I'm a t-shirt kind of guy. In fact, Threadless is one of my favorite Web sites and controls much of my wardrobe. Recently, however, I found a couple of Ts I liked over at Busted Tees and purchased them.
What a mistake.
When the package arrived the packing slip was correct--two shirts, both large--but one of the shirts was a small. No big deal, right? I called customer support and a nice guy told me he was really sorry and someone would call back the next day to help me out.
Nearly a week passed, but no call. So I called back.
Someone else, who was very nice, apologized again. She had no record of my call, but promised that she would have someone call me back. I asked why she couldn't help me out, but it turns out that she doesn't actually work for Busted Tees. All she can do is report my problem to the company and they'll take care of it. (Or not.)
Two more days passed. I called a third time. Again, a very nice person answered who apologized for nothing happening. Again, he said he would tell the company and someone would get back to me. I explained that I didn't quite believe them anymore, so if I didn't hear back from them I would just talk to my credit card company and have the charge removed. He told me he would pass along the message.
On the following Monday I sent an email. Finally a response. They told me to ship the t-shirt to them and they'd replace it. I told them that I no longer had the packaging because it had been ripped when I opened it, and couldn't they just do the right thing and send me the right shirt and I'd send back the wrong shirt when I got it...after all, I certainly had been patient w/their non-existent customer service. She agreed.
Two weeks passed and I didn't receive the shirt. So I emailed again. Someone else told me the shirt had shipped. Unfortunately, they were talking about the original shipment and had no record of a new shirt being shipped out, despite me having a written promise that it would be.
I asked if they would please send out the shirt right away so we could put this to bed. They told me that they would forward my message to the company.
Arrgh!
Admittedly, in the universe of real problems, this is a very small planet. Perhaps even a moon. But if this was your company, would you treat your customers this way? I mean, everyone--every business, every person and every organization--makes mistakes. It's how we handle these mistakes that creates either customers for life...or angry blog posts.
Rich Brooks
Threadless Customer...for Life
Follow Up: Shortly after reading this post someone from Busted T's left a comment with an email. I followed up, and two days later I had received not only the t-shirt I ordered (right), but another cool one as an apology. I also got to keep the original t-shirt which I gave to my wife. Perfect fit.
The moral of this story? If you're a business, take care of your customers. Also, have a Google Alert or a Technorati RSS feed on your company name, so you know when people are talking smack about you.
If you're a customer, it helps to have a healthy blog. What you can't accomplish through phone or email may have legs in the blogosphere.
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