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Michael Chambers' Idea Of Running A Business
-- Selling gold, other precious metals, jewelry -- |
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| If you have any doubts about the following review of this company's performance, please bear in mind two things. First, that we would not waste our time putting up false complaints, and second, that if it were false we would be open to libel claims from the company concerned. |
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| [Keywords to assist in proper indexing of this page: MJPM, MJPM.com, Michael's Jewellers and Precious Metals, Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, Bullion Dealer, Rare Coins, Gold Coins, Silver Coins, Jewelry, Buyer, Buyers, Buying, Seller, Selling, Sellers,Order, Orders, Price, American Eagle, American Eagles, South African Krugerrand, Krugerrands, Canadian Maple Leaf, Canadian Maple Leafs, Austrian Philharmonic, British Sovereign, British Sovereigns, Australian Kangaroo, Australian Koala, .999 Fine Gold Bars, Gold Bar, .999 Fine Silver Bars, Silver Bar, Silver Rounds, WholeSale Prices, Diamond, Diamonds, Pearls, Ruby, Rubies, Testimonials, Charlene Wallace, e-mail michael@mjpm.com, Address 425 SW 3rd St., Corvallis, Oregon 97333, Telephone, Phone, Tel. (800) 279-4337, Fax (541) 758-3224, review, reviewed, honest, honesty, guarantee, helpful, unhelpful, incompetent, incompetence, dissatisfied, dissatisfaction, disreputable, dishonest, dishonesty, error, errors, mistake, mistakes, reliable, reliability, unreliable, unreliability, complaint, poor customer service, support, supported, MJPM sucks, reputable, disreputable, reputation, bad experience, experiences, not recommended, recommendation, recommendations, quality, alternative, alternatives.] |
BUYER BEWARE!
If you are considering buying precious metals from this company, we suggest you read this first.
This page was created out of utter frustration with MJPM, and as a warning to those who are considering using MJPM's services. It is a testimonial that Michael Chambers won't be putting up on his Why Order from MJPM page.
It is becoming increasingly common these days for companies simply not to give a damn once they have your money. They don't feel the need to provide good service, tell the truth, keep their customers informed of problems or be answerable to anyone. If there is a problem, it's your problem, because they have your money and that's all that matters. MJPM is one such company.
The e-mail below, sent to MJPM after repeated delays and their refusal to explain themselves, says it all.
The name, e-mail address and amounts have been blanked out for the privacy of the individual concerned, but are available to appropriate persons upon request.
From: ************* [sent from 3 different addresses]
To: MJPM
Date: Saturday, June 25, 2005
Subject: Truthful Explanations Demanded
Dear Mr. Chambers,
I am writing to demand an immediate and truthful explanation for my treatment by your company.
[snip - informing MJPM that this 'sucks' page will go up failing a proper response]
So please, before you consider not responding again, think about how many people will be reading about my experience with your company, which is as follows:
May 18th: I placed a telephone order with your company, and a check was mailed the same day, as follows:
xx [type of coin] @ $xxx.xx = $xxxxx
xx [type of coin] @ $xxx.xx = $xxxx
Total: $xxxxx
I was told by Charlene that it would be sent in two packages because of the maximum $xxxxx insurance per package. [snip - more details of order]
May 18th: E-mail confirmation of #0518123 was received from Charlene Wallace, saying that the items were in stock.
May 22nd: I sent an e-mail reminding you NOT to send to the address on my check.
May 23rd: E-mail from you: "thank you so much...we caught it! Michael".
May 25th: My check for $xxxxx cleared by bank account.
June 9th: (15 days after check cleared) I called your company and received an absurd 'explanation' from Charlene (see copy of e-mail sent, below.) I was promised that the order would now go out on Friday (June 10th) or Monday (June 13th).
June 9th: I sent an e-mail to you (see copy below), personally, asking for an explanation. No response was ever received.
