Refund experiences with vendors: how long did it take?

[amosmylove]

From the moment a vendor tells you 'I have submitted a refund request' to when they say 'it's been approved' and the money is actually back in your hands — how long did that take for you?

If a week or so is typical, then I'll stop stressing. But I can't tell if I'm just being kept on the hook and should push them to move faster, or if I should keep waiting even longer. Yesterday they messaged me out of the blue (I hadn't reached out) repeating that it had been submitted and asking me to please be patient. I told them no problem. Still, I'd like to know how long this is really supposed to take.

 

[CNCCurrency]

amosmylove said:

From the moment a vendor tells you 'I have submitted a refund request' to when they say 'it's been approved' and the money is actually back in your hands — how long did that take for you?

If a week or so is typical, then I'll stop stressing. But I can't tell if I'm just being kept on the hook and should push them to move faster, or if I should keep waiting even longer. Yesterday they messaged me out of the blue (I hadn't reached out) repeating that it had been submitted and asking me to please be patient. I told them no problem. Still, I'd like to know how long this is really supposed to take.

Odds are, they're only a sales rep working under the big players, so the request has to be passed up the chain of command.

 

[New2ton]

I've gotten my money back from 2 separate vendors over the past few months, and on both occasions it took roughly 1-2 days. In each case, the refund happened because of broader issues, like shipping and testing.

 

[Whiynot20026]

A week seems way too long to me. Please post a vendor review. I wouldn’t deal with them again under any circumstances. That’s just not acceptable. Full stop.

Bill

 

[amosmylove]

CNCCurrency said:

amosmylove said:

From the moment a vendor tells you 'I have submitted a refund request' to when they say 'it's been approved' and the money is actually back in your hands — how long did that take for you?

If a week or so is typical, then I'll stop stressing. But I can't tell if I'm just being kept on the hook and should push them to move faster, or if I should keep waiting even longer. Yesterday they messaged me out of the blue (I hadn't reached out) repeating that it had been submitted and asking me to please be patient. I told them no problem. Still, I'd like to know how long this is really supposed to take.

Odds are, they're only a sales rep working under the big players, so the request has to be passed up the chain of command.

That's what I figured was going on, but if they're already ignoring it, I don't want to give them more time to 'take care of it' and end up buried and forgotten.

 

[amosmylove]

Whiynot20026 said:

A week seems way too long to me. Please post a vendor review. I wouldn’t deal with them again under any circumstances. That’s just not acceptable. Full stop.

Bill

I intend to give them a detailed review, since the experience hasn't been great. That said, I'm holding off on writing anything until the refund actually lands, so my review is fair and accurate.

 

[Whiynot20026]

amosmylove said:

Whiynot20026 said:

A week seems way too long to me. Please post a vendor review. I wouldn’t deal with them again under any circumstances. That’s just not acceptable. Full stop.

Bill

I intend to give them a detailed review, since the experience hasn't been great. That said, I'm holding off on writing anything until the refund actually lands, so my review is fair and accurate.

Our forum's quality depends entirely on the effort we all put in — that's what makes it special. I appreciate you shining a light on this.

Bill

 

[amosmylove]

New2ton said:

I've gotten my money back from 2 separate vendors over the past few months, and on both occasions it took roughly 1-2 days. In each case, the refund happened because of broader issues, like shipping and testing.

My situation stems from the package being returned to the vendor after it failed customs on 2 occasions. I placed my order on April 15th, and up to now I have received neither the product nor a refund.

 

[New2ton]

amosmylove said:

New2ton said:

I've gotten my money back from 2 separate vendors over the past few months, and on both occasions it took roughly 1-2 days. In each case, the refund happened because of broader issues, like shipping and testing.

My situation stems from the package being returned to the vendor after it failed customs on 2 occasions. I placed my order on April 15th, and up to now I have received neither the product nor a refund.

They've already said you'd get your money back, and it's now past 7 days, so a gentle reminder might be worth sending — though I'd hold off on panicking. Some people have reported that certain vendors took 1-2 weeks to process refunds, so perhaps I'm just among the fortunate ones.

