Customer Service According to Staples.

[kuangning]

Last week, I made a purchase from Staples.com. It consisted of three items: a task chair, a floor lamp, and a bulb for that floor lamp. Ordering the items was fairly simple; I was vaguely annoyed because the "use shipping information as billing information" section of their form was broken, but everything else was fine.

Except.

The first shipment, the chair and lamp, was slated to arrive on the 27th. The bulb was scheduled for the 28th. That would have been fine. Vaguely annoying to not be able to use the lamp right away, but still.

The 27th passed without any sign of a shipment.

The bulb arrived on the 28th, on schedule.

I checked the site to track my order; they stated that they had been shipped, reiterating the ship dates.

At 4:30 PM on the 29th, I got a phone call from the delivery man. He would arrive between 5:00 and 5:30, he said. Outside of business hours. But that was all right, so I waited...

He arrived at 6:00. Half an hour after the already-late time he had stated, he dropped off the packages, and left. I opened the first package, and looked at the second one. And the lamp that I had been given was NOT the floor lamp I had ordered. It was a table lamp. I do not have a bedside table, and I had wanted the brighter lamp for working by. Not a problem, I'll call Staples' customer service, right? Right.

Customer service states that the fastest they can replace the lamp with the correct model is the 3rd. Because "that's the soonest we have a sheduled delivery out your way." Excuse me? You've caused me to wait two days beyond your stated delivery date, you screwed up my order, and I now have to wait a further five days for you to correct your mistake? I opted to find someone to drive me to the nearest Staples, which is two cities over in Durham, because it was still faster than waiting on their customer service. The lamp is sitting on my floor yet, waiting for Monday. And so I wrote an email to their customer service department, restating my frustrations.


To: support@orders.staples.com

My order arrived today, outside of your stated arrival
times and days later than I expected it, and after
the delivery man had gone I noticed that the lamp he
delivered was NOT the one I ordered. I ordered the
telescoping floor lamp, and what I received was a
double table lamp. I just got off the phone with your
customer service hotline, where I was informed that it
will be the 3rd before an exchange could be arranged,
so I am opting to have someone drive me to the nearest
store instead. I am very frustrated with Staples.com
right now, and frankly, I will never purchase anything
from you again. Not only were you late delivering, but
you couldn't rectify your mistake without costing me
still more time and inconvenience.

C. Nelson


Today, I received this response, adding insult to injury.

Hello C,

We appreciate your inquiry concerning this issue.

Thank you for the positive feedback! Your needs are our chief concern, and we're glad that we were able to meet them. Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts with us. We have forwarded your positive comments to their respective manager so they may receive recognition for their efforts. We look forward to offering you the same great service the next time you shop with Staples.com.

Thank you for your patience concerning this matter.

Tara,
Customer Care Representative

... I am displeased. I am very displeased. I realise that some people believe that a single customer has no call to demand a store's attention, but I believe that if you have taken my money and made me a promise, the least you can do when you've failed to keep your promise is to accomodate me. I expected fair service, and that is not what I got. They never so much as acknowledged that they had made a mistake. An apology would have gone a long way. I am never going to purchase anything from Staples again, online or offline. Frankly, I'm afraid they'll keep their promise the next time, and afford me the same great service they provided this time. I realise that I am just one customer, but I firmly believe that how you treat the one is a true reflection of how you regard all the rest.

Comments

[ellobahn.livejournal.com]

It is said that if a customer gets good service, s/he will tell a friend.
However, if a customer gets bad service, s/he will tell TEN friends.

I think this qualifies as such.

[charles.livejournal.com]

When I was learning to be a shop-assistant, a decade or so ago, I was told twenty people, not ten.

And the Internet is a great democratizer. Cairsten gets bad service, writes about it in her journal, and now there are probably one hundred, to one hundred and fifty people who will think twice if they're even in a position to buy something from Staples online. They may not even remember this post, but they'll be thinking “hey, didn't someone I know have a big problem when they tried this?”

