Phytoextractum Failed to send product in timely manner, failed to honor advertised coupon, included cancelled order on new order unknown Internet

They still have no idea how to deal with customers and pull shady practices exactly like what she described. 

They are fine until you have a problem, then they are absolutely worthless in addressing it. 

If the owner of this business is at all intelligent (which by this time I frankly doubt, what with all the denials of reality and conspiracy theories) he will do the following to repair his company's reputation, which first of all he must admit, HE HIMSELF lost touch of when he allowed his customer services to run amok with bad attitude. However it WOULD be sad to see this company go under, so in the spirit of all fairness, I am setting forth some suggestions:

1. Look at the ACTUAL PROBLEM. Had the owner looked at my PROOF of allegations, he would have seen multiple screen shots which I sent to him, that proved each of my contentions: a- that an order I already complained about was included in my NEXT order (screen shot provided here) b- that my order WAS placed BEFORE 2PM Pacific Time (screen shot 2 directly shows that the CONFIRMATION EMAIL was sent at 1:59PM Pacific Standard Time, timestamped by GMAIL) and c- his customer service staff should have been friendlier and more concilliatory and perhaps even offered bonus rewards points or something other than the same 20% they offer to EVERYONE each Monday. In essence, seeing the screen shot PROOF which is UNCONTESTIBLE and on GMAIL'S servers, he should have had a bit of insight into his rep's offer and realized that it was one step short of NOT ENOUGH.

A good example of this is an order I placed on April 20th of which I complained about the weakness of their enhanced kratom product. Now, let it be known here and now that this is the FIRST and ONLY time I've ever had a gripe with the PRODUCTS of Phytoextractum. Indeed the products are what made me a repeat customer despite the kava debacle (I didn't know the website address she showed me was MY complaint because that website actually stole the complaint from the BBB. I've only made ANY previous complaint, and it has only been ONE on the directions of Kava Drink, to the BBB. Despite my dissatisfaction with the response of PE at that time, they DID immediately change their website to reflect that they would not give instructions on this drink, and I believe have since then stopped carrying it. The task, albeit tardily, was done. But the customer service still REEKED.) The way anyone will tell clearly that I am no competitor, neither am I "targeting" this company is that their products are, and always have been, EXCELLENT. No, the products are NOT the problem here. The CUSTOMER SERVICE is the clear cut problem. No competitor would praise the products of the site they seek to disparage! But my complaint is an HONEST complaint and I seek to clarify this point. 

On April 20th, I was uncharacteristically dissatisfied with the PRODUCT and much to my SATISFACTION, Rewards points were given. Here is an example of GOOD customer service on the part of PhytoExtractum:

"Hello Susanna, I am very sorry you are disappointed with your order. This is the first complaint I have received on our Gold Reserve so I am very surprised. I would send you more product but it would just be the same thing. Because You have opened all the packages I can not offer you a refund. I could offer you $40 in rewards points though. If this is satisfactory please let me know and I will take care of it. Please advise."

I was very satisfied with this instance of customer service. I happily re-ordered and realized that the weak product was NOT the gold reserve, but rather a different extract in the same order. I maintain that their Gold Reserve is without match, anywhere and is the best kratom product I've ever til date tried.

If PhytoExtractum had responded as well to this complaint as they did to the above complaint, this report would have never been written in the first place. Maybe they didn't feel it was worth $40 in rewards points. But even $10 would have gone a long way to mitigate the complaint, or even AN APOLOGY rather than denying the problem! Is any customer service issue about anything other than the response to the complaint? Call ANY customer a liar, blame THEM for the complaint, and they WILL be pissed! Reports WILL be written and the reputation of their customer service will RIGHTFULLY be shredded.

2. PhytoExtractum may not LIKE the fact that I DID order in time and that they DID make mistakes, but if they can at least ADMIT that, then I can consider this matter closed to my own satisfaction. A simple apology would do! 

3. PhytoExtractum should pledge to have better customer service for OTHER customers in the future. They should not only ADMIT their mistakes, but admit that perhaps a bit of customer service training would go a long way towards restoring what they've lost in BEING reported. And if they maintain that they have lost nothing? Then why are they threatening to sue me OVER THEIR OWN MISTAKES?