 

[birdwhacker]

Whiynot20026 said:

A week seems way too long to me. Please post a vendor review. I wouldn’t deal with them again under any circumstances. That’s just not acceptable. Full stop.

Bill

That's a Chinese drug dealer, Bill. Getting any money back at all puts you ahead, and 1 week is completely normal.

 

[FartfulCodger]

In my case it happened in under 24 hours. That said, the circumstances were unusual: the representative was able to view USPS tracking showing [[Q1]] and confirm the shipment would not arrive at all.

 

[Whiynot20026]

birdwhacker said:

Whiynot20026 said:

A week seems way too long to me. Please post a vendor review. I wouldn’t deal with them again under any circumstances. That’s just not acceptable. Full stop.

Bill

That's a Chinese drug dealer, Bill. Getting any money back at all puts you ahead, and 1 week is completely normal.

Not the vendor I use. Absolutely not. Everyone has their own preferences.

Bill

 

[amosmylove]

New2ton said:

amosmylove said:

New2ton said:

I've gotten my money back from 2 separate vendors over the past few months, and on both occasions it took roughly 1-2 days. In each case, the refund happened because of broader issues, like shipping and testing.

My situation stems from the package being returned to the vendor after it failed customs on 2 occasions. I placed my order on April 15th, and up to now I have received neither the product nor a refund.

They've already said you'd get your money back, and it's now past 7 days, so a gentle reminder might be worth sending — though I'd hold off on panicking. Some people have reported that certain vendors took 1-2 weeks to process refunds, so perhaps I'm just among the fortunate ones.

I'm not even at the 7-day mark, but I wanted to see whether waiting several days is typical. Since it's the weekend, it'll probably stretch out a bit more.

 

[Hotlongs]

amosmylove said:

From the moment a vendor tells you 'I have submitted a refund request' to when they say 'it's been approved' and the money is actually back in your hands — how long did that take for you?

If a week or so is typical, then I'll stop stressing. But I can't tell if I'm just being kept on the hook and should push them to move faster, or if I should keep waiting even longer. Yesterday they messaged me out of the blue (I hadn't reached out) repeating that it had been submitted and asking me to please be patient. I told them no problem. Still, I'd like to know how long this is really supposed to take.

The actual money came back in 2 hours. Getting the vendor to admit there was a problem, though, and to accept that I wasn't willing to sit around waiting for a replacement shipment while 2 items from my order were unavailable, took several weeks of repeated chasing before I finally came out and asked for a refund.

In the end we settled on an arrangement: the rest of the order was shipped to me, and the items they couldn't source anymore, because they were out of stock, were refunded in full.

Honestly, I believe they meant well and felt genuinely bad about it, even if their response was always to ask me to hang on and to say they were still waiting for word that the parcel had been seized for a second time (that stretch felt like roughly a month of it supposedly sitting in customs).

Since then this vendor has been on top of things, reaching out and giving me updates far more consistently. Approaching them politely, while also putting the situation in a light that assumes good faith about how they work and what they intend, makes a real difference.

 

[amosmylove]

birdwhacker said:

Whiynot20026 said:

A week seems way too long to me. Please post a vendor review. I wouldn’t deal with them again under any circumstances. That’s just not acceptable. Full stop.

Bill

That's a Chinese drug dealer, Bill. Getting any money back at all puts you ahead, and 1 week is completely normal.

Getting my money back at all would strike me as a stroke of luck. The vendor I'm currently stuck with altered their refund terms partway through my shipment — this happened after I'd already placed my order — specifically for their Australian buyers, once a large number of their parcels had been seized in AUS. What that means is: Aussie customers bought under 1 set of terms and expectations, yet the vendor would not issue refunds and instead rewrote the policy into a no-refund rule for Aus customers, rather than honoring the original terms for the people already hit. Every one of them got burned. By the time I realized all this, switching to a different vendor wasn't an option anymore, so I've had some anxiety that the same thing could happen to me. On the plus side, my package was returned to them rather than simply seized, so refusing me a refund would amount to outright theft and would blow up into a mess for them. My worry is that they'll only send back part of the money, or invent some justification for denying the refund. Still, at this point that's just me manufacturing fears without any real basis.

