USA Jacket

DON'T USE IT'S A SCAM AND FRAUDULENT…
DON'T USE IT'S A SCAM AND FRAUDULENT WEBSITE. I ordered a jacket off their website and paid £116. No email or confirmation was sent and when I contacted them via their whattsap chat they said there was no record of my order and asked for a receipt of payment which I don't have as the payment only comes up on my statement, so I sent a screenshot of it and then they simpmy stopped replying to my messages so they are basically thieves.

USA JACKET claims to be a US online company based in the UK, but most of their merchandise is shipped from Pakistan. I can only say that most of the correspondence I have received has not been of a native English-speaking standard.

If it were possible to give this company a zero, I would. They do not deserve credit of any kind for their abysmal and mendacious costumer service. I believe I they have lied to me in the most shameful way at almost every turn. If you want the nitty gritty on how they operate when it comes to matter of refunds, then read on. They have used every trick in the book to avoid payment. This is the timeline of my unhappy dealings with them:

December 10th: This began when I cancelled my order (*******) within 48 hours of making a purchase (value $159 usd) because it would not arrive before Christmas. I quickly discovered that USA JACKET would not honour its refund policy, even though their website allows for cancellation for up to 3 days after purchase. Their representative "Lisa Amber" falsely claimed that I had made the purchase after the 48-hour time period. This wasn't difficult to disprove, not that it made the slightest difference. The evidence was simply ignored.

December 11th: I received the following email, again from "Lisa Amber": "If you want to cancel your new purchase, so as per policy we will refund you after the deduction of $30 from your whole amount which have you paid us for the service charge." I was not happy with this penalty but I agreed to it, figuring I could at least cut my losses. I received the following acknowledgement of that from "Lisa Amber" later the same day: "We would like to inform you that as per your request your order has been canceled, and your refund will be done. In the next 4 to 5 working days, it will show in your respective account."

December 21st: After waiting 10 days for the promised refund, I sent an email to "Lisa Amber" asking what the delay was. I received this reply later in the evening: "We would like to inform you that, due to some technical issues it was a delay, no need to worry we will refund your amount within 4 to 5 business days."

December 29th: Another 8 says passed, still no refund. I sent an email threatening to report USA Jacket to various online agencies and Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

December 30th: The following reply came from "Lisa Amber": "Your refund has been done, and within this week your refund will be reflected in your account because the issue is resolved now."

January 8th: After still receiving no refund, I sent a message to "Lisa Amber" warning that I was beginning my online campaign to highlight USA Jacket's fraudulent activity.

January 9th: I received this reply from "Lisa Amber": "Here is the screenshot of your refunded amount." Again I checked my bank statement and found no record of the deposit. I sent a reply asking when the refund was made, as it did not appear on the screenshot I received.

January 10th: "Lisa Amber" replied: "Have you contacted your bank?" I replied that the problem was not my bank and again asked when the deposit was made?

January 11th: "Lisa Amber" replied: "Kindly confirm is this your last 4 digits of the card? 83**" I confirmed that this was correct and AGAIN asked when the deposit was made. "Lisa Amber" later replied: "As you can see in the screenshot there is payment failed and pending show. That's why your refund was not reflecting in your account But now your refund has been done and it takes 6 to 7 working days to reflect in your account."

January 12th: "Lisa Amber" emailed me again, repeating that the refund would be made in 6 to 7 working days, but added: "We would like to request you kindly remove your review from trustpilot." I said I would do this once I had received the refund. The reply: "As we already provided the screenshot of the refunded receipt, very soon it will reflect in your account."

