Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Another Order Incident

Don't know what it is about me and companies that try to rip me off. Today it's a photo company. Last week, I ordered a few pictures of baby in three different poses. Pose 1, 2, and 3. Had already ordered pose 4 in a previous order so didn't want to get more of that pose. Forward to today and I get an e-mail with my "order status." The e-mail thanks me for ordering, tells me that they've received and processed my order and that I should expect to receive my order within 7-10 days. The e-mail continues by listing my order total which includes so many dollars for the handling fee and tax. Fine. Next they list what's included in my order. Key words in this part of the e-mail I say would be "your order" as the listed items includes one line item that I never ordered and does not include an item that I did order. My hand probably darted towards the phone as quick as an Olympic sprinter.
Explained to the representative that there appeared to be an error, on their part, with the poses. I had ordered pose 2 but the e-mail says pose 4 has been shipped. She checks into the system and finds that my order has already been shipped and that pose 4 has actually been sent out. Duh. Informed her that I did not want pose 4. She said she could send out pose 2 and then I could mail back pose 4...on MY dime!!! WTF?! Prior to me asking about who's supposed to pay for mailing the incorrect pose back, she did add that it was usually the policy of the company to wait for the return of the incorrect pose prior to sending out the correct pose. But she said she "usually trusts the people she has dealt with" so she could send out the correct pose today. She then quickly changed her mind and said I would need to send the incorrect pose back before she can send out the correct one after I was quick to inform her that this mistake was in fact their fault and not mine so I felt that I shouldn't be required to pay for postage to send it back. She argued her case, but I asked to speak with a supervisor.
Turns out after much waiting on hold, this same representative (not her supervisor) informs me that the negative or file (I can't remember what she said) of pose 2 was bad and could not be used, and that they decided to *@#$!% substitute and ship out pose 4 for me because pose 4 was the most ordered and "portrayed baby in the best way" or some bull$#!# like that. I was disappointed to hear that the pose that I wanted would not be making its way to our home, but I was so angry to hear that they substituted like that without my consent. My big arguing point was that this company has customer contact information, whether it's a telephone number or e-mail address, so there is NO excuse for sending customers something that they DIDN'T order. After going a little more back and forth with the representative, she asks me if I want to speak with a supervisor. I'm fuming and tell her "Yeah, at this point, whatever." She comes back on the phone (!) and tells me that she has some "options" for me with one of them being a discounted price of pose 4. I tell her once again that I've already ordered pose 4 and I did not want anymore of pose 4. She sounds as if she's exhausted all possibilities but I tell her that I want resolution and she hasn't given me one. I start looking at the Better Business Bureau site while on hold. I finally got to speak with a supervisor and I almost bit the supervisor's head off. But she turned out to be more "customer-friendly" and she gave me "options" as well. One of those options was in fact a method to send back the incorrect pose on their dime. Told her that I do want to send the incorrect pose back and get refunded. She said I would be getting a label.
I'm usually not this resilient when it comes to issues like this but I actually held on and fought for resolution. It was rather liberating, but exhausting and my pressure probably got up there. I think the waiting while on hold might've helped to calm me down a bit too. Took me two days to post this. Now we'll see what happens...

3 comments:

tabasco man said...

She's baaack! I was getting worried that the AAG was going soft there with the ciguatera and hazardous jumpdrive posts. But with this, you can see she is fine and well. Can't you just feel the rage? ;)

Gee Why said...

Yes, I can feel it!! I'm so worked up now, I need to call anyone's customer support number just so that I can b*tch out somebody right now!

Motherhood, lack of sleep, and overall fatigue make you do things out of character.

I say you name the company so that others don't use this "service" and go somewhere else. You never know who's monitoring blog traffic for bad reviews so maybe this could trigger an acceptable resolution.

Angry Asian Girl said...

I think this company is like a monopoly here in our wonderful state. If someone really wanted to get into a business, perhaps they could be the alternative to this company. Or you could just capture your own precious moments using the skills that you learn from articles like this.