Andy A.
Posted
Not Worth the Headaches!
My experience with CampSaver began well enough, but regrettably deteriorated into a completely miserable fiasco. First, the prices listed on-line are definitely competitive. In fact, lower price was the hook that got me looking at CampSaver to begin with. I ordered several items on-line and two of them arrived without incident. Unfortunately, it then was all down hill from there. The coat I ordered for $280 from CampSaver was in-stock and was actually shipped on time. Unfortunately, UPS refused to deliver it to the local post office and, when I contacted CampSaver to find out what gives, CampSaver said that because the order was handled with PayPal (a listed means of purchasing on Campsaver's site, by the way) CampSaver "could not" instruct UPS to simply reroute delivery of the coat to our street address rather than the post office. I called PayPal and UPS, both of whom said that all CampSaver needed to do was to contact UPS and they would change the delivery to our street address. I advised Campsaver of this and was informed by the very nice service rep that because PayPal was used, CampSaver "could not" (read: would not) request a delivery change. So because Campsaver would not do anything to resolve the issue, the coast was sent back to CampSaver's warehouse. Aggravating, but ok, it happens. In the meantime, I contacted the nice service rep and asked if CampSaver would simply re-ship the coat to me when it was returned to CampSaver by UPS. CampSaver said they "couldn't" (again read wouldn't) do that, but would issue a refund to me and then I could re-order the coat. Strange, but ok. I then asked to place a new order for the coat and was informed that the coat was now backordered. Huh? When I pointed out that my original coat, having been returned because CampSaver wouldn't intervene, was now sitting in their warehouse so they had at least one of the coats in stock, the very nice rep told me that this was a separate operation from sales and that if I wanted to have the coat, I would need to take the refund for the original undelivered coat and re-order the coat that was now on backorder. Fine. They then told me the good news was that the cost of the coat had dropped to $180. So I re-ordered at the new, lower price, and was invoiced the coat at this reduced price. Yesterday, I received an email from CampSaver telling me that their sales price was in error (as in too low) and that they were, therefore, cancelling my order. When I called to find out what the heck was going on, I was told by another very nice sales rep that the system showed that my order for the coat was cancelled, that there was nothing I could do to get the coat at that agreed to price ($180), but that I could place another order for the coat for the tidy sum of....wait for it...$415. So from $280 for a coat that CampSaver wouldn't ensure delivery of, to $180 for the same coat order that CampSaver took and subsequently cancelled out of the blue when they concluded they hadn't charged enough, to the new (but definitely not improved) price of $415. So what lesson have I learned from the experience? Do business with CampSaver at your own peril. If all goes well, you get a quality item at a good price. But, and it is very big but, if anything goes wrong, which appears as likely as not based upon my limited dealings with the company, you are in for a frustrating, time-consuming, and, ultimately, wholly unsatisfactory buying experiences. For me, trying to save a few bucks, is definitely not worth dealing with CampSaver ever again.