More BOPIS nonsense.

[notalwaysright]

As most probably know, (from my unrelenting whining) I work at a fabric and craft store which recently implemented a buy online, pickup in store program. On the one hand, I *gasp* really like it. I like getting a list and hunting down the items, finishing the order by stapling the hold slip to the bag, and tucking it in the area reserved up behind the registers. It's oddly satisfying, probably because of one thing. Did you notice? NO CUSTOMER WAS PRESENT. I got to do this happily, in peace.

Ahem. That being said, some people are abusing this program. When I left today, we had a total of 13 orders ready to be picked up. Of that, 7 were overdue. Customers get three days to pickup their orders. One order had a pickup date of 10/31. There's a note stapled to it that says "customer not sure when she'll be down to get it." (customer lives in Country to the North) Really? She can't even make a guess? Why is this order not cancelled? The managers are supposed to call as a courtesy. If someone answers and says "sorry, my kid got sick, I'll be there tomorrow" then fine, we will keep the order. But just "eh, I dunno, sometime" does not cut it.

We are close to running out of room in the hold area due to these overdue orders, and the program has only been going on for a short time. The bottom line is that we're going to drown in these orders if management doesn't put their foot down. This is stock that could be sold, that still is in our system (I think?) until it's officially picked up. Oh, I guess this part should go in MiM, but corporate decided that a store a couple hours south of us is going to do BOPIS for Black Friday. What. The. Hell. At most stores, the program will be suspended, but this sad store is going to be a test store and keep it available.

[chimera]

I like it, too - a customer-free scavenger hunt. But thank goodness we're not doing BOPIS for Black Friday, either. Isn't the official policy to only hold orders for a few days after the pickup due date? If it's spelled out on the site, then the managers should be able to cancel those very overdue orders. I wonder if the company will add a stipulation on reordering items if you keep failing to pick up.

Another potential problem I see with BOPIS is tied to the stockroom explosion happening in a lot of stores. Suppose someone wants a special thimble we have "in stock." There's none on the peg, but we received 82 of them a month ago, so that means they could be in a box within any of dozens of boxes piled on top of each other in a filled-to-bursting stockroom! We would lose a sale because we couldn't find the item, and the customer would be better off placing a special order or ordering online to ship to their house. Everything I hear about ordering from the company's site is pretty nightmarish, to add to that. Orders take forever to ship, and often contain less than the whole order because one or more items were "out of stock." No doubt the online fulfillment warehouse(s) suffer from the same problems plaguing the stores.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

The swamp implemented BOPIS not long before I left. Of course the process of picking an order is as time-consuming as possible because LOL updating the outdated computer systems.

We weren't getting too many orders, but the ones we did get were head-scratching. Like three box fans. Two super soakers. Or one bottle of shampoo.

[Shyla]

I tried BOPIS from Lowes a few years ago. The system said I had a week to pick it up. I went there after 3 days and they said they had sold the item. Even though my card had been charged. I got no answer other than someone wanted it. The only BOPIS I trust now is groceries but they have a specific pickup time.

[notalwaysright]

Everything I hear about ordering from the company's site is pretty nightmarish, to add to that. Orders take forever to ship, and often contain less than the whole order because one or more items were "out of stock." No doubt the online fulfillment warehouse(s) suffer from the same problems plaguing the stores.

I know, right? Even an employee recently had a problem when ordering something online. The whole order was cancelled, with no email, nothing. I've heard of people ordering two yards for a fleece blanket, and it's cut in one yard pieces. Or huge flaws, like hole or grease stains. So that's another reason I like BOPIS, because at our store we watch for this, and if we miss something, it's generally easy to get an undamaged cut.

I think the managers are afraid to cancel orders to lose the sale. I don't know what kind of official policy there is about overdue orders, but they decide they want to keep the order as "customer service." Arg. It says 72 hours on the site, why order something if you can't get to the store?

Shyla, was that the only time you used BOPIS? I've used it at other stores and have never had a problem. I've used it when I could see online that there was only one of a product (a window fan, during a heat wave) and wanted to make sure it wasn't sold out by the time I drove there... Worked like a charm.

