A Bad Customer Service Story

When my man and I went to visit the parents in Florida last November, we went on a buying binge. We had to buy a separate suitcase to bring home all of the clothes and other items we purchased.

As many of you know, I have quite the addiction to penguins. We have decorated our bathroom primarily in penguins (and some dolphin stuff to appease my mate). Therefore, we figured we'd be on the lookout for some penguin stuff while we were down that way.

We stopped by Cocoa Village and found a little bath shop called The Bath Cottage. Inside, we hit the motherload...penguin-shaped bath oils. I picked up a bunch of them, with the intention of filling up a glass jar for the counter in the bathroom.

Recently, I decided I didn't have enough to do what I wanted, so I called my mom and asked her if she could check with them and see if they had any more. They informed her that they had a few left. Mom asked them to ship UPS to my store, but the owner of the shop told her that since there weren't that many, they'd fit in the mailbox. However, she'd put them in a box to make sure they survived the trip. She collected Mom's info over the phone, got the credit card, billed her for the shipping and the product and I sat back to wait for it to arrive.

A few days later a package arrived in the mail from them. However, it wasn't a box, it was a padded envelope.

Oh yeah...it was also empty. Apparently, somewhere along the way, somebody in the postal service decided to help themselves to my penguins. And the lovely people at The Bath Cottage failed to send the items with insurance, so there was no way for us to make a claim with the post office.

I called the people at the Cottage the next day, and got a really nice girl who was very understanding and apologetic and collected my information to give to the owner's daughter who would be in the next day.

The next day, I received a phone call from this woman, named Theresa. Below is pretty much how the conversation went:

Theresa: "So I guess I don't understand what the problem is."
Me: "Well, we received the package completely empty. Somebody in the postal service must have taken the contents. Since it wasn't sent insured, we have no way to make a claim for it. I was hoping you could help."
Theresa: "Well, I talked to somebody at the post office who said you can file a claim on your end without having the insurance."

(Wait a second.....didn't she start off telling me she didn't understand what the problem is? How did she know to call the post office if she didn't understand the problem?)

Me: "That's fine, I guess. But this wouldn't have happened if you had sent it through UPS. I would have a tracking number and $100 insurance, and this is what my mom asked for."
T: "Well, we decided that it was ridiculous to spend $7.50 on shipping for such little product when we could just mail it through the post office."
Me: "That's actually not for you to decide. My mother specifically asked to ship it UPS, AND she was told it would be in a box. She had no problem paying $7.50 to make sure it would get safely to California."
T: "I find it hard to believe your mother would want to pay the $7.50. I've never had a customer tell me they didn't care about the shipping."
Me: "Well, considering it was a gift, you just met somebody that didn't care. And why wasn't it in a box, when she was told it would be? Who sends something like bath beads in a padded envelope? They'll smash!"
T: "We ship all the time and nothing ever happens. I don't see what the big deal is."
Me: "The big deal is that you have my mother's money and we have an empty package."
T: "Why would the post office deliver an empty package?"
Me: "How should I know? The bottom line is you did a bad job sending this stuff out...no insurance, a padded envelope and you shipped something fragile cross country. I'd like to know how we can take care of this."
T: "Well, I'm already out the money, so I don't know."
Me: "You're not out anything. You have all of my mother's money in your cash register and I have nothing to show for it."
T: "Well, I could order some more from the vendor, but then I'd be out the money for it because we'd have to pay for it."
Me: "Well, if you had shipped correctly the first time, this wouldn't be an issue. And right now you're not out anything. You have my mother's money for both the shipping and the product."

Now is when she begins to get this extremely nasty tone of voice with me.

T: "Well, I can send out the penguins, but you'll have to pay the shipping."
Me: "I'm not paying any shipping. We already paid you for shipping and got nothing, including no insurance."
T: "Well, I can ship them out UPS but you'll have to pay for it."
Me: "Wait a second. We already paid for shipping and got nothing. Why should we have to pay for it when you didn't do your job right in the first place, or fulfill the order the way you promised? Heck, why should I trust you to send them out correctly this time when you didn't do it the way we asked the first time?"
T: "Then your mother should come down here and pick them up and mail them to you herself."
Me: "This is unacceptable. I can't believe you're putting everything on me and not willing to admit you did anything wrong."
T: "I have a store full of customers and I really don't have any more time for this. I'm sorry that I couldn't help you. Goodbye."

And she hung up on me. Guess what makes me the angriest in the world? Hanging up on me. Especially when that person is 3000 miles away and I can't reach their neck to wring it.

So, I called Mom who proceeded to call Theresa and launch into her. Theresa continued to play it that she shouldn't have to do anything. Finally, she also told my mother that she was too busy to deal with her anymore and she'd just send her a check 'to make her go away.'

So in the end, Mom got her money back. I got not penguins. The Bath Cottage lost my business and got a bad blog post out of me, as well as a spread of nastygram emails to my friends and family to avoid the place.

So terrible customer service, right? But here's the kicker. The bath oil beads plus the three stamps on the padded envelope totaled about $11. Was it worth it for me to call? Yes, because the business who collected my mother's money failed to deliver on promised goods or to take adequate steps to ensure safe delivery and/or insurance of the product for arrival. Was it worth it for them to fight with both my mother and I over it instead of saying simply "You're right, we didn't send it the way we promised and we should have checked with you first. We'll make good on it."? Well, I'll let you guys decide that one. I can tell you I've done a lot more than that for MY customers to ensure they are taken care of.