4. PhytoExtractum should also pledge NOT to retaliate to future and current customers over matters that require simple arbitration, such as this one. By threatening me, they have  blown this whole issue out of the water and instead, made a simple issue into a WAR. I'm sick. I don't care if they sue me all day and all night. For me, the law is clearly on my side, so I've no worries. But I don't want to have to have THIS in the back of my mind as I'm attempting to create a healthy child and overcome what could easily be a terminal illness! What's more, my own personal intent never WAS to destroy this company. But I WILL defend my rights as a consumer NOT to be hassled and intimidated over a customer service issue that started out as EASILY SOLVABLE. Therefore if my advice today is not heeded in good faith- at least some of it anyway- I will repost my complaints in other forums. It's NOT because I am trying to destroy or harass a company. It is because I want the company to IMPROVE IT'S WAY OF DOING BUSINESS WITH OTHER CUSTOMERS. 

In short, let this company live long and prosper- but let they NOT prosper at intimidating customers and failing to fix GLARING customer service problems! This is SUCH a simple issue. On April 20th, I wrote back to PhytoExtractum, the following:

"Sure that will take care of it. I'm quite surprised about this last shipment too. I've never had a problem with the gold reserve before either. In fact I plan on ordering it again. I was just thinking that maybe it was that specific batch? Not sure but your solution is just fine. Thanks!"

There was never any post on ripoffreport or BBB or anywhere else on this one. The reason is simple: there was a problem from the customer's perspective and IT WAS POLITELY SOLVED. It wasn't denied, it wasn't haggled over, there was no snottiness on the part of Jacob, it was simple FIX. Issue CLOSED. Had this issue been dealt with similarly, I would not be still getting delivery notices at my door from Fedex (yes, THIS ORDER IS STILL OUT FOR DELIVERY, and so Phytoextractum LIED when they claimed to have ALREADY lost money on it- they could fix this TODAY and the order would BE PAID FOR TODAY. Then their losses would be minimal.) Perhaps they felt that the complaint didn't warrant $40 worth of rewards points. They could have simply REFUNDED THE SHIPPING COST which I footed and I would have been a HAPPY CAMPER.

The lesson ANY business should learn, but ESPECIALLY PhytoExtractum, is that politeness and some concilliation toward their faithful customer can go a long way and moreover CAN PREVENT PRIVATE COMPLAINTS FROM BECOMING PUBLIC.

Thank you. Again I didn't get to this until late at night but pictures of many receipts on previous orders as well as a photo of all the PhytoExtractum bags will be forthcoming in the morning. I WENT FROM BEING A SATISFIED CUSTOMER WHO HANDED OUT PHYTOEXTRACTUM'S WEBSITE TO ANYONE LOOKING FOR KRATOM- TO A CUSTOMER WHO FILED A COMPLAINT ON A PUBLIC WEBSITE AND WHO WILL NEVER SHOP WITH THE COMPANY AGAIN.

May other customers never have the hassle with PhytoExtractum that I've had. I'm sticking with their competition from now on- but I hope this lesson ultimately benefits this company AND MOST IMPORTANTLY their customers.

w they come up with old complaint s from other customers and claim it's a conspiracy?? How about I post receipts for all the SUCCESSFUL orders I've done with them? Look for these photos in the morning folks . This guy is off his rocker and has clearly been consuming a bit too many mushrooms!

This individual has been targeting us since December.  Each placed order is followed by a complaint and in closing states they'll never shop with us again.

See this report submitted on another site last year: (((link redacted))) Look familiar?

We suspect this is a competitor or perhaps someone with simply too much time on their hands.

The customer has been banned from the site.

Yes, you read it correctly! Now PhytoExtractum, despite my clear and honest report and posted proof, is threatening to SUE me. Well, they may go right ahead! Since I've nothing to hide or be ashamed of, they can spend MORE money on a failed legal action while I in fact copy/paste their THREATENING EMAILS for all of YOU, the CONSUMERS, to see!

READ ON:

Jeff at Phytoextractum <jeff@phytoextractum.com>	6:02 PM (6 minutes ago)
to me

Susanna,

 

You need to be aware that Phytoextractum is in the process of filing a defamation lawsuit against you in the city of LA, California.  Please be advised that any future slandering or defaming of our company or employees with your continued untruthful information in any public forum will result in further action and/or damages.  

1. Screen Shot of the failed order and ensuing complaint to PhytoExtractum on May 30, 2014. This means that the cart CLEARLY should have been emptied since THE ORDER DID NOT PROCESS.

