A Fancy Rant: The Sequel

Well, Fancy. What can I say? WTF? WTH? Here we are again. My first rant wasn't enough. So here's the sequel. Mere days after receiving my 2nd Coco Rocha Fancy box, I received yet another invoice from Fed-Ex, charging me the same amount as last time from the sender (you guessed it) Fancy. Instead of getting raging mad, I sent them a polite email:


I have been sent another bill by Fed-Ex charging me $16.46 again for the delivery of my latest Fancy Box. I have attached the invoice. This is getting ridiculous. Is your company doing anything to solve this problem? And It is not just happening to me. Along with my fee refund, which I have to again inconveniently go out of my way to pay, I wish to cancel my subscription to the Coco Rocha box. I signed back up on May 1st or so thinking that things have changed and was looking forward to the May box, but I was wrong. Cancel my subscription and refund the amount. I want my money back. This experience is definitely not worth the hassle.

Simple, pretty concise if I say so myself. They respond with same old vague, run around courtesy that I've become accustomed to. 

Thank you for your inquiry.  This was a mistake made by FedEx.  The customs charges should have been charged to us and not you.  We have refunded you for the charges.  Again I am very sorry about the inconvenience caused.  Please allow 3-5 business days for these funds to appear on your card. We thank you again for using Fancy.


You're welcome? Notice nothing about my subscription being cancelled and refunded. I also took note of the fact that they put the blame on Fed-Ex. Really? Lisa at Girl Meets Box (awesome blog, please check it out) spoke with Fed-Ex and claim that the sender checked off the box that the fees are to be charged to the recipient. And the sender is....Fancy. Hmmm. Before finding that tidbit of info, I was wondering, they have been assuring Canadian customers for months that they will not be charged extra fees. So shouldn't this problem have been resolved by now? Hmm, fishy, fishy.
I also think that they must skim through emails fast or maybe not read them at all because I've had to send emails repeating my questions. 


Is my Subscription cancelled as well? I want that refunded too. 

I decided to just write short sentences and get to the point, hoping it would improve the situation. Their response:

We are sorry to hear that you wish to cancel your Fancy Box subscription. This is a confirmation that you will not be billed in the months going forward. We’d like to thank you for your business and please let us know if there is anything we can do to improve our service going forward. 

I almost laughed at that last sentence there. So many suggestions, I don't know where to start. Notice how it says nothing about refunding me this month's charged. Just that I will not be charged next month and then on. WTF? Can I get an answer here? Can I not just read? Is it me? Yet another email for me to write:

Does this mean the charge from the beginning of May when I resubscribed has also been refunded? I want that money back as well. I do not wish to receive this month's box. 

And yet another answer, just as vague as the last:

Thank you for your inquiry.  If you cancel within 10 days of your last payment then you will automatically be refunded for the Fancy Box.

I'm beginning to think that they have a cut- and -paste approach to answering their emails. They must have a set of answers they are allowed to write. 
So my response:

A simply yes or no would have been a better answer. I see that I paid May 2nd so I should be getting my money back. But I know this email will barely be read and skimmed over. This is evidenced by the numerous emails I've had to send regarding the same questions.

And you can improve your business by learning some actual customer service skills. Vague, automatic answers are not the way to go. I've become so accustomed to your appalling customer service that I know I can probably write just about anything here, because it won't get read.

Also do not blame Fed-Ex solely for these mishaps as I'm not the only one this is happening to and Fed-Ex only follows what the sender (that's you, Fancy) requires. 

I stopped short of insulting reading skill level or anything. I just want answers in plain English! I guess I am asking for too much. 

And finally an actual answer:

Thank you for your inquiry.  Your were refunded for your Fancy Box.  Please allow 3-5 business days for the funds to return to your card.  You will no longer be charged or receive your box.  We are sorry to see you leave and thank you for using Fancy.

My gosh! Did I really have to write that many emails to get the answer I wanted? In the Fancy world, the answer is yes. Did they answer my other questions? No. But I'm through writing them for today. All I can do now is share my experience and save others the headache. So done with Fancy.
DO NOT SUBSCRIBE unless you enjoy hassles and crap customer service!

A Fancy Rant

I need to rant for a minute.I'm a Canadian Fancy customer.

