caribecatalog.com, poor customer service

riverfreak 12-01-2003, 6:25 PM

How many times have I plugged caribecatalog.com, damn tons, anytime I've found a good deal.....now they have no phone number so you can't even confirm if your item has acutally been placed, and it takes them hours to even respond with some computerized •••••••••••••••••

All of the items I have recently ordered were cancelled, showing that they were online, then I was sent an email saying that it took 20 minutes for the item online to be updated when it became out of stock.....

so I recently ordered this watch, my credit card was charged on 11-24, the item appeared online for 4 more days, so I email them a week later and the order has been cancelled.....wtf? thanks for letting me know...... what happened to the 20 minutes.......caribecatalog is a huge dissapointment and I have been ordering stuff for 3 years from them, but now you can't even talk with customer service on the phone/all of their phone numbers have been disconnected?........stick with your local board shop.....sorry I'm just pissed, a company like this should have better customer service.....

BUYER BEWARE

I would hate to know what the hell would happen if you had to send a damaged board back?

(maestro) · (maestro) **Join Date: Jun 2001** 12-01-2003, 8:38 PM

I ordered a bunch of stuff from them myself. Got almost all of it, except 1 pair of shorts and 1 shirt - which I was billed for. Actually, of the $230 on my actual order, only $185 was actually in stock and I wasn't given notice until my credit card was billed. I emailed them about the missing items earlier today ($15 total) and they said they'd refund the credit card, but only for the $10. So I gotta email them back and get it straightened out.

Obviously, it's never nice to have to deal with situations like this, but with the amount of products that I got for the price, I can't complain.

indywakechica 12-02-2003, 5:46 AM

Yeah I've had problems with their customer service too. Was just wanting to find out the status of an order before we went on a houseboat trip and it took forever. They finally emailed me back after getting nasty with them threatening to never order from them again and whatnot.

(maestro) · (maestro) **Join Date: Jun 2001** 12-02-2003, 9:36 AM

I emailed them back last night and when I checked my email this morning the refund 'reciept' from Paypal was in my inbox - for the exact amount I didn't get. So I'm pretty happy with how they handled the situation.

(jarrod) · (jarrod) **Join Date: May 2003** 12-02-2003, 9:43 AM

support your local board shops and they'll support you.

(tshmitty) · (tshmitty) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 12-02-2003, 1:06 PM

I have ordered through them also and was very dissapointed! So what did I do? I started my own online watersports store that should open January 1 2004.

I'll keep everyone posted, but I can tell you that you're experience will keep you coming back! Best prices/service/experience!

www.vmwake.com

Coming soon!

(tparider) · (tparider) **Join Date: Aug 2003** 12-03-2003, 7:57 AM

I ordered two wetsuits from them and only rec'd 1. They said that the 2nd one was no longer in stock, and that "it happens" - kind of like, "just deal with it buddy, there's nothing I'm going to do to help you out."

I wish there was a board shop within 45 minutes of me.

natter 12-03-2003, 1:06 PM

caribe sucks ordered the bare ultra drysuit from them second time i used it the wrist seal ripped. after several days of email thier is a one day warranty.

superbike79 12-03-2003, 5:11 PM

They have a good deal on the 2004 BS Flower board. I was going to get it for my girlfriend. Is the good deal worth the poor service?

swass 12-04-2003, 1:43 PM

So, I sent an email to Caribe with a link to this post. I told them they need to get their act together, because they're not the only game in town, and that I don't intend on buying from them again. I guess whoever the COMPLETE TOOL is that replied to me thought I was the one who started this thread, because I am now "banned forever."

Here's the reply:

From: "Caribecatalog.com" <sales@caribecatalog.com>
> > >To: "Chris Peterson" <chrisapete@hotmail.com>
> > >Subject: Re: Get your act together
> > >Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 16:39:42 -0500
> > >
> > >We do not want you as customer. You are banned for ever!
> > >
> > >
> > >Best Regards,
> > >
> > >Customer Service
> > >sales@caribecatalog.com

I posted the link because I thought they'd take the opportunity to make things right. Boy, was I wrong. Needless to say, I would recommend taking your business elsewhere.

(Message edited by swass on December 04, 2003)

swass 12-04-2003, 2:30 PM

But wait! There's more! I assume that's a "Boy, was I wrong" retort. At least he/she ends with "Best Regards." LOL. Incredible.

Well, there is a first time for everything!

