Medieval Market

[Marietta Graziella]

Sorry Sweet T,

There are so many people that use the "military" BS.  It's a perfect excuse for scammers.  People feel sorry for you having to "do it all alone", nobody can really check out your alibi, it brings in clients who want to "help you out", etc.

If she really does have a husband in the military (my DH is retired Air Force, 24 years so I know the deal) and she really is going thru a lot of crap, why is she still advertising in the magazine and taking new orders when she isn't fulfilling her current or previous obligations?  Why not put up a public apology on her web site stating that she is overwhelmed and unable to provide product?  Why doesn't she respond to enquiries? 

She's a scammer.  Period.

*sorry to be so adamant about this but I just hate when people use the military as an excuse to cheat/lie/steal.  Leave that to the gov't, and let the honest soldiers, airmen, and sailors do their jobs.*    Soapbox, anyone?

[dameoftherealm]

 >:(You want believe this I got my gown. I figured out the number I had
was a cell phone started txting her first she said it was being sent Friday I
ask for a tracking number she said I would have it as soon as she got back
to the office Monday came I txted her again this time she was on the way to
the office I received a tracking number later that evening it said it was scanned but not
sent around 2 pm it left around 6 last night and was here this evening by 4 pm.
So for now I am going to figure out how to put some of it together but I will never
use her again

[Dayna]

Congratulations, persistence did pay off in the end.  So sorry you had to go through this much effort, hope the resulting garments were worth it.

Dayna

[Cilean]

 

So what about you all? Dame was able to get the person via text message on her cell phone. So if she could do that? Why not send her messages as well? Asking where the heck is all of your things?

As to the Renaissance Magazine, they are not going to take the link nor advertisement down as it is paid for and that completes their contract with the people.  That is business, although if several people also report the nefarious scheming of this lady perhaps he will get that having this lady's advertising is a liability to his business and take it down.

But I would like to know? If those of you who began this thread have tried the number for Washington and see if you can get your money/merchandise.

Good Luck,
Cilean

[/size]

[Dafydd]

It would seem that persistence is the key. Not that it should be necessary, of course.

Last week I decided to send another email to Sandra Bradley, letting her know I'll take further legal steps if she does not refund me soon. Guess what - I got a reply! She wrote that I already received my refund from Paypal, according to the log files of Paypal on her end.

So I double checked my Paypal account to make sure... I double checked my credit card statements. But no refund to be found anywhere. So I responded again, asking that she emails me the required proof that Paypal supposedly did refund me, so I can take it up with Paypal from there. No more response then.

So this week I emailed her again with one last reminder, and she responded the same day again with the email that she got from Paypal. For what I can understand, Paypal did indeed withdraw the money from her account:

Dear Sandra Bradley,

It is PayPal's standard practice to attempt to dispute wrongful
chargebacks. After careful consideration of the information provided by you
and the buyer regarding the transaction detailed below, we have determined
that we will be unable to successfully dispute this chargeback with the
buyer's credit card issuer.

Since the credit card issuer granted the chargeback to the buyer, we have
debited  from your PayPal account in order to reimburse the buyer. This is
in accordance with the terms of the PayPal User Agreement.

Also, PayPal was charged a settlement fee. As a result we debited your
PayPal account to pay for this fee. This action was taken in accordance
with the terms of the PayPal User Agreement.

So I have contacted Paypal today and asked them why I haven't received anything yet. I'm awaiting response now.

Even so - she was not planning to refund me until she was forced to by Paypal. I'm surprised they haven't closed down her account yet.

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

The neat thing about PayPal is that you can check transactions on a  daily basis or what has been done during a month.  Also!!  PayPal emails you when a transaction has been done either by you to transfer funds into your Bank Checking account , when you have purchased something from eBay, or when someone has paid you.  When someone has paid you, their name and email address are noted on that transaction.  If no email has been recieved from PayPal to you, then no transaction has  taken place.

I do that because that is how I am paid by clients when they order custom made garb from me. PayPal is on the up and up.

Keep persistent. PayPal should know what is going on. I would place my trust in PayPal than this vendor.

[Dev]

I tried to order a bodice from them back in late july and they didn't respond until september.

[Dafydd]

Hey all,

I have finally some good news to report!

As I said before, Sandra Bradley claimed that Paypal had refunded me... and I went to contact Paypal on the matter.

A few days later, Paypal responded by confirming that they had indeed issued a refund to my credit card, and they suggested that I should contact my credit card company on the matter. I had double checked all my credit card statements to make sure I hadn't overlooked the refund, but it was nowhere there between March and now lol.

So my credit card company asked that I fax all the documents with a letter explaining the situation, which I did and guess what... On the 23rd, last week, the exact amount was refunded to my credit card at last! So Paypal had really done the refund, but they wouldn't have passed on the money until I asked about it apparently lol.


All this doesn't let The Medieval Market off the hook though. If I had not started a claim against her through Paypal in the first place, then she would never have bothered refunding me. In this case Paypal simply TOOK the money back from her, leaving her no choice in the matter.

So the bottom line is:
If you became a victim of the scam, you should really TRY to get your money back. Even if Paypal says that it's too late to still file a claim - as it was in my case technically - you can at least try to get your money back. And secondly, you should still not trust The Medieval Market for your purchases - because if I hadn't pushed the matter for so long I would never have gotten my money back!

