John R.
Free shipping is not free shipping
Where do I start? Items I purchased on a Friday said free shipping. Purchased it with a VISA and all paperwork for the transaction showed free shipping. Got a call 20 minutes later saying shipping wasn't free. Mario had to get pricing to ship to me on Monday. Sent Mario an email asking he either honor the free shipping or cancel the order. It felt like a bait and switch tactic. He lectured me in emails about his shipping policy, but free shipping means free shipping and doesn't require a shipping policy. Got numerous emails from him stating he didn't charge my VISA, which when I called VISA he did charge it then reversed the charges. Thank goodness I put the purchase on the VISA. Very unhappy with the lack of transparency on the website regrading shipping. I'll make my $28,000 purchase elsewhere.
Response from Automotive Equipment SpecialistsFeb 17, 2020
John, I have been in business for 20 years working with thousands of customers each year. We apologize if you felt mislead, but we did attempt to work with you on this order. When you placed an order with us on Friday after business hours, we still called to communicate with you in regards to your order. We value customer service here at Automotive Equipment Specialists (AES), and chose to get a head start on the order so that the process could be quickly picked up on Monday. As explained over the phone, we could not ensure that the shipping would be 100% freight-free as we would have to wait until business hours on Monday to receive a proper shipping estimate. It is stipulated throughout the product descriptions and our website that “Additional fees may apply for shipping based on order details – Call for best shipping quote”. The possibility of additional shipping charges may be incurred due to supplementary factors such as – but not limited to – residential, lift-gate, and rural fee charges. If you check our competitors’ websites and vendor websites, you will also notice that “free shipping” items also have stipulations that “additional fees may apply” depending on where the order is being shipping to. We wanted to be up front about the possibility of a shipping charge, but did not take free shipping off the table. As explained in our email exchange, your VISA was not charged. Your VISA was simply authorized which is a standard order processing protocol at AES. We do this for every order using a credit card. When the misunderstanding about whether or not your VISA was charged arose, we sent a screenshot to you via email to clarify that the card was only authorized. We do not charge cards until we have called to speak with the customer about offloading orders, to confirm addresses, and finalize orders. As your order was not finalized and not yet fully processed, we did not charge your VISA. As we explained, if your card was charged you would have received a “paid” Quick Books invoice from us. We believe in customer service which is reflected in our 5 star reviews on Trustpilot. Our 1 star reviews are far and in-between. When you needed assurance of doing business with us, the Sales Director of Tuxedo personally called you to vouch for our business. Ultimately, it seems that it was in the best interest of both parties to not do business together. We wish you luck on your future purchase despite it not working out.