Royal Prop
The Cage Master
Well, I got a phone call from a customer letting me know about this thread so I figured I better show my face, to save face.
#1 I have never, ever, screwed anyone over and dont plan on starting now. This whole situation with Jean has not only been a nightmare on her end, thou I feel for her situation and she will get compensation. So her saying that she will never see her $995 is just absurd.
I built cage crafters from absolutly nothing, and for the past 5 years I have been building cages full time with only one other bad incident. Bad things are bound to happen from time to time and I expect that. I am also a ONE man operation. This is my only income and I am not setting the world on fire by any means. Everyone thinks that us cage guys make a million dollars on a cage when we sell one, well the truth is that cages have the SMALLEST profit margin then any other product on the reptile market. I do what I do beacuse I enjoy it and get a sense of accomplishment when I see a finished product.
With that stuff out of the way, I will get to Jeans situation.
As Jean has posted every single email for you all to read, I will give you the MUCH shorter version, only stating the points needed to be seen.
Jean purchased 3 cages from Brandon at Dragons By Nature (one of the sunshine cage dealers). I built the 3 cages, and shipped the 3 cages through Fedex Ground. One cage was shipped one day, the 2 others the next day. The first cage arrived to Jean and it was destroyed completely. I told Jean I would build her a new cage... She said no, she would rather have her money back. Which was fine. Then she said to stop the other 2 cages that were in transit... which is impossible. So I told her to refuse the packages so they would come right back to me. She did not do that. She accepted the cages, opened the cages, and emailed me to say she accpeted them, and they had very minor damage but were totally usable. And then said she would keep them and use them. Fine... I was then prepaired to refund her money for the first cage that came in destroyed. The next day, Jean emailed saying her brother was going to take the cages ot his place and fix the minor damage on the other 2 cages. I emailed her and told her I would help her in anyway I could to get the cages up to snuff so she could use them and offered to reimburse her for any materials she had to buy to fix them... NO QUESTIONS ASKED! Later that evening Jean emailed me and said it was going to cost to much to fix them the way she wanted them and she wanted to send them back. I was unsure of how it could possibly cost to much to fix the minor damage she needed to fix, so I asked what she was doing to the cages. Well she wasnt just fixing the minor damage, she was upgrading them. I then offered to pay for those upgrades also. Still she insisted that she didnt want the cages and wanted to send them back. So I emailed jean and said I was going to file a claim with fedex on the cages because it was rediculous that 3 cages were damaged. Now in the past fedex has not paid anything out from the insurance taken out on them, so if a customer recieved a damaged cage, I simply replaced it. Well in Jeans situation she did not want replacements. She wanted a refund. I simply do not have that kind of money. And this is why I tryed filing a claim with fedex to try and get reimbursed for the damaged goods. In the past we have had about 12 damaged cages delivered. So to try and fix that problem, I had a corrugated box designer come in and design a box for our cages. While the boxes were being made, I did my best to pack the cages in our existing boxes the best I could. And I had another broken cage delivered to another customer, who still just wanted a new cage shipped to them. And since then the customer has recieved their new cage and it came in undamaged in anyway. So the new boxes are working out well, so far. To get back to Jean, I filed a claim with fedex. I told her I was filing a claim with fedex. She emails me later that night teling me fedex had left a call tag on her door. I told her to ignore fedex until I have submited all of the paperwork to fedex, because at that point I had only filed a claim online and their are many steps after that , that you have to take to get the claim rolling. I mailed in the claim forms as requested by fedex and got the ball rolling, I let Jean know I had filed the claim paperwork and to cooperate with fedex so we can get this all cleared up as fast as possible. She emailed me saying fedex had left another call tag on her door and she ignored it. Then I got an email saying fedex called her and she ignored it. Why, I am still unsure of. But finally she got 2 of the 3 cages to fedex about a week later. I just got the 2 damaged cages back last week. One of the cages, which was the first one she recieved, was destroyed beyond recognition. The second cage has very, very minor damage and has been fixed and is sitting here. One very small crack on the front under a hinge, and one small crack on one of the corners. I still have not recieved the 3rd cage back from fedex, and from Jeans info its because they have not picked it up yet.. I am unsure of why that is because all of the paperwork was mailed to them at the same time. But I will get more info from fedex on that.
