I am having a bad customer service experience. I ordered a product from an online Vendor A, a vendor I haven't used before, even though I normally order from Vendor B. Vendor B has been nothing but good to me, but in this case, their deal was marginally less favorable and Vendor A had been recommended, so I thought I'd give them a chance.
WELL. I ordered something green. The item arrived and I opened the shipping package.
"Green," read the packing slip.
"Green," read the product package.
I opened the product box.
Brown. Not green. Where was my green? I didn't want brown. I didn't need brown. And frankly, I didn't even like brown. That's why I ordered green. Immediately that voice in my head said, "Vendor B never did anything like that."
But let's pretend I'm in a forgiving mood. I went to the website and arranged to return the product. I simply wanted to exchange it for the correct color. A list of reasons for return was provided, but none of them fit the situation. "Defective?" No, technically not. "Didn't like?" Well, yeah, but why should I have when I didn't order them in the first place. "Mismatched items?" Okay, yes. The product in the box didn't match the description on the box or on my order.
Still bothered that there was no way for me to identify the mistake in my return, I sent an email to customer service, saying I was disappointed in my first order and hoped it was an anomaly. Immediately I received an automatic acknowledgment of my email that cheerfully stated, "We love to hear from our customers! At xxxxxx, our goal is to provide our customers with an unparalleled xx shopping experience!" It went on to state that, "We are committed to respond to your inquiry within 12 business hours." That was at 9:39 p.m. on Friday. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure there have been 12 business hours since. My gmail inbox? Crickets.
Anyone can make a mistake. I make loads of them. It isn't always the mistake that matters, though. It's how the mistake is dealt with. In this case, I would have appreciated a little more leeway to notify them of a quality control problem in my return rather than having to seek out the customer service email address. Do I expect a response within 12 hours? No, not UNLESS YOU TELL ME I SHOULD. Don't tell your customers you have a particular goal related to how you'll treat them and then not live up to it.
I haven't totally written off Vendor A, but I'm very close.
My boss in NYC used to say the same thing about mistakes. For the most part, making a mistake is not a big deal. It's when you fail to properly address the mistake that it becomes a problem. And that's one of those little pieces of wisdom that I've always carried with me, and applied to pretty much everything, not just work. It's a shame Vendor A didn't work for my boss. ;-)
Anyway, I'm sorry about your pretty green xxxxs. I hope you get them soon. :)
Posted by: JGnirrep | March 21, 2007 at 09:27 AM