Poor customer service from Autogeek - won't refund money

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IBTROLLIN

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Good morning gentlemen. So I'll try to make this brief and before I start I'd like to point out that I've tried to resolve this through email before coming to the forum, however, there's been no resolution.
Quite a while ago I made an order through Autogeek. I live in Australia and how the shipping works internationally is that once the order is placed, Autogeek 'park' or put the money 'on hold' until the customer (me) authorises the shipping cost. Once the shipping cost is authorised, the order is complete and gets shipped.
What this means is that even if the shipping amount is NOT authorised, Autogeek still 'hold' the money until they hear whether to go ahead with shipping or not. In this case, that amount was about $300.
Where this all got complicated is that some criminal ******* stole my credit card number about two weeks before Christmas. They stole $400 of my money. Needless to say, I needed to cancel my credit card. The credit card I had to cancel just happened to be the one I made my autogeek order on. This meant that when Autogeek tried put the order through it was declined. I have since sent roughly 4-5 emails to discuss this matter with Autogeek, with not a single reply.
The issue is that given the credit card has been destroyed to prevent further theft, Autogeek cannot refund the money for the order that they'd placed 'on hold' back on to the card. I've tried talking to Autogeek and telling them that I will provide alternative card details so that they can refund my $300, yet they refuse to reply. Like this has been placed in the 'too hard' basket.
So not only have I had $400 stolen, I'm also down $300 for an order I never received. This left me $700 short at Christmas and effectively ruined my Christmas.
I am so very disappointed in Autogeek for the way they have treated me. They will not even respond.
Before jumping to the defense of Autogeek, please place yourself in my shoes. I've sent 4-5 emails, I even stated that I would rather sort this issue out privately rather than have to jump on the forums to get the problem 'out there' but I am apparently not important enough to respond to.
It is not Autogeek's fault that some horrible person stole my money right before Christmas, but it IS their fault they will not reply and have made absolutely no effort to help me out by taking to the time to try and refund the 'held' money back on to a different card.
Please, if you're reading this and can provide a suggestion as to what I should do, or if you could advocate on my behalf with Autogeek I would greatly appreciate it. It's Christmas and I'd like to think if I were on the other side of the fence I'd assist someone else in getting their money back if I could.
Hope to hear from some of you.
God Bless.
 
Anyway you can try calling them?

Maybe your email is going into there junk mail or something
 
I say take your email trail and contact Nick who is a ball of fire when it comes to customer service or contact Meghan. A phone call is always best but with your timezone difference it may be a challenge. Don't give up hope yet.
 
This sounds like the sort of thing you should be discussing with your credit card issuer. They have people who work things like this out every day.

It also sounds like this may be a debit card which as you are unfortunately experiencing causes issues with any merchant that uses a hold for charges (gas stations here in the US typically put a $100 hold on the card until they run transactions). If this is a debit card issue, I would look at getting a straight up credit card to make your purchases from now on; in the US there are better consumer protections for credit cards than debit cards.

I would also suggest calling, there are very economical ways to make international calls via Skype or Google Voice.
 
Thanks guys, I'll look at working out the time difference and giving AG a call.
 
Oh, in regards to what toycar said, my emails are definitely not going to junk mail. I've emailed customer service before and they've responded. They seem to be ignoring any of my emails in regards to this one particular issue.
 
IBTROLLIN said:
Oh, in regards to what toycar said, my emails are definitely not going to junk mail. I've emailed customer service before and they've responded. They seem to be ignoring any of my emails in regards to this one particular issue.
Click to expand...


Everyone has gone home for the day that has access to our customer service database, I don't as it's not my area of responsibility.

I'm confident that someone from our Customer Care department will know what's going on and settle this matter quickly.

One thing for sure...

Autogeek has a time-proven history of handling issues quickly and always fairly.


I have the utmost confidence in Max our CEO and everyone that works here, so it will be interesting to hear the other side of the story.



:)
 
I be;ieve Meghan is out on vacation this week, or so she indicated on some other thread about Xmas. Anyhow ask for Nick whne you call.

The time difference sucks, I have a group of developers I am managing on a project that are in India and often I call to have a phone meeting right before I go to bed. Good luck.
 
bobble said:
I be;ieve Meghan is out on vacation this week, or so she indicated on some other thread about Xmas. Anyhow ask for Nick whne you call.

The time difference sucks, I have a group of developers I am managing on a project that are in India and often I call to have a phone meeting right before I go to bed. Good luck.
Click to expand...

I am on vacation but if you give me your order number I will look into it right now.
 
IBTROLLIN said:
The issue is that given the credit card has been destroyed to prevent further theft, Autogeek cannot refund the money for the order that they'd placed 'on hold' back on to the card.
Click to expand...

I could be completely wrong, but I thought that even if a card was cancelled that a merchant could put a return through (and presumably cancel a hold on), and that it 'flowed' to the replacement card.

Also, as someone else mentioned, was this a credit or debit card? If a credit card, a 'hold' doesn't really do anything aside from temporarily eat away at your credit limit. If a debit card, that's a whole different ball game and I don't know much about it as I swore off debit cards ages ago.

I'm sure AG will take care of this as they really are well known for their fantastic service.
 
I just reread your post, if your card decline there is nothing to refund, unless I am missing something...declines mean we do not get any money from your card.
Secondly I am not showing any emails from you, please forward me any emails you sent to my personal email at [email protected]
This is not like our customer service so something here is missing, and I would like to get to the bottom of it with you.
 
IBTROLLIN said:
Thanks guys, I'll look at working out the time difference and giving AG a call.
Click to expand...

First of all, I can see that you are pretty stressed over the lack of response; and I agree with others that a phone call will do wonders here to understand AutoGeek's position on the matter. I suggest you *not* presume to have their position due to lack of response during the holiday season.

In the USA, if there is a "hold" placed on a credit card account for a certain dollar amount; the money has not been charged yet but your credit line is effectively decreased for this amount until the hold is released one way (charged) or the other (cancelled). This keeps everyone whole during the process you outlined. If your credit card issuer cancelled your credit card# and issued a new number, the authorization would probably be transferred automatically since it is a pending sale, *or* they will cancel the hold which AG can easily tell on their end.

At least right now I am optimistic based on the facts-in-hand on this thread. Best of luck to you.
 
The way OP stated his story it sounds like a debit/check card was in use and how someone stole his money and the hold is on more than just a credit line. If so, it is another great reason why to only use a credit line for online purchases and/or risky purchasing situations. I would have had my financial institution involved right away and probably tried to contact AG about the hold before the card was deactivated; but that doesn't sound like it would have been a huge issue anyway.
I am sure Meghan and AG will resolve this and treat you right.

Meghan! Always the over achiever!;P LOL Enjoy the rest of your vacation.:)
 
AG customer service is top notch. What other company would have someone attempt to resolve the issue while they are on vacation? Nuff said :)
 
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