[Shyla]

It's been maybe 3 years since I used BOPIS. Maybe 4 years. Probably some stores handle it better than others.

[notalwaysright]

It's been maybe 3 years since I used BOPIS. Maybe 4 years. Probably some stores handle it better than others.

I hope so, I'd be pissed if I had the confirmation email that said five days, and they sold the product I'd already paid for. At least that's not my store's problem, lol. If we have one problem, it's that we don't get orders pulled within the two hour window. We would need more staff for that, and haha corporate gave us ZERO extra hours for this program.

I've never tried the grocery store pickup, though the big Freddy's offers it. It sounds amazing, considering that I regularly want to go full-on crazy while trying to elbow my way through that store. To save my sanity I'm going to budget and shop at the more expensive small store that's only a few blocks from my house.

[wolfie]

I hope so, I'd be pissed if I had the confirmation email that said five days, and they sold the product I'd already paid for. At least that's not my store's problem, lol. If we have one problem, it's that we don't get orders pulled within the two hour window. We would need more staff for that, and haha corporate gave us ZERO extra hours for this program.

That might be the situation Shyla ran into - the email telling her she had a week could have been auto-generated when the system found there was stock in the computer, and processed payment. With low (Lowes?) staffing, that could have been enough of a delay that a customer got to the item and bought it before the BOPIS person could pick the item for her order.

[sstabeler]

There's a more fundamental problem. She was charged for the item, then, when she arrived to pick it up, was told she was SOL because it had already been sold. At a minimum, that's breach of contract ( they committed to supplying X item to the customer if she arrived within 7 days, and when she turned up, they said she couldn't get it at all anymore.) and may actually be outright illegal. Note there is no mention of either a refund, or letting her know when she could get the item.

[Shyla]

I got a refund. But it was a pain. I had to ask for a manager and insist on a refund since they had no idea what to tell me. I asked why it wasn't saved since I paid for it and got "someone wanted one" and "I don't know." But I thought since I paid they should have saved it and no one even bothered with a perfunctory apology.

[notalwaysright]

That might be the situation Shyla ran into - the email telling her she had a week could have been auto-generated when the system found there was stock in the computer, and processed payment. With low (Lowes?) staffing, that could have been enough of a delay that a customer got to the item and bought it before the BOPIS person could pick the item for her order.

I'm going to ask, but I'm 99% sure that there is no auto generated email sent based on just the computer inventory. The customer gets an email saying that the order is being processed, and when the person finishes pulling the order and selects "finished" then an email is sent saying that it's ready. If we can't find the item, we could select 0 and it will effectively cancel the order (if there's only one item) and the person automatically gets a refund.

I have no idea how Lowe's does it, but I'm reasonably sure that's how it works at my store. Today when I left there were eight orders ready to be picked up and five of them were overdue. The order that was supposed to be picked up on 10/31 is still there. But at least since there are less orders, we do have more room.

[Chromatix]

The friendly local computer megahypersupermarket in Helsinki does BOPIS. This tends to work because it's actually a mail-order warehouse with a retail floor or three.

Usually, they don't actually assemble the orders until you show up to collect. Instead they give you a pager and let you wander around for a few minutes while they do so. I'm sure they get a few impulse buys that way...

[wolfie]

Usually, they don't actually assemble the orders until you show up to collect. Instead they give you a pager and let you wander around for a few minutes while they do so. I'm sure they get a few impulse buys that way...

Would have to be Impulse buys, because Warp (OS/2 3.0) was discontinued a LONG time ago.

[Dreamstalker]

The BOPIS at my local computer/gadget store works well. You get an email (with a confirmation number that you must show at pickup) when the item is sitting on a designated hold shelf at the store behind the service desk, and said shelf is very clearly labeled as are the items on it. I think most BOPIS items are picked from the backstock.

I've only used it a few times when I wanted something with low stock numbers or was pressed for time and didn't want to waste half a day browsing (I typically go in for one item and come out with 5 and a wishlist), and I've never had any problems.

[chimera]

On one hand, you have people who order BOPIS and wait a week to pick it up...on the other, you have people who expect their order to be picked as soon as they hit the "confirm order" button. What do you think this is, a pizza place?!