Sally D.

2-28-2017 Upate:
In 2016, the Better Business Bureau did an investigation on MakerGeeks.com after having received numerous complaints from its customers. In its report, the BBB gives MakerGeeks.com a rating of F, which is the lowest possible score.
https://www.bbb.org/southwestern-missouri/business-reviews/hobby-and-model-construction-supplies-wholesale-and-manufacturing/maker-geeks-in-springfield-mo-*******/alerts-and-actions

In case above link doesn't work, just go to the BBB website and do a search on "makergeeks.com" or "Maker Geeks" (2 words). Here is a quote from the BBB report:

"The BBB has sent the complaints to a previous address in the Springfield area via USPS and they were returned to sender. Complaints sent to the current address for this company have not been answered.

"BBB files indicate that this business has a pattern of complaints concerning delivery and refund issues. Consumers have ordered and paid for products and the company has not delivered the product to the consumer or issued a refund."

"BBB rating of F"

MakerGeeks has a history of cheating most of its customers. From my own experience and from reading complaints from others, I have detected the pattern. Their M. O. is DELAY. Customer places order but item is never delivered, or only a partial order arrives, or even an empty box is delivered. Customer emails customer service, which is the ONLY way to contact MakerGeeks because they do not list a phone # or mailing address. Customer receives friendly reply from Joshua Smith (owner of MakerGeeks) saying stuff like: sorry for delay, item is back-ordered, there is a rush due to the holiday, supplier says it will be in next week, some sort of problem with carrier, maybe your package was lost in the mail, etc. Customer tries to be patient and waits longer for delivery. After numerous emails and delays, patience finally runs out, and the customer asks for a refund, at which time Joshua Smith says something like, "My apologies, but since the transaction is over 30 days old, we can't issue the refund to the card we have for this order." Instead he offers to mail a refund check." Of course, refund check never comes. The friendly emails from Joshua are all DELAY TACTICS to keep customer from disputing the charge with his credit card company. Because, of course, MakerGeeks does NOT want chargebacks!

What Joshua says about a 30-day window is not true, by the way. Customer actually has 60 days after statement was mailed to dispute the charge with the credit card company. And some credit card companies will allow even more time than that (mine did). But Joshua hopes to convince customer it's too late to dispute the charge. Then he can keep the money even though customer never received the item and no refund was sent. If you never received the item you paid for, and never received a refund, then I recommend disputing the charge with your credit card company even if it's been more than 60 days. If MakerGeeks gets a lot of chargebacks, they will be placed on a "risky merchants" list, which means higher fees for them. More importantly, if they get too many chargebacks, their merchant account with the credit card company will be terminated, which will SHUT DOWN THE BUSINESS because they will no longer be able to accept credit card payments. The more customers complain, the sooner this will happen. All their FAKE 5-star reviews will not keep them in business if enough customers report the fraud charges to their credit card companies.

From my original 3-24-2016 review: Maker Geeks never shipped the item I ordered. I sent many emails to Joshua Smith, the owner of MakerGeeks.com (*******@makergeeks.com and *******@makergeeks.com). Joshua kept saying item was backordered and would come in soon. I got tired of waiting and requested a refund. Joshua said he would mail a refund check, but no check was sent. Joshua lied and said it was mailed and he would do a stop payment and send another check. Of course, that check didn't come either--because he never mailed anything. While stringing me along, he was very friendly and chatty in emails, but abruptly stopped replying to emails once the jig was up. Back then (same as now), there was no phone # listed on their site, but via an online search, I found an old phone # *******092), which I repeated called. Same as now, no one ever answers that # and the call is forwarded to an automatic voice mail system, where you can leave a message, but won't get called back.

Joshua claims to be a Christian with the goal of "reverse tithing" and says "MakerGeeks.com is a Christian and Christ centered company and I believe that God is in everything we do." [Invoking God is sometimes used as a marketing ploy to earn trust.] Maker Geeks does not list its phone # or its full address on its website; it only lists "Springfield, MO". I found an address on another site, but it's not a legit address and mail sent there is returned undeliverable.

I found another online company of Joshua's: "Hello, my name is Joshua b Smith and I own NRGX Labs Sports here in Springfield, MO. NRGX Labs Sports is a sport supplement company that was founded in 2008 with a simple motto: 'Excellence in Nutrition.'" Another site says: "Hello, my name is Joshua Smith and I own NRG-X Labs here in Bentonville, AR." I can tell it's the same Joshua Smith because on the "about" page, he mentions being a Christian and having the goal of reverse tithing.

I went through a huge amount of hassle, but I was at least fortunate to get my money back--not from MakerGeeks, but from my credit card company. Capital One did a fraud investigation and did a chargeback. It refunded the money MakerGeeks.com took from me because they said I have zero liability for fraud. I'm grateful that SiteJabber gives me a way to warn other people about MakerGeeks.com.