Not the kind of business, I would deal with. I don't trust any retailer who pulls the "he/she agreed to, by ..." line. Store policy is not a law, nor should it be set in stone. If a business owner is unwilling to make exceptions to his/her own store policies to promote goods customer relations, then they shouldn't be in retail.

The owner coming to the forums making excuses and hiding behind store policies doesn't help his business look good. In fact, it makes it look worse. Simply, a refund and an apology should have been given to Patrice. Regardless who was right and wrong, it would have been good for business. Instead, many of those including myself, will read this thread and avoid this company and take their hard-earned money elsewhere. I wonder how many hundreds, if not thousands of potential dollars have been lost, because a stubborn business owner refused to do the right thing morally. Such a shame.

"A happy customer tells a friend; an unhappy customer tells the world." - unknown

Thank you Patrice.


Brian

Patrice... I had similar problems with 2 orders I made with Magic Depot in May & Sept/2016. They would not supply the merchandise and then would only provide a store credit. When I made a subsequent order they did not give me the store credit issued from the 1st purchase. They don't even comply with their "so-called policies" and provide a refund when requested. I was able to utilize the Paypal resolution service to get actual refunds, as a last resort. They keep coming up with excuses for delays. My feeling is that they operate a "shell company" with minimal or no merchandise. Their "business ethics" are contrary to what is stated on their website. I refer you this website "https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/selling-internet-prompt-delivery-rules". I have been making internet purchases for over 10 years and have never experienced such poor service and the associated excuses. My suggestion is to report your matter to the Federal Trade Commission. I will exercise my due diligence to make sure that others in the magic community become familar with their business style. I would never to do business again with this company or any that represent themselves in this manner. Cheers.............

Hi Guys,
Sorry to butt in and I may get flamed for this. that's okay.
while I have never ordered a reserve item, I haved ordered from Aaron. He went beyond the call of duty by honoring a special on an item that was over for awhile. and I hope he doesn't mind me saying this, but I had a lot of question regarding one of his Poor Boy products. Aaron sent it to me for free. He has also freely given of his time and knowledge helping with a couple of products I was developing.
so anyway, I just wanted to say that in my experience, Aaron is a class act. LET THE FLAMING BEGIN.
thanks for listening and thank you Aaron.
Jack Skalon

Paul Green and I had a terrible experience with The Magic Depot's awful awful service and that post was deleted by the Magic Café. So much for magicians helping magicians.

Clifford is correct. Bad experience. Won't be doing any more business with Aaron Smith!

My buying experience with Magic Depot was less than stellar. I will never order from them again. I placed my order, weeks go by. I finally email, was told the package was returned to them and the item stolen from the package. They reorder. Weeks go by. I again email. I was told that the warehouse was trying to find one in their facility. Weeks pass. Email again and requested a refund. I was told that my request was sent to the "refund department". What a dodge. Finally I receive an email about a new product Magic Depot is introducing. Within the hour of receiving the email, I requested the money from the first order be applied to this item and I would pay the difference. The refund was applied to the new item, and I immediately PayPal'ed the difference. I received a "your item has been packaged" email later that day, then nothing else. I call every week for 3 weeks with "it is supposed to ship at the beginning of this week/next week. Finally, I did receive the new item, but this process was very frustrating. I will never order from Magic Depot again.

Another awful experience here, with Aaron and Jenne never keeping a single promise. 5 and a half months after my order, with no item received and the promised refund never processed, I had to get paypal to intervene and force the refund.

I ordered on 1st March. And when I tried to cancel the order on 19th April because it still hadn't arrived (after a few emails chasing) Jenne said she would have to check it hadn't already left the depot, which she must have known wasn't true as a couple of days earlier she told me that they had no sand until the next week! This felt like a delaying tactic to get me not to cancel the order.

At no point during this lengthy delay did they even attempt to let me know what was going on until I chased them.

Jenne promised a refund on a few occasions, with the final email from her being on 4th July, saying that the refund should take two weeks. I was incredibly suspicious of this as Paypal refunds are automatic. So the two weeks delay would be entirely on her side. I was right to be suspicious, another two weeks went and there was no refund and no email from Jenne.