Jean, I never told you you would not be refunded your money, I was willing to work with you as much as I possibly could. I do not have $1000 to shell out of my pocket to send you, or I would have. That was the whole reason for filing a claim with fedex. I still have not recieved their decision on the claim and that is all I know at this point. I told you in your last email to me that they said the claim was in the proccess and they would get back to me in 7-10 days. I know its been over 7-10 days, but I havent heard anything yet. As soon as I do I would have gotten back to you. Do you honestly think I would want this crap hanging over my head? I am trying the best I can to make all of my customers happy and always have. I have never had this much trouble with an order and hope I never do again. I am a very small company, I dont make a million dollars on cages, and I do not have $1000 to send you. I do have a cage sitting here that has been repaired and I will sell it and send you that money. And I will make good on all that is owed to you. I am not even sure how or why this came to the BOI except that you were pissed off at Bruce. And for this I get trashed. Dont worry about your money. You'll get it. As soon as I have something to send you, believe me, I will send it. Lord knows I have much more important things to worry about right now then this. I am not saying you are wrong, I dont blame you one bit for wanting to get a refund. I never said you were wrong and I never said you would not get paid back. Refusing the packages that I told you to refuse in the first place would have solved a problem before it became a problem.
At this moment in time, I am going to pull the plug on the cage distributors and go back to the normal way of business. The situation had to many hands in the pot, and after reading this entire post, I read things form Brandon and Bruce that were all new to me. In the future, anyone purcahsing a cage, please contact me direct. All of the cages are built by me, packed by me, and shipped by me. End of story.
Chris, Your cage should be out of here next week as i told you already. Thanks for your trade and business. Jean we will be close contact until you are totally refunded. Sam, Thanks for the kind words.. Your a good customer and even a better friend.
I would also like to appologize to Jean on not being able to refund your money in full right this very moment. I never antisapated a sale going this bad. I guess I should count on it from now on.
Everyone feel free to blast me at will... I know I should have money on hand to refund customers if their is a problem. I just dont have it at this time. Its been a rough winter.
Thanks for your time
#1 I have never, ever, screwed anyone over and dont plan on starting now. This whole situation with Jean has not only been a nightmare on her end, thou I feel for her situation and she will get compensation. So her saying that she will never see her $995 is just absurd.
I built cage crafters from absolutly nothing, and for the past 5 years I have been building cages full time with only one other bad incident. Bad things are bound to happen from time to time and I expect that. I am also a ONE man operation. This is my only income and I am not setting the world on fire by any means. Everyone thinks that us cage guys make a million dollars on a cage when we sell one, well the truth is that cages have the SMALLEST profit margin then any other product on the reptile market. I do what I do beacuse I enjoy it and get a sense of accomplishment when I see a finished product.
With that stuff out of the way, I will get to Jeans situation.
As Jean has posted every single email for you all to read, I will give you the MUCH shorter version, only stating the points needed to be seen.
