"I'm quite satisfied with doing business with this company thru Amazon. I bought my audiobook for less than I thought and received it in less than a week."
"No problems. Merchandise as ordered, on time. Will buy from them again. (amazon.com retailer)"
"If there is a problem, expect NOTHING from "Claire" in customer relations. After hundreds of purchases, I was treated like dirt with inane and insulting responses to my complaints. Never again. I would happily pay a little more to sellers who value my purchases."
"Be wary of ordering from Caiman. We ordered Jan 11 using expedited 2nd day shipping thinking we would receive item on/before Jan 16th. Confirmation email advised estimated delivery Jan 17-23. Not arrived as of 27th. Called at was advised item is back ordered but no mention of this on what has to be one of the worst ever web sites. "
"i got a e-mail confirming the order, were it clearly was written -the seller has AGREED to ship by the 22-december-2005. and since then they just been putting it of. nothing is shipped yet. i don't know what there problem is, they offerd me to cancel the order, but i want what i paid and waited for.
so what's the deal. I will never use them again."
"**I HAVE CAIMAN'S CUST SERVICE PHONE NUMBER!**
(See the end of this review for the number)
December 30, 2005
Item was "in stock" on Amazon (Amazon is the only way Caiman sells). It was a Christmas music CD. I ordered it on Dec 08, 2005. As of Dec 30, 2005, I still have not received it and Christmas is past.
Their order confirmation email had a link to check the status of the order. I clicked it and it said my CD was "in transit." It has said that for at least 2 weeks now.
As other reviewers experienced, Caiman's website (http://www.caiman.com) does not provide a phone number. The only method they provide for inquiring about a service issue is an email form on their site. Send a message to them that way and an hour or so later you'll get a reply from "Claire" who, it turns out, is an automated robot posing as a human (seriously). The reply is stock, generic, unhelpful, and ignores everything you wrote, so don't bother writing much. At the end of the automated message it reminds me that USPS can take between 4 and 14 days to deliver. Well, it's been 22 days already.
Not satisfied with that, I pulled out my research arsenal to find a phone number. None seems to be available through a standard Google search. So, I used a combination of http://www.archive.org (to learn more about the company from its old sites), online phone books, and telephone trickery to finally locate their corporate phone number. (See the end of this review).
I called the number. I was presented with "Press 9 for a directory of extensions." If I didn't press 9, it told me their business hours (9a-6p Eastern Time) and then started ringing. And ringing. And ringing. After 5 minutes of ringing I decided they had the ringers turned off so I hung up. I tried again later -- same results, so I called again and pressed 9. I got first names and all sorts of extension numbers, so I just picked one. A real, live human being answered!! She said she'd transfer me to customer service. She did, and I got yet another real person named Amy!
Amy was pleasant enough. I asked for a direct extension to customer service and she said it was extension 18.
Amy then looked up my order and said they never shipped the product because they had a problem with their system and it almost crashed. She asked if it was OK to email me back after she researched it more, promising it wouldn't be long before I heard back from her. I reluctantly said OK. To my surprise, she wrote back within 1/2 hour from her own email address! She told me that this was a special order. If I still wanted it (which I do, for next year) she could hopefully send it out next Tuesday.
So there you have it. Oh yeah, you want their phone number? Here it is (in Miami):
***-***-**** extension 18
Use the above number, but if for some reason they change or close that number, call their sister company (which is that the same address), Caiman Music Production. Their number is ***-***-****
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UPDATE January 9, 2006
I got the CD yesterday after much badgering. Still, an awful process and would never use them again."
"I have purchased over 100 items from Caiman with no problems and then I got a defective dvd, contacted them and returned it using their prepaid label. Hearing nothing I emailed "Claire" which began a series of emails from Claire and "info". Responses were either stupid or circular. They are giving me the runaround. I will never buy from them again. No tracking, no phone number no way to contact a real person. I doubt that Claire is a person. Fed up customer. "
"I'm a music collector and purchase a lot of items. I purchased a VHS and didn't open it until I got back from vacation. Unfortunitly there was a death in my family when I returned. When I opened the video and found it was damaged I tried to return it for a good copy and they would not let me. They said time expired but there was not mention on any receipt that there was an expiration date. They refuse to credit me. Please post negative feedback for them for I will pass it on and never purchase from them again
Ron "
"Brand new product at a much cheaper price. Prompt shipping. Friendly, professional, and customer-oriented service."
