[Lone Buggin]

As some of you already know, I purchased a Canon 1D MKIII from Ritz Camera last month, and it never arrived. They gave me the USPS tracking number for my order, so I contacted the USPS armed with said number. They told me that I would need to contact the retailer.

Upon calling the customer service dept, repeatedly, I was without fail fed a canned response of:

Thank you for your concern, we’ll look into it and get back to you.

No one ever got back to me. So I went digging, trying to find out who the higher-ups of the company are. Lo and behold, I turned up the email address for the CEO/President of Ritz Camera. I sent him an email last Friday, the 23rd, and got no response. I sent the email to him again this morning, this time promising that come this Friday, I would set about disputing the charges with my bank.

That got a response. I’m wondering if it’s the right one though, as he is simply forwarding it to someone “who handles claims.” At least it’s being forwarded to an actual person, and not just the claims dept. in general.

Quoted below is our correspondence:

Mr. CEO,
I apologize for adding to your already busy schedule, but this is a matter that I feel warrants your attention. I ordered from your online store a Canon 1D MKIII body, and a 580EX II flash. My order number is --------, and the USPS tracking number is ---------. As you are well aware, this was not a cheap purchase.

It is now almost a full month later, and I have not yet received either item. When I call customer service, I get a canned response of: Thank you for your concern, we will look into it and get back to you. No one gets back to me. When I called the USPS and requested they track the order, they tell me that I have to contact the retailer. Now, I have $5,000 floating around, and no one seems to be able to tell me where it is. I was told by customer service that I would receive a claim packet to fill out and return, and there is as yet no sign of that either. On the other hand, I fail to understand why I should have to file a claim. It’s not like my order arrived, broken. If a claim is to be filed, it should be Ritz Camera filing the claim with the USPS, as your organization is their customer.

I hope to hear back from you shortly, as I am quite concerned by the complete lack of caring exhibited by the largest photographic retail chain in the US, and a change from what I have experienced thus far would be most welcome. Also, I feel you should know that I have given serious consideration to posting the contents of this letter to several well respected forums within the photographic community, so that others may avoid the grief and headache that Ritz Camera has subjected me to.

Very Respectfully,
Lone Buggin


PS:
If you and I fail to come to an appropriate settlement of this issue by 30 November 07, I will be contacting my bank in order to dispute the charges, and letting them handle it in any way they see fit.

And in his response, he failed to address the email to anyone:

We apologize for the problems surrounding your order, and your frustration.
We have forwarded your letter to our claims department. *deleted*, who handles claims, should be in touch with your shortly.

In order to process claims with regards to loss/non-receipt, we have to have the following letter on file (for auditing purposes). Since, you hadn't received this letter; previously, we will consider this email as proof of non-receipt.

Generally, as a rule, USPS shipments need an allowance of up to 30 days for delivery; however, it doesn't normally take that long. Thus, we allow 30 days before proceeding with USPS claims. It has been 30 days, at this time; so Pam, in claims, should be able to expedite your claim.

Again, we are sorry for the inconvenience and hope to have this resolved very shortly.


Sincerely,
CEO

He says they allow 30 days for USPS delivery, but when the package shows as being delivered somewhere else within a couple days of being shipped, forcing 30 days before any action being taken is foolhardy and frustrating.

Not to completely bash Ritz Camera with this, I do enjoy going into their retail stores. The staff is usually very knowledgable and helpfull, but I will never again order from them online.

[Lone Buggin]

As we all know, the brown smelly stuff rolls down hill. It appears that mailing the CEO may have actually done some good. I recieved an email last night from the acting head of the claims dept. Of course, the amount of content vs the amount of fluff is still to be determined.

Dear RitzCamera.com Customer:

We have received your claims letter and will process your claim request with USPS ASAP.
Please note USPS can take up to 30 days to process a new claim. We however will do all that is possible to expedite this claim. *name edited* our Claims Processor is currently out of the office therefore I *name* I'm filling in for her. I will get together with *name* at her return to expedite your claim in the must prompt manor possible.

*shipping info edited*

[Angela]

Fingers crossed this gets sorted for you

[Markulous]

Well, at least it is some response - tho' as you say, remains to be seen if just hot air (can you have hot air in an email I wonder? And would it be cold by the time it got to Greenland?)

[P-E]

What a nightmare.......hope the 1DMKIII is with you soon.

[Lone Buggin]

Thanks for the concern on this. And Markulous, I'm sure it would be cold by the time it got here. If it's all right with everyone, I'd planned to keep updating this thread with new information as I get it.

