madrinas Poor experience with Madrinas Coffee

[bastrdcrab]

Hi folks,

 

Nice to meet you! This isn't really how I wanted to make a first impression on this forum, but after getting nowhere with their customer service, I figured maybe I could post here and someone who matters might notice.

 

I'll start by saying that part of this is definitely my fault, but the rest I blame on unclear messaging via their store and unresponsive customer service.

 

After the WAN show sponsor deal for a free six-pack the other day, I decided to try out Madrinas. I figured that two of their "#COFFEE4FUEL SAMPLER" six packs for the price of one made the purchase viable, as that dropped the price-per-can (without shipping) from over $3.17 per to $1.58 per. This was a limited time deal, obviously, so I figured okay, if I don't qualify for the free six pack, surely they'll indicate that somewhere in the purchase process, right?

 

Nope. To start, the only hint I could see was an order number range on the LTT page, stating "orders from ABC-DEF will get the free six pack." I thought, okay, hopefully they at least include a hypothetical order number somewhere prior to the purchase being finalized (which I realize now was folly, since that number probably isn't generated until the customer clicks "confirm"). Anyway, I get to the last page of the order form and enter my LTT coupon, and... I get $9.50 off. Okay. That's weird, but having ordered from Savage Jerky through another sponsor deal before, I know that sometimes stores have to do weird things to include free items in your cart, and maybe this was one of them. There was definitely no message that the coupon code had expired, or that it didn't include the six pack. Shipping is also pretty expensive at $11.68, but I figure that even with shipping, it comes out to about $1.80 per can if I'm getting the additional six cans. Still viable. So, I click confirm, see my order number, and it's in the range of "GHI." Well, shit, I've now ordered a six pack of coffee for about $3.50 per can including shipping. That's too much for me to justify the order with my budget. And the code doesn't provide free shipping, either, which kind of sucks, because they're advertising a free shipping code on their homepage, and the LTT code doesn't even cover the cost of shipping. So I ended up paying $2 more than if I had just purchased a six-pack as a non-LTT fan with their free shipping code.

 

Okay, that sucks, but I'll email them right now and get my request to cancel in early - the order and email were around midnight on a Sunday, so they should have both by SOB on Monday. Per their FAQ:

Quote

 

Can I cancel my order? 
- If your order has been processed, unfortunately we are unable to cancel the order

- If your order has NOT been processed, we will be able to cancel it & refund your order. Please aow [sic] 3-5 business days for the refund to display in your account.

 

So I should be fine, right?

I fire that email off and proceed to wait. 4:30 PM on Monday rolls around and I get an email from Madrinas saying "Your order has shipped!"

 

Wait, what? Seriously?

 

I email back telling them I had requested that the order be canceled.

 

It's now Thursday and I've still heard nothing from Madrinas, not even a "sorry, we didn't catch this before the order went out and there's nothing we can do now!" I've worked in customer service, and it's possible they were inundated with orders through the LTT deal and just didn't have time to get to it. That's fine! I've been on that end of the equation. The problem is that I haven't heard anything from them since I emailed to indicate that they even considered my request to cancel, and that's shitty. I hope this is just a one-off, and Madrinas is usually good about this sort of thing. I saw the other thread in the forum about how they sent that guy extra cans. That was cool, and I wish I'd had an experience as positive as that one. This is where I'm at now, though.

 

The coffee is due to be delivered today. I hope it's good, because if it's not, I'll be mad that I paid $21 for six cans of mediocre coffee and a bad customer service experience. Between this and what happened with Synergy "2.0" (and that company's subsequent layoff of all of its employees when their product backslid into beta), I'm inclined not to purchase a sponsor deal again, because it seems like LTT has trouble vetting its smaller sponsors for reliability. Sorry, guys. Doubt you'll miss me anyway!

 

TL;DR I ordered coffee through Madrinas with the LTT sponsor code, ended up paying more than if I'd just used their free shipping code on their home page, and then not only did they not reply when I requested to cancel, but they shipped my order as well.

 

Thanks for listening to my whining, feel free to flame, etc.

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[CPotter]

3 hours ago, bastrdcrab said:

Hi folks,

 

Nice to meet you! This isn't really how I wanted to make a first impression on this forum, but after getting nowhere with their customer service, I figured maybe I could post here and someone who matters might notice.

 

I'll start by saying that part of this is definitely my fault, but the rest I blame on unclear messaging via their store and unresponsive customer service.

 

After the WAN show sponsor deal for a free six-pack the other day, I decided to try out Madrinas. I figured that two of their "#COFFEE4FUEL SAMPLER" six packs for the price of one made the purchase viable, as that dropped the price-per-can (without shipping) from over $3.17 per to $1.58 per. This was a limited time deal, obviously, so I figured okay, if I don't qualify for the free six pack, surely they'll indicate that somewhere in the purchase process, right?

