As ACHICA is a Mumsnet Partner - (and I have nothing but the highest esteem for you, Mumsnet!) - I foolishly trusted them, as they seemed to have lots of great stuff for sale on their site, so I signed up as a 'member' a few weeks ago. - Wish I hadn't now!! - Of my 2 orders, things have gone badly wrong in both cases:
- First order (small) took forever to arrive, and then, when it did, one item was smashed. Lo and behold, I discovered that they have got NO PHONE LINE on which you can ring them to discuss any problems!! - the only way to 'communicate' with them, is laboriously and indirectly, via an 'online helpdesk' and it takes them at least 2 days to get back to you via email. OK, well I did this, and eventually I got a reply promising to send me a replacement. Which never came. So a subsequent laborious 2nd email from me a couple of weeks later, got another slow, emailed reply to say, oh we haven't got that item after all, so now we'll give you a refund. (But they'd never bothered to let me know that! I'd had to chase them up for that info) . And that refund has still not arrived, after a few weeks.
- Second order (much larger, around £500) I thought better of the next day, so I emailed the so-called 'Helpdesk' to cancel it a few hours later, as I was well within my rights, and their given timescale, to do this. Received a reply to say that was fine, they had 'cancelled it and had refunded my credit card in full'. This was two weeks ago. My credit card statement arrived today, and - guess what - it shows the full amount which they HAVE TAKEN, despite their promise not to. I've rung my card provider who assure me that I have not had this refund. Once again, search as I might, I cannot find any phone number for Achica Customer Care or complaints etc! The lack of this vital channel should have warned me at the outset.
Anyone else been taken for a ride by ACHICA? Are they just extremely incompetent, or actually a load of crooks?