Inspired Silver / Ecommerce Innovations Refuse Refund, Items out of stock, 6 week ship delays, zero customer service, shared email with 3rd party Torrance California

11/5/13

Saw a cute necklace and bracelet advertised on Facebook. Clicked the link and ordered them on my smartphone - paid with Paypal. I took a screenshot the order confirmation when I submitted the order.

Inspired Silver DID NOT send an order confirmation or receipt via email at all – so it's a good thing I took the screenshot so I had the order number. 

Inspired Silver has a Privacy Policy that states: "Your personal information will not be sold or otherwise transferred to unaffiliated third parties without your approval at the time of collection."

They CLEARLY do not adhere to that Privacy Policy – because within minutes of placing my order I received the following Spam email that I had been given a "free membership": 

"As a thank-you for buying, inspiredsilver.com has purchased you a buySAFE 3-in-1 Guarantee. You are receiving this email as a receipt of the benefits provided and described below."

11/17/13

12 days after ordering/paying.

No correspondence at all from Inspired Silver in 12 days. Went to their site and tried to use the "Order Status" feature and it kept saying that I was using the wrong zipcode (which I was not). I emailed asking the status of my order. Their response: "The specialty item(s) that you ordered do take around 7-14 business days to process through our facility from the day that you place the order as noted in the item description prior to shipment. At the time of shipment, you will receive an email with your USPS tracking number information and your order will go out in the shipping method which you have paid for. We appreciate your continued patience."

Wasn't aware of the "7-14 business days to PROCESS"… continued to wait.

11/25/12

20 days after ordering/paying.

This was the 15th business day since I placed my order. Still absolutely no communication from Inspired Silver. I went online and did a livechat with their representative. I was told that there were "some shipping delays" and the rep could not give me a date that my items would ship. I asked the rep for an immediate refund. The rep said that a refund would be issued.

11/2713

22 days after ordering/paying.

Still no refund and zero correspondence from Inspired Silver.

Opened a Paypal dispute to get my money back. With Paypal you must wait 15 days for the "vendor to respond" to your complaint.

11/29/13

24 days after ordering/paying.

Still no refund and no correspondence whatsoever from Inspired Silver. 

Sent them an email asking when I would receive my refund. 

12/2/13

27 days after ordering/paying.

From Inspired Silver in response to the 11/29 email I got this:

"Thank you for contacting customer service. I show that your order is currently being processed and is due to ship December 12,2013. At that time you will receive an email with shipping confirmation and a tracking number to follow your order while it is in transit. We appreciate your continued patience."

I wrote back immediately (same day, 12/2) saying that I was not willing to wait until mid-December for an item I ordered the first week of November and that I demanded an immediate refund.

12/4/13

29 days after ordering/paying.

In response to the 12/2 email above:

"Thank you for contacting customer service. I show that your order is currently being processed and is due to ship no later than 12/12. At that time you will receive an email with shipping confirmation and a tracking number to follow your order while it is in transit. We appreciate your continued patience."

This is EXACTLY the same email I got on 12/2 from them (see above). I replied to their email, again demanding an immediate refund and explaining to them that refusing to refund money is illegal… as is misrepresenting the availability of items for sale online. I told them that I was filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

I filed an online complaint with the Better Business Bureau (12/4/13) detailing everything above.

12/18/13

43 days after ordering/paying.

I received an email from the Better Business Bureau stating that there had been a response from the business. 

Inspired Silver's response to the BBB complaint was exactly this: "order was canceled on 12/12 was scheduled to ship on 12/15 for delivery on wednesday 12/18"

I checked my Paypal. They had refunded my money on 12/12 – again without any notice or correspondence at all so I didn't even know they had refunded.

This is just bad business:

• At NO time did Inspired Silver send me ANY correspondence other than in response to my emails to them. No receipt, no order confirmation, no warning of delayed shipment, no notification of refund. Nothing.  
• I received no confirmation of order or receipt. Had I not made a screenshot of my order confirmation at checkout I would not even have known my order number.
• At NO time did their "Order Status" feature on their website work – I suspect that this is intentional.
• I went on their Facebook to warn other shoppers to check Yelp before ordering and was immediately blocked from their page.
• Based on the Yelp reviews, what I went through seems to be routine.
• I demanded a refund FOUR times – starting on 11/25. Each demand was met with "your item will ship, thanks for your patience…"
• They did not refund until AFTER they received the notification of the BBB complaint. I strongly suspect that they had every intention of shipping my item when it came in stock and just hoping that I'd keep it – especially since according to their FAQs - "Yes, customers are responsible for the cost of shipping items back to Inspired Silver" and  "Return to Sender is NOT an authorized return method. Any shipping charges incurred will be at customer’s expense."

I complained to BBB because:

Inspired Silver misrepresented the availability of products on their website. Items ordered were listed online as in stock.

Inspired Silver did not adhere to their own posted Shipping/Handling Policy. They did not ship my items within 7-14 business days and made no effort to notify me of any delay.

Inspired Silver did not adhere to their own posted Privacy Policy and shared my email address with a third party.

Inspired Silver ignored my demands for a refund on four occasions - for almost three weeks.

I do have all of the emails to prove what I have stated here.

Yes, I finally got my money back… 37 days after placing and paying for the order - and 19 days after my initial request for a refund... but only AFTER filing a complaint with the BBB.