I opened the Paypal dispute and Jenne didn't even bother to respond to their request for information, so finally, in August after ordering on 1st March, Paypal ruled in my favour and reversed the charge.

I never write bad reviews or write ups, but the dishonesty I experienced here was shocking. It was interesting to find this thread and discover I am not alone. The Magic Depot should really be ashamed of themselves.

I also have had a horrible experience with this guy some years ago. Since then, he hasn't received a penny from me nor will he ever.

I am very disappointed to read this thread about Mr. Aaron Smith's Magic Depot not delivering orders in a timely fashion (or never delivering) and their endless excuses ... I was afraid I'd find a thread like this when I searched for it ...

I've also had a similar experience recently with Mr. Aaron Smith's Magic Depot and will not order from them again.

I ordered an item from them over a month ago on March 22, 2018 that was listed on their website as AVAILABLE and under "When Will It Ship?" it said:

"This item usually ships within 3-5 days. However, if the product is in transit, now kept in storage, or it is only stocked at the time of sale, your order may take up to two weeks to process."

Ok, I was hoping for shipping within 3 - 5 days , but was prepared for "up to two weeks" . My order status has been stuck on "Processing" since March 22. It has now been over a month . I've emailed them several times about my order and get a different reason each time they reply about why I haven't yet received my item.

First , they said that the item was "temporarily out of stock and more are enroute to us now. Your package will be on the way to you this next week." (which at that point would have been the week of April 2 - 6 , 2018 ) .

When that week came and went with no package from Magic Depot (and my order status still stuck on "Processing") , I sent another email asking about my order and they replied that the item had "not arrived here yet. However, if it is not here in tomorrow mornings deliveries, I will have it drop shipped directly to you from the manufacturer to prevent any further delays."

Guess what ? I never received anything. They did not have it drop shipped to me directly from the manufacturer.

I sent yet another inquiry on April 17 regarding my order and received this reply from Magic Depot on April 20:

"There was an unforeseen problem with the vendor. He has straightened out this issue with the manufacturer and the item is enroute to us directly."
(gee, what happened to drop shipping it to me directly to avoid any further delays ?)

That last reply from Magic Depot was on April 20, 9 days ago. I have not yet received the item I ordered and my order status is still stuck on "Processing" when I log-in to the Magic Depot website and look at my account and order history.

I emailed them again about it on April 25 and have had no reply to my most recent email. At this point I expect that I will never receive the item from Magic Depot , that the item has most likely been discontinued and is unavailable from any source ... the impression I have now from reading this discussion topic and my own recent experience with them is that Magic Depot has just been stalling me all this time , purposely lying to me with each reply , what other conclusion should I reach from their behavior ? (but WHY would they do that if they knew they didn't have the item and would never get it in stock again because it's discontinued ? What possible reason for doing this , except to irritate me and lose me forever as a customer?) If I don't hear from them within another two days with confirmation that the order has shipped (and a tracking number) I will lodge a complaint with my credit card company and I will get the money back, so it's not like they're going to get to keep my money in the long run.) This kind of practice is the practice of a small business that is it's death throes. Something seems to be very, very wrong with Magic Depot. I would avoid ordering from them.

-----

(by the way , as of today , the item I ordered from Mr. Aaron Smith's Magic Depot on March 22 is STILL listed on their website as "Available" and says "This item usually ships within 3-5 days. However, if the product is in transit, now kept in storage, or it is only stocked at the time of sale, your order may take up to two weeks to process." , but obviously that is not true, so they never bother to update the status of items on their website , even when they know the item is not available . see attached screen shot from today.)

Click here to view attached image.

Same exact problem same item diamond cut mirror goblet listed on there site as available ordered on march 26th back and forth with jenne for 6 weeks now run around run around opened a dispute with pay pal will see what happens lousy service will never order from them again.

All these back and forth, delay tactics, and substitutions for worthless stuff sound like what Vick Lawston did to me in the 1970's. This crap has been going on forever. Jay Sankey was the last one to do this screw job to me after Katrina. Luckily paypal came to the rescue. jay went as far as threatening me. I called paypal, talked to a real person, they said they would take care of it and for me to not communicate with him so I do not get threatened anymore. I deleted everything from him and any emails will go to spam.

50 years in magic. I have seen almost everything. I still order magic weekly. I just call or email ahead of time and ask if the item is in stock and ready to ship. And I WILL do a paypal or credit card dispute if the item is not in the day before the deadline.

NO EXCUSES ANYMORE MAGIC DEPOT SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES AND GIVE THIS GUY A FULL REFUND, WE ALL KNOW THOSE INSTANT DOWNLOADS ARE JUST ABOUT WORTHLESS. He basically got nothing for his money. Just like Vick Lawston took advantage and did to me when I was a kid in the 70's. We had no recourse then. I'm sure he made his fortune screwing little kids out of their hard earned allowance.

I'm actually sorry to hear this. I put hose experiences behind me. This reminded me. It was sad to hear this is still going on.
Same old story over and over

I wish I had seen this thread before I ordered. I have two orders that I have yet to receive. We are talking 5½ months now. At first I got the same delaying tactics emails. Now they don't reply at all. They have taken $135 in payments and I have received nothing. I hope others see these replies before purchasing from Magic Depot.

Magic Shops like Magic Depot and the last years of House of Fakini have left a bitter trust for online magic stores. I have been trying to craft my own magic lately. Do nt get me wrong, there are some awsome shops out there but it would be hard trusting new stores online.

I think it is up to all of us that have been cheated by The Magic Depot to spread the word. I am out $200 and I think there are many others that have been deceived.

I agree

I gave up on MD also. I ordered from them and like many of you received a long list of "reasons" the item hasn't shipped. I finally opened a complaint with Paypal and received a refund.
The latest dealer falling off my list is Steven's they are shipping just from China and not responding when you ask for a quality replacement. Again refunded my money when Steven's would respond to them.
Seems like the days of honest magic dealers is going away quickly, Sad.

I agree with Jouemystic....'spread the word' about the lies and thieving being conducted by Magic Depot. MB stole $90 from me this year. I opened a complaint with PayPal and received a refund. Apparently MD falsely represents itself as 'recognised and credentialed by PayPay and other card agencies. Also, I have started alerting magic supplier and manufacturers - that MD is a scam company with a cheating owner.

I placed an order with The Magic Depot and they never shipped my item. It was said to be in stock too. Two months later...no refund, nobody reached out to me to cancel the order, nothing. I repeat...DO NOT do business with The Magic Depot. I am only posting to protect others from losing money too. I will dispute on my credit card, but this business practice in unacceptable and should not be tolerated. We need more reputable dealers.

I am sorry for those experiences that have been recounted in this thread as I am sure they were very painful and frustrating. Here is my Magic Depot story.

I ordered the book Revolutionary Card Technique by Ed Marlo from the Magic Depot. As many of you may know, virtually every online vendor that lists the book indicates that it is "Out of Stock." I had contacted a couple of vendors that did not list the book as Out of Stock, however they all replied telling me that indeed, it was Out of Stock. The Magic Depot listed the book and I placed the order. Aaron indicated that it was not in stock but he could get it for me. This was in the middle of December, a bad time to be eagerly awaiting delivery of packages given the upcoming holidays. After a couple of weeks I figured that I should have heard something and getting suspicious I checked the Café and found this thread and one or two others. The stories of the terrible experiences people had with Aaron lit my fuse and enhanced my suspicions.

The bottom line, is that I got paranoid and asked Aaron for a refund. And when I emailed him my refund request, lo and behold, he informed me that it was shipped. I thought, "yeah, right, quite the coincidence." And just last night, a week after asking for a refund, the book came by UPS! Imagine my shock. Everywhere else I had looked online was not able to deliver this acclaimed Ed Marlo treatise, but somehow Aaron came through with a beautiful, pristine new and unused copy of the book! I do not know what he did that others do not or cannot do, but I was flabbergasted. Also, I was a bit ashamed because in the previous week I had posted my heightened suspicions about the Depot in this thread. I subsequently had the post deleted because it was quite premature at that point to jump to such a negative conclusion. I'm glad I did because although the experience was a bit irregular to me, the ending could not have been better.

I hope my post does not inflame anyone, but given my premature public condemnation of Aaron, I thought it only fair to finish telling the story in lieu of it having a happy ending.

Another downvote forMagic Depot; I had a similar experience a few years ago which included correspondence that icontained outright lies from Jenne.