2. Second screenshot shows CLEARLY the TIME not just that my order was placed, but the time the actual CONFIRMATION EMAIL was sent to me. It was NOT past 2 PM as the owner contends!

This clearly catches the owner in TWO LIES from his rebuttal. If he bases his lack of customer service on lies, then how well will YOUR next order be filled?

A- Your product, although you claim it not to be sold "for human consumption" so as not to cross the FDA or have it outlawed, IS INDEED for human consumption, and you wouldn't sell it if you weren't well aware of this fact. While I don't expect you to broadcast it or even admit it, I find it ridiculous that you are sanctimoniously harping on me for taking it as a pain medication alternative to harsh narcotics that could enslave my child to a lifetime of documented problems, when kratom has a long record of prenatal safety as noted in the indepth studies from countries around the world. (Many are not in English and so I would not expect you to be necessarily as informed on them as I am. A mother, after all, must be certain in what she puts in her prenatal body!)

You on the other hand, participate in what anyone who knows ANYTHING about kratom will instantly realize as HYPOCRISY. Rest assured, every single kratom user is laughing at your false indignation that I've used kratom "for human consumption". In fact I am sure you yourself are grinning widely as you have the nerve to type such a thing, but let it be shown for my benefit that you HAVE made this ridiculous statement and expounded righteously upon it- in showing that your customer service skills are non-existant at best. Who wants to spend money on a company who doesn't value it's own customers?

B- Nothing about my report was false. I DID enter the coupon code multiple times. It was NOT recognized by your wonderful "system". Perhaps you have a glitch that you are unaware of? It is furthermore (and I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here and assuming you are not outright LYING- a kind assumption given that you've already lied in your rebuttal) possible for you to be unaware of the denials your system issued if they haven't been logged correctly by said defective system. In software, there are times that a defect is displayed once every 100 or 1000 times and sometimes even once and never again. Surely you must know that this is the bane of software testers everywhere! As a system's analyst I am well versed in these sorts of problems. So even if you aren't just denying your system's rejection of your coupon code just to deny it, it is emminently possible that you remain willfully ignorant of this glitch.

C- My order was placed 20 MINUTES PRIOR to the time you CLAIM is the cut-off for your saturday deliveries. In fact I never expected this to be TO me by saturday. I expected it on MONDAY and was fairly upset to learn that it wasn't even shipped as per my specification for 2 day Fedex delivery. No, YOU sat on the order and ASIDE from FAILING to honor your own coupon of free shipping, you didn't even ship it as my PAID order specifiied.

D- I ordered this COD because I've had experiences with your company in times past that makes it seem a bad bet to pay you upfront- and I was RIGHT. Had you responded CORRECTLY to my complaint- for instance, offered a credit for the lateness PLUS the discount you did manage to stingily offer, or even offered additional "points", I WOULD have accepted this order, paid for it, and you would not have lost a DIME. As it stands, you LIED about the amount you spent on shipping: according to the ORDER itself, it was $41+/- NOT $112. However even ignoring your SECOND LIE in your rebuttal, THIS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN AN ISSUE had you displayed ANY SORT of good customer service! When you run a business with such awful customer service than the lesson you are bound to learn sooner or later is that you LOSE MONEY NOT JUST CUSTOMERS.

E- I never had an issue with the previous order being added to the current one. As I said it was likely due to my own smartphone and as such I graciously took responsibility for it. But it really SHOULD NOT have been on the order because dated 05/30/2014 I complained about your company's inability to process my previous CREDIT CARD PAID order (hence, next time I ordered was COD!!) in a manner timely enough to avoid paying the shipping... so this is really the SECOND TIME you have failed to honor your own coupon code. The first time I just dismissed the issue because you chose not to handle it. So you SHOULD HAVE KNOWN that this was an issue as, come to the written record, this is the SECOND TIME the SAME ISSUE has popped up!

The bottom line here is that PhytoExtractum has Superior products, however their outrageous pricing and horrible customer service skills mean that you will NOT have their coupons honored, they will NOT send out your order in a timely manner, and there is every possibility that your order may not even BE processed!

PhytoExtractum needs to step OUT of denial and INTO reality. This is NOT the right way to run a business!

Resorting to denial of the problem and calling the customer (I have been a faithful customer for almost a YEAR now and this is the FIRST shippment I've EVER rejected!) I say calling the customer a LIAR is NOT going to solve the ongoing issues that plague your business. After checking around on the kratom message boards, I've found that indeed, others have had these SAME ISSUES.

