Vaja - Poor Customer Service Experience

[Halon X]

Just wanted to share my recent experience with Vaja. I've been a happy, long time customer of Vaja products owning over 10 of them up until my most recent order for an iPad case.

I ordered the Limited Edition case in Mamut leather early last Friday and received email notification that my order was confirmed. Six days later I had not received any additional confirmation or updates so emailed to inquire. I was informed my order had been canceled because there was an issue with my credit card and told to re-order. The item was now out of stock and unavailable leaving me high and dry. All back and forth email from their customer service representative were defensive on their part, essentially blaming me for the problem and for having the order canceled.

Mistakes and problems happen, no big deal. It's how you deal with those mistakes and problems is what really matters and Vaja has failed with their reaction and follow-up to this one. The right thing to do would have been to notify me of a problem and correct the issue, not cancel the order. Even after notifying me it was canceled, it would have been easy to fix. Customer service is such an easy thing to get right!

I sent an additional email this morning to Vaja politely detailing my experience and asking my issue be escalated. Should the cases ever come back in stock, I'm almost certain the price will be higher as has recently happened with their Agenda case. All I'm asking for is my original order to be honored at the price I paid. I can even wait 35 - 45 days if need be. I'm an easy guy to please!

Vaja make an amazing product! I hope they can step up and offer some customer service to match!

 

[Rooskibar03]

Curious of two things (as my own order sits in limbo)

1) Did you use the discount code floating around when you placed your order?

2) Did you see a pending charge on your credit card prior to the order being canceled.

My order is still pending and now I'm seeing a couple reports of orders just being canceled for no reason.

 

[arcangel6]

Hi,

I posted the original message to this group about the case availability and may have been one of the earliest orders...not sure.

-I ordered mine on on May 19 using the discount code and received an email confirming the order for the Mamut case.

-On May 21st I received a second Confirmation email stating "This is to confirm that your account is scheduled to be charged for 190.00 If you have any questions regarding this transaction, please have the following information ready. "

-Also on May 21st my AMEX card was charged $190 but it took several days for the charge to show (3-4 days)

-On May 27th I received an email confirming that my case was shipped from BUENOS AIRES AR via FedEx with an estimated arrival date of June 4th.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Hammie]

I share a similar situation as the OP except with the Agenda.

My order was canceled three times because of "issues" with my credit card. The last e-mail I got from them was right before the recent price increase and was told by my credit card company that nothing was attempted to my card from that company nor for the amount of the product.

Another interesting thing was that my card was frozen by the fraud department the first time because of the attempted charge, but I allowed the purchase to go through for when I would place my order again.

I am now awaiting a response from Vaja regarding this issue and why I also would like my last order reinstated at the old price.

I understand they make a great product but this level of customer care is disgraceful.

 

[El Aurens]

Just wanted to share my recent experience with Vaja. I've been a happy, long time customer of Vaja products owning over 10 of them up until my most recent order for an iPad case.

I ordered the Limited Edition case in Mamut leather early last Friday and received email notification that my order was confirmed. Six days later I had not received any additional confirmation or updates so emailed to inquire. I was informed my order had been canceled because there was an issue with my credit card and told to re-order. The item was now out of stock and unavailable leaving me high and dry. All back and forth email from their customer service representative were defensive on their part, essentially blaming me for the problem and for having the order canceled.

Mistakes and problems happen, no big deal. It's how you deal with those mistakes and problems is what really matters and Vaja has failed with their reaction and follow-up to this one. The right thing to do would have been to notify me of a problem and correct the issue, not cancel the order. Even after notifying me it was canceled, it would have been easy to fix. Customer service is such an easy thing to get right!

I sent an additional email this morning to Vaja politely detailing my experience and asking my issue be escalated. Should the cases ever come back in stock, I'm almost certain the price will be higher as has recently happened with their Agenda case. All I'm asking for is my original order to be honored at the price I paid. I can even wait 35 - 45 days if need be. I'm an easy guy to please!

