Click Pic To Email
*UPDATED 07-05-2007*
Finally - a resolution to the Yakibox ordering debacle.
By pure coincidence I'm sure, I received an e-mail from Mr. Mlynski apologising that my refund "appeared not to have gone through" (no kidding, Sherlock) and apologising for the situation. By way of apology, Mr. Mlynski promised a £100 refund via immediate cheque and instructed me to keep the original item free of charge.This only after a final, final e-mail from myself instructing Mr. Mlynski that if I had not received my money by a specific data that my court claim would be submitted. As it happened, the e-mail and refund only materialised AFTER I had sent my documents to court, along with a £30 cheque. Thankfully, I got a break when I inadvertently sent the papers to the wrong address and they were returned without the cheque being cashed.
After all the stress and hassle, the last thing I wanted to do was to keep and use the item. I considered resorting to ebay to recover some funds, but after inspection, my wife pleaded with me to keep the item which she really likes (although it remains untested as of this update). As this all began in an attempt to get a Yakibox for her birthday last year, I felt bound to acquiesce.
So, finally an apology of sorts and some compensation. The cheque arrived and cleared, so as far as I'm concerned that's the end of it. Ultimately Mr. Mlynski has a good product and a good marketing policy. However, there is no way in the world I would ever want to repeat this experience, or have the same thing happen to anyone else.
Customer service is not high on the agenda for Yakibox Ltd. Their ordering system and administration is hugely suspect. I strongly suspect that their cashflow and supply situation is in meltdown, going by the annual accounts situation (see below) and the inability to supply time-dependent orders. The product is good but be very, very wary of this company - they could go under at any moment. My advice to anyone thinking of ordering a Yakibox is:
1) Do NOT place an order if you need to receive it by a specific deadline. Experience shows that this is a problem for Yakibox Ltd.
2) Only ever order using a CREDIT CARD. Your consumer protection is greatly enhanced and Yakibox will be prevented from taking money after an order is cancelled - or it is far easier for credit card companies to recover such funds after the event. DO NOT USE A DEBIT CARD! Once an order is placed with a DEBIT CARD you can not prevent the supplier taking the funds.
*UPDATED 27-03-2007*
You couldn't make this stuff up. After having to resort to sending two formal/legal recorded delivery letters to Mr. Mlynski, I finally got a response - via e-mail only. Why it took the threat of legal action to stir him to reply to my umpteen e-mails is a mystery. Having taken legal advice from the marvellous and extremely helpful Trading Standards people, I was advised to send the legal letter. As if by magic, the e-mail reply appeared...
Amazingly, the tone of the e-mail was all buoyant and up-beat "terribly sorry for the upset", "no need to involve a legal beagle", "absolutely right, you deserve a refund", etc. Wanting to reach a resolution, I decided not to go over old ground. According to my legal advice, regardless of the issues documented below, this transaction related to a "distance selling" law, whereby anyone has 7 days to decide they don't want the item after all. The onus is then on the SELLER to arrange for COLLECTION of the item and an obligatory refund. Mr. Mlynski asked for time to check collections options, to which I agreed. Two days later I received another e-mail stating that arranging a collection would be too expensive and would I mind taking it to the post office to send back via Parcel Force? Despite the prospect of having to lug this heavy white-elephant 500 yards from car-park to post-office, I agreed in order to speed up a resolution. Mr. Mlynski offered an IMMEDIATE refund the cost of the item plus £15 for postage - a total of £100 - to which I agreed.
So, I waited for the refund. And I awaited. And I waited. I sent an e-mail reminder. No reply. Another reminder. Ditto. Etc (you get the picture). Unbelievable.
So - another call to Trading Standards (phone calls, e-mails, recorded-delivery postage and 'interest' racking up rapidly). Their recommendation - send another final demand recorded delivery letter and after that - no other recourse than to go to court. However - they rather interestingly offered further information. As Yakibox is a Limited company, their accounts have to be public, and guess what? there is a number you can phone to check. Late accounts are generally an indicator of problems with a company. And lo and behold Yakibox are late on submitting their accounts for 2006. Not massively late, but a concern. A real worry however is that they still have not submitted their accounts for 2005 - overdue since last August. If they don't submit soon they will be liable to a fine of £500. Not only that but within 2-3 months the Government could force them out of business.
So - final demand letter sent. No response. Copy of final demand going in the post tomorrow (Weds 28th march 2007). Legal documents to submit to court are all ready to go if no refund received within 7 days from then. And believe me I don't CARE that is costs me £30 to do this. I will now, on a matter of principle, not rest until I have every penny back - not just the item but costs and damages. Oh yes - and my trump card? Being aware in advance of their financial difficulties, I can object to any liquidation of the company due to the outstanding legal dispute.
Of course all of this doesn't necessarily help any new/current customers still being duped into ordering via the flash website.
*UPDATED 12-02-2007*
UN-BE-LIEVABLE. After the dreadful service saga (see below) this bunch of incompetent crooks have now taken money from my account (almost making me overdrawn), waking up my 70 year old mother-in-law to deliver this "guaranteed delivery Christmas Present", on February 12th, 50+ days late, 50+ days after my explicitly CANCELLING the order via e-mail (as you can no longer contact them via 'phone - their answerphones are mysteriously 'full' and can take no more messages) and 100+ days since I initially placed the order. I will refrain from putting into written words the expletives currently swimming about in my angry-beyond-compare head.
Of course, I now have to go through a long-winded, protracted battle to return the unwanted item and get my money back, plus compensation that no fair-minded person would argue I'm not due. On a matter of principle, I will not let this saga rest and if necessary will prosecute the extremely dodgy David Mlynski and his utterly incompetent colleagues to the hilt. I've always wanted to visit Cheltenham, and a brief stop at 11 Hamilton Street, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham, GL53 8HN may well be on the cards very soon.
