Lockpickshop poor service [resolved]

[cledry]

It is ridiculous to think that an internet company couldn't handle international addresses. My shopping cart (trolley) that I use for e-commerce handles any international address. If you cannot process overseas addresses then you should restrict your sales to USA only.

The biggest issue though is the poor customer service in responding to e-mails. E-mail is the defacto method of contact for an internet business. Also the fact that they are a small concern should have no bearing. If they are so busy that they don't have time to check and answer e-mails then it is time to expand and hire an employee.

[MrAnybody]

I've got to say, from everything I've read to this point I would never order from them. Yes, even though they're a site sponsor and I'm a moderator.

EDIT: not only that, but it is making lp101 look bad to even be associated with them. That's my personal opinion, not as a site spokesman or anything.

If they make it right, PLEASE make sure to follow up and let everyone know. Otherwise perceptions like mine are going to persist.

-steve

I've held back from my opinion in this thread, but I gotta say that I very much agree with Steve's comments.

And as for this:

Not to nit pick but yeah the problems are to do with being an international customer.. remember, their webpage didn't properly safe the country part of the address you typed in, so they didn't send out your order. If your address had been Anytown, USA it would have shipped.

just making an observation...
Squelchtone

Well, this surprises me. And while I have a lot of respect and appreciation for Squelch's help on many things, I find his comments wandering towards unsupportive. If anyone can have an influence over a sponsor it's got to be the admin. Well, I imagine so, anyhow. Of course, Jetpac could have done things differently, but after suffering from poor customer care in communication and then receiving the wrong items, I'd be a very unhappy bunny indeed. He's looking for help since he get can zilch out of the retailer themselves, and he's having this put down time and time again (apart from the first instance). This is what I'm seeing in this thread.

I've been a happy international customer of Lockpickshop on a few occasions, so the above doesn't really stand up to reality in my eyes. However, based on the negative feedback I'm finding, I will not be using them again. Personally, I'd prefer not to take the risk of hassle when a online retailer should be taking communication with their customer's issues far more seriously.

If a online retailer chooses to take orders from customers outside of the home country (or for that matter inside their home country), there still remains no excuse for treating communication very poorly.

My vote is to ditch these cowboys.

[Squelchtone]

Running a forum day to day != being the forum owner who is in charge of the sponsors and advertizing. That would be Mr. Picks, feel free to email him regarding Lockpickshop's seemingly poor email customer support.

I'm glad to see you guys think I have such power, but I don't, I just run a forum, over see posts, keep the peace and make things run smoothly. I don't have lunch with the sponsors to tell them about how happy or unhappy we are with them. When I call them, I don't have their personal cell phone number or some friendly pre-existing relationship. I call the support number just as I ask any of you to do when there is a problem with your orders, nothing more, nothing less.

That's why it irks me to see complaints about them here as if lp101 is somehow an extension of or part of the same umbrella company. There's straight up not much we can do when your order gets messed up, ships out late, or doesn't ship out. I can be friendly and try to be helpful, but there's not much I can do. I can't look up your order, I can't walk to the back warehouse and ask someone to see why it hasn't shipped. Please don't confuse lockpickshop and lockpicking101.com as being the same company.

Hope that clears things up for everyone,
Squelchtone

[ARF-GEF]

I don't think it is reasonable to blame the forum at all, but I don't think anyone was doing it really.

Jetpac had a bad experience with a company, related to this hobby. From what I see here it is justified to went his anger here, but unreasonable to expect the mods or anyone here do sth about it.
In fact if it happened to me I would have written a much more furious post about it. Possibly even with lots of detailed and graphic descriptions of who should do what to whom.

If you had trouble and you really want sth do be done, the last resort is to contact your country's consumer protection authority. Even if they can't help they can probably point you in the right direction.

And I think if they did what people described here the least they deserve is that people know it.
Publicity is one of the ways "helpless" consumers can keep companies unfair practices at bay.

Plus I value his feedback and I think this is a good lesson for all of us.
Thank you for those who were sharing your experiences.


That being said we also should be thankful for the fact that they generously sponsor this site.

[MacGyver101]

I've placed three different orders with Lockpickshop.com over the years; two of them were smaller, and one was quite substantial. Just to add from my experience, for what it's worth, all three orders were shipped quickly and arrived with no problems at all.

[Jetpac]

I don't think it is reasonable to blame the forum at all, but I don't think anyone was doing it really.

