Sunday, March 16, 2003
A Bad Case for Case Manufacturers
Posted by Brad Adrian in "THOUGHT" @ 08:37 PM
What follows is a rant. If you are not in the mood to read another rant on this site, just skip to the other more enlightening posts...
I've just had a bad experience with a PDA case manufacturer, and I'd like to know just how common my situation is. Four weeks ago, I ordered two leather Pocket PC cases; I won't directly name the company, but their name includes two initials. Anyway, one of the two cases I wanted was backordered, and The Company refused to ship partial orders (even though I was willing to spring for overnight shipping on each). The Web site said the backordered case would be available within 3 business days. Oh, boy, was THAT estimate wrong.
Anyway, after waiting for three and a half weeks, I called The Company, and they told me both cases would ship within the next 24 hours. Then, the next day, I got an e-mail saying that there was an error in my credit card information (my billing address had a typo). Rather than simply give me the opportunity to provide the corrected address, The Company told me to cancel the original order and re-order the cases.
Upon reordering, I found out that both cases were once again backordered. But NOW, my order has "gone to the back of the queue," so to speak, so it's probably going to be another four weeks.
Now, I realize that the typo was my fault, but the initial three-week delay, IMO, was inexcusable and the solution to the typo was absolutely ridiculous.
I ask you, is this really the way things should operate? Or is this just the status quo and I should stop complaining?
UPDATE: After two e-mails, four attempts on my part to get the situation fixed by phone and a couple of hours of phone tag, here's where we're at with this. An E&B customer service representative was finally able to edit the information and get the order placed again. However, it took several attempts from him and my logging onto their site before we actually struck upon the magic sequence of keystrokes that allowed him to do this. All in all, it cost me about an hour of actual phone time (not counting on-hold time); however, at least when we were done I was assured that my order will ship tonight and that the extra expedited shipping would not cost me a penny.
The representative also told me that they are in the process of installing a system that will handle these kinds of customer service-related issues better. I hope that's the case (no pun intended); I'll let everybody know tomorrow whether the promises came through.
UPDATE #2: If you want to see how this story finally ends, take a look here.
I've just had a bad experience with a PDA case manufacturer, and I'd like to know just how common my situation is. Four weeks ago, I ordered two leather Pocket PC cases; I won't directly name the company, but their name includes two initials. Anyway, one of the two cases I wanted was backordered, and The Company refused to ship partial orders (even though I was willing to spring for overnight shipping on each). The Web site said the backordered case would be available within 3 business days. Oh, boy, was THAT estimate wrong.
Anyway, after waiting for three and a half weeks, I called The Company, and they told me both cases would ship within the next 24 hours. Then, the next day, I got an e-mail saying that there was an error in my credit card information (my billing address had a typo). Rather than simply give me the opportunity to provide the corrected address, The Company told me to cancel the original order and re-order the cases.
Upon reordering, I found out that both cases were once again backordered. But NOW, my order has "gone to the back of the queue," so to speak, so it's probably going to be another four weeks.
Now, I realize that the typo was my fault, but the initial three-week delay, IMO, was inexcusable and the solution to the typo was absolutely ridiculous.
I ask you, is this really the way things should operate? Or is this just the status quo and I should stop complaining?
UPDATE: After two e-mails, four attempts on my part to get the situation fixed by phone and a couple of hours of phone tag, here's where we're at with this. An E&B customer service representative was finally able to edit the information and get the order placed again. However, it took several attempts from him and my logging onto their site before we actually struck upon the magic sequence of keystrokes that allowed him to do this. All in all, it cost me about an hour of actual phone time (not counting on-hold time); however, at least when we were done I was assured that my order will ship tonight and that the extra expedited shipping would not cost me a penny.
The representative also told me that they are in the process of installing a system that will handle these kinds of customer service-related issues better. I hope that's the case (no pun intended); I'll let everybody know tomorrow whether the promises came through.
UPDATE #2: If you want to see how this story finally ends, take a look here.