Vaja make an amazing product! I hope they can step up and offer some customer service to match!

You've been more than reasonable in your responses. I ordered the Mamu limited edition too with the discount code, on Thursday, May 20th 11:30pm EST. Fortunately, I received an e-mail a few days ago that it has shipped via Fedex and should be arriving in Canada the middle of next week. Hopefully they can offer you a further discount for the inconvenience. Best of luck!

 

[arcangel6]

The simple fact is that premium products require premium service. Apparently, this is not the case with more than one high-end case manufacturer.

 

[arcangel6]

I had success emailing Cecilia at Vaja. She typically responded within 24 hours. Her email is

Cecilia@vajacases.com


Hope that helps,


Joe

 

[Dr. Bombay]

I had success emailing Cecilia at Vaja. She typically responded within 24 hours. Her email is

Cecilia@vajacases.com


Hope that helps,


Joe

I find Cecilia good for status updates, but her customer management skills seem to be lacking. I bought one oh the cases marked Immediate Shipping, but it took eight days to ship. I've sent her a couple of notes complaining about the length of shipping times, but no response.

Definitely not premium service!

 

[Halon X]

Curious of two things (as my own order sits in limbo)

1) Did you use the discount code floating around when you placed your order?

2) Did you see a pending charge on your credit card prior to the order being canceled.

My order is still pending and now I'm seeing a couple reports of orders just being canceled for no reason.

1) Yes

2) No

I checked a couple times and saw no authorizations or charges on my card. Yesterday I decided to contact my bank and they confirmed no attempts to charge or authorize the card were made.

 

[Halon X]

I share a similar situation as the OP except with the Agenda.

My order was canceled three times because of "issues" with my credit card. The last e-mail I got from them was right before the recent price increase and was told by my credit card company that nothing was attempted to my card from that company nor for the amount of the product.

Another interesting thing was that my card was frozen by the fraud department the first time because of the attempted charge, but I allowed the purchase to go through for when I would place my order again.

I am now awaiting a response from Vaja regarding this issue and why I also would like my last order reinstated at the old price.

I understand they make a great product but this level of customer care is disgraceful.

Did they notify you each time?

The increase in price and lead time on some of their iPad products says to me they are extremely overwhelmed, probably more so now than ever with a new international market for the product.

It sounds like a few people are experiencing the same issues. I hope they aren't so overwhelmed that they choose to simply sweep problems such as this under the rug knowing there will be another 100 customers in line right behind to purchase their product. I've seen it happen before when a company grows too fast or has a huge surge in sales.

 

[Halon X]

You've been more than reasonable in your responses. I ordered the Mamu limited edition too with the discount code, on Thursday, May 20th 11:30pm EST. Fortunately, I received an e-mail a few days ago that it has shipped via Fedex and should be arriving in Canada the middle of next week. Hopefully they can offer you a further discount for the inconvenience. Best of luck!

I would love an additional discount but would be 95% satisfied if they simply honored my order at it's original price. They have lost 5% to this experience.

 

[Halon X]

The simple fact is that premium products require premium service. Apparently, this is not the case with more than one high-end case manufacturer.

Premium products do require premium service, especially when they are 3 to 5 times higher in price than most of the competition.

It amazes me because customer service is such an easy thing to get right and can make or break a company. Good customer service would have been to apologize and proactively remedy the issue once receiving my email. I even made it easy by letting them know specifically what I wanted.

After my Vaja experience, I needed to find a new case so started to look elsewhere. I emailed one company to confirm lead times for delivery of their case (they were slightly back ordered) and briefly explained my problem with "another manufacture" and that I really needed a case by the end next week because of some upcoming travel. They responded to my email within about ten minutes, apologized for the problems I have experienced with another manufacture and let me know that even though they were slightly back ordered, they would ship out one of their cases with priority shipping so I would have it early next week. This is customer service!

 

[batman75]

Vaja's customer service is notoriously bad.