Since I was called a liar I will now request that others write more to rip-off report and document their experiences as well. Maybe then the owner will either shape up- or at least he won't call people who send him their hard earned dollars, liars!

If you don't like the report then DO A BETTER JOB!

We did our best to amicably resolve Susanna’s complaint, however please note -

1. She ordered Friday after our 2 pm PST cut off time.
2. Susanna’s account is untruthful and inaccurate according to the emails she actually sent.
3. No attempt to use a coupon was made.
4. Her last un-placed order was still saved in her shopping cart – she simply didn’t review her total order before checking out on what she has noted is her smartphone. Persistent cart is common practice and the majority of our customers (as in 99%) do utilize and appreciate this.
5. We do offer FedEx Priority Overnight delivery on Saturday but it does cost extra. This is an expense passed on to use by FedEx and out of our control.  FedEx Standard is still offered as free service for orders over $99 (with a Monday delivery.)
6. Our policies are clearly posted on the website, during checkout, in bold, plus highlighted in yellow. They cannot be made more clear to the customer.
7. If Susanna truly is pregnant and also has cancer, she shouldn’t be purchasing from our website as all of our products are not for human consumption and clearly marked as such.

Most importantly, this order was placed via COD – Susanna has paid for nothing . She has also refused the shipment, costing us $112 in shipping and return fees, which we will know be forced to collect at the expense of a “rip off report” that’s not even valid. The only rip off has been of our time and otherwise excellent reputation with a false account of what actually happened.

In order for the reader to get a full understanding, we’d like to provide additional information which includes factual detail. See below:

We received a customer support email from Susanna which was sent Saturday night at 10:50 pm:

My latest order included a failed order from last time and since I was on my
smartphone I didn't see it. Ok my mistake so I said to myself, "well I'll
pay for it". Even though once I complained about THAT order failure it
SHOULD have been taken out of the system, not included on my NEXT order! So
let that be aside. Not only did you NOT provide the FREE OVERNIGHT SHIPPING
even tho I entered the coupon code TWICE. When it kept coming back asking me
to pay I chose the fedex saver option which would have delivered Tuesday. I
PAID for it even though I should NOT have had to pay for shipping on an
order that large. Now I find out you guys waited until 24 HOURS LATER to
start shipping??? NOW I won't get the order until WEDNESDAY which is ONE DAY
TOO LATE!!!!

I don't know whether to re-order and just totally reject the shipment you've
sent under these RIDICULOUS customer service conditions- and that's AFTER I
came back DESPITE your huge price increase and the fact that I said I WAS
NOT going to come back- so that's AFTER I gave you guys a second and
UNAPPRECIATED chance, and now we have THESE HUGE ISSUES?? I should have
GOTTEN this order TODAY and for FREE or at the latest MONDAY and FREE. But
NO! I guess you guys don't WANT my weekly hundred bucks in business! You do
stuff like THIS and DELAY the processing of my order and DOUBLE the price
instead of giving me the free overnight shipping that's written in BOLD RED
LETTERS on your website!!!

An almost $200 order!!! If I order from moodandmind now I can STILL have
THEIR kratom at HALF the price as yours and now thanks to your DELAYED
PROCESSING I can also have it EARLIER than yours!

So much for my coming back to you people for business!!! I want you to give
me ONE DECENT REASON for me to accept this awful order??????

We replied to her Sunday morning, outside of normal business hours, in order to address her concerns:

Susanna’s Last email on Sunday at 6:34pm –

This is nonsense! I made my order BEFORE SATURDAY. There is NO EXCUSE that
the order should not have been shipped for free. I'm going to order
elsewhere and just reject the entire shipment. I'll get a superior product
sooner and for less money than fooling around with you people who can't
seem to understand that when a customer shows anger there is reason to
believe that YOUR COMPANY HAS CAUSED the anger! Then how can you come back
and comment on your customer having "too much anger" or an "anger issue"? I
think it would be just as wise to say that you have a ROTTEN CUSTOMER
SERVICE ISSUE.

Whereas I WAS going to quit using your services only, now I am going to go
on a crusade to let people know the horrible customer service response that
was gotten IN ADDITION to the terrible order processing!

Didn't want to go broke? Then HAVE BETTER SERVICE