Although I've never publically posted negative comments regarding a retailer before, Military Logistics Manufacturers, Inc. gets the nod for being the first (and hopefully last) to warrant such an honor.

http://www.militarylogisticsmfg.com/

I ordered several items from this site back in December (2007) and after several weeks of hearing absolutely nothing from them I attempted to contact them to inquire as to the status of my order. Originally I gave them the benefit of the doubt, as I thought perhaps they were closed for an extended holiday break, or were simply a small Mom & Pop operation operating out of a basement and had run into some other type of crisis.

It was only at this time that I noticed there was no telephone number listed on the website. Had I noticed this fact before I placed the order I would have shopped elsewhere, as I can't imagine why a legitimate retail outfit wouldn't list a telephone number on their website, let alone a physical address.

My American Express statement showed that MLM had processed the charges related to the entire order on January 3, yet here it was several weeks later and I still hadn't received anything from them, and they continued to completely ignore all my attempts to contact them.

When several more days went by without receiving replies to any of my previous emails, I sent a final email informing them of my desire to cancel the order, as well as my intention to contact American Express. AMEX suspended the charges and made attempts to contact MLM regarding the transaction.

Fast forward several more weeks -- I received a small banged up recycled package in the mail with a couple of dirty, used canteen cups and no paperwork (these items were merely one of several items from the original order with MLM). The postal cancellation on the box was from the same town in Florida that my investigation had determined MLM was located in, so I attempted once more to contact them informing them that I had previousely cancelled the order, not to send anything else, and if they wanted the trash back that they sent me they needed to forward a prepaid ARS label to me, otherwise it was going in the garbage.

This week I received notice from AmEx that they had completed their investigation into the charges, and since the retailer had provided documentation that the order was received by me, had reinstated the full charges! I called AmEx and advised them that MLM had merely sent me a small box of trash (with USPS Delivery Confirmation) fully two and a half weeks after they were first contacted by AmEx requesting documentation.

AmEx agreed this seemed very suspicious (producing documentation that was dated several weeks after the initial request was made by AmEx) so once again the charges have been reversed and AmEx's fraud investigation case has been reopened.

Jim