Midway USA problems

[John A.]

I have had an issue with midway before and the way they tried to handle it pissed me off so bad that I stopped doing business with them altogether.

Over a $10 part. 

For nearly a decade, I had my FFL's and during that time, they even offered trade discounts to FFL's and I had a business account with them.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of money with them. Ordering things that I needed and customers wanted to custom order.   By a lot, I mean likely more than $13,000 in total during just the years I had my FFL's.  So, for me, that isn't an insignificant amount.

One day, I ordered a $10 flash hider.  They gave me a tracking number.  It got lost in transit.

3 weeks later, I contact them and ask them to ship another or refund the amount.

They wouldn't hear of doing neither.

The girl on the phone tried to give me every excuse in the world why it was late.  Even once telling me that it was because of a snowstorm.

In Florida.

Somewhere the package; nor I was not at. 

She asks me to wait a few more days.

OK.

I waited another week.

I called back and was the same story.  No refund despite the tracking still showed that it hadn't moved or been delivered.  I ask for a supervisor.

Naturally, none were available.

At that point, I was done with it.  I had already ordered another flash hider from another company and had it installed 2 weeks before now and I didn't even need it anymore.  I'm just thankful that it wasn't a big order.

So, I tell the girl that if they still refused to give a refund, despite that I never got the item that I would hang up the phone and go straight to my bank and dispute the charges.

To which, she was very quick to tell me if I did that, midway would cancel my account and not accept any orders from me going forward.  To which I told her that was fine because at this point, there will be no future orders anyway.  And I've held true to my word.

They lost a loyal customer that had done business with them for close to 2 decades.  Over something as small and stupid as that. 

That's OK.  There are plenty of other companies who have been glad to have earned my businesses since.  Larry Potterfield, if you ever read this, stick the flash hider up your whazoo.   I did dispute the charge.  And the bank did reverse the charge.  And I haven't bought anything else from you in about 6 years now and you'll go bankrupt and your wife will have to sell all of her shoes before I do either.

[crockett]

I have had an issue with midway before and the way they tried to handle it pissed me off so bad that I stopped doing business with them altogether.

Over a $10 part. 

For nearly a decade, I had my FFL's and during that time, they even offered trade discounts to FFL's and I had a business account with them.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of money with them. Ordering things that I needed and customers wanted to custom order.   By a lot, I mean likely more than $13,000 in total during just the years I had my FFL's.  So, for me, that isn't an insignificant amount.

One day, I ordered a $10 flash hider.  They gave me a tracking number.  It got lost in transit.

3 weeks later, I contact them and ask them to ship another or refund the amount.

They wouldn't hear of doing neither.

The girl on the phone tried to give me every excuse in the world why it was late.  Even once telling me that it was because of a snowstorm.

In Florida.

Somewhere the package; nor I was not at. 

She asks me to wait a few more days.

OK.

I waited another week.

I called back and was the same story.  No refund despite the tracking still showed that it hadn't moved or been delivered.  I ask for a supervisor.

Naturally, none were available.

At that point, I was done with it.  I had already ordered another flash hider from another company and had it installed 2 weeks before now and I didn't even need it anymore.  I'm just thankful that it wasn't a big order.

So, I tell the girl that if they still refused to give a refund, despite that I never got the item that I would hang up the phone and go straight to my bank and dispute the charges.

To which, she was very quick to tell me if I did that, midway would cancel my account and not accept any orders from me going forward.  To which I told her that was fine because at this point, there will be no future orders anyway.  And I've held true to my word.

They lost a loyal customer that had done business with them for close to 2 decades.  Over something as small and stupid as that. 

That's OK.  There are plenty of other companies who have been glad to have earned my businesses since.  Larry Potterfield, if you ever read this, stick the flash hider up your whazoo.   I did dispute the charge.  And the bank did reverse the charge.  And I haven't bought anything else from you in about 6 years now and you'll go bankrupt and your wife will have to sell all of her shoes before I do either.

That reminds me of a very current situation I have with one of my customers. I own company that makes products and I sell them online. Been doing this for 20 years.

Said customer has an issue with one of my products due to not doing required maintenance. It's in the same category as buying a car, not doing any oil changes, and then the motor seizes up at 40k miles because the oil turned into a thick sludge, and the resulting wear overheated everything until the engine is done for good. Then the customer shows up at the dealership and tries to get a free motor.

The emails over this started about 2 years ago. He got free parts and instructions on how to repair the product - just to help him out and as part of my good customer service.

Fast forward, the next batch of emails started to arrive last week, with the exact same issue, going back to not doing any maintenance.

I asked for photos, and sure enough, he didn't maintain the product again.

I told him that the product is now totaled, but he came back begging and manipulating me, trying to get more free repair parts.

So I kinda gave in and offered the parts, but at cost this time. Keep in mind that my spare parts are limited too.

Now the damn shipment is stuck with USPS for a few days (shipped within same state), and he asks for another shipment, for free, so he can fix his problem faster and use the product again, making it clear that he doesn't want to wait for a shipping claim.

That shipment was sent 5 days ago, not 3 weeks, with the weekend in-between where this type of packages doesn't move anyways. So we are talking about a 2 day delay so far!

I just started a claim with USPS and told him that we have to wait until USPS gets back to me.

Then I searched for his name in my shop database and can't find a single purchase. So where-ever he got my product from, I didn't make a single cent of income from him. With those 2 dozen emails, I wasted 3 hours at least. That time factor is a loss worth $300 if I would have worked on other stuff instead.

If that package doesn't arrive by the end of the week, I will send another one, this time with UPS.

After that the customer will be ghosted. This will be the first time for me, but at this point I have to protect my business from being used and abused.

[John A.]

I have had to file a few usps claims for lost stuff.

It's good of you to stand behind your product.  That's where many businesses fail.  They have a good product but poor customer service.

But at this point, you have stood behind your product.