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Report: #421103

Complaint Review: KlearGear.com - San Antonio Texas

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  • Reported By: bountiful Utah
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  • KlearGear.com 7122 Oaklawn Drive San Antonio, Texas U.S.A.

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My husband ordered items from KlearGear.com for Christmas presents. After several weeks went by with no delivery, he attempted to contact KlearGear.com to find out the status of his shipment.

His first mistake was attempting to call them... you can't do it. There is absolutely no way to get in touch with a physical human being. No extensions work, and the dial-by-name directory is absolutely useless. Which is somewhat surprising since it's the only way to get in touch with their media relations person.

At one point we told them we would contact the BBB and file a negative report against them. They claimed that since they had never received payment, we couldn't file. We replied that no, we had every right to do so based on their horrible customer service practices.

Here's the email I sent them, and their response below:

Dear Customer Care Agent;

My husband recently placed an order with your company, referenced in the subject line of this email. He has since spent the last 5 days attempting to contact your company as to the status of the order, with no satisfactory resolution whatsoever. Emails give nothing but excuses and circular answers, and attempting to contact you by phone is literally impossible. But I'll get into that later.

According to customer service agent "Jamie", the items we requested and paid for were on backorder. This caused his order to be placed on hold for an intederminate amount of time. No communication of any kind was extended to let us know of the status. "Jamie" claimed that s/he was "waiting to hear from you regarding whether you wanted your order shipped or to receive the order." In generally accepted, standard English, those options are one and the same. I fail to understand why this was even a question, since the order was never cancelled and should have been shipped immediately upon receiving the backordered items.

"Jamie" then informed my husband that you were waiting to invoice PayPal. My husband had already paid for these items, so an invoice through PayPal should never have even been an issue. He paid for the order back in December. Had your customer service team been in the least bit competent enough to pick their own noses, this would have been recognized, noted, and processed weeks ago.

The excuses that "Jamie" has given us are at best completely irresponsible and unacceptable, at worst pure fabrication and a thinly-veiled attempt to cover your own ineptitude. I spent some time attempting to contact your customer service department by phone earlier today. Not only is getting a human being in customer service impossible, but your dial-by-name directory does not recognize any combination of numbers entered. Even attempting to contact your media relations person, April Brian, in the hopes that by speaking to her I could get the name of a customer service manager, failed miserably. Either April has long since left your esteemed company, or she has no phone extension. At least, the directory doesn't seem to think she does.

A company like yours, while catering to geeks, should first and foremost understand that while electronic communication is nice, there are inevitably times that human contact is necessary. At this point, the only thing I can determine is that your customer service department, in fact, your whole company, is so busy returning voicemails from disgruntled customers that they are inable to take live calls of any kind.

I offer the following resolution: that order be shipped immediately, overnight, free of charge, with a 40% discount. Since my husband has already paid through PayPal, you can refund the difference in the same manner. It is the very least that you can do in order to salvage any kind of customer satisfaction and respect for your company and the products you sell. We expect resolution by the end of business today.

Best regards;


Their eloquent response:

Hello ,
Thank you for contacting KlearGear.com.
I am not sure if you have read the previous communications between Mr. and myself; however, I will RE-state that he has never paid for his order. Perhaps you should contact PayPal to verify that. They can again provide you with the details, which include the fact that the order was PRE-authorized with PayPal shortly after the order was placed. That Pre-Authorization is only valid for 30 days, which is why we needed to invoice PayPal.

I notified him when the items were received from back order and asked if he wanted those items to ship, even though there has been a delay in receipt. We charge at the time of shipping; therefore, I will say again, he has not been charged.

At this point, we reserve the rights to refuse service. Order # has been CANCELED. Again, PayPal has not been charged, and you will not be receiving a refund
Sincerely,

Jamie (and yes, that is my real name.)
KlearGear.com Customer Care

Jen
bountiful, Utah
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/06/2009 02:13 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/kleargearcom/san-antonio-texas-78229/kleargearcom-incompetent-customer-service-refusal-to-ship-products-san-antonio-texas-421103. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
3Author
5Consumer
0Employee/Owner

#8 Author of original report

In response to Baylnk comment:

AUTHOR: - ()

POSTED: Wednesday, March 11, 2015

 "Well, the latest in a long line of corporate stupidity has ended they way you hoped it might.

A court has handed down a $307,000 judgement against KlearGear:"

 

Yes I'm aware of that.  I was in the courtroom, seated between a wonderful lawyer from Public Citizens' Litigation Group and my husband (the one who originally ordered the items) when the Federal Judge awarded us the damages.

 

Thank you for the link to the ARS Technica article, though. :)

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#7 General Comment

Resolution: Decision against KlearGear

AUTHOR: Baylink - (USA)

POSTED: Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Well, the latest in a long line of corporate stupidity has ended they way you hoped it might.

A court has handed down a $307,000 judgement against KlearGear:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/kleargear-must-pay-306750-to-couple-that-left-negative-review/

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#6 Author of original report

In response to Daniel C.

AUTHOR: Jen k. - ()

POSTED: Monday, December 30, 2013

"I'm normally all about consumers standing up for their rights and threre are lots of people angry about the fact that KlearGear has taken this couple to court."

 

First of all, they are not taking us to court.  What KlearGear did was far more heinous than that, and we are the ones taking them to court over their actions.

