I don't know why I'm always surprised by how fast the year seems to go by. :P
We really didn't do anything for Labor Day this year. Johnny didn't even grill for dinner! But he worked in the yard a bit and has been trying to fix the lawnmower. We really don't have very good luck with lawnmowers. :P I think we've probably bought, like, 3 lawnmowers in the last 9 years we've been together. I ordered a part that he needed, so hopefully it'll work!
I've been busy doing things with my CandiMaker business as well. I've spent a lot of time working on graphics and getting used to my new printer. I really, really love the new printer. But dealing with the company I got my heat press from...that has been a NIGHTMARE.
I've talked before about how I view good customer service as essential for any business. Well...Vivohome absolutely FAILS in that department. If you think about ordering anything from them...DO NOT DO IT. Their website has a detailed return/refund policy and 90-day 100% satisfaction warranty guarantee. It sounds good...but it's worthless unless they actually honor that guarantee...and they do not.
My heat press arrived on June 23rd and I opened the box to make sure all the attachments were there, but I didn't take the heat press itself out of the box because I couldn't use it until I had a printer. As I mentioned before, I couldn't find the wide format printer that I planned to get except for listings on Amazon that were $400 more than list price. So since the newer model was only a little bit more than that, I had to wait until I could afford the newer model. It arrived August 18th and then my sublimation ink arrived on August 24th. I rearranged the office and set everything up August 26th. When I removed the heat press from the box, I immediately saw that the control box was wobbly because the metal arm it is attached to was not completely attached to the heat press. In order to reach the screws to the metal arm, the control box would have to be removed completely. I looked to see what size screws they were, and I could see that the screw heads were obviously stripped. Then I noticed that a lot of the screws on the heat press had stripped screw heads. I immediately emailed the company asking what I'm supposed to do with this defective unit. Then I also noticed that the cord that goes from the heat plate to the control box actually sits on top of the heat plate...where it says "do not touch hot surface" which is a fire hazard. So I definitely wasn't going to use it like that.
The person named "Dan" who answers Vivohome's official email address has made it obvious that they have had no intention of ever standing behind their 90-day warranty guarantee and return/refund policy. "Dan" didn't even know what "stripped screws" meant (he asked if I was saying the screws were missing and told me to look in the box) and said he would send me new screws. On August 30th I specifically requested a refund and took a video of the quality issues (per their refund policy). The guy said, "We accept returns within 90 days, but now your machine cannot be used normally due to human reasons," and, "Our machine is not made of iron." For one, it's made of steel. For two, I told him that I've never even used it, much less touched it with a screwdriver. He said, "You bought our machine in June. If the machine has quality problems, we hope that customers can contact within 48 hours. More than 70 days have passed, and we can’t believe that you haven’t used this machine in the past. Therefore, the drop of the screw is indeed due to man-made reasons, which cannot meet our 90-day return policy for quality problems. Hope you understand." What I understand is that this is a Chinese company hiding behind a US address and they will not honor their own written policies as stated on their website. He even tried to send me a screencapture of their return policy (including all the "90-day" terms I'd repeated many times) and highlighted where it says to contact them within "48 hours" but that was under the section talking about damage by the shipping company...which is irrelevant to the situation. This was a manufacturing issue, not a damage during shipping issue. And I even sent him the tracking numbers for both my printer and my sublimation ink to corroborate what I told him about not being able to use the heat press until I had the printer and ink...and what days those items arrived (two days before I first contacted him).
They still refuse to authorize the return and won't give me the address to return it to (their policy states that the address for returns is different than the address the item came from). It was even more evident that Vivohome never intended to honor their 90-day refund policy in their most recent response which was, "It has been 2 months since you bought our product, and the parts have been dropped due to the use of it for too long." I'm sorry...WHAT? Even IF it had been used (and it hasn't), what "use" is going to strip screw heads on a heat press? Furthermore, if "2 months" of "use" cause the metal screws connecting the control box to the steel base come loose, then it is a poor-quality, defective product and I would STILL be entitled to a refund either way! Seriously...what kind of dishonest company believes that it's acceptable that a purchase "cannot be used normally" after only two months?! Since when is TWO MONTHS equal to "too long" when using something that is not disposable?! Not to mention the fact that they have completely disregarded the fact that the cord sits on the top of the heat plate. Ugh! So...I filed a dispute with my card company yesterday (with the video evidence I sent to the company along with ALL the emails) and hopefully I'll have better luck that way. What a horrible experience! Stay away from Vivohome! Oh and they do not allow poor reviews to be published to their website. I know...because I wrote a 1-star review and it is nowhere to be found.
This is why I make most purchases through Amazon...because any problem I've had with items purchased on Amazon have been resolved quickly (and usually immediately upon first contact). I can return an item to Kohls and have my refund within 2 hours. I even had some neoprene car coasters that hadn't shipped by the date they were supposed to arrive...and they immediately gave me a promotional credit that was about twice what I paid for them. THAT is amazing customer service and THAT is why I give them all my money. LOL. ;) And just this afternoon, something that I'd ordered was supposed to have 6 items and it only had 3 items. It wasn't an item that was eligible for replacement, so the automated chat bot gave me a full refund. What?! Even an AUTOMATED CHAT BOT has better customer service than "Dan" from Vivohome. I didn't even type anything...I just had to click on the pre-populated options to select the applicable responses. Chewy is another company with excellent customer service. We've tried many foods to find one that picky Bozley will eat. If you contact them, they'll refund you the amount you paid for that food, ask you to just donate the rest of it, and then will help you find something else that might work better.
Speaking of purchase issues...I still haven't gotten the refund for Johnny's tools yet, either. FedEx still hasn't updated the tracking since August 9th. Lowe's told me that it would be "30 business days" from the time that I requested the refund (August 16th). Ugh. :( Talk about bad luck lately...
But regardless of all the issues that have cropped up recently, I'm still very excited about my new adventure. Over the weekend I worked more on my "About" page for my Etsy shop. I only have two designs listed there so far because I needed some listings to finish creating my shop. But I will share the link once I finish getting it all set up. :)