Thane International ripoff No Product Delivered, Order processing for 2 weeks La Quinta California

On March 15, 2005 I placed an order with Thane online for what is called the Air-O-Bed. It is an inflatable sofa/bed and I thought it was a very good deal.

The first sign of trouble was after the order was completed. It wasn't until then that I found out the item was on backorder. It said it would ship in 3-4 weeks, so I figured it would be alright.

One week later, my credit card was charged for the order, and the order status changed to Processing. I thought this was great and I would get my product soon. It is now almost three weeks later and the order tracking still shows "Order Processing - Not Shipped".

I sent an email to their customer service, and received back what looks like a standard response stating my order will ship soon. I decided to try and cancel the order before it shipped, but when I called them I was told the order was in shipping and could not be cancelled. The best I could do was wait, and if I didn't want it once it arrived I could ship it back (at my expense) for a credit (not including shipping and handling of course). Needless to say, the order tracking still shows that my order has not shipped.

I am beginning to wonder if I will ever see this product or my money again. I would expect such a large, international company that has been around for 12 years to have better customer service and better practices than this. But I guess the less contact they allow customers to have with them, the more they can rip people off.

Does anyone realize that even if they do ship the product, if they have my money and say the money of 1000 other people for 3-4 weeks without shipping out the product, this quickly adds up to a large amount of interest Thane is earning on that money. Maybe that is how they have stayed in business this long.

At this point, all I want is my money back. I'll find another product somewhere else. And to let other people know to be careful and watch out.

Michael
Bellingham, Washington
U.S.A.