MAIL ORDER Complaints can lose power in crossing nations' border

Know a foreign company's policies before you order, a BBB official says.
By DON OLDENBURG
WASHINGTON POST
While visiting relatives this summer, Savittiri Melder noticed an ad for "hard-to-find" cotton bras in a Sunday insert of the Washington Post. The 70-year-old world traveler quickly sent off a $30 check to J.D. Marvel Products Inc.
That was two months ago. Her order still hasn't arrived.
A month after she ordered the bras, Melder started calling the company's customer service number but never got through. "Nobody answers. It's busy or it just rings," she complained.
She scoured the Internet for information about the company and found dozens of consumer complaints dating back more than two years. Consumers ordered slippers, pantyhose, garden supplies and home furnishings, and other relatively inexpensive items they never received. Complainants said when they called the company, if they got through, the excuse was usually "it's on back order."
"This company has been scamming people since 2001!" said Melder, the wife of a retired World Bank diplomat whose home is in Australia. "I opened the advertising supplements recently, and there's the same ad! I do not like people taking me for a ride!"
Common target
At the online gripe forum My3cents.com, J.D. Marvel has logged 26 complaints in the past month; Thecomplaintstation.com received 150 complaints about the company in 2003. Over three years, the Better Business Bureau has received 2,300 complaints against it.
"J.D. Marvel's unsatisfactory record with the BBB is well-justified. It is based on thousands of complaints related to their delivery and refund practices," said Ed Johnson, president of the Washington metropolitan area Better Business Bureau.
Although J.D. Marvel lists an upstate New York address in its ads, that's only a drop box for the Canadian company located in Quebec.
But it peddles merchandise throughout North America and promises on its Web site, www.jdmarvelproducts.com: "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back, less postage and handling, up to 90 days after receipt, for replacement or refund."
No guarantees on just getting the order, however.
Company's response
J.D. Marvel provided a statement to this column saying the company's "normal delivery time" is two to five weeks. It attributed the delivery problems to a change of its order fulfillment house last December, "which meant a large move of stock from one warehouse to another, rehiring telephone operators, installing more telephone lines, setting up computers, a new computer program just for us, etc."
The thousands of complaints? "Most have been resolved, and the ones that are not are taken care of one by one," according to the statement, which encourages customers with problems to contact the company at a new customer-service number -- (514) 344-4747.
Melder's order? Under investigation.
Tough sell
But the fact that J.D. Marvel is located in Canada complicates things for U.S. consumers. The BBB can't fully process those complaints. And a Federal Trade Commission rule requiring a company to ship mail-order merchandise within 30 days from when it receives the order (unless otherwise stated in the ad or offer), or notify customers that they can cancel and get a refund within seven days, does not apply.
Meanwhile, the BBB's Johnson advises consumers to pay for direct-mail orders using credit cards, which provide more protection than paying by cash, personal checks or money orders.
"When dealing with a company outside the U.S., they may find that the consumer protection laws they enjoy in the States do not convey," he said.