Having problems buying from Mefferts.com

[IoriYagami]

I have ordered a puzzle from the website and have got nothing in return. So, I paid money for puzzle and shipping, wrote into their contact form multiple times, got no confirmation e-mail whatsoever, no shipping number, no puzzle.
Are they even legit?
What can I do to poke them, so they would at least say something?
Maybe I should charge back, and make a negative review on them. After all, they are being unprofessional.
UPD. I got the puzzle finally. still no emails.

 

[JonnyWhoopes]

This seems odd to me. Mefferts is a very well known puzzle merchant. My puzzles have always arrived on time when I've ordered from them, and they're very kind people. Unfortunately I think you're the odd customer out who this happens to. Wish I could help in some way.

 

[monkeytherat]

Are you sure you were actually buying from Mefferts and not some strange knockoff company with a similar name? Not likely, but it's also unlikely that Mefferts.com would act like this.

 

[Zoé]

Meffert's is really bad with the client services.
I had the same "problem" when I ordered a pyraminx from them once. It just took FOOOOREVER for it to arrive (3months or so). They weren't answering my mails, and I had no confirmation of the order/shipping either.
After a while I just decided to wait and see what would happen. I got it a while later when I wasn't even waiting for it anymore.
This was the first time it ever happened though, the rest of the orders I put with them weren't as bad.

So my best guess is : chill out and wait, it will eventually arrive.

 

[IoriYagami]

Thanks for your concern, fellows...
Hmmm. Okay, I see that their news section says it would take 2 to 3 weeks from order to shipping, but wouldn't they AT LEAST send a confirmation email that money was received, or order has been accepted. Or at least say they're suddenly out of stock? I can wait, it's not waiting that is the problem (especially considering my country's slow-ass post office), but being left in the dark definitely is.
I mean, well-known professional retailer shouldn't behave like that.
They have my shipping address, they have my e-mail, what's the deal?
Just in advance - I have checked PayPal stats and my CC - definitely Mefferts.com. I checked my spam folder -nothing. 2 weeks already passed.
Is there any other way to contact them besides the 'contact us' form? They don't respond... :confused:
And I can't even buy the puzzle (megaminx) locally - we only have cheap'n'crappy chinese rubik's cubes made of soft plastic for DVD cases, which get stuck on every move. (for ~2$, LOL)

 

[JonnyWhoopes]

Yeah, not sending an email at all is rather odd, so I'm not sure whether or not you should be worried. I don't know of any other way to contact them though. I know they have representatives in the TwistyPuzzles.com forums, but you have to pass through a registration process to post, so that's not an easy (or guaranteed by any stretch) way to get a hold of them.

 

[IoriYagami]

Registered there, just waiting for admins to confirm. I am actually not a true speed cuber, I like solving with logic more. (can do rubik's cube in like 15 minutes or so, LOL - oh man, I'm too old for fast solving I guess.)
I will let you all know how it turns out, so you all would be informed for future orders. Probably will be fine, I hope.

 

[hcfong]

I haven't ordered from Mefferts myself, so I can't comment on the quality of their services, but I do have experience with other shops, so hopefully my comments will be helpful.

First of all, when did you place the order? Mefferts is based in Hong Kong so it could take a while for it to arrive. Don't be surprised if it takes up to 3 weeks to arrive.

How did you pay for you order. If you paid by Paypal, is your paypal account linked to a creditcard or to your bank account? If it's linked to your creditcard, Mefferts should receive the money straight away and you should get a confirmation straight away. If it's linked to your bank account, then Paypal uses something called an 'e-check'. This is a delayed payment method, which means that Paypal won't pay the money to Mefferts straight away, but after a couple of days, usually between 4 and 7 days if I remember correctly. Paypal will then take the money out of your account and pay it to Mefferts. Paypal will notify you that the money has been cleared and notify Mefferts that your order has been paid for. Normally, the shop will then ship the order and send you a confirmation, often through Paypal.

I've also noticed that Mefferts uses free shipping. With free shipping, you usually can't expect them to give you a tracking number, unless you pay extra for it.

Finally, if you placed a big order, customs might be interested in the contents of the order and keep it for inspection.

Well, that's pretty much all I can say. Hope it works out.

 

[Ralinda4]

I got my gear cube ultimate from Mefferts and it took a while to arrive, but when it did arrive it was in perfect condition and was/is a great puzzle. As has been already mentioned, Mefferts is based in Hong Kong so it will take a long time to arrive (3 weeks for me), and hopefully it'll arrive soon for you.

 

[Carrot]

Meffert's is funny. Sometimes Uwe answers me within a few hours, sometimes he spends a few months and sometimes he doesn't answer at all... I haven't heard from Uwe since February? also, the shipping time depends a lot, if you are just a regular buyer it can easily take a month.

mefferts.com is definitely to be trusted, but you shouldn't expect super service haha

 

[bobthegiraffemonkey]

Like other people said, they can be trusted, but they can be quite slow. It's because they're quite a small company with very few people, so they don't really have the free time to answer every email unfortunately (or so I've heard, seems plausible enough). I've ordered several times and I've had varying levels or communication, but I've always received my order eventually without the need for any drastic action.

 

[s3rzz]

They shipped promptly every time i ordered through them, but the packages got stuck in customs for weeks on end each time. Worse comes to worse make a paypal claim, it will force them to give you a tracking number

 

[IoriYagami]

Nevermind. I got my shiney, twistey and precioussss today, nicely wrapped with some bubble wrap and a chinese(?) newspaper (how much time do you spend reading those hieroglyphs?)!
Color scheme is slightly disappointing (I wanted that one where opposite sides are always just different shades of one color(mf8 does that, I guess), but this one is inconsistent - red opposite beige, yellow opposite white, blue opposite light blue, etc), but it's still a 12-color megaminx. And the logo is on the yellow side, not on the white one, like traditionally. Oh well, gotta go to Cubesmith for fixing it. (yeah, yeah, I might have OCD, LOL)
Still, some feedback would have been useful. I mean, no tracking number? I tested one on the parcel and it works. Why not send it to me in advance? :rolleyes: Ahhh, I understand now. It's to keep customers on the edge, always excited about what's coming. Will it arrive on time? Will it arrive at all? Hoooo, this is so nerve-wrecking, better than watching a horror movie while on the rollercoaster.

offtopic: and I actually tested my time. It is, surprisingly much better than I thought and wrote before, not 15, but around 5-6 minutes. Hooray! And that's just beginner's method with minimal set of algs. (and I mean minimal, as in, for example, I do clockwise LL edge rotation twice, because I'm too lame to learn anti-clockwise rotation by heart). Oh wait, would the inverse work? Hmmm, still to lazy to learn it.