June 18th: I receive a call from Charlene Wallace stating that "My order has been sent". Note that this is 24 days after my check cleared and about a week after she promised it would go out.
June 24th: One package, containing xx [coin type] (worth $xxxxx, which is $xxxxx above the maximum insurable amount) arrived, post marked June 21st (not June 10th, 13th or 18th). That's 30 days after my check cleared. No sign of the other package.
QUESTIONS:
- Who, precisely, would have made up the $xxxxx insurance gap had this $xxxxx package gone missing in the mail?
- Why did Charlene lie to me on the 18th, saying "it has been sent", when it would not be posted for another 3 days?
- Where is the rest of my order - xx [coin type]?
- Why did no one respond to my e-mail of June 9th? Either you (Michael) saw it and chose not to respond, which says an awful lot about your company. Or you (Charelene), the wonderful assistant decided to spare Michael from such unpleasantness (or was it perhaps simply covering up your own failures?)
If I do not receive a full and proper response to this e-mail from MICHAEL (not Charlene), then two things will happen:
1) I will arrange for a friend of mine, who lives in Salem, do deliver a printed copy of this message to you (MICHAEL) personally, in case your able assistant is attempting to cover up her failures.
2) I will put up a "MJPM sucks" page on [web site details], which will be spidered by Google within two days and available to would-have-been clients of yours from that point onwards.
Yours very sincerely,
[name witheld]
E-MAIL SENT JUNE 9TH AND NEVER REPLIED TO:
Dear Michael,
I must say that I am appalled by the service that I have received from you this time. Having purchased from you previously (xx [coin description] in 1999, and xx under the name [name witheld] earlier this year), and received my orders within a few days, there appears to have been some gross inefficiency this time, and a complete lack of keeping me in the loop.
I spoke with your colleague today, asking her to check its status. My check for $xxxxx cleared on the 25th of May, and as at June 8th I had still not received the shipment.
The reason given was that "I just need to verify some information before shipping - there seems to be some confusion about the address".
What a pathetic and dishonest excuse! See your e-mail below, in which you yourself told me that you were completely on top of the situation. Furthermore, if there WAS any problem/delay when shipping a $xxxxx order, SURELY you should have e-mailed or telephoned the customer? Is that not the professional way to conduct business?
Once I had pointed out the lameness of that excuse, another was offered: You've been very busy and "at a show". That is even more pathetic.
Unless I receive (a) my shipment next week, (b) a logical/honest explanation/admission for your company's inaction and (c) an apology from you, I will be taking my future business elsewhere.
Yours sincerely,
[name witheld]
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: MJPM
> To: *************
> Sent: Monday, May 23, 2005 7:43 AM
> Subject: Re: Confirmation #0518123
>
>
> thank you so much...we caught it!
>
> Michael
>> At 05:51 PM 5/22/05, you wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I just noticed that my old address is on the check that I recently sent.
>> Please be sure send the order to the address in my e-mail:
>>
>> ************
>> ************
>> ************
>> ************
>> ...and NOT to the address on my check!
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>> [name witheld]
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>
>>> From: MJPM
>>>
>>> To: ************
>>>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 11:02 AM
>>>
>>> Subject: Re: Confirmation #0518123
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> May 18, 2005
>>>
>>> 2:00 p.m. PDT
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear [name witheld],
>>>
>>>
>>> Thank you for choosing MJPM, your is confirmed and in stock.
>>>
>>>
>>> Warmly,
>>>
>>>
>>> Charlene Wallace
>>>
>>> 1 800 279 4337
>>>
>>> Precious Metals Trading
>>>
>>> MJPM Inc.
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Update, June 28, 2005
We telephoned MJPM and Charlene answered. The conversation went like this:
[Customer]: I would like to know the status of order #0518123. We have received one part of our order, 30 days after the check was cleared, but are still waiting for the other part.
Charlene: Please hold...