Best Regards,

Customer Service
sales@caribecatalog.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Peterson" <chrisapete@hotmail.com>
To: <sales@caribecatalog.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 04, 2003 4:46 PM
Subject: Re: Get your act together

>
> You just might be the most unprofessional person I've ever had the
> misfortune of dealing with.
>
> I thought you would take the opportunity to make things right with your
> customers. Boy, was I wrong.

tribal 12-04-2003, 3:13 PM

Well they just lost another potential customer.I'll never shop there after reading this that's for sure.

(luchog) · (luchog) **Join Date: Jun 2002** 12-04-2003, 8:49 PM

I just received my order 2 days ago, everything was ok, i have purchased from them for years, and they were always very helpful, this last time was a bit more complicated because i had problems with my credit car, then with paypal, and then with FEDEX.
it is true that their website is not helpful when having to contact them, and they keep changing phone numbers... that's really annoying and delays things, but they were tolerant and kept my order in wait.
I just believe that this time they were updriven by the cleareance period, and did not manage to handle it well.
Still wanna buy from them, they never got me down and have the best international shipping. (when done by DHL)

tikki83 12-12-2003, 10:49 AM

I´ve just had a problem with them too, i ordered a boardbag which was supposed to be in stock cause they had it on the web. My order has been cancelled yesterday, and the bag is still on the web.
A few weeks ago I ordered a pair of bindings and all was ok.
1 right-1 wrong...

Saludos desde España, Lucho

(jarrod) · (jarrod) **Join Date: May 2003** 12-12-2003, 11:20 AM

Holy crap! Thanks for the posts. I'll never buy there for sure. I have found that if you devote you business to a local board shop, they'll start giving you deals. If you are all about hunting for the best price and have no loyalty to one supplier, you end up with terrible support. I recommend building a relationship with a shop. It's worth it.

(phantom5815) · (phantom5815) **Join Date: Jul 2002** 12-12-2003, 2:50 PM

I've had good and bad service with them. Apparently they must have changes management or whoever in the online Sale dept about 1 yr ago.....
because that's when I started having problems with their service.
So now I've just stopped looking at their site all together.

(jarrod) · (jarrod) **Join Date: May 2003** 12-12-2003, 3:08 PM

The wakeboarding market is small. You start pissing people off and you will be out of business. I guess they'll learn the hard way.

(phantom5815) · (phantom5815) **Join Date: Jul 2002** 12-12-2003, 4:17 PM

Swass you sure have a way of pissing people of don't you? Cause this is the response I received:

From: Sales <sales@caribecatalog.com> **[Add to Address Book] Flag Message * | * Mark Unread
To: hantom5815@earthlink.net">phantom5815@earthlink.net
Subject:*** Dear Value Customer,
Date:*** Dec 12, 2003 12:47 PM
Dear Value Customer,

Thank you for contacting Caribecatalog.com. The administrative offices will be closed
until December 27th. Orders will be processed and shipped thru December 20th.

Sincerely,
Caribecatalog.com

(lzyboy) · (lzyboy) **Join Date: Jun 2001** 12-12-2003, 4:46 PM

Due to the post and the reply sent to swass, I emailed the company stating I will never purchase any products from them and I received the same generated email as phanton . . .

However I did a lil research and also emailed :
"resident@caribecatalog.com">president@caribecatalog.com" The e-mail didnt bounce back, so it's valid and has been received, will I ever get a response who knows. . .

(luchog) · (luchog) **Join Date: Jun 2002** 12-12-2003, 5:52 PM

My friends and i have always bought in Caribecatalog, and we do get support from them, many times they gave us lower prices than those on the web, and one time they forgot to send me a pair of gloves and they sent them to argentina (int shipping) with no extra charges.
now...if that's not support...

(jarrod) · (jarrod) **Join Date: May 2003** 12-15-2003, 12:26 PM

1 satisfied customer out of many disatisfied isn't at all comforting.

grizzle 12-15-2003, 1:13 PM

I've never had a problem with them, but things are pretty arsebackwards over there... actually ordered a padded NeilPryde board bag on Friday, and recieved it at 7:15 this morning. The invoice $19.99 was actually much cheaper to my surprise than the internet price. So I called them to order another one today, and was told that they have not been selling, or even had that particular bag in stock for 7-8 months now. Go figure that one out... at least everything checks out with my credit card !

(luchog) · (luchog) **Join Date: Jun 2002** 12-16-2003, 6:39 AM

that's true, things are going weird over there... when I mailed them I got two different answer, wonder what the heck is going on over there.