Thanks to TPU mods for the invite and brief unlock, so we can have the opportunity to comment.
As many of you have noted, we were closed from April 7 - 17th for one week's vacation. Up until today my staff and I have been constantly working to clear the backlog and we very much appreciate those customers that have waited so long for their orders to ship. Quoc and Alex really helped us out while I was overseas and became very ill again.
Regarding the OP's original complaint, I can confirm the following details to clear up some confusion firstly. Customer placed an order with us on Monday, April 26 at 14:49:51 EST, 2010. OP can confirm this via the email confirmation he received. Because we were backlogged from vacation, many orders were still taking 24-48 hours to ship. The note about us being on vacation was left in order confirmations until late Monday, as well as our customer support section, to let folks know that we had been closed.
Customer's order was processed about 46 hours after being placed and a tracking number was automatically emailed. Right after I packaged the order, the customer responded to the shipment notification with the comments that he posted. Customer did not post my initial email reply, which consisted of an apology for being slow, and an offer to refund the order in full.
When I looked at the customer's order again, it had an AVS indication of NYY/NYZ. For those not in the know, this means the numeric portion of the address the customer entered when checking out failed an address check during the original authorization. While the other checks on the card passed, since this one did not, it is an automatic grounds for a charge reversal should he, or another person on the account, make any such complaint. Based on the friendly fraud risk, and the customer's comments and tone, I felt it was in our best interests to decline to accept his order and politely refund him in full - with another apology for the inconvenience and slowness. The resulting email replies have been increasingly inflammatory and of course the OP did not post those. As much as I'd like these to be seen, due to some privacy laws I cannot, and the language being used towards us is not appropriate anyway.
The chips are stacked against merchants when it comes to card charge disputes. Online merchants are fairly powerless to make a counter dispute on smaller transactions without a signed signature receipt, as well as a signature on delivery. Every business has the right to protect themselves from friendly fraud, and unfortunately this type appears to be increasing. With our recent experiences, I've found to protect us from chargebacks, sometimes it is better to not process a charge if we have such an upset customer only minutes after we pack up their order. It surprises me because usually our customers are pleased when their order is processed. The former is not typical and neither is the shipping delay, which is why I've been very thankful to the 98%+ crowd for their understanding. It was my first personal time off from Sidewinder in 28 months, I really, really needed the break and I don't regret it at all.
Its good to be back and I hope to be in better health by next week.
Thanks again for letting me chime in to clear the air.
Gary Stofer
Sidewinder / Petra's
