Customer Service @ DIY Tactical, thank you paypal

**GrizzlyAdams** · 02-02-2010, 23:04

I've purchased fabric two or three times from DIY Tactical, principally their 1.1 oz MARPAT camo ripstop. So when I exhausted my supply, on Dec. 2 I put in an order for 20 yards. I used paypal.

Per usual I got an automated email response saying the order had been received and was in processing. Per usual it said I would get an email when it had been shipped.

Two weeks went by and I began to wonder what was going on. But I then had a business trip that distracted me, I came home to Christmas in full swing, after Christmas I was busy with my sons shooting a video, and come early January I realized it had been a month since I'd placed the order, and no package, no response.

So I dropped a query to the email address given for questions about orders in my solitary communication with them. I gave it several days, no response, I tried calling. Google voice redirected me to a recording taker. As before I identified myself, the order number, the items ordered. Left a contact phone number. Several more days, nothing. Tried email again, several more days, nothing.

I knew paypal has some kind of mechanism for reclaiming $$ for items not delivered, and so I started down that path. What I learned was that I first file a "dispute" with paypal, explaining the situation. What paypal does is notify the vendor that a dispute has been filed, and encourages the vendor to work it out with the buyer. Paypal provides the email exchange between vendor and buyer. So I awaited a response from DIY Tactical.

I gave DIY Tactical one full week, and there was no response through any channel. So the next step in the paypal process is to escalate the dispute to a "claim", which is the point where some human at paypal eventually gets involved in looking at the correspondence (or lack of it!) to assess the claim. I escalated the dispute to a claim.

Shortly thereafter I got an email from paypal copying a message from the vendor. It was a USPS tracking number. "Huh?" sez I, "maybe that package got lost. Wonder when happens then.." So I went to USPS package tracking and entered the number, and saw the state was that the vendor had alerted USPS that the vendor would in the future be providing a package for delivery associated with this tracking number. The date given for when this notification was forwarded was half-way between when I filed the dispute and when I escalated it to a claim. It was a response to the dispute notification, but the vendor provided no communication to me or paypal.

Five days passed, nothing. Six days passed, nothing. I resolved I would wait out one full week and then see if there was a mechanism to record with paypal that despite the tracking number, nothing had come, or seemingly was going to come.

The full week went by. I had one last look at the tracking site, and (at last) saw that several hours before USPS had taken receipt of the package and it was on its way.

All of this with not a word from the vendor to me.

The package did come. You better believe I checked that all the yardage I'd ordered was present. It was. You better believe that that was the last order I'll be placing with DIY Tactical. Had it not been the leverage of working through paypal this might still be dragging on.

I only went to them for the camo, my other fabric I get from Speers, OWF, questoutfitters, rockywoods. Camo is so last week anyway…..

Caveat emptor

**BurningCedar** · 02-02-2010, 23:09

Wow......I've also ordered from them in the past successfully. I even recommended them only a couple of days ago in one of the threads looking for camo.

Guess I need to delete them from my bookmarks now. Too bad to; they had some neat and unique stuff -- but nothing good enough to justify how they treated you.

Thanks for the heads-up.

**angrysparrow** · 02-02-2010, 23:09

That's a shame...especially for the camo fans.

Glad you got your materials in the end, despite the frustration.

**SmokeBait** · 02-02-2010, 23:20

Well at least you received the fabric but that is just plain poor customer service. Just deleted them from my bookmarks. Have always had great experiences with Ed Speer for supplies. Have bought from OWF and Quest Outfitters without a hitch too. Maybe one of our vendors on here could get a line on the 1.1 camo and supply it? Sclittlefield, Opie, Stormcrow? I'm sure they could sell a few 100 yards.

stumo

**Mrprez** · 02-02-2010, 23:47

I had a similar experience. I had ordered some polymax but realized that we would be out of town when it would have been delivered. So, I called right after placing the order and asking them to hold the shipment for 1 week and then ship. That would have worked out so the package would be delivered the day after our return. Well, the delivery date came and went with no package. I called again and spoke to someone there about the order. He said that is was here and ready to go but they forgot to send it out and that they would do so immediately. Well, that turned into another 24 hours before it was actually sent. They ended up not charging me for the delivery charge of $9 and I did finally get the fabric. It turned out that it isn't something I really wanted....all that for nothing.

Whenever I ran an online store/service, I always strove to provide the best service/product that I could and I fail to understand those who don't. Your reputation can be ruined in the time it takes for someone to send an email or post on a popular forum such as HF!

**Hawk-eye** · 02-03-2010, 02:37

Thanks Grizz ... that's a shame I've ordered twice from them ... no problem ... sounds like things have deteriorated. Least they could have communicated with you if there was an issue. Word of mouth will hurt their business more than the cost of an email or phone call.