[BigShred]

Early in the morning 4:42AM CST on Friday, April 17, 2009 I placed an order for a jack plate, neck plate and some screws at Pickers Parts (pickersparts.com).

Monday evening I checked the order status and saw that the status was still listed as "Not yet shipped". So I attempted to contact them by going to the "Contact Us" section of their website. There I saw the contact information listed as:

123-456-7890
[email protected]

Fortunately, I had paid with PayPal and their contact information was in my PayPal receipt (otherwise I would have been totally screwed). So I called the number. The person who answered seemed extremely confused that someone would call him and when I asked if this was "Pickers Parts" he replied in the affirmative and seemed even more annoyed that I was a customer of his. I inquired as to why the status after all of Friday and all of Monday was still listed as "Not yet shipped". He barked at me that they don't operate over the weekend. I kindly reminded him that Monday was not part of the weekend and asked him to please ship the items as soon as he could.

I gave him Tuesday and checked back this morning. It was still listed as "Not yet shipped". I sent the following email with the original receipt attached (including Order #, Order details, etc):

From: BigShred
Sent: Wed 4/22/2009 6:53 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: FW: Confirmation - Order Number 68

I am emailing in regards to order #68. Nearly a week to get it out the door is not satisfactory. Please cancel this order immediately and grant me a refund. Thank you.

To this email I received the following response (apparently the owner responds to cancellation of orders much quicker than to the orders themselves):

From: Pickers Parts [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wed 4/22/2009 8:01 AM
To: BigShred
Subject: RE: Confirmation - Order Number 68

Your order didn't even go through according to our records...why would we ship?

So obviously there is a problem. Of course your not satisfied...we would never ship something for free...would you?

Am I missing something?

I am perplexed.

Jose
Owner
Pickers Parts

A full 4 minutes later he sent another email:

From: Pickers Parts [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wed 4/22/2009 8:06 AM
To: BigShred
Subject: RE: Confirmation - Order Number 68

Order fully cancelled.

Your order did not go through so it was never processed.

We won't send something out that has no record. We somehow found your payment via a search on paypal and it has been refunded.

Jose

I have refrained from making any judgmental statements about this retailer. Make of it what you will and be forewarned. There are many more retailers available (Jemsite sponsors in particular) to choose from who will not behave in this manner. I made a number of mistakes because I was tempted by the fact that the prices were cheap. I am just extremely thankful that I used PayPal.

Wishing better luck to you all.

 

[JShred]

Well, I for one appreciate the warning.

People serving the retail sector need to be taught early that you will be "yes sir" and "no sir" and "please, thank you" with your customers or you will not be in business.

It didn't seem to me that you were being abusive or unreasonable, and this business owner acted like you were a giant inconvenience.

Customers aren't an interruption of your work, they're the reason FOR your work.

In this brink-of-depression economy, natural selection is going to be less forgiving than ever, and if you treat your customers like an annoyance, and not like people giving you a large amount of trust, then you deserve to be out of business, and probably in a job that doesn't involve interpersonal interaction.

 

[Jack Secret]

People will appreciate the heads up.

 

[Rich]

There is a glitch in Paypal that sometimes the vendor doesn't receive a paymnet notice when payment is made. It happens to me every now and then, but usually there's been an email exchange about the purchase and I'll get an email stating payment was sent, and I'll log in to check if I haven't gotten an email notice. But, customers don't always tell me they made payment, and sometimes a couple weeks later I'll get an email asking when their order had shipped because they didnt receive it.

Just stating for the record that this may be that type of situation, or, may not. But that Paypal glitch does exist and has caught me out more than once.

 

[lamsmith]

The glitch is with Pickersparts. I'm in the middle of the exact same situation. He is not responding to me at all even though he has received the Paypal payment. I placed an order with Guitarfetish.com within minutes of this order and the part arrived yesterday. (Terrific contact and service from them!) I haven't even received a confirmation email from Pickersparts let alone a shipping tracking number.

OK, I'm wrong. With no contact at all from Pickersparts, the part came today. Not sure I would order again when there is no communication.

 

[blackheartsfan]

From first hand experience I can attest to the fact that the owner of "Pickersparts" is a douchebag of the first degree. His replies are often rude and always insulting. If you dare question his actions prepare to "banned" from bidding/purchasing any of his items. This is annoying since he is one of only three Wilkinson pickup dealers I know of in the USA.

ALL should avoid buying from this @$$hole at any cost, I suggest GFS or any other vendor for your needs.

