Company to beware of
Hello to all my Steepster friends and the whole community. I would like to tell you my experience with a company called “Tea Time Trading Company.”
The companies web address is www.teatimetradingco.com. Now, on with my story. I brought my Teavana perfect tea maker to my mom’s house to visit and enjoy some tea but when I went home I left my tea maker in the grocery bag I transported it in and either me or my wife thought it was trash and threw it out. So, I now am in the market to buy another tea maker that would be great for gongfu style tea making and good for home to office.
I decided to go with either the Piao i teapot by Pure Puer Tea or the One Touch Teapot by Tea Time Trading Co. which won an award at the 2011 world tea expo for design. Both pots are award winners but the Piao i has issues I was told with leaking from the infuser basket from the ball bearing. So, I decided to go with the One Touch Teapot since it is new and no real problems I can find.
So, 03/05/2012 I ordered my pot. Received a e-mail that company received my order it was paid for and now can’t wait to get it since it has been awhile since I have enjoyed some tea. I am not going to lie I have made some tea every now and then from my french press but don’t like to use that for tea just my morning coffee. But, you do thing out of desperation. LOL!!!
Now, it is 03/13/2012 no pot yet and not even a tracking number. I live in Arizona the pot is being shipped from California is this a long wait of what?
So, I contacted the owner Suzan and she said she would check in the morning on the order but she believes it was shipped on Friday 03/09/2012 Seems like a story I was told since things don’t add up but I continue to wait and have her check on the order.
Suzan gets back to me on 03/17/2012 which was 4 days after I contacted her and she said she would check the order the next day. She said husband Ron has been sick so sorry for the hiccup then Suzan says she will ship it in the morning.
Now a few days go by no pot or a tracking number and it is now 03/20/2012 start to wonder what is going on so I called the company left a message for Suzan or anyone to call to help me and on 03/21/2012 had a voice mail from Suzan saying Sorry and it will ship 03/22/2012 mind you my order was on 03/05/2012 coming from California.Then on 03/21/2012 I get an e-mail saying Sorry I can not ship to a PO Box with UPS I will need a physical address. So, I gave her my address and told her that I will be moving out on 03/28/2012 even though I wasn’t going to move out till 03/31/2012 but didn’t want her to procrastinate any more than she already has.
Then on 03/22/2012 instead of sending my pot she e-mailed me at the end of the day saying if you want me to mail your order on 03/23/2012 I need you to call me with your credit card number. That was the straw that broke the camels back I have waited a crazy amount of time she never offered me nothing and now she wants me to pay for the order twice. I called my bank reversed the charges and now done with this company. I wanted to tell everyone of my experience with this company and how the customer service is and how they are. She never once said I will over night it my cost or even say sorry for this mess let me give you the pot at my cost and your shipping for all you went thru or if she wanted to do it big say here is a free pot sorry you had this type of experience and hope you will forgive me and still recommend us. She acted like all of this was totally okay. If you like to be treated like this then this is your company but if you feel like me that this was not right I would say stay away and tell others to do the same just my humble opinion.Still in the market for a pot. What a mess. What would you recommend? I am thinking of going with the piao i even if it leaks a tiny bit but I have heard it is built with quality and that is what important to me.
I am open to suggestions of a pot that will work with all types of teas from white to puerhs one that will not change the taste of the different teas something built with quality and will last and you can use with gong-fu style too that will work for home and office or can be transported daily between both places. Thank to all for listening to my story and for your suggestions.
that really sux I feel your pain i had similar happen to me before anyways tropicalteaco.com has small pots for decent prices.
Thank you Tommy for your reply. I will go check them out. I just wanted other tea people to hear how this small company conducts business and have people beware and order at your own risk if you choose. I hope you have a great week and take care my friend.
Sometimes it seems customer service is a thing of the past. Here is the same teapot at a company you may have better service from or even find it in their store.
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?MC=1&SKU=18797607&RN=898&
before you go to the store check the availability online. I did that for South Florida and there is only one store way out west that carries the teapot.
Good luck!!
Thank you Jade teapot that is one of there teapot but I wanted the brim one but to be honest if a owner to this small company going to treat me like that I would rather not support them when there is companies out there that would love your business and they show it. Just my humble opinion.
Sorry to hear about that experience! :(
I used to have a PIAO that I got from a store in NYC Chinatown, and it worked great for awhile, but it’s true… the ball bearing started to loose it’s seal after half a year of heavy use. It ended up being fine, since I would just set it down on it’s own top to catch drips.
