Right after the 9-11 tragedy, several people found good deals on the older M69 Gas Masks, the problem was they didn't have "Standard NATO filters"... We shopped around and found a company out of Kennesaw, Ga. called "Tapco".

They had the "M69 to NATO Filter adapters" there for $7.99 each... we ordered four.. or at least we tried to... Since this was first time ordering from Tapco, we planned to do a review on their service.

As is typical when you plan to do a review in advance, everything went wrong. The online order page wouldn't allow the order to go through, we kept getting "Internal Service Errors". Still, we called the company to place our order. The gentleman we got on the phone said that he "didn't know anything about the web stuff", but told us to try again later because the "guy that does that might be back by then".

Sure enough, the next day, Dec 12th of 2001, we were able to place our order online... the total came to $40.91 after $8.98 in shipping was added. We needed these filter adapters, so it was well worth it.

Several days later, a USPS "priority" box showed up in the mailbox... inside was a Tapco catalogue, an invoice for $40.91 marked "Paid" (with our debit card), a "Product return form".. and nothing else... No filter adapters.

We called the company and told the gentleman on the phone our problem... we were told that "the guy that does the web stuff isn't in.. he may be back tomorrow"... he wasn't. Again we called, we were told to use the product return form... We explained that there was nothing to return, nothing had been shipped. We were promised a return phone call... it didn't come.

We've gotten HUNDREDS of glowing reports about Tapco, and OUR order slipped through the cracks... We've all learned that arguing does no good, if you get a reputation as "problem customer" nothing gets done to remedy the situation, so we dropped the issue. This was still not resolved after three months, so we figured it wouldn't be.

However, We were recently contacted by "Jon" of Tapco who was VERY helpful getting our problem straightened out. It seems Tapco was going through some growing pains and (as we figured) we simply fell through the cracks. This seems to be straightened out now, and MANY people have written to say that Tapco is a first class company to deal with, and that our experience is the exception, not the rule.

What I can say from experience is, once our problem was brought to Jon's attention, he fixed it with speed and politeness. Our order was delivered to us within 3 business days of Jon's initial contact. Anyone can appreciate that...

For a company rep to find a problem that long after the fact, and THEN take the time and effort to solve the problem, speaks volumes about their new customer service approach.

OTHER:
Their online address is:
http://www.tapco.com/

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