@ Spyro: what rock have you been living under? Do a search for “PACT” on this site. UK shops not taking US credit cards is even older news. Their CC processor won’t allow it. Plenty of threads on that too. Wilsons says they’re working on that issue.
Ok, in reply to all of the above: I use Yahoo mail, not a dummy mail front. WoS should have the good sense to post a valid e-mail address in their reply so as to avoid this kind of crap. I eagerly await the US suppliers providing bulk WoS shipments again so I can avoid the hassle of dealing with this nonsense and toss in an occasional odd order for a different brand. As for the rock I live under Xander, it is less than a few weeks old and includes many posts of people stating that they have used Visa after dealing with WoS directly. Also, I repeat the statement that no billing options were mentioned. I fail to see how this involves credit cards or the PACT legislation. Besides, several UK dealers including Toque have no problems with US credit cards. I find your comment to be non sequitor. I will try the carol@sharrowmills.com address and see if it works. Otherwise, I see no sense in wasting my time trying to buy a product that is annoyingly elusive from a consumer’s point of view. For God’s sake, we’re talking about snuff, not black market heroin.
@Spyro: As has been explained to you already, Wilsons credit card processing company will not accept any U.S. credit cards. You have to send them a cheque. Why don’t you just use the website to figure out how much the snuff will cost, add $6 and send them a cheque along with a list of the snuff you want ? You don’t need to wait for a reply from Wilsons to do this.
There aren’t going to be any US vendors. As snuff_noob said, they are trying to eliminate stock as they make the transition to the UK. After June, I’m sure they will have plenty, but for now its slim pickings. This news is not a few weeks old, its a few months. This has everything to do with PACT. Mars just sent out an email and says they are dropping online snuff sales. They are getting a new brick and mortar shop, so hopefully that will still carry snuff. At least, for myself, I live reasonbly close to visit. The credit card issue is also not news. Its about a year old now. Toque is the exception, not the rule. Almost every tobacco merchant in the UK hasn’t allowed US credit cards in this time. I know its not black market heroin (is there white market heroin?), but I’m not the one you have to convince. I feel your frustration, but we’ve found ways to deal with these issues here. The US vendors faced a similar issue with CC processors about a year before that. They found alternatives apparantly. Carol at Wilsons is very friendly and helpful. I’m sure many members here would confirm that. Write to her, she’ll sort you out. She sent me an email within a day of me making an order on their site. They did not ask for a $6 extra fee, so I just sent them a personal check for the converted to dollars price. No hassle, really. It just takes a little longer to get the snuff.
Spyro: Sending out order confirmations from an email account that won’t take replies is kind of industry standard. Most of them at least say no-reply somewhere in the email, don’t know about WoS as I haven’t ordered from them. But, yeah, you’ve sort of dropped the ball on that one. No-reply confirmation emails have been used for at least four or five years, far as I can remember.
I’ve dealt with Carol at WoS a couple of times and she really is a helpfull, eager and friendly person. She responded to all my emails within 24 hours. Also, WoS only started trading on line “yesterday”. So, give them some time, I’m sure they will soon sort out all the problems.
FYI, the e-mail confirmation from WoS included a useless e-mail address which I was instructed to repsond to. I fail to see how I dropped the ball on that. I used to do work as a web designer on a marketing team and can tell you that it is not common practice to include a useless e-mail address when dealing with customers. My conclusion is this; customers should not have to jump through hoops to buy a product. I’m not talking about payment methods or shipping costs either, I’m referring to unresponsive online stores. If your online site is not ready then it shouldn’t be launched for live use. WoS makes some of the best snuff in the world but this experience has really put me off for now. When their product becomes available elsewhere I may purchase it again. For now I have no desire to bother with their online site and consider it a poor reflection upon them to have created such a flubbed sales attempt. Mr. Snuff had the good courtesy to let me know they do indeed plan on offering WoS bulk again in the near future so I will be happy to give them my business, even if it costs a bit more. I value service and reliability over shear price.
Paid for my half pound drum full of Crumbs using paypal. IMO, great service.
Paypal? How’d you manage that? My order came today. No whining from me. I think Sharrow is an outstanding company.
