BROOKSTONE Deducts money from my Mastercard, then insists they never received payment Mexico Missouri

This has been nothing short of a nightmare. On October 27, 2008, I placed an order for a treadmill, totalling $586.19. Several weeks later, when I still had not received the treadmill, I phoned customer service and had the unfortunate opportunity of speaking to someone who had absolutely no interest in offering any type of customer service whatsoever. She was rude, indifferent and unfriendly. I did manage, however, to extract from her (with great difficulty) that, for some inexplicable reason, the treadmill was shipped and returned back to Brookstone, and that they had refunded my credit card the amount of $530.46. I immediately wanted to place another order for another treadmill, being the glutton for punishment that I am, but I couldn't get this half-kinetic moron of a customer service representative to make any concessions for the "shipping charges" that they believe I should pay due to their incompetence. They never did refund the shipping charges. On 17 November 2008, I placed an order for the same treadmill. (shame on me)
On 20 November 2008, $586.19 was again debited from my Mastercard account. Yesterday I phoned customer service at Brookstone; they stated that the order is awaiting payment. I explained to them that the order was paid for on 20 November, and I was told that it's not showing as paid, and that I MUST be making a mistake. I called my bank, and, indeed, $586.19 was debited from my account on 20 November and paid to Brookstone. After several more phone calls to Brookstone, I was forced to speak with Marcella at extension 6859, who obviously takes great pride in earning a paycheck with little or no effort expended to actually earn the money she is paid. She wasn't even able to gain an understanding of this issue; the best she could do was tell me that the first order was paid for and refunded less due to the shipping charge that Brookstone was still claiming I should be responsible for. She INSISTS that Brookstone NEVER debited my Mastercard for a second order. I asked to speak to a supervisor, she informed me that her supervisor's name was Starla, but I never got to speak to anyone because MArcella placed me on hold for a very extended period of time and then proceeded to disconnect the call. This led me to call the corporate office in New Hampshire, and to fall into a voice mailbox for a person named Linda Wolf, executive assistant to the office of the President and who promises to call back. I just received a message from Linda explaining that she's working on it, but that I was charged and credited for my order weeks ago, and that she will call me back with the details. NO ONE at this company, no matter how high up the ladder one attempts to climb, is capable of resolving this. I've been on and off the phone with my bank and Mastercard and Brookstone representatives over the course of three days trying to resolve this matter. Brookstone is obviously in possession of $586.19 that they insist that they don't have irregardless of the fact that both Mastercard and my bank INSIST that Brookstone has been paid. And let's not even discuss the $50-some-odd dollars that they decided I should absorb because they screwed up the first order also.

Anyone thinking of placing an order with this company should be made extremely aware that, aside from the obvious mistakes they consistently make, the customer service representatives treat customers without an ounce of courtesy or respect; they are by far the most unfriendly, rude and unprofessional people I've ever had the displeasure of having to speak to.

Miranda
chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.