DNA Vapes - extremely poor Customer Service

[joeten]

Same question from me.

[Perpetua]

Mar 9, 2016 15:46:36 GMT striker42 said:

Mar 9, 2016 15:22:46 GMT Perpetua said:

Dear All . . . . I can now report that gill2009 has indeed received a refund for the Return Postage costs involved in this sorry shambles.

Much to her great relief she can now put this needless saga behind her.

Thank you once again everyone.

Is the matter wrapped up altogether ? No more contact required for returns, refunds etc ?

As far as we are aware, yes striker42 . . . . . over, done and finished.

[Deleted]

No customer service survey ?

[striker42]

Thanks for the update Perpetua, at least it would appear that the situation with gill2009 has been resolved. But as this is a Vendor review thread, I'm tagging Bobsbeer to ascertain if he has had any response to his problem from this vendor.

[Bobsbeer]

I emailed them on 5/3 to ask if I needed a return number/ticket. No reply, so just going to post it back to them and see what happens.  I think they must be too busy sending junk emails to have time to answer real people.  I get one nearly every day.

[striker42]

Keep us informed Bobsbeer . You are entitled to good customer service/care too. Just felt that your issue had got kinda looked over in the quest to have gill2009 's problems resolved.

[Bobsbeer]

I'll keep the forum updated.

[goneforagasper]

Mar 9, 2016 17:09:44 GMT Bobsbeer said:

I emailed them on 5/3 to ask if I needed a return number/ticket. No reply, so just going to post it back to them and see what happens.  I think they must be too busy sending junk emails to have time to answer real people.  I get one nearly every day.

I have just unsubscribed from their emails, not that I ever subscribed in the first place

[joeten]

Hopefully they will get a move on, since they appear to be aware of the thread, which is not doing them any favours so they could do with resolving things toot sweet and start their slow climb back to credibility.

[car147]

Mar 9, 2016 19:19:31 GMT goneforagasper said:

Mar 9, 2016 17:09:44 GMT Bobsbeer said:

I emailed them on 5/3 to ask if I needed a return number/ticket. No reply, so just going to post it back to them and see what happens.  I think they must be too busy sending junk emails to have time to answer real people.  I get one nearly every day.

I have just unsubscribed from their emails, not that I ever subscribed in the first place

Ditto.

[striker42]

Any update on your faulty equipment Bobsbeer ?

[Bobsbeer]

Just had an email today to say they had looked at the unit I sent back last Tuesday and the fault was the coil. I am somewhat sceptical of that as I tested the coil in the atty on my meter and it was fine. Anyway they are sending it back to me, having assured me they have tested it and added a couple of coils to cover my postage. I will wait and see how it goes.

[Bobsbeer]

Received my T18 back again today. Good news it works. Not sure if it is a new unit, but it works and that is all that is important. They sent it back via courier so came quickly. DNA Vapes did apologise for not replying to my emails. Apparently they went into their spam folder.

[Perpetua]

Good news indeed Bobsbeer , I'm delighted you've had a swift and satisfactory resolution to your problem.


Having done some further digging on the subject of paying return postage on faulty equipment, I thought that this information might be useful and of interest, for anyone in a similar situation - from any Vendor, not just the one we've been discussing here:

Returning faulty goods

If you receive faulty goods and wish to return them, The Distance Selling Regulations are in addition to your other legal rights.

So, if your goods are faulty and don’t do what they're supposed to, or don’t match the description given, you have the same consumer rights as you have when buying face to face.

Any terms and conditions that say you must cover the cost of returning an item wouldn’t apply where the goods being returned are faulty.

www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/distance-selling-regulations

I know we've CCR's now, but this is still also relevant:

www.ebay.co.uk/gds/Returning-goods-Faulty-or-not-who-pays-postage-/10000000142555623/g.html

[Deleted]

Mar 8, 2016 10:15:57 GMT VapingBad said:

Does anyone know the legal position on them taking KoVs mailing list and using it without seeking the customers consent? It seems ultra dodgy to me, I had even unsubscribed from KoV before the break up and started getting DNAVapes mail.

joeten posted a link to a bunch of smilies yesterday and there was on that seem applicable to this cowboy outfit

It depends. 

They should have asked you to "opt in" to emails. If they KoV) sold or passed the list to a different company then you would have to had opted in to receive emails from a third party. There are exceptions for example if your email is a business address or you have done business with them Most respectable organisations no longer push that far and will always ask for explicit permission. However, you have unsubscribed so they should not be sending you emails. They can be fined up to £5000. 

Anti-spam law is enforced by the Information Commissioner and breaches can lead to a fine of up to £5,000. There is also civil liability to anyone who suffers damage as a result of the breach. The rules are in the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Link to Information Commissioner


From Lawdonut - there is quite a lot of info out there

The rules for individual subscribers

Individuals who specifically consent (‘opt-in’) to receiving emails

You can send direct marketing emails to individual subscribers if they have ‘previously notified the sender’ of their specific consent (ie they have ‘opted in’) to receiving such emails from you.

Specific consent requires some positive action by the subscriber. If an individual omits to deselect an opt-in box you have pre-ticked on (eg an order or enquiry form), that is not a specific consent. If they specifically tick the opt-in box or you make it clear that by entering his email address in a field they are opting in, these are positive acts for this purpose.

The opt-in must be ‘clear and distinct’ so individuals can see that they are opting in and see what they are opting into when they tick a box or provide their email address.


PS if DNA vapes is watching this thread I would check your permissions very carefully. If there was neither a soft nor hard opt-in for third party contact from the KOV addresses you are likely in breach. I would email your entire base and explicitly ask for permission to continue to email them. If you have no record of opt-ins or permission was not given then you seriously should get your permissions sorted out.