Jean purchased 3 cages from Brandon at Dragons By Nature (one of the sunshine cage dealers). I built the 3 cages, and shipped the 3 cages through Fedex Ground. One cage was shipped one day, the 2 others the next day. The first cage arrived to Jean and it was destroyed completely. I told Jean I would build her a new cage... She said no, she would rather have her money back. Which was fine. Then she said to stop the other 2 cages that were in transit... which is impossible. So I told her to refuse the packages so they would come right back to me. She did not do that. She accepted the cages, opened the cages, and emailed me to say she accpeted them, and they had very minor damage but were totally usable. And then said she would keep them and use them. Fine... I was then prepaired to refund her money for the first cage that came in destroyed. The next day, Jean emailed saying her brother was going to take the cages ot his place and fix the minor damage on the other 2 cages. I emailed her and told her I would help her in anyway I could to get the cages up to snuff so she could use them and offered to reimburse her for any materials she had to buy to fix them... NO QUESTIONS ASKED! Later that evening Jean emailed me and said it was going to cost to much to fix them the way she wanted them and she wanted to send them back. I was unsure of how it could possibly cost to much to fix the minor damage she needed to fix, so I asked what she was doing to the cages. Well she wasnt just fixing the minor damage, she was upgrading them. I then offered to pay for those upgrades also. Still she insisted that she didnt want the cages and wanted to send them back. So I emailed jean and said I was going to file a claim with fedex on the cages because it was rediculous that 3 cages were damaged. Now in the past fedex has not paid anything out from the insurance taken out on them, so if a customer recieved a damaged cage, I simply replaced it. Well in Jeans situation she did not want replacements. She wanted a refund. I simply do not have that kind of money. And this is why I tryed filing a claim with fedex to try and get reimbursed for the damaged goods. In the past we have had about 12 damaged cages delivered. So to try and fix that problem, I had a corrugated box designer come in and design a box for our cages. While the boxes were being made, I did my best to pack the cages in our existing boxes the best I could. And I had another broken cage delivered to another customer, who still just wanted a new cage shipped to them. And since then the customer has recieved their new cage and it came in undamaged in anyway. So the new boxes are working out well, so far. To get back to Jean, I filed a claim with fedex. I told her I was filing a claim with fedex. She emails me later that night teling me fedex had left a call tag on her door. I told her to ignore fedex until I have submited all of the paperwork to fedex, because at that point I had only filed a claim online and their are many steps after that , that you have to take to get the claim rolling. I mailed in the claim forms as requested by fedex and got the ball rolling, I let Jean know I had filed the claim paperwork and to cooperate with fedex so we can get this all cleared up as fast as possible. She emailed me saying fedex had left another call tag on her door and she ignored it. Then I got an email saying fedex called her and she ignored it. Why, I am still unsure of. But finally she got 2 of the 3 cages to fedex about a week later. I just got the 2 damaged cages back last week. One of the cages, which was the first one she recieved, was destroyed beyond recognition. The second cage has very, very minor damage and has been fixed and is sitting here. One very small crack on the front under a hinge, and one small crack on one of the corners. I still have not recieved the 3rd cage back from fedex, and from Jeans info its because they have not picked it up yet.. I am unsure of why that is because all of the paperwork was mailed to them at the same time. But I will get more info from fedex on that.
Jean, I never told you you would not be refunded your money, I was willing to work with you as much as I possibly could. I do not have $1000 to shell out of my pocket to send you, or I would have. That was the whole reason for filing a claim with fedex. I still have not recieved their decision on the claim and that is all I know at this point. I told you in your last email to me that they said the claim was in the proccess and they would get back to me in 7-10 days. I know its been over 7-10 days, but I havent heard anything yet. As soon as I do I would have gotten back to you. Do you honestly think I would want this crap hanging over my head? I am trying the best I can to make all of my customers happy and always have. I have never had this much trouble with an order and hope I never do again. I am a very small company, I dont make a million dollars on cages, and I do not have $1000 to send you. I do have a cage sitting here that has been repaired and I will sell it and send you that money. And I will make good on all that is owed to you. I am not even sure how or why this came to the BOI except that you were pissed off at Bruce. And for this I get trashed. Dont worry about your money. You'll get it. As soon as I have something to send you, believe me, I will send it. Lord knows I have much more important things to worry about right now then this. I am not saying you are wrong, I dont blame you one bit for wanting to get a refund. I never said you were wrong and I never said you would not get paid back. Refusing the packages that I told you to refuse in the first place would have solved a problem before it became a problem.
At this moment in time, I am going to pull the plug on the cage distributors and go back to the normal way of business. The situation had to many hands in the pot, and after reading this entire post, I read things form Brandon and Bruce that were all new to me. In the future, anyone purcahsing a cage, please contact me direct. All of the cages are built by me, packed by me, and shipped by me. End of story.
Chris, Your cage should be out of here next week as i told you already. Thanks for your trade and business. Jean we will be close contact until you are totally refunded. Sam, Thanks for the kind words.. Your a good customer and even a better friend.
I would also like to appologize to Jean on not being able to refund your money in full right this very moment. I never antisapated a sale going this bad. I guess I should count on it from now on.
Everyone feel free to blast me at will... I know I should have money on hand to refund customers if their is a problem. I just dont have it at this time. Its been a rough winter.
Thanks for your time
