Biggest jerk on the planet. I’m even madder than I was when I got his original response earlier this week because this time…this time he got personal, which is so inappropriate in so many ways I can’t even get over it.

Here is his response to my email and my follow-up (not sending it to him because, what’s the point?) for your ever-waiting eyes:

At 07:48 AM 12/28/2004 -0600, Stacy said:

>If there are no refunds, then why in the world did the gift notification/confirmation email sent to my father specifically say that if the subscription was unwanted, to reply back that he didn’t want it and that you would then process a refund back to me? I wish I had a copy of that email, and am trying to get a copy from my father, because it’s the one I first forwarded to you following up about the stated refund.

There’s no need to get upset, or try to get a copy of the e-mail. I am happy to send you a copy if you must see it; it says “credit”, and I told you I DID credit your account — every penny went on your subscription — because that’s what you asked me to do:

It said “credit”, *I* said “credit”, and you said thanks. I said “thanks” to you addressing my dad’s response and I thought you were crediting my credit card!

But fine. Even though the web site clearly says “no refunds”, I STILL offered you one. And I replied to your e-mail again and again and AGAIN, putting time into this because your e-mail didn’t work, and it only got through when I bothered to copy a second address you provided. I’ve never had a problem with this guy’s emails getting through until this problem started, which is typical. Considering I kept writing to him asking about the refund to my credit card, even if his responses weren’t getting through to me, the fact that I kept badgering him should have been confirmation enough that I wanted the refund.

And your response is to get UPSET that I took so much effort to offer you this special consideration? Um…yeah, because here we are…three weeks later and, um, still no refund…even after I officially confirmed that I wanted one four days ago and here you are, asking me again if I want a refund.

>In the future, it might be a better idea to send out the gift notification to the recipient and once the gift recipient says “Yes, I want This is True”, THEN charge the gift-giver’s credit card so as to avoid this.

OK, let’s go with that: I send a gift announcement, and get NO reply — which happens 99% of the time. And then I’d charge the card and find out the person has lousy credit, and then send an e-mail saying “your friend is a deadbeat, and I have to cancel your gift”? No doubt you’d REALLY be upset at that!

You asked for a gift to be sent. I’m not going to send it until it’s paid for. For you to suggest otherwise pretty much shows you haven’t thought this through. I love it when people insult my intelligence. Nowhere anywhere on this guy’s website did it say that if for whatever reason the gift subscriber doesn’t want it, that you’re stuck with it for the term of the subscription. And, the one point where I was 100% correct…that the site said “No Refunds” for unsubscriptions and technically, this wasn’t an unsubscription…notice he didn’t address that at all.

>But yes, I want a refund, because that is what was stated in your email back at the beginning of December if my dad did not want to renew.

No, it said it would be credited to you. And it was, and I told you that, and you thanked me. When you later asked for a refund, I agreed to give it, sending you my reply at least three times, saying I wanted to know if you still wanted it even knowing it would cost me money to do it. And you FINALLY get back to me to say yes, you want me to spend that money weeks later, and YOU are upset? That whole “thanked me” thing was addressed above but even if I didn’t reply to his emails, the fact that I sent him several emails asking when my credit card would be credited, doesn’t that sort of imply that yes, I want him to process the refund? And how much money are we talking about here? It’s a $36 charge. It’s not going to cost him $5,000 to process a refund.

You must have had a really lousy holiday. So did I: I got five hours off, spending all of Christmas morning and all Christmas evening working to get everyone’s gift notices out, as I’ve offered to do every year. I hope your refund helps improve your week: I’ll process it tomorrow — after working until 11:00 p.m., I choose not to stay up to do it tonight. Boo hoo pal, not my problem. Actually, I had a wonderful holiday. I too work from home and sometimes have excessive hours that include late nights and holidays but I would never, ever, put that back on my paying customers. Again…reap, sow. This is part of owning your own business. The fact that you’re trying to make me feel guilty about your employment choices is really sad.

Stacy said @ 8:05 am