The Microbrand Store Reviews 

Reply from The Microbrand Store

Updated Dec 21, 2021

Hi Daniel,

When you placed your order during the holiday weekend, we promptly shipped your watch on the next working day, and you were then immediately sent an update email with the tracking information and a tracking link, so that you could follow the progress of your shipment and see any further updates thereafter whenever you wish.

Having checked your tracking just now, we see that your package has been in customs since the 6th December. (Please note no taxes or import duties are payable for this order, but as with all international shipments, the package still does need to go through customs inspections.) That does seem like an unusually lengthy delay to us, but that may be tied to the holiday season between Black Friday and the end of Year Holidays possibly. At any rate, you never tried to contact us to let us know you had an issue and had not received the watch. If you had, we'd have been glad to assist.

Given that we shipped your watch to you very quickly, and that we did give you the necessary update with the tracking information for your package, and that you never tried to get in touch with us before posting this review, we do feel that your 1 star rating is very unfair here.

When convenient, please do ping us via online chat or email if you prefer, and we'll be glad to assist you further.

Best Wishes,

The Microbrand Store Team.

Update:

Thank you for revising your review to remove the comments that we never provided you with any update/tracking or heard from us, which was gratefully appreciated. We also appreciated your understanding that any delay in customs is not our fault.

FWIW we do make it clear to every customer before ordering if this is going to be an international shipment. For example, right next to the checkout button we state in emphasized text that "All orders will ship from our overseas testing center". That is one of the advantages to shopping with us, that we make sure every watch is tested right before shipping so we know every watch goes out the door running well. So we did clearly inform you of this before checking out, but are sorry if you somehow missed that since you state it wasn't clear to you that this would be an international shipment. Also, with regard to your shipping estimates comment, right on our home page, in the introductory text at the top rather than out of sight potentially lower down the page, we clearly state that occasionally "delays en route can sometimes occur" and provide a link with full details, which includes typical shipping estimates.

Right now, due to the affects of the pandemic and with potentially a reduced number of flights, no airmail shipping service, (DHL, EMS, Fed-Ex, UPS, etc.) will guarantee delivery times, and all can sometimes experience unexpected delays. Delays are not the norm, although we expect more towards the end of the year due to the uptick in holiday shopping and seasonal gift giving. Pre-pandemic, customers could generally expect to see shipments within four business days. During the pandemic a more common number has been seven days. From the tracking, it looks like your package has been stuck in customs for over two weeks without being looked at. Please do get in touch with us so we can assist you with this since this is certainly not the norm, and other packages sent at the same time to your region have typically all cleared customs on the same day they were received. Thank you!

Reply from The Microbrand Store

Sep 19, 2021

Hi Kund,

We see you placed your order on the 3rd, but we never stated we would ship your order the same day or next business day, since you ordered an item that was clearly listed as on back order and not in stock. The titling on the page where you placed your order says "Back Order" at the top of the page, and a section on the same page explains what a back order is as follows:

Back Order

"We're currently out of stock on this item. Rather than have customers wait until we restock and then have to come back and order, as a convenience, we're allowing customers to order against our next shipment which we've already pre-paid for. As with all back orders and pre-orders, customers can of course cancel their order and get a full refund at any time up until we have the watches in stock, ready to ship."

Right beneath that you can also see an update that shows that the goods are on the way to us and when we expect to receive them.

Given that you ordered an item that wasn't in stock, and that was clearly marked as a back order and also had an explanation to help clarify the situation for those unfamiliar with back orders, we do feel that your 1 star review is very unfair. When you placed your order you were sent an email automatically with your order details as a confirmation and that email does explain that we do generally ship in stock items within one business day. Once your watch is in stock, we do intend to test it for you and will ship it on to you within one business day. Thank you!

Reply from The Microbrand Store

Sep 9, 2021

Hi Stephen,

We have always responded to all customer inquiries we've received, and have never ignored paying customers asking questions, which is what you're stating here.

Since customer service is extremely important to us, we checked your account's emails from the order number you kindly entered into TrustPilot, just in case an email may have ended up in our spam folder. Luckily this was not the case. We found that we have only ever received two emails from you. The first had some questions, which we very promptly answered, and the second was a thank you reply from you acknowledging our response that just said "Thank you."

If you have any questions remaining regarding your order or support, please do not hesitate to contact us. We'd be very glad to assist you if we can. You can continue to email us if you wish, or if easier, you can also chat with us via our online chat system on our web site. You can provide an email address for online chats so you can get copies via email as well if you want to.

Best Wishes,

The Microbrand Store Team.

Reply from The Microbrand Store

Updated Sep 8, 2021

Hi Huw,

Your watch was tested and shipped within 8 hours of you placing your order and quickly arrived within the UK within 5 days. It is currently being held at your local depot (since the end of August) pending your outstanding tax payment, which your local tax office wrote to you about on the 1st September, and which you can pay online with a credit card if you wish to. If you no longer have the notice then you can contact your local post office or ParcelForce, who can assist you. You are always welcome to contact us via our online chat or email if you need us to provide you with the tracking information again.

Given that you have never made any attempt to contact us for assistance before posting this 1 star review, and the watch was shipped to you incredibly quickly, and is being held at your regional depot because you have not paid taxes on it yet, we feel that this one star review is very unfair since it doesn't reflect on the quality of our service in any way. We therefore hope that you'll reconsider your rating.

Best Wishes,

The Microbrand Store Team.

Update:

Hi Huw,

Thank you for your update. You can use the tracking details from the email we sent to you when the watch was shipped. Please do contact us via email or better yet via our online chat so we can assist you since we are not permitted to share your personal details here. If you've paid the import taxes already and it was online on the 3rd then it sounds like UK customs may have dropped the ball. Although that is out of our control, we can easily provide the necessary information to you as the importer so you can show ParcelForce or your local postmaster to hopefully quickly clear things up if you also show them the details of your tax payment, such as a receipt.