I've been chasing them all day to get my money back from them. Placed order 8th November, not received a week later but money had gone from my bank account so I chased it. No record of the order. I provided them with evidence from my bank that they took the money. Okay, call us and we'll fill in a "Quick release form" and you'll have your money back they replied. Have done so but still no money, and no promise of it either as apparently the code I had to obtain from my bank is too long. It is the only code my bank have. Supposedly if they can't get the right code the their merchant services can't give me back my money, despite them accepting that they have taken my money without providing my goods.
Errors occur in every company, it isn't their fault that their system lost my order details. However the mark of a good company is how they handle problems and unfortunately their "customer service" has been appalling.
So far I have experienced "my manager says he's too busy to talk to you" then I was conveniently cut off when I insisted, politely on holding for him. I've also spent about two hours in total on the phone to them, plus on and off all day waiting for them to phone me back as they had promised to do. Eventually (during my latest 35 minute phone call waiting for a manager) a manager from another department was persuaded to speak to me, and I had to wait for him to call me back before 6pm but he said he can't promise me my money back. Lo and behold I get a call at 6pm and the one manager I actually managed to speak to earlier has gone home so he can't do anything as there's no record of what she has or hasn't done. This is the woman who told me at 12.40 she'd contact merchant services and their back office team immediately and call me straight back as she wanted to "resolve this as quickly as possible" yet failed to ring me back, or, it seems, take any action at all.
So, a little warning. If you're buying from elc online, if you don't immediately get a confirmation email, start chasing straight away. At this rate I'll be lucky to see my money before 2014! I'm kicking myself for not chasing it sooner as I need the money back in order to buy an alternative present for my Goddaughter whose party is tomorrow. DD2 with tonsillitis this week has kind of taken over everything though!