[^adm^]

Focalprice su*ks, i got shipping notification nearly a month ago but item hasnt delivered yet so i sent a mail to ask for tracking info.

They told me that they shipped it yesterday...

 

[SurfHenk]

Well, I would not immediately go as far as to say Focalprice su*ks...
I am one of the very many Head-fi'ers having ordered these waiting for them to arrive.
And I can only agree that the one big weakness Focalprice has is it's communication, as I think it is not more than normal to inform customers when there are problems or delays.
Another big weakness is that their site apparently is not coupled to their inventory nor do they interfer manually. And so products stay available for order even though they are out of stock.
On the other hand one can ask himself whether they would be able to offer their product at those prices if they had all of this perfectly sorted out including the staff to cope in a timely and adequate manner with such peaks in the demand as the one we are talking about.

Having said all of this I must confess I do not find this to be too dramatic either.
To begin with I think any shop would be overwhelmed when out of the blue a product all of the sudden starts to get ordered by the hundreds. Triggered of course by this forum read by a huge amount of people all over the world.
Secondly, I must say that anyone with some buying experience on the internet will have felt immediately that Focalprice is not the most serious of websites. At the prices they are offering their products I can assure you some will not be OEM. In my eyes that is not even always a bad thing as long as they do not state it to be OEM. I mean, since a huge amount of our consumer goods are produced in China I suppose they will have learned by now how to make stuff just as good as the OEM's do (in China).
To be honest, even after reading the first reports, which is when I placed my order, I still had my doubts on whether these were real or fake. But the latest reports clearly show they are real. But it was my choice to take the risk.
Which brings me to my main point. To me, Focalprice is a website offering real PL30's at an absolute bargain price. But also with an absolutely minimal customer service. Whether or not this is something for you, can only be decided by yourself. But filing payPal claims all over the place is I think totally inapropriate since:
- it will not bring you the product faster (they were out of stock)
- all reports indicate that in the end you will receive the product
- in my opinion you could have guessed looking at the website this is not the super professional (but equally expensive) western high standards company
- this will in the end only result in these producst not being available anymore to anyone at these prices, even for people who are willing to take the risk, accept the wait and accept the lack of information/commnication (such as myself). This is a personal choice but at those prices I am even willing to take the risk on me for a lost package. After all the second-cheapest option for these asks more than double the amount..

So please people calm down...

For all clarity, I don't work for focalprice nor am I affiliated with them in any way. I am just one of the many many people from all over the world waiting for this incredibly priced headphone...

 

[nsx_23]

I waited ages for mine, and I agree it was very frustrating as the shipping time was way too long for normal airmail.

Either way, if you don't want to wait too long the ebay or great-sounds route is another option. You pay more, but you get them faster with decent customer service.

 

[nc8000]

Yes, you usually get what you pay for

 

[ClieOS]

I have been waiting for solid 3 weeks now, which isn't a big problem on my parts since i know it will be late. The main problem with Focalprice is it posts items as 'shipped' while they ain't, which creates false expectation on arriving date. They should have kept their shipping record as honest as possible. I order some other things from DX too. While they took DX more than a month to fulfill the whole order (a few were out-of-stock items), at least DX did inform me about the situation and I am happy to be kept in the loop.

 

[nsx_23]

Exactly. I think they need to let people know when items aren't in stock. I have a feeling their "shipped" means the item is packaged, but not actually sent.

 

[tomjtx]

SurfHenk,

Sorry to say you are pretty much wrong on all counts.

It is necessary to file a PP dispute in order to protect oneself re a refund.

When focalprice says an item has shipped and it takes 5-15 bus. days and it has been 18 bus.days it is then appropriate to file a dispute.
The other poster who filed a dispute did so because FocalPrice did not respond to other forms of communication.

There are time constraints on PayPal disputes and claims and I have learned it is better to act earlier rather than later.
PP also can't retrieve money which has left the sellers PP act.
That is why I always use a CreditCard with PP, to have an extra layer of protection.

Your criticism of filing PayPal disputes is incorrect, irresponsible to others in this community,unwarranted , ill advised and unwanted.

I would advise anyone who has passed the 15 business day mark to file a dispute ASAP in order to protect your rights to a refund

Filing a number of disputes should also get the attention of FocalPrice and spur them to clean up their act .

 

[SurfHenk]

Well,

To each his opinion of course.

All I can say is that from all I have seen everyone will receive his order in the end. And for those who do not I am sure focalprice will (in the end) help them out. There is one person on this board which has claimed a warranty and they did respond positively on that. Also, I have had to wait 11 (yes eleven!) days to receive a reply when I asked them about my tracking number, but in the end they did reply.

I can tell you one thing for sure though as I have seen such a case recently myself. When payPal receives too much complaints concerning a same seller, PayPal will block that seller's payPal account and (of course) refuse the seller to create a new one. Effectively resulting in the seller not being able to accept PayPal payments anymore. And thereby making buying from that seller impossible.
I can see such a decision happening very soon in this case, concidering the amount of head-fi'ers having ordered this headphone, almost all being affected by the problems of stock rupture.

Now don't understand me wrongly. I think focalprice's communication is very very poor. As others have said, this starts with the "fake" shipping notification. From what I have seen, they in the end always reply but it can take a long time indeed. Too long to any respectable business standard, even though I can name a lot of western websites not replying to anything at all.

Having said that, I can again only repeat that I do not think it is necessary to start PayPal disputes. As said, to me it is clear focalprice will take care of us all. In the end ... that is.

Having said all that I of course can not nor do I want to restrain anyone from filing a claim. So if you find this necessary, please go ahead.