 

[amosmylove]

Hotlongs said:

amosmylove said:

From the moment a vendor tells you 'I have submitted a refund request' to when they say 'it's been approved' and the money is actually back in your hands — how long did that take for you?

If a week or so is typical, then I'll stop stressing. But I can't tell if I'm just being kept on the hook and should push them to move faster, or if I should keep waiting even longer. Yesterday they messaged me out of the blue (I hadn't reached out) repeating that it had been submitted and asking me to please be patient. I told them no problem. Still, I'd like to know how long this is really supposed to take.

The actual money came back in 2 hours. Getting the vendor to admit there was a problem, though, and to accept that I wasn't willing to sit around waiting for a replacement shipment while 2 items from my order were unavailable, took several weeks of repeated chasing before I finally came out and asked for a refund.

In the end we settled on an arrangement: the rest of the order was shipped to me, and the items they couldn't source anymore, because they were out of stock, were refunded in full.

Honestly, I believe they meant well and felt genuinely bad about it, even if their response was always to ask me to hang on and to say they were still waiting for word that the parcel had been seized for a second time (that stretch felt like roughly a month of it supposedly sitting in customs).

Since then this vendor has been on top of things, reaching out and giving me updates far more consistently. Approaching them politely, while also putting the situation in a light that assumes good faith about how they work and what they intend, makes a real difference.

I've stayed polite and waited without pushing. I really am extending them the benefit of the doubt, even after my trust in them turned out to be misplaced. By "them" I mean that one particular person I've been talking to, not the vendor as a whole.

 

[Whiynot20026]

amosmylove said:

Hotlongs said:

amosmylove said:

From the moment a vendor tells you 'I have submitted a refund request' to when they say 'it's been approved' and the money is actually back in your hands — how long did that take for you?

If a week or so is typical, then I'll stop stressing. But I can't tell if I'm just being kept on the hook and should push them to move faster, or if I should keep waiting even longer. Yesterday they messaged me out of the blue (I hadn't reached out) repeating that it had been submitted and asking me to please be patient. I told them no problem. Still, I'd like to know how long this is really supposed to take.

The actual money came back in 2 hours. Getting the vendor to admit there was a problem, though, and to accept that I wasn't willing to sit around waiting for a replacement shipment while 2 items from my order were unavailable, took several weeks of repeated chasing before I finally came out and asked for a refund.

In the end we settled on an arrangement: the rest of the order was shipped to me, and the items they couldn't source anymore, because they were out of stock, were refunded in full.

Honestly, I believe they meant well and felt genuinely bad about it, even if their response was always to ask me to hang on and to say they were still waiting for word that the parcel had been seized for a second time (that stretch felt like roughly a month of it supposedly sitting in customs).

Since then this vendor has been on top of things, reaching out and giving me updates far more consistently. Approaching them politely, while also putting the situation in a light that assumes good faith about how they work and what they intend, makes a real difference.

I've stayed polite and waited without pushing. I really am extending them the benefit of the doubt, even after my trust in them turned out to be misplaced. By "them" I mean that one particular person I've been talking to, not the vendor as a whole.

That thought crossed my mind too. Being kind and respectful is the right approach. You've got this.

Bill

 

[Hotlongs]

Sure — being aggressive when you have no leverage just makes things worse. When they're trying to save face, presenting things in a way that gives them the benefit of the doubt can nudge them toward what you want, as long as you stay respectfully firm.

That said, the vendor I've been working with seems somewhat better than most, even though they probably stalled for time after the first seizure to get the 2 items. I'd have liked more transparency, but I think I'll actually receive my order now.

 

[slick1]

Give them 1 or 2 days of courteous follow-up. If they keep stalling after that, your next move is to tell them you'll post a public negative review. That approach tends to get results!

 

[amosmylove]

slick1 said:

Give them 1 or 2 days of courteous follow-up. If they keep stalling after that, your next move is to tell them you'll post a public negative review. That approach tends to get results!

Even if that approach gets results, it's not something I'm comfortable with. My hope is that this won't become a problem at all.