Birthday Express/Storybrook Heirlooms billing errors, erroneous charges

[luann]

I ordered several dresses/clothes from Storybook/Birthday Express when they had that big clearance sale in July. They billed my credit card for the entire amount, but did not send 3 dresses totaling about $92 dollars. When I called them about this, they said they knew the 3 dresses where not sent out and were out of stock. What I don't understand is why they would bill me, KNOWING that the dresses were not available.

They billed my credit card on July 13. I called customer service who said it takes about 2-4 weeks to process a refund! I called several times, the first time I was told the "check was on the way". The second time, the check was on the list to go out the following week. The third time, they were not sending a check, but crediting my account, and supposedly, that was already done.

I called my credit card company today, they checked back to August 7, NO CREDIT. When I call Birthday Express to complain about this shoddy practice of "borrowing my money", they connect me to the Heirloom People who never return my calls.

I'm going to just handle it through my credit card carrier now. But I am rather suspicious of their Birthday Express/Storybooks tactics. To me it looks like they are doing a juggling act with MY funds. I could see if I had sent something back and had to wait for a refund, but I never even received the items. RIDICULOUS!