Appalling customer service, what happened? used to be good!

“Appalling customer service, what happened? used to be...”

Written on: 24/05/2012 by WalktheZen (1 review written)

I first started shopping via KGB when it first hit the scene, they had really good deals and my buys ranged from gifts for friends and family to little treats for myself - like massages and facials. Everything was fine, but whenever I did have any problems with the deals, KGB were quite good at helping resolve them, yes, sometimes they were slow about it, but I kept at it and sometimes when the problem couldn't be resolved with the merchant, KGB refunded back the money as Kashback. They had a no nonsense refund policy, which is what made buying through them much easier, because you had that peace of mind.

So, when I saw them in TV not long ago, it seemed that this no nonsense customer satisfaction policy had been scraped. It would seem that times have changed and when I contacted them to obtain a refund, they responded by telling me that they now give you 10 days to report back any problems you have with any deals - ha, but here's the catch, that's not 10 days of you redeeming the deal. It's 10 days after you first bought the deal! So if you have problems after the 10 day period with any of the deals you've purchased...good luck getting any help from KGB if you experience any problems with the merchant/deal.


So, yes,I recently tried to get a refund on an item which was nearing the expiry date and tried to get assistance from them - by filling out an online form. They still don't have a contact number, but I never had a problem with shooting off an email if I needed help. Sometimes you would have to send one to follow up because they are a bit slow (example, 2 weeks and still response).

They reply by repeating themselves about the 10 day policy when I emailed them back. Then sourly, they retort by asking me to write in to their address. I think this is a tactic - where they think if you ask people to write in physically, people(they hope the majority) would be put off and then let the complaint go. But I wasn't letting this one go as I felt strongly about the way they were treating me. I had a legitimate reason as to why I was requesting the refund. But they would not stand to reason.

I was given only but two options when they said they would not refund me. So on the 11th hour, I could:

1) redeem the deal/or what I could of it

2) lose the money I paid for the deal

Forced into a corner, I begrudgingly chose option 1 and lo and behold, they contact me little too late...(when I've just redeemed the deal) and say the can look to refund. I explain this and they then flat out say no refund.

They treated me like utter garbage. Why should I deem it acceptable to be treated like trash when I am spending my hard earned money with them? They really should vet their merchants more carefully and re-think this stupid 10 day policy they have going on.

Obviously, they don't know that one happy customer is at most likely to tell one friend, whereas, an unhappy customer will tell ANYBODY who will listen. This whole debacle has not put me off purchasing with discount sites like KGB deals but it has put me off KGB for sure. Groupon offer a no quibble customer satisfaction guarantee - so I'll only be visiting that one for now on.

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