Jetpac had a bad experience with a company, related to this hobby. From what I see here it is justified to went his anger here, but unreasonable to expect the mods or anyone here do sth about it.

Oh don't get me wrong.. I wasn't expecting anyone on the team here at LP101 to do anything about it so to speak (and i'm very grateful that squelch even went to the lengths of making a call on my behalf) nor was i blaming or wanting to give the appearance that i was blaming this site or anyone on it, so apologies if i have given that impression at all. The original post was to see if anyone on the board actually worked for the company or was a part of it so they could get the contact chain moving (being a niche hobby i was hoping that those who run the shop and sponsor the forum might frequent it as well).

From there it kind of turned into an update thread on how things were going as lockpickshop sponsor the forum as kind of a 'Caveat Emptor' to others who maybe (naively) like me had assumed based on the sponsorship and discount offered that they would be a 'safe' choice of retailer (obviously i may be an anomaly in the grand scheme of things but still.)

At this current point in time i am waiting again, got an email saying "We are looking into it. The warehouse is going to resolve the problem" yesterday, so will give them a few days before i start emailing again.. i am nothing if not patient (secondary school teacher and all). So hopefully everything gets made right as soon as i hear more i will feed it back!

[Jetpac]

Hot off the press, shipping confirmation:

Code: Select all

The following items were included in this shipment:
---------------------------------------------
Order                                 Shipped
 Qty  Item                              Qty
---------------------------------------------

    1 Slim Line Lock Pick 04                1

    1 Slim Line Lock Pick 12                1

---------------------------------------------

So they have made it right by the looks of it! so thanks very much to LPS for getting it sorted! Alls well that ends well i suppose!

[Legion303]

Please post again when you receive them and we can change the title of the thread to show "[Resolved]" or similar.

-steve

[Jetpac]

And the saga today concluded with the delivery of the 2 picks!
Alls well that ends well i suppose, i gained an extra rake and city rake as part of my set so at least there was some upside to all of this!

[fgarci03]

I'm happy it turned out ok for you!

[YouLuckyFox]

Even though the issue is resolved, thought I'd throw in my two cents (though a little late )
I've heard the expression "Good, Fast, Cheap you can pick only two" (speaking of Pearls of Life ) When I made an international purchase recently, I had to keep this in mind. I've had a lot of bad experiences with online dealers and probably still will. What I've learned to practice with online purchases:
1. BEFORE making the purchase send an email their way asking about a certain product. Be extremely polite and they may actually return the favor. More often than not the reply seems almost like they just spent a couple minutes rattling off a reply to me, but there is nothing wrong with that, if I wanted real details I could call them - phone correspondence is a much more informative means of communication; the purpose of this process is to develop some kind of established contact with the seller and see how helpful they are and how quickly they respond. This way, if I run into a bad order, we have a relatively pleasant history of correspondence to build off of. I will reply to one of their original emails to help spring their memory about who I am and see that they have been polite in the past, this helps discourage any escalation or finger pointing. I also like to use email correspondence because it inherently documents itself. I would feel creepy recording a phone conversation but emails by design are recorded for you to draw upon at a later date.
2. With International dealers, after the order has been placed I inform them (and honestly, I might add) that I plan to buy another order of a greater amount in the future once their product arrives, being polite and appreciative and that I look forward to receiving the product. When an order seems to be taking too long, I continue to add to that history of correspondence by asking about a detail I neglected to ask about before or another aspect of a product on their website "and would you also have any new information on my product that has shipped."
3. Once the product arrives, it is appropriate but not necessary to further add to this history of correspondence by saying thanks, what was liked about the service and purchase, ask if there is a survey to fill out, ask about any upcoming deals. None of this is smarmy, it is genuine interest in their product. It may seem tedious but it helps to secure purchases. If I don't ever get an email back from that first attempt at establishing contact with them, or if there is something strange going on, I walk away and go somewhere else.
4. Once you find a good place, stick with it. If you find a better deal elsewhere, it's not at all rude to email them "hey I saw XYZ.com has the PickMaster 4000 for $30, BUT I've had such good experiences with your website, is there a way I could get your PickMaster 4000 for a cheaper price?" Give them a dilemma and let them help you solve it, don't make it like they are expected to do it, just simply give them a dilemma and wait for their reaction. When I send an email like this, I am genuinely interested in furthering their business so that I get a good product safely delivered in return.

Most of this may seem obvious, but I thought it might be of benefit to OP. I certainly don't want to sound pretentious. Also, if anyone would like to add to or edit this list, feel free as I know I have a lot to learn!