The tale of the missing race suit!

Sorry but this is big chapter and verse on the whole story. It caused us so much grief we were just happy that it was back but I think we need to share our story so that you can bear it in mind if anyone is thinking of sending a suit back to RJS Racing Equipment for recertification/repair.

7^th Feb 2019 - Shipped the suit to RJS fully tracked on 7^th Feb 2019 – placed note in parcel asking for them to confirm when the parcel arrived so that we could send credit card details for the recertification.

13^th Feb - Received no comms from RJS. Our shipping tracking informed us that the parcel had been delivered to RJS Michigan so emailed credit card details for the payment.

5^th March - No comms from RJS until we contacted them to ask for progress on the suit re-cert.

Still no comms just an invoice detailing the final payment details. The invoice was dated 13^th Feb so looked like the small repair & recertification had been done as soon as the shipment had arrived in Michigan.

18^th March - Sent an email asking what date the suit was shipped & an estimated delivery date.

No comms from RJS.

Rang RJS to find out what the situation was. Were rudely told that the tracking number was on the Invoice. We went onto US Postal tracking, as that was the shipping method they had used, and realised there had been no movement on the parcel since 18^th Feb.

Rang RJS to see if they could chase the shipment. They said they would look into it and get back to us taking phone numbers and email address but there attitude was ‘Well we’ve shipped it so you’ll need to follow it up with US Postal’. It’s fair to say that the guy at RJS didn’t really know how it was shipped (or seem to care) as this is now their Florida office & the shipment was sent from their Michigan office.

No comms from RJS.

Rang RJS again who said he’d logged an enquiry with US Postal, almost reluctantly. We rang US Postal quoting the enquiry no. to be told it was an online enquiry which was logged on 21^st March. It would have to be logged as ‘lost’ for 4 weeks before a claim could be made but quite correctly stated that RJS needed to chase it & process a claim for the lost parcel as they were the people who had shipped it.

We waited………………………………………………………..

10^th April – We receive an email from RJS which starts ‘Excellent news, we found your racing suit!’ For whatever reason the US Postal Recovery Team had found it and returned it to the Florida office and not Michigan where it was shipped from. The bigger question for us was why didn’t it carry on its journey back to us in the UK?? We never did get an answer to that one!

We rang RJS to discuss what happens next (RJS admitted that they didn’t call us as they don’t really understand how to call the UK!!)

So the call was basically RJS wanting us to reach for our credit card and pay a new charge of $108 to re-ship the suit!!!! No mention about the $96 that we’d already paid!!

They seemed really shocked when we refused to pay AGAIN for shipping that we had already paid for! RJS didn’t really seem to understand why we wouldn’t pay again, didn’t we want our suit back!

We stupidly assumed that RJS would have had that suit back on its way to us before they had even contacted us to let us know it had been found. How wrong were we! Basically RJS won’t re-ship the suit until they have had a refund from US Postal service for the original $96 and then they want the additional $12 from us to make up the difference between what we’d already paid & the new cost to ship it fully tracked by air.

We emailed RJS to ‘vent our frustration’ & rarely had some comms back from RJS in the form of an email which contained 5 large paragraphs which included lots of sarcasm & basically informing us that this situation was ‘absolutely & positively not our fault’.

Maybe not, but their responsibility, absolutely!! The email went on to reiterate that the repair and recertification took less than 24 hours from when they received it to when they shipped it, which we had never questioned. That might have been so but due to the lack of requested communication we didn’t know when the work was completed and shipped. If we did, we could have monitored this more closely and realised it was lost a lot sooner!!

No comms from RJS

23^rd April – we email RJS to ask if they have any idea when they will receive the refund from US Postal & then re-shipping the suit.

No comms from RJS

Lynne takes over the situation now as Mark is ready to fly to the states and kill someone!

WE JUST WANT OUR SUIT BACK!!

Email is obviously not working so now we turn to the phone and actually try to talk to someone.

RJS had great pride in telling me that the suit was sitting on the desk right in from of him! He admitted that he hadn’t even processed the claim yet with US Postal as he wasn’t really sure what he needed to do! I practically begged him to find out what was required as ‘other than jumping on a plane ourselves and collecting it, I really don’t know what else we can do’. I was told he would find out for me ‘yes ma’am, I can do that for you’.

No comms from RJS

30^th April – telephone RJS for an update & a conversation which basically was me pleading that if he sent me an email confirming that as soon as he received the refund from US Postal that he would reimburse me the original $96 if I pay the $108 upfront and get that damn suit in the air! ‘Yes ma’am, I can do that for you’

Guess what – no email confirmation of our conversation from RJS!!

1^st May – rang RJS to find out why they hadn’t emailed me but couldn’t get through so left a message.

2^nd May – RJS email to say they are just waiting for a call from US Postal re the refund date.

Comms stopped play for Springspeed Nats and to calm down a little bit!

6^th May – Rang RJS for an update. Was told that to obtain the refund from US Postal that they had to physically take the suit to prove that it had been returned before they could process the refund. This had to be taken to the nearest US Postal depot which was ½ hour drive from the RJS office. The RJS representative told me that he would have to take an hour out of his own time to make the journey to do this – not quite sure why out of his own time when it is company business! This would be done during his lunch hour – bless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8^th May – rang RJS hopefully for the last time ever! They confirmed a refund had happened, even though it was only for $50!! We’re not quite sure why that was, maybe it was because it wasn’t correctly addressed to us in the first place?? Out of the kindness of their hearts, RJS were going to cover the additional $46 to make up the original $96 and then he would send me a Credit Card authorisation form to fill in with my details for the additional $12 dollars for the difference in the new shipping cost. I ended the phone call with ‘no disrespect, but I hope this is the last time we will ever speak’ I completed and returned the form immediately and assumed that the parcel would be shipped, as RJS had promised, that afternoon.

No Comms from RJS with shipping confirmation & tracking details etc

14^th May – send an email to RJS asking for confirmation that the suit has been shipped and for the tracking number.

No comms from RJS

20^th May – rang RJS for an update. RJS said that they had emailed the details several times. We had received all other emails from them so not sure why these didn’t reach us!!!! He gave us the Fedex Air tracking number which we checked while he was still on the phone. As soon as we knew the suit was in Stansted airport awaiting clearance we told RJS to *&%^$£)(*@!$ OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

20^th May – spoke to Fedex at Stanstead who wanted to know what was in the parcel as RJS had not put enough details on the parcel for them to ascertain what was in the parcel.

21^st May – emailed Fedex with details of the contents of the package and the invoice from our original shipment to the US to confirm that this was not a new purchase and that we were paying for a service. Checked the tracking details later that day and the parcel was out for delivery. Hooray!

22^nd May – my parents phone me to tell me a parcel has been delivered at 8.15 that morning.

THANK GOD FOR THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

p.s. no comms from RJS asking if the suit arrived back with us safely!!!!

Huge thanks to Mat Cooper and The Marras for the loan of race suits which got us through Festival of Power & Nostaligia Nationals :)