You may remember a gripe post a few weeks back about this. Well, it’s back. *Hopefully* it’s all taken care of. At this point I’m a little skeptical about that. I left mean nasty e-mails and voicemails yesterday that I probably shouldn’t have, but I was understandably annoyed. I had to laugh today listening to the voicemail from the HRC rep detailing the sordid history of one silly little khaki HRC baseball cap which retails for $16.95, $22.90 with shipping. Just in case you care, here’s a synopsis:

*Mid-July: I purchase a cap online for $22.90 (16.95 plus shipping).
*A couple of days later: A charge appears as pending on my account, I assume it’s shipped (like most places they say they don’t charge you til it ships). FYI, later I learn ImageFirst, the supplier of HRC’s online store, does credit card transactions differently than most online retailers, I know because I’ve coded a number of them. When you buy a $20 purchase, the code asks Visa/Mastercard if you have $20 of credit free on your account. If the answer is yes, your order is ‘filed’. You see nothing on your bill. When the order ships, a pending transaction of $20 is applied to your card (depending on your bank you can see these charges almost instantly). If the pending charge is allowed (you have enough credit), the order is fulfilled and the charge is ‘applied’ or confirmed in banking parlance. When the pending charge occurs, the $20 is not taken from your account, but removed from your line of credit (you have $20 less credit on that card til the charge is confirmed or released/cancelled). Anyway, their system skips to step 2 and does a pending charge when you order, then rolls it back. An odd way to do it. My bank lets me see pending charges, so I just happened to log on and see that pending charge. Little did I know if I came back a few days later it would be gone.

*Two weeks later: I’m wondering where my cap is. It should have arrived by then. I call and ask. BTW, HRC’s and ImageFirst’s customer service reps are nothing but nice. I think the problem, as you’ll see, is ImageFirst reps have a little too much initiative for their own good. They tell me the hats were back-ordered, but it looks like my order is going through soon. Ok, odd that I was charged early, but whatever.

*A day or two later: I look at my account. I see another charge for $22.90!! In shock, I scroll back through my history, the other pending charge is gone. Weird, but whatever, I’m charged once, and my cap is no the way. No biggie. The cap arrives, I’m happy.

*Next day: Another charge appears, just for the cap this time: $16.95. Understandably concerned, I call in. Apparently someone had decided (I guess from my last call), to overnight a 2nd cap to me and just charge me for the cap. Nice, I guess, but they didn’t cancel the original order. I tell them the cap hasn’t come yet even though they show it having arrived. So, they say they’ll follow up with UPS and give me a credit.

*Next day. 2nd cap arrives. I’m annoyed and I send an e-mail to HRC now telling them I don’t plan to buy from them again because of the headache. When he replies, I’ve cooled down and I say, whatever, I keep the 2nd cap and give it as a gift or something, you keep the money for it and I’ll just consider it a donation to the HRC, which is a cause I support.

*A day or two later: He apparently calls ImageFirst and gets them to pick up the 2nd cap and issue me a refund (the first promised refund never came). By now I’ve already opened the 2nd cap and it’s sitting on the counter. Anyway, ImageFirst calls and says they’ll call me later in the day with an RMA (return merchandise authorization #) to put on the envelope (I can apparently just stuff the cap back into any old envelope, which is what I end up doing, it BARELY fit), and they’ll schedule a UPS guy to pick it up, return it, and then they’ll credit me. Whatever. This is getting annoying and ridiculous (ha! how little I knew then) for a cap, but I’ll do it. So, remember, I’m waiting for them to call me back to tell me when the UPS guy is coming, and what my RMA # is.

*That evening. UPS has come by, 1st of 3 attempts. Whatever, they haven’t called me yet with the RMA#, so I’m not doing anything.
*Next day. 2nd of 3 attempts. I’m somewhere between laughing and crying.
*Next morning. I call them and tell them that they forgot to call and tell me the RMA # and when the UPS guy is coming, and that he’s coming for the 3rd time today. She says she’ll call me back in 5 minutes with a new RMA # (they apparently don’t have the old one the first UPS guy is coming for). Well, I wait 30 minutes and am late to work. No call. An hour later, I get a voicemail from Sprint dated from over an hour ago. So, this time Imagefirst came through, it was Sprint who failed me. Anyway, I’d gotten tired of it all and just put the cap in the envelope on the porch with no RMA #. I get home that evening and it’s been picked up. I have no idea if they’ll be able to match it to my account or not. Whatever.

*That was Friday of last week. On Monday, the UPS guy comes again, 1st of 3 attempts. I think the woman friday schedule a new round even though I told her the first guy was coming again Friday. I see the credit for $16.95 on my account. Yeah! We’re even now. I have one cap, they have $22.90.
*Tuesday: UPS guy comes again.
*Wed: UPS guy, 3rd and final attempt. I just laugh and throw away the notice. I feel bad for the poor UPS guys in this sad little story, but it’s not my fault. Not entirely. I notice a pending charge of $16.95 from HRC/ImageFirst. A chill goes down my spine. I resolve to remain calm and wait til it resolves.
*Thursday: The charge is confirmed. I go ballistic, but it’s afterhours so I have to settle for voicemail and e-mail.
*Today: Issue resolved. Supposedly. I’ve been told they sorted it all out and issued me another $16.95 credit to negate the 2nd $16.95 debit, the third charge overall. Because they feel bad about this (they are nice, if not talented, customer service people), they refund my original amount of $22.90 as well. Again, supposedly. Haven’t seen the credits appear yet on my account, fingers are crossed. Apparently what happened is the first credit went through, then a 2nd one was created, and cancelled. But, someone saw the 2nd one, and decided to negate it with another charge.

So, I’m praying I’ll see early next week two credits: $16.95 and $22.90, though I’ll be happy if just one of them shows, either. In fact, I’ll be happy if none of them shows, as long as I never, ever, have another charge from HRC or ImageFirst again!

And if I ever decide to support HRC again, which I will, I’m sending them a check!!!