First Order on Mathmos.us/LampLust Not Going So Well

[Erin]

I placed my first order on mathmos.us February 24th for two Fireflows - one O1 and one R1. According to their shipping chart, I should have had them in about three days.

I have written customer support. No answer. I have written on their Facebook page. No answer.

Anyone ordered from them yet? 

Not a good first impression! 

[Jim]

Here's the problem I see.  How many retailers has Mathmos approved in the US?  If this number is small, how flippin' hard is it to get on the phone with your rep at one of these retailers and start laying down the law?  Shawn is exactly right, like it or not, fair or not, this reflects back on Mathmos, not Lamp Lust.  When the blurb below is on your corporate website, you are directly linked to seller of your goods.  They have essentially said Lamp Lust is an agent of ours and represent us. 

Taken from http://www.mathmos.us/terms-conditions-i-7.html

Q: What is the best way to contact Mathmos? 

The most efficient way to communicate with us is via our support ticket sytem or email. For sales or product information please call us at 212.863.9736, 1-866.490.9358, or email us.

For sales, please call 212.863.9736 or email: [e-mail]

What that link between phone numbers above tells me is that Mathmos = Lamp Lust = Mathmos.  Shawn sees it the same way.

[WeeboTech]

I agree wholeheartedly.  Push for what you really want.  Sometimes it may mean. CC'ing both parties in an email.

I also think clouding the subject with . I'm going to walk away from this and not buy your products is wasteful.

What is it that you really want? Push for it. You paid for it, push for it.

You are within your right if the product has not performed. 

If you cannot get satisfaction with a replacement and the product was bad, get your money back from your credit card. If you have all the correspondence, you may need to provide it.

[Dr. WHAT?!]

And you would think that they'd at least give a crap about losing a good customer, and potentially many good US customers from here you know? And this 3 ring circus they've been putting me thru has been going on since October of 2011. I've talked to the same guy over and over again and you would think he'd at least help me get my part after all this time. And what else should I have said to them  really other than I will not buy from Mathmos anymore. They apparently don't give 2 shits about losing anyone as a customer what does that say.I feel like I'm in the twilight zone. On one side, we have LavaLite which has good customer service but their product sucks and on the other side we have Mathmos, with their excellent product but bad customer service. Can we not win as lava lamp collectors?

WeeboTech said:

to be frank, your letter to Mathmos was sort of "so long see ya"

[Erin]

I believe they have approved ONE retailer - Lamp Lust. 

Before my debacle with them, I had written them four or five times at [e-mail] with not one response. So, I tried Facebook. Again, no response. All I wanted was a time frame for release of their lava lamps in the US. Instead of saying "we don't know" they just ignored me, which is a crap way to deal with potential customers. 

Their customer service, from my vantage point, STINKS, which is frustrating, because I am very excited about owning some of their lamps, but am hesitant to purchase knowing I have no one to turn to should I have problems. Lamp Lust's customer service sucks and that's who's going to be responsible for handling any issues we might have. 

[Tim Gill]

As I said before what is really needed is some campaigning and show Mathmos that people arnt happy with there customer service and there lamps are showing sings that they could go dodgy. - If it gets worse then this could be the final nail in the coffin for decent lava lamps.

Also what's needed is to do some serious research into Mathmos as it is now and find out ways to really get under the skin.

[Jim]

One thing that may help - this site being public.  While "mathmos.us" may not be the most popular strings to search, this thread is first page at #6.

[Erin]

Yes, we, as a group of collectors, should have some weight. Lava Lite didn't seem to care about us, but maybe Mathmos will. I fully support any efforts to get them to pay attention. 

[WeeboTech]

Shawn, you're doing what you should. Push forth with a reasonable request and a respectable compromise. 

CC both parties and if need be point them to the discussion. 

As far as vendors responding to issues on Facebook. I've never seen it happen with any vendor.

Facebook seems to be used as a marketing presence, not a support presence. 

[Erin]

From what I know about Facebook, if you are the admin of a Facebook page, you should acknowledge people's inquiries. You don't have to solve their problems per se, but pointing them to an email address should be advised. The only reason I started asking questions on Facebook was because I was getting NO ANSWERS from the email address they provide. 

And their "marketing" on Facebook stinks! You can't have someone running their page who only posts every two months. There is so much cool stuff they could be doing (contests, giveaways, photo shoots, history, videos) and they are wasting it. Facebook is FREE advertising and interest-building and they're just sitting there doing jack shiatsu. They have an awesome, exciting product, but their Facebook presence does not reflect that. 

[Autumn]

Ouch. That is bad PR.

I have bought 1 lamp from mathmos brand new and I too had problems with it. I am not sure if this was electric planets fault of mathmos'. The fluidium came in a brown box with the only indication a fluidium was inside was a small sticker. Inside that box were 2 astro globe boxes and in one was the base and cap, and the other the globe. The boxes were deformed because they were not the proper boxes. The globe ran chunky and grainy, it also overheated very quick. Luckily electric planet sent me a second globe which eventually started flowing properly.

Jim said:

One thing that may help - this site being public.  While "mathmos.us" may not be the most popular strings to search, this thread is first page at #6.

[Tim Gill]

We do have some weight and should use it, not just for us but if Mathmos pay attiontion to us then it will help them as well as us and there non collecting customers so its a win win.

Yea Facebook is really only used by companies for marketing but posting once a month - what's that all about, you might as well not use it if that's the case.

As for lava lite they were intent on moving to china and cutting costs as when they chnaged CEO / onwers they went really botherd about making quality items.

Erin said:

Yes, we, as a group of collectors, should have some weight. Lava Lite didn't seem to care about us, but maybe Mathmos will. I fully support any efforts to get them to pay attention. 

[WeeboTech]

Facebook is not used as you want or expect, I see the same thing happen for other companies too. It's all pr marketing and they delete negative press. It's not the right place for it, it's their presence and they have the right to administer it anyway they want. To expect anything else is a waste of time. You have to implore your expectations with your fingers, your outrage and your wallet. When you purchase a product that does not work and do not get satisfaction from the vendor get your money back. If that does not work contact your credit card vendor and the Better Business Bureau