I have not received a refund from an internet food storage company called Peace of Mind. Thay are no longer reachable by their website or any #'s I have. Anyone know how to contact them? Anyone else have this problem?

The moral of the story is: BE CAREFUL. These were most genial people, very confidence-inspiring Perma-pak food storage folks.

Perhaps they have bellied up; all I know is it is not a good prelude to Y2K.

Perhaps it is good practice for frustrations to come...

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@aloha.net), October 20, 1999

Answers

If it was on a credit card, contest the charge immediately.

We just got ripped by "Seeds of Change", waiting to see if they make good on the refund before handing them over to Visa. Given the sheer number of lies they've given us, the multiple incidents of being insulted and hung up on when we call them, and the mailbombing (yes, the bastards mailbombed us when we complained!), I'm not real hopeful.

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), October 20, 1999.

I also got ripped off this spring by Rhore's in Canada, an herb plant and seed company. They didn't have most of the plants in stock and said they would be sent next season. Yeh right! I e-mailed them and they were very slow to answer and kept pushing the job off to other people in the company. When I did get the money back (I had sent them a check), it wasn't the correct rate of exchange of US and Canadian dollars. It took months to get it back. Buyer Beware!

-- Penda Zone (PendaZ@excite.com), October 20, 1999.

No, this goes back over a year! It was complicated by my move from PA to Hawaii. Incresed shipping charges and other factors.

What's interesting is that this company appears to have gone under because they over-extended themselves thinking there would be a rush of Y2K orders by summertime.

They probably went bankrupt because they couldn't overcome the effects of the very-effective Denial Force. I remember talking with someone there about how business had slowed down quite a bit.

We'll be fine, we have alternatives, and we DID get 90% of our order ages ago. But the moral of the story is, maybe, to not put all your eggs in one basket? Or, let the buyer beware? or... [fill in your favorite cliche here].

-- Sara Nealy (keithn@aloha.net), October 20, 1999.

As pointed out, if you order by credit card and act in a timely fashion, you have a lot of leverage. But, obviously, this is not always practical.

If you do use a credit card, be sure and be alert for a credit for returned merchandise. A few months ago, I ordered a book on how to stockpile prescription medicines, under a 30-day money-back guarantee. I returned it within 30 days, but seemingly did not get a refund (since I just naturally expected a check in the mail). Turned out the refund was handled as a credit to my card's account, with no direct acknowledgment by the merchant.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.~net), October 20, 1999.