I shared some of your experience. Since I live locally, I went to the "shop." It took me half a tank of gas to find it, as there is no signage or a proper shop entrance. After calling several times (and waiting about half hour) a live person answered and I was let in through a back door. I left my vintage Gillette Slim Adjustable for a tune-up, paid $42.24 up front, and was promised a service within 5-7 business days. The guy in the shop said I could monitor the progress of the service. Which I did. And there was none. I called the owner Matt Pisarcik and asked for an update. He could not locate the razor at first, but called me back later that day saying they found it. He promised it would be ready the next day. I drove to the "shop" the next day, and had to call Matt (yet again!) to have somebody open the "bunker door." Matt gave me a number to call. I did, no answer. So I called Matt again asking to be let in. There was another customer waiting outside with me. As we waited, we commiserated about our experience with Razor Emporium. We would have waited a lot longer if it hadn't been for a guy from a next-door business who let us in. He rolled his eyes complaining that lots of Razor Emporium customers had to go through his shop, given the lack of responsiveness of Razor Emporium staff. So, finally, I was in the Razor Emporium "shop." I got to inspect my razor. To my disappointment, it opened in the same way -- unevenly. Moreover, when I turned the bottom part, it squeaked as it did before the "service." The shop guy called Matt and reported the situation. Matt suggested I left the razor for another service. At that point I really had enough, so I declined. The only satisfaction was that I was offered a refund, which I took.I heard about Razor Emporium from others here at Badger and Blade and read good stuff about them. So I decided to give them a shot and have them restore my Gillette "New" Comb razor for me. Here is what happened with my razor and how Razor Emporium had an opportunity to turn a bad experience around for me, their customer, but blew it.
On November 16th I purchased a "Razor Revamp" and I sent my razor to Razor Emporium. The next day, after sending my razor, I called and talked with Matt Pisarcik who works at Razor Emporium and we talked about upgrading my order from Chrome plating to Gold Plating. I did the upgrade and immediately paid the difference via PayPal.
On December 23rd I finally received my razor. To my amazement the razor was not Gold plated, but was chromed. Furthermore, the original handle for my razor was replaced with a different style handle and the threads on the head of the razor were bare... no plating on them whatsoever. I called Matt, we discussed the issue and he asked that I send the razor back so that it could be fixed. He also said he would refund the shipping cost to send it back. I also decided to stick with the chrome and asked for a refund for the difference. Matt refunded my money.
On January 3rd Matt Pisarcik emailed me and let me know that he received the faulty razor and that they would correct their mistakes and have the razor back to me in "two weeks." It is now February 6th and I still don't have my razor!
I contacted these guys on January 13th, after not hearing anything about my razor, for an update. All I got was "crickets" and so I called Matt and left him a message on his phone FOUR days later he responded through email that they should be getting my razor back from plating (apparently they do NOT plate their own razors but send the out to other companies for plating) that week and would ship it out. I wait ten more days... I hear nothing back from the company and so email them on January 23rd asking for an update and asking where the refund for my shipping is. The next day I hear back from "Tiffany" who informs me that my razor was plated and will be "ship ready" that afternoon at which time they will ship out the razor.
I didn't receive an email that the razor had shipped, so the next day (01/25) I email asking if the razor shipped and if I could have a tracking number. "Tiffany" responded on 01/26 "Your razor should be ship-ready later today and I will update you when it is sent, thanks." The day passed by and I received no update. The next day I sent another query asking if the razor shipped and I am told "I will do everything in my power to see that it is shipped asap."
I give "Tiffany" three days to get this razor which I was told was "ship ready" on Tuesday, January 24, and having not heard back I decided to email asking for some follow up. Low and behold I get an email from Matt Pisarcik that I should give him a call, on my dime no less, to get an update. I call Matt only to find to my dismay that my razor was NOT in fact ship ready, but that the plating company they send out their razors to for chrome had put a silver color paint on the threads! Matt wanted to know if I wanted it that way, or he could swap out the head of the razor with one that was plated in Palladium! Of course, my answer was "no!" and I told them they needed to fix this problem ASAP and to ship my razor. Matt promised that he would give me a call on Monday, January 30th, with an update either way. I have never received that call from Matt!
I still don't have my razor. I have been promised several times now that my razor is "ship ready" and that it will ship, but I don't have the razor. I complained about this issue and was told by Matt Pisarcik in an email that nothing has changed with my razor and that I was to be refunded the amount I paid to have the plating done and they would ship my razor out. I was told this three days ago and I still don't see a refund coming through PayPal (that is how I paid for the service), I still don't see a shipping notice. So, I called Sebastian today, the owner, and got his voice-mail. I left a message asking for an update and voiced my dissatisfaction with his company's service. I told him he could respond via phone or email. He quickly responded via email and I quote, "we are not in the business of holding hands - we polish / plate razors and we stand behind our work. we cannot give you updates every single day. you will get your razor as soon as we get it from the platers. please do not contact us again until you get your razor back."
I have been promised several times over now that my razor was ready to go only to find out that was not true. Furthermore, I hardly asked for updates daily, but if I had, then am I to believe that the owner of Razor Emporium is unwilling to go the extra mile with a customer demanding daily updates, and provide them? You mean to tell me that I am asking for too much after this company has screwed up so much??
I will not send Razor Emporium another razor again. I truly regret ever using this company. I have never been so poorly treated by a company, with the exception of the cable company but Razor Emporium is almost in a dead heat tie with them!
The intent of this all is to hopefully get Razor Emporium's attention about their very poor customer service. They did a horrible job with me, but maybe they will deeply consider their mistakes here and work hard at rectifying them so this doesn't happen again for another customer. With the economy as bad as it is, one would think a company would value their customers, no matter how difficult they think the customer may be. One would think that is the case. Not in my experience with Razor Emporium.
Like I said, I still don't have my razor and with the run around this company has been giving to me. It is starting to look like that I am out both my razor and my money. We will see.
**** UPDATE: (02-08-2012 4:14 PM PDT) As I stipulated in my earlier update I would add to it if I received a mail tracking number. I have in fact received that number and it appears that my razor is in transit via USPS. So good news. I have my refund and my razor on the way. Unless of course the shipping box is empty! I hope not!
A couple notes worth mentioning. First, I have to give due credit to Mr. Matt Pisarcik for working at trying to make this horrible ordeal better. He called me last night and we discussed some of the challenges he is facing. His company fumbled the ball, as it were, but he recovered it to his credit. Although, he didn't make a touch down. Please forgive the football metaphor.
What he did tell me is that his company will not be using the vendor they sent my razor out to for plating. That is good news. However, what Razor Emporium ought to do is let prospective customers know, right up front, that they don't do any plating at all. I think that will help them in explaining any delays that occur in their service.
Unless I don't actually get my razor back, I won't provide a further update. As it stand, I forgive Razor Emporium their horrible service and I am thankful that things are working out better than I had hoped.
***UPDATE: (02-8-2012 8:00 AM PDT) After a phone conversation with Matt Pisarcik last night he promised to refund my money and ship the razor back. He refunded the money last night through PayPal! That is good! He promised to ship the razor first thing this morning and email the tracking number to me. I still haven't heard from Matt with the tracking number, but once I receive a confirmable number, I will provide a new update.
***UPDATE: Read post number 43