accessing the Livechat service from their support page

Wicked Lasers - Powered By Kayako SupportSuite

You have to register and log in though I think, at least I always did.

I didn't manage to get though each time I wanted, and had to wait and try later a couple of times, but when I did my issues were dealt with fast, and as I'd have expected. In one case, better than I'd hoped.

Also, in one of their automated announcement emails they state...

... "If for any reason, you would like to receive a refund prior to
shipping, please notify us immediately by sending us an email with
"Cancel order [order number]" in the subject field."

Have you tried that?

I hadn't tried that particular phrasing; I'd had "Refund order XXXXX" in the subject field. I've sent off an email with that subject now, thanks for digging that up for me. I'll call my bank in the morning and find out about their charge-back policy and give WL a few days to get back to me before going through with it.

I'm also looking into your Live Chat link; in the past I've always used the icon on their front page to contact them without e-mail; I always did wonder at the misnomer of "live" chat being appelled to that.

Thanks a lot for your advice, I've got three practical remedies to attempt now, I hope all goes well.

I used the email but in the subject line you have put : CANCEL ORDER XXXXX (your order number) and they should cancel your order. It worked for me.

Did WL actually say "we refuse to refund" or are you
assuming that...:thinking:

Are you asking for a refund for an Arctic that you received...
or are you asking to cancel the order before receiving your
Arctic..:thinking:


Jerry

The refund was the only thing WL did right for me. If you follow a certain proceedure you should get a prompt reply, and you should have till the end of the month to file a chargeback with your bank if necessary.


1. Log into their support portal. (Wicked Lasers - Powered By Kayako SupportSuite)
2. Select the option "Please Refund/Cancel my order"

Ticket Header should include the word "REFUND", your order number, and I also like to put the amount in the header as well...

REFUND order# 53484 ($342.92)

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In the body of the ticket I put the following information..

Since I have yet to receive any response to any of my inquiries that was not automated these funds need to be in my bank account by Friday or I will have to assume you are ignoring this request like all the others and will be forced to initiate a chargeback through my bank.

Total for both orders is $342.92, order details are below.

Transaction for the value of: USD 317.93
Description: Spyder III Pro Arctic Series x 1
From: Energy Technology Development Limited
Merchant's cart ID: 53484
Pre-Authorisation Date/Time: 21/Jun/2010 00:49:57
RBS WorldPay's transaction ID: 1090323056
This is not a tax receipt.

Transaction for the value of: USD 24.99
Description: additional expanded lens kit Order id 53484
From: Energy Technology Development Limited
Merchant's cart ID: VT-01-
Pre-Authorisation Date/Time: 02/Jul/2010 17:33:06
RBS WorldPay's transaction ID: 1392583805

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"By Friday" gave them 3 days to process the refund which is a completely reasonable amount of time. They responded to it first thing the following morning and I had the funds back in my account in 2 days.

It is important to have the word REFUND in the header so they can more easily identify it as a refund, and for prompt attention you want to be sure to include any necessary information such as your order numbers and any relevant information in regards to your order.

I also suspect the threat to file a chargeback is a motivating factor for them as they have already had so many filed that they are getting locked out and black flagged by many financial institutions so they are trying to avoid any more chargebacks. Give them a reasonable time frame for the refund (I suggest 3 days), then if they don't respond follow through with the chargeback.

I have registered two tickets at WickedLasers requesting status update. And have requested a refund if delivery could not be fullfilled within X days etc etc. No replies. After a while they closed my tickets without any responses.

Now I got this mail in the mailbox:

wickedlasers said:

Your order was shipped out 09/14 and you will receive it within 3-5 days.

We can provide you with the tracking number but we will have to respectfully request that you keep the info confidential.

Thank you very much for your patience.

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Why do they want me to keep the tracking number confidential? And why do I have to request it separately?

Why did they even ship the order when requesting a refund? Since I had outstanding questions I did not follow their absolute guidelines of absolute cancel/refund. However, they should under no circumstances ship my order just like this.

Do you have any suggestions on what I should do to make them give me a refund? I think this is on them, since I repeatedly requested refunds if certain criterias wasn't met or verbally guaranteed.


Last ticket history
---------------------------
Order 48755

Ticket DetailsTicket ID: KKK-448156 Department: I have a general question.
Status: Closed Priority: Low
Created On: 03 Aug 2010 09:01 PM Last Update: 16 Aug 2010 09:39 PM

Conversation

Mikael said:

Posted On: 03 Aug 2010 09:01 PM
Hello.

This mail is in regards to order 48755.

As you have failed to ship this laser for several months over due date, and the units received by various members has been below spec & had terrible beam profile (oval beam, not near TEM00 as stated), I wish to cancel my order IF and ONLY IF the final unit I receive will not have a better beam spec as stated in the specifications.

I have earlier asked you about the status of this order in ticket VVV-857787 without any response what so ever.

Best regards

Click to expand...

Mikael said:

Posted On: 16 Aug 2010 09:39 PM
Hello.

I am still waiting your reply.

Please answer now.

Best regards

Click to expand...

WickedLasers said:

Posted On: 25 Aug 2010 12:37 PM

Dear Wicked Lasers Customer,

In an effort to reorganize our support system and to serve you better, this ticket has been closed. If your issue is still unresolved, please create an account and open a new ticket here at http://wickedlasers.com/support. However, please open only one ticket for each issue. This will tremendously speed up our communications.

We are also pleased to announce that G2 Arctic lasers have commenced shipment. Customers who purchased first will receive priority status in the order of shipping. We again apologize to customers for the delays. We've learned a lot of lessons on how to expand manufacturing and we promise we will not disappoint in the future.

We appreciate your patience and look forward to doing business with you again.

Best Regards,

Wicked Lasers Support

Best Regards,

Jeice Cruz
Customer Support Team
Wicked Lasers

wlst001

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mhakali said:

Why do they want me to keep the tracking number confidential?

Click to expand...

They don't want people making tracking numbers publicly available as they are shipping in batches, if one tracking number from a batch gets out it could be enough for customs to seize the entire batch.

I don't know what the laws are in Sweden, but there is real doubt about these being legal to import into the US (here is what I've found), so WL is trying to make sure they don't have an entire shipment disappear on them.

mhakali said:

Why did they even ship the order when requesting a refund?

Click to expand...

It seems that they are ignoring requests, I'm not sure if it's because they lost so much money to {refunds|cancels} or if they've just given up on reading support tickets. On the upside though, you'll probably get your laser.

In one of the emails from WL it stated: If you want to cancel order put "CANCEL ORDER" with you order number in the subject line. It may not have been worded exactly like that, but it was close. Unless they see "CANCEL ORDER" in the subject line they will not respond. It gets a quick response when you do it the proper way!