[theChuck]

huzzah! glad you got your money back. nice to see that paypal stood up for you, too.

[Ariyana the hugging wench]

To add new info to this post (which of course I found AFTER I had placed 2 orders with Medievalmarket.com, then saw these comments and started worrying)

I placed 2 orders with this company. One on March 14th and the other on March 21.

I never heard anything from the vendor but the money was taken from my card. I started to really worry after I read the reviews on here. I emailed her this past Friday, asking about my orders. She wrote back "One of your orders has shipped and the other is going out on Monday - couldn't make the cut off on Friday.  Thank you for your patience in this busy season.  I hope this has not inconvenienced you in any way."

Yesterday one of the orders arrived, weirdly enough it was the 2nd order I placed. The items are what I expected for the money, more than good enough for back up garb for me or garb for my kids.. (what came yesterday was for my teenager who only comes with occasionally, not going to sink much money into garb for her unless she really starts to get into faire again.) I could probably make them myself but have no time to mess with that right now.
waiting to see when the 2nd order arrives. I do plan to suggest to the owner that she do a little more in terms of customer service contact. I really feel like a personal email after the order is accepted (even a few days later) saying that she did recieve the order and giving at least an estimate on when the order will be complete and shipped would be a nice touch and keep customers calm and informed.
But I did want to at least let people know that my orders at least seem to have happend ok. I will post when the 2nd package arrives.

[midnightferret]

Just to add some info here: sometimes people have "shopping cart" software on their websites to take your payments (PayPal or otherwise). Sometimes, if it's not set up right, the shopkeeper will tell it to give you a refund via PayPal, and the software says it has done so, but PayPal never gets the message.

I had this happen with a merchant who didn't know how their checkout/shopping cart software worked, and it was a nightmare. She got angry with me because her site told her the refund was posted, and I kept asking her to log into PayPal and check it, and she wouldn't. After a week of this, I had to file a claim so she would get the email and have to click the link inside it to the Paypal refund section.

Also, the fact that the merchant doesn't understand the software (if that is the case) doesn't let the him or her off the hook - if someone keeps telling you you've been refunded via Paypal, but the refund never shows up there, go ahead and file a claim for a refund. That is probably the only way you will get your money.

Really, it sounds like this particular online merchant isn't stable enough to run a good business right now, for whatever reason. I was surprised there was only one person behind this website. She seems to carry the same kind of stuff that Chivalry Sports (renstore.com) and a couple other places carry. It is a shame that she didn't bother to inform any potential customers, but I wish everyone who has ordered and not yet received everything luck and also hope that the warning here reaches anyone who could benefit by it.

[katie_86]

 i also ordered from the medieval market before seeing this post 
I placed my order on April 11th and haven't heard anything since i got my receipt no shipment date no implications that they are working on it no communication what so ever...... I also emailed the seller 3 times politely asking about my order. i got the website out of renaissance magazine and this is the first time i have ever ordered garb
so i am very disappointed...... I hope my order arrives and i can get this issue resolved.. just thought id share my angst with others who understand

[chainshot]

  I ordered a simple pair of bracers from these people and it took 3 months, 8 days and a dozen phone calls to finally get it from them.  And when they arrived not only did they not looked the way they were advertised but they fit so badly that I simply threw them out in the trash.  Fortunately for me the items did not cost me too much (about $35.00) but the experience I had left such a nasty taste in my mouth that I tell everyone I know to stay away from them as far as possible.

[katie_86]

after reading all of this i decided to escalate my paypal claim and hopefully they can resolve it for me
i also had a very small order only 50$ but that's still money that could be spent on services actually rendered

[Friar Rohn the Chronicler]

      After reading some of these horror stories above, it sounds like a situation I went through a couple of months ago except it was with a company called Armstreet LLC. I ended up getting eBay involved and apparently PayPal froze their account until they verified refunding both of my payments. To make matters worse, they insisted before I was to even get a refund that I would have to withdraw my negative feedback. I couldn't believe the audacity of them demanding that I give them a excellent feedback or else they would never refund my payments (actually 2 payments, they upped the price after the auction was over). So I only changed it to a neutral feedback and copied in their message sent to me through eBay (that way future buyers could see why it was changed)....

"Please remove your feedback. I will refund w/o waiting for results of investigation immediately. Thank you"

      So after waiting all that dealing with invalid tracking numbers, their staff telling me that I'd have to wait until they felt they would send a replacement (because most buyers don't realize that after so many months eBay and PayPal won't help you after 45 days.....and it's in the Seller's advantage to string you along).

      To make a long story short (and I have copies of all the emails to prove how "professional" their company treated me....and that's not a short story), I won't be garbed this year because I was fooled by their feedback given on eBay. I have sworn off buying any type of item dealing with garb but I still get a few good deals on accessories. When some of the women at the Castle of Muskogee heard what happened, they volunteered to create some friar's togs for me but I declined. Lady Kathleen of Olmsted will be passing through in a couple of weeks on the way to Scarby and I'll have her take my measurements to create something during her off season.

Friar Rohn