Sharrow’s Mill gave me that option.
Lucky you. I thought paypal was a no no, but maybe something to look into for future.
I had to use one of the ladies email address to transfer funds
Sounds like a good workaround.
Well, like like I said in earlier posting, Wilsons new website isn’t up to it totally, like the email reply thing, which gave the dummy test address as first option, the real one was there as well, I checked my emails. Just remember there’re always 13 nerds in a dozen. The 13th one designed WoS new website. Anyway, everything sorted out well for me.
Just curious - it seems that people in the US are having trouble with their US-bank based credit cards for payment? Yet, the actual credit card companies (Mastercard, Visa) don’t have any issues with tobacco (according to my conversations with them when I was having some unrelated Visa difficulties). I wonder if you would have the same trouble using one of those prepaid Visa or Mastercard cards? Like Greendot. Yes, I know it is US-based, but it doesn’t seem to have the same rules/restrictions as a bank-based card. Has anybody tried this? I know that I have a lot of trouble with US-based vendors accepting my CANADIAN-based credit cards (still MC and Visa, one even from CityBank, a US based bank). They just don’t like selling to foreigners, I guess. Some folks I have spoken to have taken trips to the US and picked up some prepaid credit cards, which they use to buy stuff from internet vendors who won’t allow Canadian credit cards. As billing address, you can apparently use whatever address you wish. Even a British one, US one, Canadian one or Latvian one (no bill is ever sent, it is all electronic). So, that is why I ask… In the US, Walgrens distributes these Greendot cards. Just a thought. Regards, Geraldo
@Geraldo If you select a US based mailing address it only gives you one option “Check or Money Order” no electronic payment method is available.
Well, if they told you to reply to it in the email, that’s just kind of sloppy. I see it more with larger companies, but I get plenty of order confirmations from websites that either have the email address listed as no-reply@domain.com or say don’t reply to this account, no one watches it. I’ve seen it enough that I’ve gotten used to it and figured that the ones you can reply to are the exception rather than the rule. My mistake, I suppose.
@NOmad, I understand that you still cannot do a 1-step online order, but when I had trouble with my VISA with them (for reasons unrelated to Wilsons, as it turned out) I just phoned them and gave them my MasterCard number. No issues. My point was just that if the US-bank based credit card was the big problem, due to some issue with US banks and tobacco, then using a prepaid card might get around that. You could just call THAT number in, rather than sending a money order or cheque via snail mail. It was just a thought. @shikitohno, I am sorry you had all that trouble with their email address. When my order remained as “pending” online for a week or so, I just grabbed an email addy off their website and sent, no problem. Wilson’s is fairly new to online commerce, so there are bound to be some teething pains. As for “no-reply” emails - I get those a lot when I order stuff (particularly from the US, where I order most stuff from, if they let me). I hope in the future Wilson’s will include a line in their confirmation mail to “not reply to this email” for the sake of customers like yourself. I wish other vendors would do that too - I usually find out the hard way when I get a hard bounce on the email.
@Spyro: “My conclusion is this; customers should not have to jump through hoops to buy a product. I’m not talking about payment methods or shipping costs either, I’m referring to unresponsive online stores. If your online site is not ready then it shouldn’t be launched for live use.” Wilsons are a very small company and I doubt very much if there’s anyone employed there with any kind of I.T. skills. Teething troubles on a site which was almost certainly developed by a contractor aren’t really that much of a surprise. Besides, for the 94% of the world which isn’t American, the site works just fine. Even then, several of your countrymen have reported having no problems placing an order. “WoS makes some of the best snuff in the world but this experience has really put me off for now. When their product becomes available elsewhere I may purchase it again. For now I have no desire to bother with their online site and consider it a poor reflection upon them to have created such a flubbed sales attempt.” I’m sure the MD is crying himself to sleep having missed out on your order. You’ve been told what the ordering process is and you’ve been given Carol’s email address, who I’m sure will be more than happy to help out. Throwing a hissy fit isn’t really going to help is it ?
Geraldo, I haven’t ordered from the WIlsons site, I was talking to Spyro. As i said, I’ve come to expect no-reply emails, so I usually look on the website for a contact page first anyway.