So in the end, if you want to buy a set of PL30's at an absolute bargain price knowing it could take a long time for them to arrive without any information, focalprice is your place to be. If you do want to get the set quickly and with rapid response to your emails and are prepared to pay double for that service, there are better places (such as mentionned above).

 

[ckhirnigs113]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SurfHenk /img/forum/go_quote.gif So in the end, if you want to buy a set of PL30's at an absolute bargain price knowing it could take a long time for them to arrive without any information, focalprice is your place to be. If you do want to get the set quickly and with rapid response to your emails and are prepared to pay double for that service, there are better places (such as mentionned above).

This sums up my opinion as well. I am the person that had the warranty claim with FocalPrice. I have had an ongoing conversation with them using their "My Message" feature that is available once you sign in on their website.

I have already received a set of PL30, so I know FocalPrice will in fact deliver. My replacement pair is taking much longer, but I got an answer from the people at FocalPrice saying they were out of stock. I assume this has happened because of the boost in demand we have created. They failed to let those who ordered the phones know about this situation, and that is the mistake they made.

The most confusing and angering thing to most of us is the shipping notification we got that claimed our items were on the way. This created these "5-15" day expectations, which of course could not be satisfied seeing that the phones were out of stock.

I have been told by FocalPrice that a new batch should be in, so I believe we will all get our PL30 in the next few weeks. If you cannot handle the sub-par way FocalPrice conducts business I suggest you buy your set on eBay or at GreatSounds. It all comes down to the fact that these are a great deal at $20, so I'm willing to put up with FocalPrice to get these phones at that price.

 

[tomjtx]

The issue at hand is the time frame for a PayPal refund.
If you wait too long you are out of luck.

To "trust" that FP will deliver seems ill warranted and somewhat naive.
I have no desire to risk my money that way.

FP should not charge for an out of stock item, should not lie that the item has been shipped and should offer immediate refunds to those that request.

FP is being dishonest in their business practices if they are saying an item has shipped when it hasn't.

I will be escalating to a claim if the phones don't arrive by Mon. and will also notify the CC company.

 

[ClieOS]

If the gambler is b/w $20 for a lesson learned and a pair of late coming PL30, my bet goes to the PL30. The choice is of course up to each of us to make, which means there isn't much reason to argue about it one way or another - you just have to do what make sense to you. Live and let live.

 

[Clincher09]

I don't mind the wait, but if I don't get these by the end of october I will file a complaint.

 

[Scott549]

Mine just arrived.
Shipping notice 9/26; arrived Wisconsin 10/17.
Going out of town for the weekend. I'll report in a few days.

 

[kg21]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SurfHenk /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, To each his opinion of course. All I can say is that from all I have seen everyone will receive his order in the end. And for those who do not I am sure focalprice will (in the end) help them out. There is one person on this board which has claimed a warranty and they did respond positively on that. Also, I have had to wait 11 (yes eleven!) days to receive a reply when I asked them about my tracking number, but in the end they did reply. I can tell you one thing for sure though as I have seen such a case recently myself. When payPal receives too much complaints concerning a same seller, PayPal will block that seller's payPal account and (of course) refuse the seller to create a new one. Effectively resulting in the seller not being able to accept PayPal payments anymore. And thereby making buying from that seller impossible. I can see such a decision happening very soon in this case, concidering the amount of head-fi'ers having ordered this headphone, almost all being affected by the problems of stock rupture. Now don't understand me wrongly. I think focalprice's communication is very very poor. As others have said, this starts with the "fake" shipping notification. From what I have seen, they in the end always reply but it can take a long time indeed. Too long to any respectable business standard, even though I can name a lot of western websites not replying to anything at all. Having said that, I can again only repeat that I do not think it is necessary to start PayPal disputes. As said, to me it is clear focalprice will take care of us all. In the end ... that is. Having said all that I of course can not nor do I want to restrain anyone from filing a claim. So if you find this necessary, please go ahead. So in the end, if you want to buy a set of PL30's at an absolute bargain price knowing it could take a long time for them to arrive without any information, focalprice is your place to be. If you do want to get the set quickly and with rapid response to your emails and are prepared to pay double for that service, there are better places (such as mentionned above).

Well I for one think that if their account gets frozen that's fine, I already posted I don't think they are scamming, but they are DEFINITELY NOT a good seller. I made a paypal claim because they didn't message me an order confirmation let alone tracking info. And it was almost 3 weeks of me sending them messages and not getting a single response that lead me to that. I don't care how long it takes once they ship it out, I mean then it's not on them anymore. I just wanted it to be shipped, I wasn't even talking about the fake tracking issue.

I ordered earlier than most of the posts on this thread, so yeah obviously in the future I won't buy from them and it's an easy fix. But it is a huge hassle right now, and the fact that some of the people who ordered after me have them in their posession already doesn't make me think any better of them. I also would not have made a dispute if they had kept me up to date on their own. Just a simple email saying it's out of stock and maybe I could have got the refund or just waited, of course I don't really know how many disputes are necessary to freeze their account it might be a drop in the bucket.

 

[^adm^]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClieOS /img/forum/go_quote.gif I have been waiting for solid 3 weeks now, which isn't a big problem on my parts since i know it will be late. The main problem with Focalprice is it posts items as 'shipped' while they ain't, which creates false expectation on arriving date. They should have kept their shipping record as honest as possible. I order some other things from DX too. While they took DX more than a month to fulfill the whole order (a few were out-of-stock items), at least DX did inform me about the situation and I am happy to be kept in the loop.

Thats exactly what i meant.

I can wait more its no big deal but i went through "shipped", "sorry your tracking no isnt available yet" kind of messages.

Focalprice is lying and lying su*ks.