[Angela]

Yep, do please keep us up-dated

[Steve]

Sounds like a complete nightmare.

If it were me I would initiate a charge back on my credit card and simply go elsewhere. There is no excuse for them delaying this any further, especially when you have never even received goods in the first place.

I think it stinks and wouldn't have been as polite about it as you have.

[Lone Buggin]

The only reason I'm still being polite, is because it tends to get things expidited. After receiving the last email I quoted, I sent her a reply asking that she attempt to further track my order through the USPS.
Her response was to link the USPS page, and quote the information on it, which only gives the initial pickup date/time/location. Also, she told me that I needed to fill out a claim form, which she included, in order to expidite my claim. However, as you'll notice in the reply I received from the CEO, my initial emailing to him is to be treated as adequet proof that I have not received my order. I'm not posting her most recent email here, as with all the editing of names and numbers, there isn't enough substance to be worth posting.

I haven't called my bank yet, becuase in my initial email to the CEO, I told him that I would wait until Friday.. to see if this could be resolved before hand.

Quoted below is my response:

Ms. *deleted*,
It does show the pickup in GA, but it doesn't show anything after that. When I called the USPS to request a more detailed track, they told me I had to contact the retailer. As for the claim form, while I don't object to filling it out, *aforementioned CEO* advised that I would not need to, and that my initial emailing to him would be treated as acceptable proof that I had not received my order. So with your statement below, I am being given conflicting information on what is required of me.

Very Respectfully,
Lone Buggin

Also, if any of you happen to be members of other photo-forums, and you think it's relevent enough, please feel free to link to this thread.

[Lone Buggin]

And the nightmare gets worse. After waiting more than 2 hours for her to respond, I sent an email to the CEO, and cc'd it to her, asking for clarification. She responded this time:

Mr. *Me* ,

I apologize if in the mist of your attempt to get your claim processed you have misunderstood our company policy.
Mr. *CEO* did not at any point state we do not need a signed claims/loss letter. Its is Company Policy to have a copy of the Claims/Loss Letter in file for tax purposes. Please complete and sign that attached claims/loss letter and send it back to the referenced fax number at your earliest conveyance so that as previously mentioned we can process your claim.

To which I responded (note, my politeness is fading ):

Ms. *deleted*,
For your review, and in response to your last email, I have forwarded to you the communications between Mr. *CEO* and myself. I have not misunderstood your company policy in the least, I am going off of what I was told. Which you can, I'm quite certain, see for yourself below:

The quoted quote is a snippet of the emails between him and myself, the rest of it has all been posted previously, except me asking him if I had to fill out the claim letter (I was confused a little, because he included a copy of the claim letter in his first email to me, telling me it was required to process a claim, but in the very next breath telling me that my initial email to him would be treated as proof). His reply to me asking about that is the above quoted quote.

[Lone Buggin]

Had to have a smoke to settle my nerves a bit, and while I was smoking, I decided to send the CEO another email. Of course, cc'ing the claims rep that he turned this over to:

Mr. *CEO*,
For the sake of customer relations, please consider ensuring that your employees are on the same page as you, when you give an edict. I forwarded to *claims rep* our prior emails, where you state that I am not required to fill out a claim letter for her review.

Very Respectfully,
Lone Buggin

[Lone Buggin]

The plot thickens. Apparently, the CEO's secretary was responding to my emails to him, on his behalf. Using his email account. Not once saying that she was not him.

Mr. *Me*

I sincerely apologize for the miscommunication on our end. Mrs. *Secretary* had replied to your e-mail on Mr. *CEO's* behave and had neglected to inform or note the account. She had made the exception and is excepting your formal e-mail complaint as a claims/loss letter. Please note Mrs. (Original person I was supposed to be put in touch with) has returned and is processing your claim. If you wish to contact her to follow up please do so at *she gave the wrong number here*. Once again I sincerely apologize for the miscommunication and extra work this may have caused you.

[Angela]

If their grasp of the English language is anything to go by...you're in for a rough ride.

[Markulous]

Blimey, this is better than any novel:

"Whilst our hero battles sub-zero temperatures in the frozen north, Mr Ritz, lounging on his sundeck, dictated another baffling note via his secretary. Suspicions were beginning to mount that Mr Claus of North Pole fame might have snaffled the instamatic to make a record of how Global Warming was melting his winter palace. Watch this space for more developments..................."