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That's bait and switch! (plus other fun stuff)
Background: I work for a company who sells all sorts of men's and women's clothing, as well as tools and other stuff, name associated with a city usually linked to Superior. I work both sales (putting in orders out of our catalogs/off our website) as well as Customer Service (trying to fix the inevitable screwups and what have you.)
So one of our responsibilities in CS is answering customer e-mails. Usually feedback or questions, the semi-frequent request to take them off a mail/e-mail list. And then sometimes we have issues when clearance sales of certain items happen. The most recent one a few months ago was for a couple of our pairs of pants. Customers had been complaining about our jeans and special material work pants because the zipper wasn't coming down far enough. (Ouch.)
Finally, QC did a check and verified that yep, the flies weren't coming down far enough. So instead of discarding all that stock, we slashed the prices, and sent a promo e-mail out on Thursday indicating the pretty much half-off pricing on the items, and that quantities were limited. This e-mail goes out on the 12th.[/background]
Fast forward to the 15th. Checking e-mails, and one is marked 'BAIT AND SWITCH!' Knowing this is going to be fun, I start reading it. Customer complains that he got an e-mail stating that a pair of the denim jeans with the short zipper that he wanted were available when he placed the order online, but the e-mail was saying that they were cancelled off his order. At first, I'm ready to go and apologize to him.
Then he indicates that we bait and switched him, because he was now stuck with these two other items that he'd ordered. He didn't have to get $xx in order to get the sale price or anything. And because those jeans were cancelled off the order, he wound up paying reduced shipping charges. But noooooo, we totally bait and switched that guy!
Given the date of the e-mail, I checked his order. Sure enough, the pants are cancelled off. But the date and time of his order processing in our system says it all. Order processed on the 14th, in the early am hours, on a sale clearly marked 'limited quantities'.
So, because of his ignorance and eagerness to blame US for his being slow, I laid into him in the e-mail response.
"Blah blah blah sorry that you didn't get the item you wanted, it happens...
But you can't accuse us of 'bait-and-switch' on items that were CLEARLY marked 'limited quantities' when you waited over 24 hours after that e-mail went out to place your order. I apologize that you got those items that you weren't forced to get and will be paying a reduced shipping charge due to the cancelled item. If you're dissatisfied, I will be more than happy to send you a complimentary return label so that you can return those wanted items at no additional charge to you!
Sincerely,
Kalani"
(None of the original text was bolded or the like, just done to point out the fail.)
I think this is long enough for a 'first suck experience'. Later, I'll post about the lady who got so offended by a recent catalog cover, she was certain we were pandering to our 'homo pedophile crowd' and that we were going to start selling 'sex toys in future catalogs' (all quotes directly from the customer!).
So one of our responsibilities in CS is answering customer e-mails. Usually feedback or questions, the semi-frequent request to take them off a mail/e-mail list. And then sometimes we have issues when clearance sales of certain items happen. The most recent one a few months ago was for a couple of our pairs of pants. Customers had been complaining about our jeans and special material work pants because the zipper wasn't coming down far enough. (Ouch.)
Finally, QC did a check and verified that yep, the flies weren't coming down far enough. So instead of discarding all that stock, we slashed the prices, and sent a promo e-mail out on Thursday indicating the pretty much half-off pricing on the items, and that quantities were limited. This e-mail goes out on the 12th.[/background]
Fast forward to the 15th. Checking e-mails, and one is marked 'BAIT AND SWITCH!' Knowing this is going to be fun, I start reading it. Customer complains that he got an e-mail stating that a pair of the denim jeans with the short zipper that he wanted were available when he placed the order online, but the e-mail was saying that they were cancelled off his order. At first, I'm ready to go and apologize to him.
Then he indicates that we bait and switched him, because he was now stuck with these two other items that he'd ordered. He didn't have to get $xx in order to get the sale price or anything. And because those jeans were cancelled off the order, he wound up paying reduced shipping charges. But noooooo, we totally bait and switched that guy!
Given the date of the e-mail, I checked his order. Sure enough, the pants are cancelled off. But the date and time of his order processing in our system says it all. Order processed on the 14th, in the early am hours, on a sale clearly marked 'limited quantities'.
So, because of his ignorance and eagerness to blame US for his being slow, I laid into him in the e-mail response.
"Blah blah blah sorry that you didn't get the item you wanted, it happens...
But you can't accuse us of 'bait-and-switch' on items that were CLEARLY marked 'limited quantities' when you waited over 24 hours after that e-mail went out to place your order. I apologize that you got those items that you weren't forced to get and will be paying a reduced shipping charge due to the cancelled item. If you're dissatisfied, I will be more than happy to send you a complimentary return label so that you can return those wanted items at no additional charge to you!
Sincerely,
Kalani"
(None of the original text was bolded or the like, just done to point out the fail.)
I think this is long enough for a 'first suck experience'. Later, I'll post about the lady who got so offended by a recent catalog cover, she was certain we were pandering to our 'homo pedophile crowd' and that we were going to start selling 'sex toys in future catalogs' (all quotes directly from the customer!).
Read Gravekeeper's posts; pretty much the entire population of Nunavut orders pants at the wee hours of the morning!
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