 

[dpushor]

I have had two dealings with them, both bad. Last summer I spent big on a Seymour Duncan Antiquity 50's, pre-wired pickguard. The thing never came, after weeks of trying, and two + months of waiting, I finally got a response via e-mail (they never answered the phone, or returned messages I left there). Seems they had a "glitch" in billing and "lost" my $300+. Once they "found" the record of my transaction, they had it to me express in about two or three days. In all fairness, they did a beautiful job on the pickguard and threw in a matching pearl claw cavity cover for my inconvenience.
Now, I've been waiting for another two months for another order from 'em (I figured that the first blown order WAS a fluke). 8/3/11 I made the second order. I checked back for the status of my jack, jackplate and string guides and found a payment pending on the order. So, after two weeks I re-entered my billing info, thinking that the financial institutions failed. Fast forward, bank statement says that Pickers billed me twice, when I re-entered my info, it became a second order.
Fast forward more....10/11/11......Still don't have any parts, waiting to hear from Jose again, probably will blame someone else again....
One more warning, if you google map the physical address for Pickers Parts, it's a house, in a regular looking suburban neighborhood, not a traditional business.

 

[hansgordy]

I've just gotten through a similar experience. I purchased a prewired pick guard on April 9, 2012. About a month later I began writing and calling to see what was up. I received a confirmation email on the date of purchase. Two phone numbers, which I had to really hunt for online, were both disconnected.

I finally received email responses when I said that I was going to report it to Paypal, my bank, and the State's Attorney's Office in Colorado.

Wells Fargo is my bank. They launched an investigation and it took only 24 hours to receive a refund...the amount being over 200 dollars.

Unprofessional and rude...and that's being kind. I even got a free political/cultural lecture with the deal.

He said that customers like me are 'entitled' and that this is what's wrong with America...lol.

 

[hansgordy]

There is a glitch in Paypal that sometimes the vendor doesn't receive a paymnet notice when payment is made. It happens to me every now and then, but usually there's been an email exchange about the purchase and I'll get an email stating payment was sent, and I'll log in to check if I haven't gotten an email notice. But, customers don't always tell me they made payment, and sometimes a couple weeks later I'll get an email asking when their order had shipped because they didnt receive it.

Just stating for the record that this may be that type of situation, or, may not. But that Paypal glitch does exist and has caught me out more than once.

I used to sell a lot of items on eBay. Your point is well taken...but after experiencing a couple of these, I learned how to avoid it. In this situation, the customer is right. I gave an immediate refund. I could clearly see that the customer had paid once I learned about this glitch in Paypal.

 

[TAorama]

Whether the error is a glitch in PayPal or an honest human error, being an a-hole is never a satisfactory response to an unhappy customer. I will gladly pay more for a product to be assured that I'll get what I want in a timely fashion, and that any problems will be swiftly and politely dealt with. I understand that sometimes things get sideways, and as long as there's an legitimate effort to make it right, no harm done.

Businesses that can't meet basic standards of customer service will not get repeat business from me.

 

[hansgordy]

Whether the error is a glitch in PayPal or an honest human error, being an a-hole is never a satisfactory response to an unhappy customer. I will gladly pay more for a product to be assured that I'll get what I want in a timely fashion, and that any problems will be swiftly and politely dealt with. I understand that sometimes things get sideways, and as long as there's an legitimate effort to make it right, no harm done.

Businesses that can't meet basic standards of customer service will not get repeat business from me.

I'm totally with you on this. My experience with Pickers Parts is by far the worst business transaction that I have ever had...anytime...anywhere. This company ignored my emails and one phone message. After that, the phone number I reached had been disconnected. When I found it necessary to get more aggressive, then I was informed that I was the problem. Sarcastic, in-yir-face, preachy attitude. Unbelievable

Please note that the company's phone number is either not listed on the website...or it's just hidden very well. I had to search the internet to find a number. This should have been a red flag for me from the beginning.

 

[AlaskaBat]

Never heard of this one--thanks

 

[vraver04]

I really wish I had seen these postings about a month and a half ago. I just went through the same thing with pickers parts. Fortunately I used paypal and got my back with out much problem. This company is out to lunch.

 

[vraver04]

This company sucks. I ordered a prewired pickgaurd at the end of May, the order process went of without a hitch. After two weeks I checked the status of my order and saw that it was still pending, which I found strange. After another week went by and no response I sent an email to follow up. After a couple of days I got a response saying it would ship soon. After another week and no word I asked again. This I was told the tech was on vaction and it would ship by the end of the week. After two more weeks I started emailing again; this time there were no more responses from the company.
Canceled my order after more than 6 weeks of waiting. Avoid this company.