
L of Sacramento, CA on Nov. 17, 2011
Satisfaction Rating1/5
If you had asked me about skyauction.com two weeks ago, I would have raved about how I love the site, so what happened? About 1 year ago, I purchased a restaurant certificate from the site. I received the certificate, as paid for, but found that the restaurant had gone out of business before I could redeem the certificate. I contacted Skyauction via email about the problem and I was told I would receive a Skyauction credit. Not the ideal situation, but I was satisfied with my prior purchases on the site and I figured that I would find something else to buy but after one years' time I did not.
I contacted customer service via email and explained the situation using the wording "I have not found any other certificates to purchase on the site and I would like to request a refund to my credit card", my response was an abrupt "you can buy more than just certificates". Well, this was not a helpful response so I decided to call customer service instead. I contacted Maxine ** in customer service and began to explain the situation. I barely got half of the story out when I was cut off and asked for my order number. I provided this, thinking that although I was rudely cut off, it may help for her to have the order in front of her. Upon pulling up my order, I was told my credit could be extended for 6 months.
First off, I did not know that refund credits had deadlines. Second, I paid for a product that I could not use due to no fault of my own and therefore should be refunded. This is a basic pretense of customer service for any business. I attempted, again, to explain the situation saying that I paid for something that I could not use at no fault of my own, I was promptly cut off and was told that it was not Skyauctions fault that the restaurant closed and that they lost money too. I was now getting angry and raised my voice because the golden rule of customer service is that the customer is right, this is especially the case when I am having my money essentially stolen from me as I paid for a product that I did not get! Maxine nastily told me that she would have someone look at it and get back to me then hung up! Seriously, she hung up on me.
One week later with no response, I called again and got the lovely Maxine again. I begin to tell my story, as a refresher, and said that I never got the call back that I was promised. I stated that I understand the purpose of a company is to make a profit, then I got cut off again with Maxine rudely stating "we are not making a profit, we lost that money too!" I then said that she is clearly being very rude to me and not letting me speak. I want to speak to a supervisor. Maxine said that she is a supervisor. I then asked to speak to someone above her and she said there is no one above her then proceeded to argue with me that there are no other options or persons to contact, while pounding on her keyboard intentionally. I then asked if they ever gave out refunds and she said "yes, on a case by case basis." Come on! I said I was going to call the President of the company and she said in a really sarcastic voice "okay, have a nice day." Then hung up again.
I am not so upset about not getting the refund I wanted, but I am upset in the way I was treated like a piece of garbage or like I was trying to scam the system. I was given no service whatsoever from a person who has the title of "Customer Service Supervisor." Apparently, she was never taught that customer service is about serving the customer. By the way, my refund is only for $45, nothing that would put a company under. In these tough economic times, it's a lot of money to me as a consumer. If you buy from Skyauction.com, hope and pray that you never have to deal with their service department.