1) My experience:
I ordered 2 cases - 1 for iPhone and 1 for Blackberry. A day after ordering it I called them and asked to change the color of the iPhone case I submitted. Since there was a 45 date, and they hadn't started production, she said okay. I also sent an email confirming the change.
2 months go by (their cases are always late), and the case arrives in the wrong colour. I call them up and told them I had changed the order and forward them the email. They say it is too late to do anything about it because the case is made and it is customized so they can't take returns or exchanges. I was livid. I sent the case back to them anyway in protest. They provided no refund.

2) Several members of the BB forum have tried to pursue warranty claims against Vaja due to leather peeling off the ABS backing. This is rare becauses the cases are generally good quality. However they offer no warranty. All these members got was an offer to provide them with 10% off if they ordered a new case.

Honestly someone could make a killing just copying their products and selling them at a reasonable price with better service. This **** service is like Mercedes Benz dealers before Lexus came along to show them how its done.

 

[Halon X]

I had success emailing Cecilia at Vaja. She typically responded within 24 hours. Her email is

Cecilia@vajacases.com


Hope that helps,


Joe

Thanks Joe,

Cecilia is who I have been dealing with and unfortunately she has zero customer service skills. Her answers are very cut and paste and I now have two emails in to her that have gone unresponded to. I've asked to have my issue escalated above her.

 

[Rooskibar03]

3 Days of a Pending Charge.....

I dunno

 

[bluespark]

I've also had terrible customer service experiences with Vaja, including an experience very similar to the OP's. They canceled a previously confirmed coupon purchase of mine right before selling out of a particular iPhone case I had ordered. They claimed that my bank had declined the credit card, but my bank swore up and down that Vaja had not attempted to charge the card. I know for a fact that I was lied to by Cecilia, and I strongly suspect they canceled my confirmed order in order to sell the last of their stock on that item to a non-coupon customer. In my view, they are fundamentally unethical.

 

[Hammie]

3 Days of a Pending Charge.....

I dunno

Love your signature!!!

 

[macrobat]

I to have had bad service with Vaja. I received my case from them and the first thing I notices is it cover the entire face like it does in the pictures! I emailed Cecilia and she would respond that it wasnt centered or thats how its supposed to be when clearly its not represented that way in there photos. All I wanted was the case corrected at the very least just send me a top that fits for crying out loud. In the end I had to go the way of disputing the charge with my credit card company. I think its pretty weak sauce when you spend $175 bucks on a case when I really shouldn't have and to wait 30 days to get a case that doesnt fit correctly, BOGUS! They really need to step up with some quality customer satisfaction especially when customers are paying premium. Just my 2 cents on the matter.

 

[Hammie]

I to have had bad service with Vaja. I received my case from them and the first thing I notices is it cover the entire face like it does in the pictures! I emailed Cecilia and she would respond that it wasnt centered or thats how its supposed to be when clearly its not represented that way in there photos. All I wanted was the case corrected at the very least just send me a top that fits for crying out loud. In the end I had to go the way of disputing the charge with my credit card company. I think its pretty weak sauce when you spend $175 bucks on a case when I really shouldn't have and to wait 30 days to get a case that doesnt fit correctly, BOGUS! They really need to step up with some quality customer satisfaction especially when customers are paying premium. Just my 2 cents on the matter.

Which case did you get and can you post pictures?

 

[ChocolateApple]

You're a really good patron, and patient. I hope that they honor your original order.

 

[ChocolateApple]

@ Rooskibar03 - I wish I'd known of those discount codes. I ordered Friday.

 

[u49aa2]

I had similar issues, sort of. My first order was cancelled after 2 days due to "CC issue" so I reordered immediately with a different CC and my order went through.

 

[macrobat]

trying to figure out how to upload photos

 

[macrobat]

Now here is how they should look

 

[iserian]

Perhaps that's why they had some of these ready to ship. Could it have been a return due to the problem?

Based on your pictures it does appear to be somewhat of a defect.


Beyond that how do you like the functionality of the case?

Now here is how they should look