The second biggest problem with selling things online (after site useability) is creating trust—getting someone to believe that if they click the button, they'll get those products pictured on their screen delivered to their door. Because of the stupid way they handled this case, that trust is that much harder to come by, not just for the one customer, but for one hundred.

Consumers have power. And now we can all publish our experiences to a global audience, we have more power than ever.

[kuangning]

It does, actually. I received great service from Levenger.com, and told perhaps fifteen or twenty people. As you and Charles pointed out, I told about ten times that many when the service I received was not great, good, or even lukewarm. The sad fact is, though, that that is my prerogative. I recommend a service to someone on a one-on-one basis; I do not turn my journal into an advertisement for every business who gives me the service I expect. However, when a business does not provide me decent service, I don't need to wait for a one-on-one situation to warn people away. Almost everyone involved in sales knows that rule; they learn it when they begin. One would think that, knowing it as well as they do, they would heed it a bit more in practice.

[rustedlemon.livejournal.com]

that would be irritating.
I think that I'm going to write them a letter, just because it's irritating.

[ly2me.livejournal.com]

You're not 'just one customer'. I decided a long time ago that I'd never buy from Staples Online, and each time I walked into the store, if I was greeted at all, it was by someone without even half a clue. For example, how hard is it to understand, "Where do you keep your printer cartridges?" .... The answer I got was, "Huh?" and a blank stare.


*sigh*

[ly2me.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, and the product, when finally found, was priced twice as high as the same product across the street at Wal-Mart. :/

[kuangning]

Ugh. :/

[arodandrum.livejournal.com]

Amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk) is a pretty good model for customer service. I once ordered a CD that failed to arrive. I emailed them and told them and they said check with the Post Office first, but if you have any further problems, get in touch with us again and we'll sort something out. I phoned the Post Office and they were their usual bureaucratic selves (see Men In Black II for an explanation of this phenomenon) so I emailed Amazon again, who put another copy of the CD in the post and dealt with the Post Office themselves to recover the lost one! Even though in that case the problem wasn't Amazon's, it was Amazon that took responsibility for dealing with it, so that I, the customer, didn't have any further inconvenience.

Also recommended: an outfit called Biblion.com (http://www.biblion.com), which is basically a massive database of small and independent booksellers all over the world. It took me five minutes from Amazon telling me that an obscure Australian novel was out of print and unavailable, through the Google search that turned up the site, to locating (in Oz!) and ordering a mint hardback copy of the same, which arrived within a week.

[lutonianbill.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be so sure of Amazon.co.uk - I had real problems with them recently when they sent me seven books, only two of which I'd ordered. I had to return them at my own expense (although they've since refunded postage) but it seems their returns department don't trigger corrective measures, and it took separate complaints to get the right books sent out.
It's now all sorted, but if they can send out orders in a day or two I'd expected the returns and complaints processes to be almost as fast. Instead, it took another two weeks.

Re:

[kuangning]

Yes. I love Amazon's customer service: they deliver on time or early, and if there's a problem, they don't wait for me to come to them asking about it.

[violetvixen.livejournal.com]

looks like someone hit the wrong blurb... I'd send it in again - or print out their response and hand it to the store manager - that kind of thing is BS. >;/

[mopalia.livejournal.com]

Yes, it looks like "Tara", assuming she's real, is a liability to Staples. I'd copy your LJ entry into another e-mail to customer service just to see what happens. And don't forget to mention that you posted it on LJ!

[kuangning]

*chuckles.* That's an idea, and I'm just mean-spirited enough to do that.

Re:

[mopalia.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, this is not mean spirited at all! It's a scientific investigation! ;>

Re:

[kuangning]

Uhhuh. ;) In any case, it's been sent. I expect another form letter response. Failing that, and more amusingly, I anticipate accusations of libel. The one thing I do not anticipate is having them actually fix anything. Or even make a real offer to do so. ;)