I loved my Coco Rocha Box. And was thrilled that there would be no extra charges in duties and such. They have it set up with FedEx that we pay the additional $17 in shipping and fees upfront with our subscription and we will not be charged any duties thereafter. I was promised that in an email response when I sent them a message voicing my concerns.

And then low and behold, I receive an invoice from Fed-Ex charging me $16.45 in extra fees. What?

I thought there must be some misunderstanding and I'll contact Fancy to get them to void the invoice for me.

My first email:

Hello,

I received an invoice from FedEx stating I owe a balance of $16.45 in taxes and fees. I thought Fancy had already dealt with all this as one of the main reasons I subscribed was because the duties have already been paid with my subscription. So why am I receiving this? I am not happy about this at all. I have already been charged for my next month, so should I expect another $16.45 in fees on top of the $56 I am already paying?! I have not paid the invoice yet as I wanted to contact Fancy first to get to the bottom of this. Please let me know what is going on. If this keeps happening, I will have to cancel my subscription. Thank you

Fancy's first response:

Hi

Thanks for contacting us.  I apologize that you were charged additional customs duties.  This was a mistake made by FedEx that we have rectified for all future purchases.  The customs charges should have been charged to us and not you.  If you would please provide us for an invoice we would be happy to refund you for those charges.  I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

If you would still like to cancel your subscription, please confirm so I can proceed with the cancellation.  However, please note that you will not be paying these additional charges this month or in any future months.

Thank you for using Fancy, please let us know if you have questions.

Me, a little ticked of at this point:

Hello,

I can get you a scanned copy of the invoice today.

 I think you misunderstood me. I received the invoice but I have not paid it. Are you asking me to pay the charges again?? I did this for my first box and it was highly inconvenient for me. Can you not fix this on your end? I do not wish to drive all the way out to my local FedEx office to pay charges I should not have been charged in the first place. It makes me very angry that you would even suggest that I do this AGAIN. So as your customer I'm asking to find some solution on your end and resolve this with FedEx. 

 I do not wish to cancel my subscription (and I know very well how to do that in my account) nor did I say I wanted to. I simply stated that I would if I continued to get charged extra fees. 

Fancy

We are incredibly sorry about this situation.  Please send us the invoice and pay the charge, we will then refund you for this.  Again we are incredibly sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Me: really angry now

I still do not understand why you cannot dispute this with FedEx on my behalf since I am a paying customer of yours and it is your company that has a deal with FedEx. To have to go through all the charges and refunds is frustrating and a pain. And the exchange from US to Canadian dollars has to be considered. So in reality, I wouldn't be getting my refund in full at all. I am still extremely angry about this as this is very inconvenient for me. I was promised that this would not happen to me again and it has and I feel your customer service is just giving me the run around. It does not help me at all to have to keep doing all the running around on my end while you seemingly are doing nothing. FIX THIS.
 

Fancy:

Hi

We are very sorry about this situation and yes it is an unfortunate incident and we feel terrible about this situation.  We are only able to refund you for the invoice once you send it to us.  Again I am very sorry about this and this is a situation that we are trying to solve.

Again no answer.
Hi

We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused and we have refunded you for the invoice.  Unfortunately the only we can refund for these charges is by providing us with the invoice.  Please allow 3-5 days for the refund to go back onto your credit card.  We thank you again for using Fancy.

Me:

Thank you for refunding me. I was really hoping that you would be able to just communicate with FedEx and have the invoice cancelled or voided so I do not have to physically go and pay the extra charges. NO one has explained to me why this was not possible, only that you needed the invoice to refund me. I don't care about that. I wanted to know why you could not talk to FedEx. I am STILL getting the run around with vague answers and empty apologizes. I'm extremely disappointed in your customer service (more like lack there of) and will be writing a post telling all my blog readers and forum members to be aware of the extra charges and as well as the crappy customer service. I should not have to have written this many emails to have one simple question answered: why could you not communicate with FedEx directly to have the invoice nulled?
I want an answer or the email of someone who will answer me.
 

Fancy: We are very sorry about the inconvenience caused.  Unfortunately we handling refunding for customs by having you pay the fee and we refund you for the charges.  I am very sorry again for the inconvenience caused by this and this might be something we will change in the future.  FedEx should not be charging you customs fees and again I am incredibly sorry about this.

Ugh, well, it sort of an answer.....

grrrrrr! Am I on crazy pills or should I be mad? They also don't bother spell checking. I had to read the last one twice to understand it. What should I do next?