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Wicked Lasers are con artists, fraudsters, and they took my lunch money.

11:45 PM, November 23rd, 2010

UPDATE:
Wicked Lasers has come through. Read about it here.



I mean it. Wicked Lasers, a company I once believed to be a high-end player in the portable laser field. Their lasers cost three to four times as much as similar lasers on cheap Chinese sites. "They must be good!", I believed. How wrong I was... read on to find out why.

Alright, set your wayback machine to June, 2010. An article is posted on Gizmodo about the new Spyder III Pro Arctic blue laser, being offered by Wicked Lasers for only $200.



"What a deal!" I said, along with about a million other people. I immediately rushed to the Wicked Lasers website and placed my order. June 11th was the date of my order.

A few days later, I noticed that the page had been updated -- they were now offering safety glasses and an optics kit as an option for the laser, at a discounted price. I emailed their support staff to ask if I could add it to my order. "No problem", I was told, and they asked me to send $79 to their PayPal email address. I did immediately. This was June 23rd.

Weeks went by, with no sign of the laser shipping. After a month, I inquired as to the status of my order. I was told that there were delays, they couldn't meet production, but shipping would begin soon. I continued to wait.

Weeks turned into months, and every now and again I would ask for an order update. Finally, I was told that my credit card was declined (it wasn't), so I provided the details again. Nearly at the end of September, my order finally shipped, and I received a tracking number.

Naturally, I checked my credit card statement and they had overcharged me by $80. I figured I'd deal with it when the laser actually arrived.

Skip ahead another month, to the end of October, and I still haven't received my laser. According to the tracking page it's been stuck "in customs" since the beginning of October, and there's nothing either the postal service or Customs can do about it. "Only the shipper can initiate a trace" I was told.

I contact Wicked Lasers one more time. I explain the situation, and they decide to refund my order. "Not what I wanted", I thought. But, oh well. Except the refund didn't come, and neither did the laser. Fed up, I called my credit card and filed a fraud claim on the charge. They accepted the claim and as of today, November 22nd, I have my $307 back.

However, I had paid separately via PayPal for the additions to my order. I called and emailed, and I was told that they "no longer have PayPal". This is the last message I received, from today:


We no longer have paypal, I need to check with shipping and find out the status on your laser.
Best regards,

Colin
Customer Support
Wicked Lasers


I wrote back:

Hi,

I'm not interested in whether or not you have PayPal. You had it in June and that was your preferred method of payment when I asked to add to my order.

The tracking number for my order is [redacted]. You can see that it was never delivered, and has been stuck in customs since October 6th, over a month and a half. The package has obviously been lost.

I used to think your company was great. "One day, I'll be able to buy one of Wicked Lasers' awesome lasers", I used to say. No joke. I truly believed that you were the best laser company out there. Your prices were very high, but I believed the quality was on the level.

The last five and a half months have broken down that (undeserved) high regard bit by bit. First, my order doesn't ship. Then, my emails and phone calls and tickets are ignored. Then, four months later, my credit card is overcharged by nearly $90. The order is shipped but never arrives. My attempts to get it reshipped or investigated are ignored. I'm told that my payment has been refunded, but it wasn't (I had to file a fraud claim with my credit card to get my money back).

I don't care about the laser anymore. I've already ordered a similar laser from DragonLasers, for only $30 more than I was to originally have paid, and guess what? It showed up in less than 2 weeks. It works great, and it's everything I wanted.

You've wasted my time. You've taken my money. And you've ensured that I will never, ever do business with you again.

The least you can do is give me back the last $80 that you stole from me and let me get on with my life.


I'm posting this here, now, after nearly six months because I want to make sure that people know to stay away from Wicked Lasers. Even if they end up giving me back my $80, that won't even come close to making up for the hassle and the pain they've put me through.

I've included the complete text of my support conversation with them (personal details redacted). Click to see all of it.




Comments

Heather Strawbridge 12:09 AM, February 9th, 2011

I'm having this exact problem with dragonlasers. They have even stopped answering my emails and calls. The guy said that they would do an "investigation" and it would take up to two weeks to find out the results and if they couldn't find it, they said they would issue another one to me. Two weeks later, we still had not received a call or email, so we called them. They said they could not send a new one because they still have not received the results of the investigation. Now I've been emailing them for the past month and they are not responding.

Avatar-X 10:06 PM, February 9th, 2011

Now is the time to do a chargeback on your credit card! Don't wait too long!

Cameron Forrest 7:16 PM, March 11th, 2011

I am having the exact same problem with wicked lasers. The won't reply to my emails and I have no idea whether the laser has been shipped or not. It's been 11 weeks now and quite frankly I'm fed up with their shit

scott 2:27 PM, October 1st, 2011

same 4 me from wicked! just orderd from dragon hope it goes well

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