A couple of minutes later: We're xx [coin description] short and are waiting for them to come in.
[Customer]: But on May 18th you told us that our order was in stock!
Charlene: "Yes, that was the information that I was given."
[Customer]: Who told you that?
Charlene: (After some stumbling and hesitation) "Michael" [the business owner].
[Customer]: Please have Michael give us a call back.
To his credit, Michael called back within a couple of minutes. He denied completely that this situation (i.e. waiting over a month after check clearance to ship an order) was unusual, or that there was any problem. He was asked on three occasions what "Your order is in stock" was supposed to mean on May 18th, but each time changed the subject politician-style with statements such as "We always fulfil our orders."
He explained that MJPM is not a bulk coin dealer, and that they do not offer that service. We asked why, then, they advertise this service and why they had taken our order in the first place. He responded with another "I don't need to answer this"-style brush-off.
We told him that this kind of 'service' was completely unacceptable, and that we expected an honest reply to our e-mail (above) within 24 hours. He claimed (despite our having sent it three times) that he had not received it. That is strange, when one considers that MJPM reply promptly to any e-mails that mention money or orders. So we sent him another copy, three times from three different e-mail addresses, in the hope that he might receive one of them.
He was informed that this "sucks" page would be going live in exactly 24 hours if we did not receive a satisfactory response by then. He claimed that such web sites are not legal, was informed otherwise, and ended the conversation.
As this web page indicates, he never did feel it important enough to respond...
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Here is a theory about how MJPM works:
- MJPM take your order, and hold the price while giving you 24 hours to submit payment.
- Once the payment has cleared, they re-evaluate the price of gold/silver/whatever.
- If the price has gone down, then great -- they have made even more profit because the customer bought when the metal was at a higher price.
- HOWEVER, if the price of the metal has risen considerably, as happened in this case, they see their profit margin evaporate.
- They wait a while, in the hope that the metal price falls again
- If it doesn't, they wait a bit longer
- Eventually, the customer starts getting annoyed.
- Eventually, the customer demands a refund. And that's what they want.
So, for example, a customer orders 25 gold coins at $400 each ($10,000 total), when the price of gold is $380. By the time MJPM needs to fulfil the order, the price of gold has reached $400. In other words, the customer will be receiving goods that are now worth more than what they paid for (if the price of gold is $400/oz, a 1oz coin will of course be worth more than that). So MJPM delays and delays (over 35 days since check clearance in this case, and still waiting), hoping that the customer gets angry and demands a refund. MJPM would then refund $10,000, rather than send out the coins that are now worth $10,500 (25 x $420). Easy $500 gain for them; $500 loss to the customer.
Not quite ethical, is it? If the price of gold is going down, they'll be happy to sell to you; if it is going up, you'll just sit there while it does, get a refund instead of your order, and lose out on this gain. Your loss; their gain.
Now this is just theory. If Michael Chambers ever decides to correct us by providing an honest explanation of his company's behavior, we'll be happy to publish it.
Meanwhile, we would suggest doing your precious metals shopping elsewhere.
Update, July 2nd, 2005
A letter arrived from MJPM containing a refund for the second part of our order, delayed because it was addressed to the wrong city and wrong ZIP code (that's the kind of operation we're dealing with here!)
Our theory on how MJPM Inc operates, written above on the same day that their letter was mailed, proved correct: MJPM preferred to renege on the contract made when gold was priced at $420 per ounce, instead sending us a refund check once the price had risen to $437. In other words, taking the $17-per-ounce profit that rightly belonged to their client was more important than their reputation. MJPM didn't even have the decency to pay interest on the considerable sum that they had held on to for over 35 days after our check had cleared.
We call this THEFT, Michael. What do you call it?
(Michael is fully aware of this page: links to it have been sent to him several times as fair warning. His failure to offer any response again speaks volumes. If you would like to ask Michael why he hasn't responded, send e-mails here: michael@mjpm.com.)
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