One of the many TV programmes that my wife and I enjoy watching together is BBC's Dragon's Den. For those of you who don't know about the programme, the premise is; budding business men/woman pitch their product or idea to a panel of business experts (the 'Dragons') in an attempt to convince them to invest in the proposal.
Unfortunately we only cottoned-on to the programme in it's latest (third series) - but were addicted. To our joy, the BBC decided to broadcast a "where are they now" edition of the programme, spotlighting certain individuals and products from previous series.
ORIGINAL RANT:
One such product was the YAKIBOX - as enthusastically demonstrated by it's creator - David Mlynski. David had a torrid time on the programme but despite not obtaining any backing, acquitted himself well and presented a very interesting product centered on Japanese cuisine.
As my wife is a) a bit of a domestic goddess and b) into Japanese food in a big way, I decided to try and order one of these items for her birthday in October. It was a simple matter to locate the relevant website via Google and I eagerly jotted down a telephone number to call. Unfortunately it transpired (on query) that the two-week window remaining was insuficient to fulfil such an order (fair enough) - so I determined to buy an alternative birthday present but hatched a cunning plan to order a Yakibox as my wife's big Christmas surprise.
In early November I attempted to order a Yakibox via their online ordering service. Everything appeared to go swimmingly (the site looks very slick) until, after entering my card details and alternate delivery info (the idea being to deliver the package in secret to my mother-in-law's house) - the system encountered an SQL error and crashed. Unfortunately this left me in limbo, wondering if my order had been processed or not. If it had, great - but I needed some confirmation. If it hadn't, then I needed to know as I'd have to re-order.
Here beginneth the real saga. I telephoned the order line to explain my problem and a female operator took my details, promising me a reply within 24hrs. 24hrs later, I was telephoning again to request an update. Same story - you'll receive a reply in 24hrs. Nope, didn't happen. Eventually after bombarding the site with e-mails I got a very friendly reply from Mr. Mlynski himself (most unexpected) to apologise and assure me the order had NOT gone through, so I should re-order.
Due to Yakibox's delay in responding, I did not get to reorder until 21st November - having first telephoned to gain assurance that there was enough time to honour the order before Christmas. I was assured there was plenty of time but I would have to leave 28 days before querying any order. I received an e-mail confirmation of the order stating the money would be taken out of my account imminently.
Fast-forward (almost) 28 days and, with Christmas just over one week away, a concerned customer e-mailed Yakibox for an update or assurance that the order would be arriving. No reply. I e-mailed again the next day. Still no reply. I decide to telephone - but could not remember the number, so revisited the website, which was mysteriously down. I managed to locate the web-hosting supplier for Yakibox, who informed me there was no fault with the web-hosting service, just a fault with the customer's actual site. The web-hosting company could not provide me with contact details for their client but assured me they would contact them directly, to notify them of the website problem.
In the meantime I tried e-mailing again, beginning to lose my usual courteous manner. Eventually, I tried the Dragon's Den page at the BBC, to confirm David's full name from their article, then did a BT online search in Cheltenham (where the firm is located) and lo-and-behold, due to the unusual name, actually located a number to call - which I duly did...
I was somewhat concerned to encounter an automated message from David, stating that any customers who had ordered for Christmas need not worry and that their orders WOULD DEFINITELY ARRIVE before Christmas. This message also assured me I would received a personal reply via 'phone - but not necessarily the same day as answering messages was apparently a "full time job in itself". This did NOTHING to reasure me whatsoever.
Surprise, surprise the reply via 'phone did not materialize. Eventually (still e-mailing and being ignored), I re-tried the website. Miracle of miracles, it was back up! Hoorah! But - huh?? What's this?? A big banner message stating that no more orders are being acepted for Christmas after November the 20th?!?!?! hang on - that banner wasn't in evidence when I placed my order - ON NOVEMBER THE 21st! The day AFTER the deadline date on the banner - and AFTER being reassured on the telephone that it would be 'no problem'! Can you picture someone with steam coming out of their ears, fit to pummel somebody to death?
I tried calling again but this time got a BT message stating that the message answering service was FULL! Now I was really worried. I e-mailed a final time about 4 days before Christmas pleading for a response - even to say the order WOULD NOT be arriving, so at least I'd know for sure that I needed to buy an alternative - and have time to get something!
I did not receive a single reply. None via e-mail. None via telephone. Nothing - despite firm assurances to the contrary. I checked my bank account and fortunately (a real struggle to find a silver lining, here) no money had (at that time) been taken by Yakibox.
However...
Mr. Mlynski may be a 'nice guy' with a 'good product' but the customer service provided by the company is ABYSSMAL and the lack of decency and respect for customers, at a very stressful time is APPALLING. He did not even have the decency to reply and apologise, explain the problem or provide an apology. In an act of blatant disregard, he has avoided dealing with the customer (myself) and presumably countless others, judging by the impact on his messaging service.
As I stated in an e-mail to David, it matters not how wonderful the product is, if the customer service and experience is so dreadful. Customer service is every bit as vital as the product and just as positive publicity from programmes like Dragons' Den get around the internet like wildfire, so does the negative publicity from experiences like my own - and I shall not rest until every single person I am related to, am friendly with or work with knows about this debacle.
Yakibox? Yaki-crock!
PS: February 8th 2007. Still waiting for the responses to my telephone messages, e-mails, oh - and the "guaranteed order delivery".
ARGH-OMETER RATING:
