Lessons learned from dealing with Mr. James Britt (the person behind voodoomanswitches.com, blacklabelswitches.com, and presumably stompboxswitches.com):
1. Whenever you go internet shopping, check this and other discussion boards on the web to get a feel for how reliable the seller is. Don't be fooled by a competent looking website. If a seller of the product on eBay has great feedback, do not presume that a website selling the identical product is also reliable. As stated earlier, the seller of voodooman switches on eBay (who is reliable) is a completely different person than Mr. Britt.
2. If you find out after ordering that you have ordered from a questionable seller, immediately ask your credit card company how long you have to cancel the charge and get a refund under their buyer protection policy. If you do not ACTUALLY RECEIVE your product (promises and/or tracking numbers DO NOT COUNT) by that time, cancel the charge while you still can and take your business elsewhere.
3. If you don't cancel the charge in time, your item does not arrive, and the seller is unresponsive, PLEASE DO EVERYONE A FAVOR AND TAKE ACTION! DON'T TAKE FRAUD LYING DOWN! Here are some actions you can take:
a. It helps warn others if you file a negative Better Business Bureau complaint, report the seller to the Internet Crimes Complaint Center, and report them to the Federal Trade Commission, but taking your case to these complaint centers won't likely get you timely satisfaction, especially if the seller has been reported before and had nothing bad come of it. The key that worked for me was to complain lower in the chain (see below).
b. I am not an attorney, but both my local police and the Clarke County, Washington, Sheriff's Department informed me that taking orders over the internet, accepting payment, not shipping, and ignoring attempts to work out the issue constitutes fraud by wire, and that is a criminal matter (it is NOT merely a civil matter as I was told and reported in an earlier post). File a complaint against the seller with your local police and obtain a copy of the report (or a letter from the police documenting the report). Unless you are local to the seller's location, they will probably tell you right out that they won't pursue the matter themselves, but the report can be passed on to people who can help. If nothing else you may be able to use the letter to make an insurance claim or for tax purposes.
c. Call one (or more) of the local police departments with jurisdiction over the seller. The police informed me that Mr. Britt is at 3038 I St., Washougal, WA, 98671, so in this case options include the Clark County, WA, Sheriff's Department and the City of Washougal Police. Since his advertised business address is in Camas, Washington (his Postal Plus post office box -- 3510 NE 3rd #109, Camas is still listed for Black Label switches) you might also get help from the Camas, Washington police. The more people you get involved, the more likely somebody will help. Once you've made contact, write to the person you spoke to, forward the complaint copy and any other evidence (such as a CAREFULLY CENSORED bank statement/credit card statement showing the transaction, email order confirmations, tracking numbers and tracking reports, etc.), and request that they contact the seller about the complaint. BTW, if you paid by credit card, check your statement or with the card issuer for the record of the purchase -- you may find an alternate phone number you can pass on to the police to help them contact the seller. The 360 area code phone number associated with the charge on my statement turned out to be Mr. Britt's personal phone number.
d. In my case, the police in Washington State were very helpful -- God bless them -- because they contacted the seller. On the morning the police visited him, he called me and promised to send my switch and a new tracking number that very afternoon. I agreed that I would not pursue the matter further if he did that. A week later, after I received NO tracking number and no switch, I let the police know that he had failed to live up to the deal. They contacted him again, this time to have him write me a refund check. Of course, the police department in the seller's jurisdiction may not be willing to help this much-- but it worked in my case, and if they get many complaints about a particular seller they will eventually move to arrest them if the problem persists. Squeaky wheels get greased.
e. If you opt for a refund, do NOT provide credit card info to process the refund, and avoid accepting a check if possible (U.S. Postal Money orders work well). But if a check is the best you can get, take it to THEIR bank and try to cash it. If the check is no good and you deposit it in your account, you will likely incur a returned item fee.
f. If you HAD to take a check or get nothing and the check is bad, go back to step a. above, file check fraud charges (yes, according to several legal websites I checked, writing NSF checks is check fraud) against the seller, and repeat the process with the new charges.
I hope this helps! Mr. Britt finally sent my switch after SEVEN AND A HALF MONTHS. I now have my switch, a bounced check from Mr. Britt, and a $35 hit for his bad check. As others have posted, the switch is a good design and seems to work fine, but I must say it was NOT WORTH THE HEARTACHE and I will NEVER do business with this person again. The email account I posted earlier seeking other folks who paid for switches they did not receive will be deactivated.