I eventually gave it to my parents, and since they don’t use it all the time, it works well. If I’m not using a gaiwan or little tea pot, I now just use brew baskets (from Finum) and have found that I really prefer them. I just feel like they give me more flexibility, since I can use it in any mug or large teapot, and it fits in my backpack for easy on-the-go situations. Plus, there are no mechanical parts to break or wear down over time.
http://www.amazon.com/Finum-63-421-50-00-Brewing-Basket/dp/B000I68NCS/ref=pd_bxgy_k_img_b
http://www.amazon.com/Finum-Brewing-Large-Basket-Black/dp/B000J3JFJU
http://www.amazon.com/Finum-Goldton-Filters-Blue-Green/dp/B001D07MCU/ref=sr_1_4?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1333549931&sr=1-4
Hope you find something you like!
Thank you so much for your reply and your advice and links for things to check out much appreciated.
Wow… very sorry you had such a difficult time with that company. It is sad that some companies do not value their customers as they should. Fortunately there are some companies out there that still do value their customers and treat them well.
I totally agree with you there is companies out there that would love my business and that is who I am going to give my business too.
I feel your disappointment. I am currently dealing with an online company with similar issues and am giving them another chance to adequately respond to my disappointment. I don’t want to expose them here unless someone asks about my particular experience and I have confidence that my issue is not common. I just feel they do not truly understand my dismay based on how they have dealt with the issue so far.
I appreciate your reply. I am not trying to bash the company but it appears they are having problems that are not cool especially being a small business and at least telling people my experience with this company and if people want to use them they can at their own risk that they were for warned. I hope if that issue you have doesn’t get taken care of you would warn people instead of letting other walk into a mess your experiencing. Just my opinion. Take care my friend.
Thanks for sharing. I’ll put this company on my list of “places not to order from.”
Sorry to hear about your troubles with them; I can imagine how frustrating that must have been.
I received my PIAO 1 right away from Amazon..the supplier was M.V. Trading Online Houseware and Restaurant Supplies…and love it so far especially for Pu-erh which is what I wanted it for. Easy to use and does not hold odors. If it lasts a year it will be worth it since I use it frequently. It would be great if someone else made a super reliable long lasting one!
Thank you so much for your reply how long have you had your Piao i? Does it leak? Do you use it daily? Have a great week and like always keep on steeping!
Maybe I’m paranoid but that sounds like they were fishing for your credit card number to rip you off. If you’d ordered already they had no need to ask for your credit card again.
I agree. But, because it was a small company and the husband must have been the organized one. But, he became ill and the wife was handling orders. She was disorganized and having to wait that long just to process the order was just to far. She offered nothing. I hate to give a bad experience story like this. But, when you feel like a company thinks that can do whatever they please and take your money like your an ATM machine and doesn’t have that oops this was wrong let me make it up to you attitude is not a company I can stand behind. There are other companies out there that would love to take your money and appreciate you and give you great service. Just my humble opinion. Thank you so much for your reply.
P.S. I never gave that info to the company I just reversed the charges at that point. Plus, if I did who knows if she would add another “0” to the order than I will be dealing with bank issues so not worth it. LOL!!!
Sorry to know about the harassing situation. These days, people hardly seems to consider customer service or after sales deals as their top most priority…
Thanks for the post and alerting us about such companies.
Sites like www.webtation.com should be referred to while shopping online. This site also has the facility of adding comment; rating – trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety.
Regards,
Niranjan Naulakha
Darjeeling Tea Boutique
www.darjeelingteaboutique.com
Thank you so much for your reply. I really hated to have to warn people but I am not trying to stop anyone from buying. Just be informed and willing to risk these issue or maybe the company will get better who knows.
Darjeeling Tea Boutique: I just tried the link for webtation, thinking it was some kind of website where you could review other websites (from your description), and other than the main page displaying, the rest of the links don’t seem to work. They look like a company to help you create a new website rather than one to help review others. Did you meant to post a different link above?
Tea_is_wisdom: Thank you for alerting the would-be-buyer from such situations.
It’s amazing what a tiny little typo will do, eh (a missing ‘u’ in this case)?
Thanks, that does look like an interesting company.
I know this is coming in very late, but I would like to say that nothing has gotten better with the Tea Time Trading Co.
We were talking with them for the potential of a wholesale deal, for the spout teapots just within the last couple of months.
I asked for some samples and I had to pay for them, which isn’t unheard of, but my only shipping option was UPS, and it was being shipped to Canada. So our total for 6 pots was about $130 USD + Duties (about $20) =$150 USD, about $25/pot.
Not cheap at all and very hard to markup for wholesale/retail!
Anyway, they were samples and it would be better priced in bulk, but not much better.
Moving on.
They sent the 6. I ordered it over the phone, by credit card. I had to call them back I think twice for a UPS tracking number, which was eventually emailed to me.
When they arrived, 5 were fine and 1 was shattered. and they were very poorly packed.
Since then I have been trying to contact them by phone and email, multiple times, asking for a refund on the broken pot and to discuss further business.
I haven’t heard anything! At All! I spent over an hour on the phone with Ron, listening to him tell me how he is an old school business man, trying to build his business on respect yada yada… As we believe business should be upheld.
This was such an opposite situation, I’m appalled!
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