I ordered, payed with Swell pedal company, and never received anything!!!
 

Edit: I just received a USPS notice today that MikeO shipped a pedal to me.

So he did come through in the end it seems, even though communication was absolutely horrifying.



Hi all.

I usually would never go public with something like this. But I don't want anyone else to loose their money so here goes.

The following is a Facebook message I wrote the owner of Swell Pedal Company: I have edited my email and name out for this:

Hello Mike.

I'm writing you because of an order I made with your company Swell Pedal Company.

Let me fill you in:

May 1st: Payed 409,97$ through paypal.

June 22nd: Asked for an update via Mail. No answer!

July 5th: Asked again for an update via your Webform. Recieved answer that it would be 2 more weeks. Wrote you back that that was fine.

September 6th: Write you again since the pedal still isn't here. I ask for refund if it is not done yet. No answer from you!

October 27th: I once again ask if the pedal is on it's way. If not please refund my money.

October 29th: I receive an apologetic mail from you stating that the pedal will be shipping within that week.

November 23rd: I still didn't receieve any pedal, so I mail you again, asking you to confrim you shipped it, and ask you to give me a shipping number. No answer!

Ca November 25th: I write the same mail as two days before, but this time through you web form. No answer!

November 30th: I write via mail, again asking for my money back. No answer!

I suggest you search you spam. My mail is xxxxxxx.

Even if some of this didn't reach you, you have answered mails from you web form before I payed and once since.

I even tried phoning you, with no luck.

I suggest you pay me my money back. I am not interested in the Pedal anymore. I guess you can pay it to my paypal with the address xxxxxxx

Please respond to this ASAP. I would hate doing it, but I will feel obliged to post the above on talkbass, basschat, thegearpage, etc. if I don't hear from you, to inform my fellow musicians about the "wait times" and response level.

Best regards

Xxxxxxxx

Ouch. 4 bills and no pedal? Ouch. Thanks for the heads up on these criminals.

I always hate reading these stories. I don't think a lot of these failed boutique pedal companies started out with the intention of "stealing" from their customers. Irresponsibility and lack of experience caused them to dig a hole of impossible to fill orders and debt.

I hope you find a resolution and I hope the other customers who have been holding off for months (like yourself) with hopes that the individuals at Swell will deliver their product or refund will speak up. You can only cut a small company a break so many times before you realize they're not going to deliver on their promise of delivering a product.

I don't think he started out wanting to cheat people either, but the end result is unfortunately the same.

And yeah I actually think I cut him more than enough slack, but guys you can judge for yourself by reading my timeline above :-)

I just hope it will help others not making same mistake dealing with the company.

Man! Swell has really dropped the ball! I hope the op gets his mony back. Ridiculous! There's just no excuse for the scenario outlined above.

You shouldn’t have waited for so long. I hope you find a solution.

Is it too late for a charge back - or whatever it's called when the bank/credit card company gets involved? With all that documentation, it seems you'd have a strong leg to stand on.

+1

I payed with PayPal, and I found out they have a 45 days politic. After that you are on your own :-(

Don’t worry maybe someone comes up here and explains from a different perspective that this is only some bad luck…Otherwise I would not be confident to buy something from them. I’m sure there is some logical explanation.

Man, that's really too bad, both for you and for Swell. I have a B-Pro that I love, but I got it used, so I guess I'm glad that I haven't had to deal with their customer service (yet).

I hope you get this worked out!

If MikeO show up here saying sorry and gives me my cash back, everything is fine with me.
I'm not going to hold on to a grudge.
But given the opportunities he's had to answer, I'm not counting on that to happen.

Mike hasnt logged into Talkbass since July, might need to try and continue FB/Phone/email communications.

Best of luck

As you see from my first post I've exhausted those options. He's not answering anything.
Unless he as fallen of the earth, he must have gotten some of my various mails, through the different channels.

You could try filing a complaint against him with the Better Business Bureau. Sometimes that will help get a vendor's attention. It looks like one prior BBB complaint against him was resolved, so there would be little to lose by trying:

http://www.bbb.org/nashville/busines...ints#breakdown

Another excellent builder falls victim to their own success and inability to properly scope order taking. What a shame.

I will definitely look into that BBB site. thank you!

So sorry to hear about your problems. Also sorry to hear that Swell has become unreliable. I have toyed with buying their pedals, especially the Ampeg voiced one. No way I'd do that now.
Thanks to the OP for the heads up.

I just wrote MikeO again on Facebook, to let him know I posted this thread.
I want to be fair, and give him a chance to resolve it before his business suffers too much.

The Swell pedal company Facebook page hasn't be updated since July 2012 either?