BenH

So I didn't know if I should tail on this thread or create a new thread about this. I think the community deserves to know when there is a danger present, and I also would like other people's input as to whether or not this behavior is proper or not.

I signed up with PointsMaker several months ago when I heard they were doing US Mint deals. I have purchased about 16 coins/sets for them over the past few months.
So far, only one has shipped from the Mint which I sent off to them and received payment in short order after they received my shipment.
Based on this one experience, things seemed to be going great.
The other 3 orders were still in backordered status at the Mint as of a few days ago.

Today I received an email from PointsMaker notifying everyone that the final day they will be accepting these coins is 10/13. They state that if you can't get your coins in to them by that date, you should cancel your order at the Mint. Now there are several issues here:

1. Today is Friday 10/8. They just notified me for the first time about this cutoff. I see no reason they couldn't have sent this same email out on Monday. Since it is now the weekend, and Monday is Columbus/Indigenous People's day and they expect the coin on the 13th, this really amounts to only a 1-2 business day notice.
2. My order at the Mint changed sometime in the past couple days from BACKORDERED to PROCESSING. According to the US Mint you are unable to cancel an order that is in the processing stage.
3. I relayed #2 to PointsMaker and asked them if they still would accept this order as it would likely ship in the next couple of days and I could forward it to them immediately since we had an agreement on this deal and can no longer cancel the order. Their response was that I should instead return the coin to the Mint.
4. Problem is, the Mint will not refund me my shipping charge (in this case standard shipping $5). I assume (though don't know for sure) that they will provide me a return shipping label, but if not I may be out another $5-10 to return the coin to them.
5. When I presented this situation to PointsMaker and told them I already spend time, money, and risk to purchase this coin for them based upon our agreement their response was: "There are risks for everyone and for us as well. It's not like we wanted to cancel but sometimes and especially in this business we don't have the luxury of canceling orders based on everyone's preferences." I don't really find this an adequate response to the situation.

Now I'm not 100% sure on the legality of all this. They sent me an email soliciting purchases and I had to fill out forms for them stating I was participating and provide them all my US Mint order information. I'm pretty sure all of this would constitute a legal agreement - and not just verbal. Additionally, as they are not located in my state I would think that legally this goes into federal fraud for them to back out like this. But, outside of the legality of it - this just seems like a total d*ck move on their part.
Even if I could cancel the order without any monetary loss to myself it doesn't make up for the 40 minutes I spent in trying to purchase the coin from the Mint.

I responded to them once more with a summation of the situation to make sure I have understood their stance correctly, but so far they have not responded.
I just think this is something that should be shared with the community to understand how these guys do business.
Sure, you may have worked with these guys successfully in the past, but think of the risk. It's clear that if anything doesn't go according to their plan they are going to hang you out to dry.

Am I over-reacting? Am I in the right here?

thanks for hearing it out.