 

Nope. To start, the only hint I could see was an order number range on the LTT page, stating "orders from ABC-DEF will get the free six pack." I thought, okay, hopefully they at least include a hypothetical order number somewhere prior to the purchase being finalized (which I realize now was folly, since that number probably isn't generated until the customer clicks "confirm"). Anyway, I get to the last page of the order form and enter my LTT coupon, and... I get $9.50 off. Okay. That's weird, but having ordered from Savage Jerky through another sponsor deal before, I know that sometimes stores have to do weird things to include free items in your cart, and maybe this was one of them. There was definitely no message that the coupon code had expired, or that it didn't include the six pack. Shipping is also pretty expensive at $11.68, but I figure that even with shipping, it comes out to about $1.80 per can if I'm getting the additional six cans. Still viable. So, I click confirm, see my order number, and it's in the range of "GHI." Well, shit, I've now ordered a six pack of coffee for about $3.50 per can including shipping. That's too much for me to justify the order with my budget. And the code doesn't provide free shipping, either, which kind of sucks, because they're advertising a free shipping code on their homepage, and the LTT code doesn't even cover the cost of shipping. So I ended up paying $2 more than if I had just purchased a six-pack as a non-LTT fan with their free shipping code.

 

Okay, that sucks, but I'll email them right now and get my request to cancel in early - the order and email were around midnight on a Sunday, so they should have both by SOB on Monday. Per their FAQ:

So I should be fine, right?

I fire that email off and proceed to wait. 4:30 PM on Monday rolls around and I get an email from Madrinas saying "Your order has shipped!"

 

Wait, what? Seriously?

 

I email back telling them I had requested that the order be canceled.

 

It's now Thursday and I've still heard nothing from Madrinas, not even a "sorry, we didn't catch this before the order went out and there's nothing we can do now!" I've worked in customer service, and it's possible they were inundated with orders through the LTT deal and just didn't have time to get to it. That's fine! I've been on that end of the equation. The problem is that I haven't heard anything from them since I emailed to indicate that they even considered my request to cancel, and that's shitty. I hope this is just a one-off, and Madrinas is usually good about this sort of thing. I saw the other thread in the forum about how they sent that guy extra cans. That was cool, and I wish I'd had an experience as positive as that one. This is where I'm at now, though.

 

The coffee is due to be delivered today. I hope it's good, because if it's not, I'll be mad that I paid $21 for six cans of mediocre coffee and a bad customer service experience. Between this and what happened with Synergy "2.0" (and that company's subsequent layoff of all of its employees when their product backslid into beta), I'm inclined not to purchase a sponsor deal again, because it seems like LTT has trouble vetting its smaller sponsors for reliability. Sorry, guys. Doubt you'll miss me anyway!

 

TL;DR I ordered coffee through Madrinas with the LTT sponsor code, ended up paying more than if I'd just used their free shipping code on their home page, and then not only did they not reply when I requested to cancel, but they shipped my order as well.

 

Thanks for listening to my whining, feel free to flame, etc.

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hey, thanks for this. Going to message our contact at Madrinas Coffee right now to try and get this rectified. Sorry for the lack of communication during your ordering process. 

 

Linking him this thread - I can confirm that the product is good.  

[Syntaxvgm]

I got madrinas and tried to return the order. The guy at the gas station was like "dude, you drank that, I'm not taking that back"

[Shlomo_Madrinas]

***edit comment below!***

Edited September 28, 2018 by Shlomo_Madrinas

[Shlomo_Madrinas]

@bastrdcrab hello there! Shlomo from Madrinas here. 

 

First thing to mention here is that the "free 6 pack" promo doesn't show in your cart and ships separately, so if you were in the range, you will get the 6 pack. I think that was a misunderstanding. Details of this are always included on Linus page. 

 

As for assisting you further, If you can get me your order ID number I can take a look at this and refund you any difference you feel is right. Also, I would like to talk to you more about your general experience to make sure our customer service practices are always getting better. 

I don't know how to send direct messages on this forum or what your order number is, or I would correct immediately. *edit - figure this out and sent a message! 

 

The only thing I have to say in our defense currently is that when ordered over the weekend, like all Linus promos tend to be, there is a delay in both the processing of the order (we are not in the warehouse or ship on weekends) and customer service (we get a ton of emails all at once when Linus promos happen, and sometimes they take a bit longer than usual to clear through) 

 

With that said, we won't be satisfied until you are, so please give us the chance to correct this for you and ensure that you leave with taste of coffee and not disappointment in your mouth! 

 

[bastrdcrab]

Thanks for replying @Shlomo_Madrinas! I'll reach out in the direct message. And thanks @CPotter for reaching out as well. Please feel free to close this thread, or otherwise let it die a slow, quiet, neglected death.