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View Full Version : Becareful where you buy your ribbons/medals



Shep
01-13-2009, 06:53 PM
I never make any new posts on this sit I just try to add to others but here's mine.


Recently I was awarded a Joint Service Commendation Medal. I was to be awarded this medeal on 18 December 08. I went to order a 3 ribbon rack on the 12th of December so I could have it probably some time a little after 18 Dec. I ordered from www.usmedals.com like I normally do since they have been a pretty good service for me throughout the years. I made the order but never got any confirmation email nor was I ever billed for the product. December 18th came and went, I was awarded my medal and was expecting to wear my new ribbon rack the next week. No such ribbon rack came in. Now I'm a little upset since technically I'm not in uniform regulations since I wear my service working blues to work which require me to wear the correct ribbons. So on 19 December I make the same order again thinking there might be some software glitch on there end. No dice again with getting any confirmation email or being billed. I tried making phone calls but I guess the they only employ one call center guy and you can only be on hold at work for so long. Well after some time I got tired of waiting for them and used another thin ribbon service which worked out great and I received my product within the week.

Now I post this on January 13th. I finally recieved both of my orders from www.usmedals.com. Way too late and naturally I get charged as well. Over forty dollars total. Now I'm pretty heated because I look online and see that I'm finally billed for these late products. So, I call them up and finally get ahold of a customer rep. This guy had to have missed the class on customer service 101. He basically said it was my fault that I made two identical orders and denied that the products came to me a month late. He said he wouldnt provice a refund at all ( I could understand not refunding the customized ribbons since theyre useless to them) but he could have made things right by refunding my shipping or given me some sort of voucher for another purchase where everyone wins but no.

So I write this to you guys warning you where you spend your money on uniform products. Sometimes I guess there's no company pride in the fact that you make products to be worn proudly by US servicemen and women. I feel screwed over and I wanted to put out a warning.

Feel free to point out any flaws to my story I might have missed something. I dont really see this post lasting long but feel free to comment.

jeffersj
01-14-2009, 09:10 AM
I never make any new posts on this sit I just try to add to others but here's mine.


Recently I was awarded a Joint Service Commendation Medal. I was to be awarded this medeal on 18 December 08. I went to order a 3 ribbon rack on the 12th of December so I could have it probably some time a little after 18 Dec. I ordered from www.usmedals.com like I normally do since they have been a pretty good service for me throughout the years. I made the order but never got any confirmation email nor was I ever billed for the product. December 18th came and went, I was awarded my medal and was expecting to wear my new ribbon rack the next week. No such ribbon rack came in. Now I'm a little upset since technically I'm not in uniform regulations since I wear my service working blues to work which require me to wear the correct ribbons. So on 19 December I make the same order again thinking there might be some software glitch on there end. No dice again with getting any confirmation email or being billed. I tried making phone calls but I guess the they only employ one call center guy and you can only be on hold at work for so long. Well after some time I got tired of waiting for them and used another thin ribbon service which worked out great and I received my product within the week.

Now I post this on January 13th. I finally recieved both of my orders from www.usmedals.com. Way too late and naturally I get charged as well. Over forty dollars total. Now I'm pretty heated because I look online and see that I'm finally billed for these late products. So, I call them up and finally get ahold of a customer rep. This guy had to have missed the class on customer service 101. He basically said it was my fault that I made two identical orders and denied that the products came to me a month late. He said he wouldnt provice a refund at all ( I could understand not refunding the customized ribbons since theyre useless to them) but he could have made things right by refunding my shipping or given me some sort of voucher for another purchase where everyone wins but no.

So I write this to you guys warning you where you spend your money on uniform products. Sometimes I guess there's no company pride in the fact that you make products to be worn proudly by US servicemen and women. I feel screwed over and I wanted to put out a warning.

Feel free to point out any flaws to my story I might have missed something. I dont really see this post lasting long but feel free to comment.

First, It's to your credit you want to look sharp and have your stuff done professionally vice doing it yourself with items from NEX.

Second, and this isn't nit-picking, there is no such animal as Service Working Blue. There is Winter blue and Winter Working Blue. You wear ribbons with Winter Blue, not Winter Working Blue.

Third, unfortunately you did err in assuming there was a software glitch and placed the order a second time. Remember what "assume" breaks down to. Since I wasn't in on the conversation, I don't know if the customer service rep. was rude or simply being assertive in not providing refunds, etc.

At this point what you have is an extra set of professionally mounted ribbons. My recommendation is you place one set in a storage box (AAFES uniform shop has them for medals and ribbons) and set them aside for personnel inspections and/or emergencies (such as the ones you use daily got torn up somehow).

forcedj
01-14-2009, 10:04 AM
Another option you had…or could take in the future…is to wear only your top three ribbons until you got the appropriate ribbon bar that included your newly awarded medal/ribbon (you do keep all of your old ribbon bars right?). Unless of course this was only your second or third medal/ribbon ever received then you wouldn’t have had the single 3-ribbon bar to begin with.

Isn’t there a uniform shop where you’re located? When your order didn’t come in why didn’t you just head over there and purchase one? No uniform shop? Army/Navy surplus stores have them too.

Dan

OIFCOMBATVETNYC
01-14-2009, 10:08 AM
report them to the better business bureau as well. Unsat!!

CMSBROWN
01-14-2009, 11:46 AM
This is one of the reasons I just go to clothing sales and do my own rack. I have heard too many times the problems like this and that they have also put the devices on incorrect...Print out your ribbons, go to C&S buy them and put them together yourself...I do believe you even save some money doing it yourself..

Shep
01-14-2009, 12:39 PM
Thanks for the comments all. To clarify on a comple of your comments. I only ordered my top 3 to save on money since I'm going to Iraq here soon and I know I'll at least get a campaign ribbon/medal out of the deal so I didnt want to buy a full rack. I'm on five rows now so that costs between 30-40 dollars. The best thing I can do now is just store them but now I just own 3 identical sets of my top 3 medals. Im stationed at Colorado Springs so there's only an airfoce and army exchange neither naturally carry Navy ribbons. I'm also a medal freak when it comes to having a well mouted rack since I'm not a big fan of the do-it-yourself rack.

Thanks again and I think I might try giving the BB an email.

YomanDenver
01-21-2009, 10:46 AM
If you're looking to have your ribbons and medals mounted, UltraThin, which is located in Oklahoma, does a very good job.

Here's their website...http://www.ultrathin.com/

I never had mine mounted, but I've seen a lot of people who had theirs mounted and they look great!

Not a shameless advertisement, but just another option to use in the future.

Battleshort
01-21-2009, 10:58 AM
On a slightly different note:

On one of my ships, we had a SeniorChief Corpsman who went WAY back to Viet Nam working with the Marines - all kinds of decorations. He was about ready to retire. We had him come out to the range with us for gun quals and let him shoot. We fudged his score by 2 points to award him the Expert Pistol medal. (he already had the rifle medal) About two days later, he informed us that the new medal now cost him around $140 - to get both his ribbon and medal racks remounted! I forget how many rows he had but they went up under his collar. :D