 

"By their own admission, the couple did eventually receive a full refund."

 

We were never seeking a refund.  PayPal's system automatically did that when the pre-authorization on the transaction expired when KlearGear failed to ship the items my husband ordered.  We were originally seeking to have the order completed as purchased.  In other words, KlearGear did nothing, either to process the order or initiate the refund process.  If their (in)actions had ceased there, none of the recent events would have ever transpired.

 

"When you take money off the table, this complaint reads like a vitriol-laced tirade over an order cancellation."

 

The complaint was based on the sheer frustration both my husband and I went through in attempting to resolve the matter.  Yes, 5 years later it does sound angry, but that's exactly what I was at the time. 

 

"To those of you running with the first ammendment argument:  have any of you actually bothered to read the first ammendment?

**snip**

In other words: the government is not allowed to suppress speach [sic].  It certainly says nothing of private coprorations defending themselves (rightfully so) against this type of toxic and hateful diatribe."

 

In regard to the absolute letter of the First Amendment, yes you're right.  It deals with the government's ability (or lack thereof) to issue laws regarding the free exchange of communication.  However, KlearGear's subsequent actions, three years later, are what infringed upon our rights.

 

As a consumer, I have the right to communicate my experiences with any vendor, good or bad, to anyone I think might benefit from that experience as long as the information I give them is 100% factual.  After posting this report, my husband and I went on with our lives.  Three years later, KlearGear came back with threats of extortion if we did not remove the review.  That's where my rights of free speech were violated.  No one should ever feel that they are being muzzled for posting a true account of their experience, and they should certainly never have their daily lives impacted in the way ours have been simply because the vendor doesn't like seeing negative reviews about their practices.

 

"You can say what you want on the Internet but that doesn't mean it's always a good idea."

 

I wholeheartedly agree, but by the same token if I had to do it all over again, I still would have posted exactly the same thing I originally wrote.  I am but one of dozens of reviews, spanning various consumer feedback sites, all indicating that they had problems with KlearGear's orders not being fulfilled.  As far as we know, we are the only ones who have had false $3,500 debts levied against our credit because of it.

 

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#5 General Comment

Good for KlearGear!

AUTHOR: Daniel C. - ()

POSTED: Sunday, December 29, 2013

 

I'm normally all about consumers standing up for their rights and threre are lots of people angry about the fact that KlearGear has taken this couple to court.  But let's put one major fact into context here:

By their own admission, the couple did eventually receive a full refund.  When you take money off the table, this complaint reads like a vitriol-laced tirade over an order cancellation.   You can say what you want on the Internet but that doesn't mean it's always a good idea.

To those of you running with the first ammendment argument:  have any of you actually bothered to read the first ammendment?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In other words: the government is not allowed to suppress speach.  It certainly says nothing of private coprorations defending themselves (rightfully so) against this type of toxic and hateful diatribe.

 

 

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#4 Consumer Suggestion

Legal Standing

AUTHOR: Law - ()

POSTED: Monday, November 18, 2013

I'm not familair with the specifics of the law applicable to you (in my jurisdiction any unusual clauses must be very clearly pointed out and certain clasues agaisnt consumers are unenforcable).

 

However, even barring something like that (and free speech, etc) , if you entered a contract and the other party did not fulfil its end, then the contract is basically dead at that point and I would hazzard a guess that no clauses are enforcable agaisnt you (this story seems to be gaining traction so hopefully somebody more knowledgeable on the specific laws applicable to you will chime in to confirm or deny this).

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#3 Consumer Comment

Update

AUTHOR: Ed - ()

POSTED: Friday, November 15, 2013

Another consumer posted links that don't work, these do

 

Their Terms of Service from 2008 clearly had no BS Non-Disparagement Clause:

web.archive.org/web/20081219095714/http://www.kleargear.com/termsofuse.html

 

The clause wasn't added till June 2012 according to web archives and doesn't apply to a 2008 sale web.archive.org/web/20120627211945/http://www.kleargear.com/termsofuse.html

 

By the way, the terms URL

kleargear.com/termsofuse.html

is currently not working and redirects to another part of their site, their current terms URL

kleargear.com/help.html 

also doesn't have a Non-Disparagement Clause.

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#2 Consumer Comment

BS Non-Disparagement Clause wasn't added till 2012

AUTHOR: Elwood B - ()

POSTED: Thursday, November 14, 2013

Their TOS from 2009 clearly had no BS Non-Disparagement Clause:

archive.org/web/20091225195823/ kleargear.com/termsofuse.html

It wasn't added till late 2012 and doesn't apply to a 2009 sale:

web.archive.org/web/20120827130926/ kleargear.com/termsofuse.html

I will never do business with this disreputable company.

Non-Disparagement Clause

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#1 Author of original report

KlearGear.com Legal has requested that our report be removed.

AUTHOR: Jen k. - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, May 31, 2012

KlearGear.com has requested that this report be removed, claiming that it is a violation of their Terms of Service (even though no such language existed at the time of our order).  Since RipoffReport.com does not allow reports to be removed, I am writing this update in order to show a good faith attempt at removing the information. 

Any further requests to have this report removed will have to be directed to RipoffReport.com and their legal team directly.  We have no control over their policies.

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