Ivyskin- A Case Study in How Not to Make Friends Nor Influence People

Here is the latest in a string of companies YOU may want to business with, but I will never again.

I placed an order for an interesting-looking iPad case that will have the ability to snap on a backup battery for those days that seem to go on forever and run down the iPad’s charge.

Note the date.

The next week I decided to buy a different case so I tried to cancel the order…

Daniel Cohen to ivySkin Sales
date Sun, May 16, 2010 at 10:29 PM
subject Re: Ivyskin: New Order #

Please cancel this order and refund my PayPal account. Thank you.

I never heard back.

May ended. June ended. July was about to end, and on July 29 Larry mentioned some issues people were having with the company so I wrote…

Daniel Cohen to ivySkin
Jul 29

I placed this order May 9th. It is now almost August. Please refund my payment IMMEDIATELY and send a confirmation that this has happened. Thank you.

My original order is listed below.

Daniel Cohen

I did hear back…

Jul 29

Dear Daniel,

We will process a refund to your account promply. Please note that we can also send you a Xylo-T4 case until the SmartCase for iPad is ready to be shipped in the first week of Aug at no charge to you. Let me know

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience we might have caused and look forward to filling your future orders in timely manner.

Best Regards, Jessica
IvySkin.com

…and I foolishly gave them another chance. After all, she said the case I actually ordered would ship the first week of August.

Note that the “replacement case was supposed to go out immediately, and the case I order would be in the first week of August…

July 29
Thanks Jessica-

You know what… can we do that? Especially if it is only another week or two before they will ship. Thanks.

But I heard more horror stories about IvySkin so I wrote…

July 29
Jessica-

I’m hearing all sorts of things about the company and false shipping labels for iPhone cases and the like. After hearing from a number of friends today I WOULD like you to cancel the order and refund my money asap.

Thanks

Dan

I did not hear back.

July 31
Jessica

I am waiting for a reply. Are you refunding my money or sending me the extra case now and the battery case when it comes in?

The word I am hearing from others is not good but I am hoping that your company is indeed not playing games.

Please respond asap

Thank you

Dan Cohen

July ended and the first week of August passed. I did not receive my refund. I did not receive the replacement case. I did not receive the case I ordered, the one that was promised to ship the first week of August…

August 9
Jessica-

12 days ago you offered to either refund my money asap or to send me a different case now and the case I ordered when it was released. Neither have occurred and it has been 12 days. 12 days and I am IN NEW JERSEY.

Please do one or the other asap. This is not right and I do not understand the poor customer service.

If I do not hear back one way or the other I will file a PayPal dispute tomorrow.

Dan Cohen

I filed a PayPal dispute.

And then… surprisingly… I did hear back.

August 10
Hi Daniel,

Sorry for the late reply. I’ll have them send you a Xylo-T4 case at no charge to you and will ship the SmartCase to you as soon as it comes in later this month. Once again I do apologize for the delay and please feel free to call or email me with any questions.

Regards, Sara

So the replacement case had not shipped, and now the case I ordered IN MAY was coming in at the end of the month???? I was done. Done with a capitol D. DONE, DONE, DONE!

Aug 10
Sara

I’ll send the case back unopened. I was told this was being done two weeks ago and the one I ordered the first week of august. Now you say the end of the month. I’m done.

I’ll send the case you sent back. Please cancel the order and refund my
Money.

Dan Cohen

And magically…

Dear Daniel Cohen,
Your order # 000022537 has been
Complete.

Shipped Xylo T4 case as an interim……9101148008600046320005

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or by phone at (201) 266-5555

Thank you for choosing ivyskin
Ivyskin

So I wrote…

August 11
Sara-

Please let me know when my refund is being processed and to what address I should return the case you sent. I would like to close out this transaction as soon as possible.

Thank you…

And wrote again…

August 12 5:45 pm

Sara

I am asking yet again to have this order canceled and my money refunded immediately. The customer service you folks have given (or lack there of) combined with the continuing slippage in the shipment date of the case I actually ordered is not acceptable. I would like my refund now.

Thank you

Dan Cohen.

And again…

August 13 5:11pm
I am writing YET AGAIN asking for a response. I would like a refund now and the courtesy of someone at your company returning my emails.

This is absurd.

Daniel Cohen

Then I wrote this post.

There are tons of companies making all sorts of cases. Sometimes there are production delays. Sometimes there are issues with cases. Things happen. Travis got a Grove wooden iPhone 4 case that snapped in two the first time he used it. Larry had an issue with his ElementCase Vapor. Customer service responded to both of them quickly, a replacement cases arrived in short order. Sena made changes to their Folio and solved my biggest complaint with one of my favorite cases.

So tell me, with companies like Sena, Grove, Case-Mate, Element Case, SGP, OtterBox and the list goes on out there … why would I EVER do business with this company again?

That, dear readers, was rhetorical.

Have a great weekend everyone.