Just wanted to let you all know that I have been in a dispute with Korean Auto Imports (KAI / koreanautoimports.com). Over the course of the past 3 months, the company has:
* Billed me for parts they did not have in stock
* Missed their product arrival date on one of the ordered products by 2 weeks, leading to arrival 4 weeks after the order
* Shipped the wrong product for the second item and did not offer an expedited way to get me the right product, meaning I would have had to wait 3 months for the product I had already paid for.
* Failed to provide me with sufficient information to execute an RMA until I asked for more information
* Executed their refund differently from what they had agreed to, meaning I now lost $229
* Failed to refund me for the return shipping until I specifically reminded them to do so
* Treated me with suspicion and contempt when I tried to resolve the refund issue.
* Been unhelpful in locating my money
* Ignored the request of the BBB to resolve the issues
For a complete history of the transaction:
----- ORDER HISTORY -----
On Feb 21st, I placed an order online through koreanautoimports.com (KAI), a trade name of customsorento.com. I ordered an HID 4000k conversion kit and an Azera Rimtec roof spoiler. The company billed my debit card soon after I had placed my order.
On Feb 22nd I received email from the company telling me that both items are out of stock. The HID kit was to arrive on March 6th, the spoiler on March 18th. The HID kit was finally shipped on March 22nd and arrived soon after, a second package finally arrived on March 29th but did not contain the roof spoiler I had ordered, it contained a more expensive trunk spoiler.
I contacted the company by email on March 29th to notify them of the error, asking them for a solution to deliver the right part asap. I believe in doing the right thing, so I did not want to keep this more expensive item they had shipped me.
The company responded on March 31st telling me shipping the right item would take an equal amount of time as it had taken so far. I wrote the company back that I had no appetite to wait another 5-6 weeks for the product and asked if the order could be cancelled. In the same email, I also indicated that I had since canceled the Mastercard debit card that was used for the transaction and requested they'd refund me through a check. The company wrote me back with the address of the company to return the product to. He also stated "Once we receive the spoiler back we will proceed accordingly", which I took to mean they'd send me the check. They did however omit the RMA number that was required according to the return policy the company has on their web site. So I wrote back to ask for the RMA number and got one in response.
Due to a lot of work related travel, I shipped the product back on April 14th. When they received the RMA'd product, the company sent me an email saying they had issued a refund against the Mastercard that had been used to purchase the products. This was contrary to my request to issue a check, because I had closed the account and canceled the card. I emailed the company immediately, reminding them that I had asked them to issue the refund by check. They responded the next day with apologies for the oversight and telling me the refund was successfully processed anyway.
So I called my bank to talk about the refund and they assure me the money could have never been refunded because the card had been cancelled. They also worked with their accounting department to try and locate the money (this is a small reputable bank I have a good relationship with). I emailed the KAI again with the information I had obtained from my bank. The same day I got a reply from the company they would look into it again "ASAP". Two days later, I sent a follow up email, to which I got no response. On April 25th, I called the company and talked with a rep Who expressed understanding for my situation and promised to look into it.
On April 28th, I received a call from the office manager at the company who told me $229 had left their accounts, she quoted me the reference number for the transaction and suggested I'd call Mastercard. The refund was short the ~$6.50 I had paid for return shipping. For which she said she'd write me a check.
I called Mastercard, they could not help because the card was a debit card. I called my bank who again stated that the money could have never arrived in their accounts because the card was cancelled at the time of refund. I called the company back and explained that their proposed solution was not getting me anywhere. The office manager later called me back while I was on the phone leaving me a rather rude voicemail stating that "the money has left our accounts, there is nothing we can do anymore" and that if I wanted to, I could call her back to tomorrow though she'd "tell you the exact same thing I am telling you in this message". She also accused me or my bank of lying, which one was not exactly clear
Since I was dissatisfied with the progress of our conversations, I decided to enlist the help of the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) as a mediator and submitted the case of April 29th.
On May 13th, I received a check from KAI to reimburse me for my shipping costs. The check came without any further documents, such as an apology.
The BBB today (May 21st) closed the case because KAI has not responded to the BBB's efforts to resolve this issue.
---- END OF HISTORY ----
As KAI is a trade name of customsorento.com, that is the name you can find it under at the BBB. The BBB currently rates the company's performance as unsatisfactory. See for yourself on:
http://central-northern-western-arizona.bb...6&firm=27008441Of course this is the experience of just a single customer. For all I know they could have millions of satisfied customers and you should not base your decision to do business with this company based on my experience alone.
Needless to say I will from here on order my upgrades elsewhere, like:
http://www.kdmstuff.com/http://www.kspec.com/
Korean Auto Imports, Unresolved dispute
May 21 2008, 08:00 PM
