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Hello,

I thought i'd share my ongoing story with DeepCut Studio mats as a warning for anybody who is thinking of purchasing a mat from them.

At the moment due to health issues I am unable to venture far from home, stress is not helping my condition and I thought what better way to relieve stress than have some friends over to play some table top and have a good time. Soo I had prepared terrain and thought it would be a great idea to finally get a battlemat so we can have the full experience. After research I had finally decided based on design and went with Deepcut Studios, soo I used the print-o-mat and got a double sided gaming mat that would go well with terrain I had. One side forest/green and the other desert/cream.

It was shipped fast and after opening it I was a bit confused as one side was the wrong color and the other side is considerably darker than in the photo. I thought i'd selected another pattern due to my eagerness, however I double checked just incase and I had picked the right one. This is what I got:

https://imgur.com/a/fatR1De

I had contacted the seller which was very slow to respond and very uninterested in my issue. I told him what had happened and asked how we would go about solving this as I didn't want to sound like I am an angry customer Karen making demands. First I was asked for photo and then asked for an order number which I found odd but I complied. After that the seller responded with this gem quote: " The colors might look different than on the screen and that is explained in terms and conditions " . I asked my friends to view the mat on the website and I checked on my phone as well... and to no one's surprised it was desert/cream and not the red one I had received.

This is were things started stressing me, Deepcut instead of offering a refund or a replacement offered, quote: "to keep things simple my initial offer is a 20% refund for this mat and you get to keep it as is". At this point I already didn't want to be stressed and asked for either a full refund or a replacement. I waited for a reply and decided I should not let this stretch out any further and wanted it solved fast so I issued a claim through paypal and waited, finally got a response on my email yesterday saying Deepcut will respond on paypal claim, again I waited but no response. So I have escalated the claim to paypal.

I am tired and didn't want to pay money to be stressed. This could have been solved before it started by simply contacting me before shipping the product, asking if the color was okay or by offering a refund or replacement.

Edits: Fixed some spelling

Geez that's scummy

Thanks for the info! They go on 'to be avoided' list.

There seems to be a lot of gaming mat suppliers pulling the old "colours appear different on screen" rubbish.

 Rolsheen wrote:
There seems to be a lot of gaming mat suppliers pulling the old "colours appear different on screen" rubbish.

I can understand this is done to account for slight color variation because there are a plethora of screen types and settings that can alter how the color appears but when multiple screens show the same color and the product is a completely different color is quite a different story.

Is the pattern even same? Looks like totally different picture and not just colour issue. Like they had chosen wrong file to be printed on that side.

edit: Think I found the area. Maybe ordered one is smaller size than full size picture.

Anyway yeah totally silly difference. They can't seriously try to claim that red picture is the intended colour. And if they do plenty of customers that would want that red wouldn't find that and lots of customers going to be unhappy...

Can't just admit your mistake eh?

An update in order of events unfolding:

1. Seller responded slowly on paypal finally accepting dispute and asking for the mat to be sent back which is fair however being a EU business doing business in the EU they are obligated to pay return shipping when delivering a faulty item, an item that is not as described and soo forth (EU consumer law - can be checked). 
Paypal works like this (my first time ever having to use a dispute in 15 years of using it) - Open Ticket and submit evidence including photos > Both seller and buyer can talk while paypal just watches > escalate to dispute or else case gets dismissed and is recommended if seller is not responding which he hadn't > paypal talks to seller and tries to resolve waiting for seller response > seller requests item back for refund (139.9 Euro) > paypal awaits my response which can only be tracking number and a photo of shipping receipt, I cannot write anything there to mention that seller has to pay shipping back.



Side note:
- Seller didn't even include full return details and I couldn't even write that as my response on my paypal, I had to google and search their website for the full address and required details as I didn't want to waste time waiting for seller response via email. Mind you this company has been operating for a long time, they know what they need to give for returns. No company would accept shipping with just the address the seller provided and they stated it will probably not get delivered because of the incomplete details if I really wanted to send it like that. 


- Cheapest shipping option costs 35 Euro via normal post, courier services are above 100 Euro for individual customers. So I am not keen on parting with more of my money if I am not at fault, I do not like others to pay for my mistakes just as much as I would not like to pay for other's mistakes.

2. I contact Deepcut via email letting them know they have to pay for shipping in accordance with the consumer law. Mind you the seller should have automatically respected the law and offer a shipping label and I shouldn't need to do any of this unless I just wanted to return the product because I did not need/want it anymore with it being exactly what I purchased. At the same time I had also opened a chat with paypal letting know of the issue and their response is they cannot ask the seller to pay for shipping as it is not in their policy. So after some back and forth paypal offered to pay for the shipping themselves which I accepted because I wanted to be done with this issue that has being going on for almost a month since writing this. 

3. I send another email to Deepcut informing them to ignore my last mail, paypal paid for them and because I am still within the consumer law return period (14 days, no questions asked for return) I will be sending back my whole purchase for a full refund as I really didn't want to do anymore business with them. I didn't mention this in my original post as it was slightly irrelevant, my full order was 201 Euros, for 1 double sided 44 by 60 mat and 2x 22 by 30 inches mats. Both of these were just slightly darker than on the website which I was completely fine with. I did not get any response, complete silence.

4. The original box the mats came in would not be accepted as the box was very long, since I keep boxes since I do ship stuff out as well I had a good box for them and carefully packed the mats and used foam sticks and bubble wrap to make sure the mats arrived intact. Went to the post office and sent the package.



5. Checked paypal status and parcel tracking. Parcel had been collected 3 days ago but seller didn't respond on paypal and let the ticket auto resolve (buyer has to respond and there is a limited time window, if not response is given paypal auto-refunds the requested amount (139.99 Euro). I email the seller notifying them that they had received my package, I shipped the whole order back as specified in my last email and I will be waiting for the rest of my refund. I got a response seller insisting to talk to paypal since I decided to use them and they have no control over the situation. I again opened chat with paypal letting them know of the situation, they stated the original issue was resolved in my favor and the case cannot be re-opened under any circumstances and I have to talk to the seller and have him pay the rest of the refund as it is out of their control.



I emailed the seller again with a print screen of my chat with paypal, again stating that I had shipped the entire order back and I will await the rest of my refund as I am within my consumer rights. 

Currently awaiting a response from the seller, I do not expect a favorable response as this wasn't even a debate and the refund should have been given as soon as the package was opened and contents checked. It seems I that I might have to waste more energy and time to open a ticket with the consumer protection agency in Lithuania.

Wow, they really are ''consumer friendly''.

I've found that dodgy vendors are REALLLY quick to respond after you get a "no questions" chargeback authorised ...

Had to do that with an American miniature case company. They responded by deleting my customer account and 'banning' me from their webstore.

Don't know if a charge back can be done in my case as I paid through Paypal and due to how it works the case cannot be reopened and is closed as solved (I received the refund just for the faulty product).

So far it has been 3 days of no response to any of my emails requesting that the rest of my money be refunded as I had sent back the entire order.

It seems the seller responded on his thread in "rumors" in the dakkadakka forum... as if nothing happened and everything was solved without any issues and stress and everyone is happy.

I will continue updating there : https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/660/553077.page