"Item ordered listed as "in-stock" on Amazon. After order was placed, "Claire" of Caiman told me item was backordered, and asked if I wanted to leave the item open. I told her that if Caiman was certain they would receive the item, that I would leave the order open. This dialogue was repeated several months after my order was placed. When I sent a message to Caiman to cancel my order, "Claire" told me it had already shipped. The website has updated my order status to "shipped", but I have not seen my ordered item as of August 22, 2005"
"I bought a viewsonci keyboard fromo them, and I took about a week for the item to start being shipped, then another week to get here, so two weeks total, which is not bad for me, but I'm pretty patient person. How ever when I got the Item it was a USB macintosh mouse, not the keyboard that I ordereed. So I e-mail ****@**** who seems to be the only person thats works at the company and told her I got the wrong Item and I have since had to buy another product and no longer want this one, she said to log in to their website and do a return. I logged in http://us.caiman.com and used my tracking number and zip code and found my order. They even make up a printable return label that you can print off. So I'm now in the process of sending my package back and I will see how long it will take for the refund. -Hopefully not too long. It could have been a mixed up order so Im not too angry."
"The absolutely WORST EVER Internet transaction I’ve ever had the displeasure to encounter! I’m a very patient and courteous person; I never jump top conclusions and always try to give the last benefit of doubt… but this one was really something I have never dealt with before!
This store is a FRAUD! Customer service revolves around ONE SINGLE PERSON (CLAIRE!) who seems to answer one email a week and when she actually does you have the feeling you’re talking to a computer and not a person! Seems to be a one-person kind of operation, no management and absolutely no customer service backbone whatsoever!
Transacted through Amazon, CC charged, e-mail of product being shipped received. OK so far so good… They use First Class w/o any type of tracking method (very convenient!). USPS has already notified me that many complaints have already been logged concerning “lost” shipments coming from this seller! That’s because they NEVER SHIP THE DAMMNED ITEMS! A bunch of deceitful lies! Easy to blame on USPS especially when you ship w/o any tracking number!
They operate from Florida; I live in NYC. Even if it walked I’d still have my stuff a month later! I’m out of money and no merchandise! Time spent on the on the phone with AMEX to report this as FRAUD… priceless!
DO NOT USE THIS BUSINESS! Be aware!
"
"I didn't find Caiman through the web as I do normally with stores, I was happening to browse through Amazon.com (one of my favorites online stores) and looking for CDs. Amazon has a nice little button where you can choose "See other used and new from xxx dollars".
Upon clicking this button Caiman had the lowest prices on 2 of the cds we were looking for, decent shipping costs, and seemed to have good past reviews from purchasers through Amazon.
I gave them a chance and the process went smoothly. I received a confirmation email upon ordering, along with emails when the order was shipped. The only thing I didn't like was no tracking information was provided (or if it was it was not obvious). I didn't have any contact with the customer service.
The product arrived well packaged and with discount coupons which was nice for other purchases. The only downside was that shipping was a bit slow. In direct comparison I ordered 4 CDs, 2 from two other sources and two from Caiman at the exact same time with the exact same standard shipping and Caiman's order came in a solid 4 or 5 days later but such is life and chances when ordering online that delays in shipping happen.
Overall a good experience and would order from them again."
"In general, caiman.com has good prices and the videos they offer are in stock. I've ordered a lot of things from them, with generally positive results, BUT, the one time I had to return something, it was another matter altogether. They provided me with a printable return label and paid the postage, so I shipped the video back and then heard nothing. When I wrote to ask about it, they claimed "holiday backlog" but nothing was ever done. After four months, I wrote to ask what was going on, and never got another reply from them -- no replacement, no refund, not even an honest email. I do believe that handling returns honestly is as important as any other element of customer service, so this is an area where I'd advise the buyer to beware. If you can't afford to just throw away defective merchandise without recompense, you'd best order elsewhere."