January 19th: From "Lisa Amber": "As per our records, your refund was done and you also received it. So we would like to request that you kindly remove your review from Trustpilot." I replied that I had received nothing then asked when the deposit was made. I received another screenshot from "Lisa Amber" in reply, in which it stated that an ARN number would be available in 1-3 working days. The date given was January 9th. Again I replied that once I received the money, I would remove the review on Trustpilot. "Lisa Amber" sent a reply that is too long to quote verbatim here. In short, I was told that a Stipe user (them) sent funds directly to the cardholder's bank (me) and that the length of time it took to process this was up the bank. I should expect to see the refund on my statement 5-10 working days after the refund was issued, depending on the bank. Then, as if to imply that I did not know how to read a bank statement, "she" concludes by saying: "For most funds, this will take the form of a new line on their statement with a positive credit amount to the original charge. These can be easy to miss, and may cause the customer to think they've not received the funds back, if they are waiting to see a new refund line item. They should be prepared for either case." I thoroughly rechecked the statement and found nothing. I was now being gaslighted by USA Jackets. Again I replied that I would remove my review once I had received the money. "Lisa Amber" asked me to let her know when I had.

February 3rd: After deciding that I might be telling the truth, "Lisa Amber" decided that they would refund me through Pay Pal rather than the bank. Again, days passed with no deposit on Pay Pal. On Feb 3rd I asked "Lisa Amber" to confirm that it had been made. "She" replied: "We would like to inform you that we contact the bank regarding your refund and we get this email from them: "I managed to locate a few System Trace Audit Numbers (STAN) that you can pass along to your customers. They can give these to their bank to help them locate the refunded payments. Here they are: STAN: *******." So please share this number with your bank and they will guide you about your refunded amount." I checked with the bank and of course they found nothing.

Feb 4th: "Lisa Amber" emailed, asking if I have checked with the bank. I replied that a written response would take at least 24 hours.

Feb 5th: "Lisa Amber" replied: "Hopefully you'll get your refund soon. Once you get that please let us know."

Feb 6th: I emailed USA JACKET: "Still waiting."

Feb 7th: "Lisa Amber" replied: "Dear Ian, you didn't receive any response from the bank?"

Feb 8th: My bank told me they could not identify the refund using "Lisa Amber's" STAN number. They request more information on the company (USA JACKET) and the original transaction sum ($159) made in December. I send it and expect another reply within 1-2 days. I tell "Lisa Amber" that if the bank found nothing, I would update my Trustpulot review again, and that I would also begin posting my reviews on other websites. "Lisa Amber" replied: "We are continuously cooperating with you. When did we deny to help you? And still, you are dealing with us like this." I tell "her" an refund should be easy to execute, then ask why USA JACKET had changed their minds about refunding me through Pay Pal. "Lisa Amber" replied: "We have not changed our minds. We thought your refund had not been done from CC, but we received the bank's confirmation email that your refund has been done from the bank. That's why we are trying that you find your money." Apart from the hilariously aggrieved tone, this was a flat out lie. The bank would confirm nothing of the kind.

Feb 9th: My bank again informed me that there was no record of a refund (see image below). I sent USA JACKET a screen shot of my correspondence with customer service proving this. Poor "Lisa Amber" is nonplussed: "We are investigating it. Then I will let you know."

Feb 15th: Six days pass and there is no update on the "investigation". I send an email to "Lisa Amber" asking: "What is the status of my refund now?"

Feb 17th: This reply comes from "Lisa Amber": "Thank you for patiently waiting for our team to check on your concern. We sent an email to the bank, and we got this response in return:

"We've looked into this. We're afraid we haven't received any funds back from the bank or any signal that they intend to send them back to us. We apologize, but it can really take up to 30 days from the post date for the bank to return a refund to us, and until then, there's nothing we can do beyond wait and see. We understand 30 days feels like a long time to wait to find out if the funds will be returned to Stripe. However, it's important that we set the expectation that this step can't be skipped or speeded up." (see verbatim attachment of this email below)

Today is Feb 20th, 2020, and we've gone from STAN back to Stripe and on to who knows where. If I were to be absolutely scrupulous in giving USA JACKET the benefit of the doubt, then I would need to check the above message from the bank and verify that it was actually sent. Being absolutely scrupulous, that is what I intend to do - perhaps because I find it so hard to believe that an online business could be so utterly brazen in the deliberate deception of its customers. But I am pretty sure I know what the bank will find: nothing except proof of purchase last December (see below). To "Lisa" I say: I promise you a long, grinding campaign of attrition until I receive what I am due.

Will keep you posted, folks.