budk.com The BUDK Catalog, Horrible customer service and website - AVOID AT ALL COSTS Moultrie, Georgia

Bought item 28 April 2010 with an additional fee paid for Express Shipping because I needed this item for birthday on 7 May 2010. 

From the company, received immediately after placing the order:

"Thank you for ordering from BudK.com. Your order, W0389836, is being processed and should be shipped within 24 hours. For ground shipping please allow 7-10 business days for receipt of the order. Once your order has been shipped we will send you an email acknowledging shipment."

Ok, all appeared good.

Days go by, no notification that it shipped and no package, so I send an inquiry with a response received 6 May 2010:

"Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your question or concern. Our number one goal at Bud K is to serve you, our valued Bud K Customer.  For over 20 years we have been the leader in providing top quality merchandise at affordable prices backed by our iron clad 100% satisfaction guarantee. 

Super, as the back order was news to me.  No indication was given at the time of order that it was back ordered.  It would make zero sense for me to pay for express shipping on an item that is back ordered that I needed by 7 May 2010.

In short, if it would have been disclosed, I would have purchased the same item from other sites that have the same item and are in stock.  They contend it did list as back ordered - uh, ok, my confirmation (above) gives no indication of any such problem and states it should be shipped within 24 hours.

So, fast forward.  I tell them not to ship.  They ship, and ship it out Ground, not Express.  I tell them to pull back the shipment from UPS.   They will not.  I told them I want to hold them to their 100% guarantee.  They say not going to happen, even though the mistake in this case is 100% their mistake.

Latest response, as of 12 May 2010, and I gave them a final chance to make this right before filing this report.  I still have not received the item, but they say that the tracking says that I have.

"As I stated before we did list the item as backordered on our site so we will not be returning the package or refunding the shipping fees. I apologize for the inconvenience."

Bottom line is thus:

1.  For the $14.99 in shipping they they so steadfastly refuse to refund, they will get more than $14.99 in perpetual negative press here at no marginal cost to me, only marginal cost to them as customers who read this go elsewhere.

2.  They can now deal with the credit card dispute I will file.  I told them to cancel the order/shipment, and they did not.  This is in violation of MasterCard policy.

3.  They do not back their products up and if they make a mistake, you are the cause. 

In short, they offer nothing exclusive.  All the items they have can be found elsewhere where you will not waste your time fixing this company's mistakes.