Bad customer services - What should I do?

[SoonerTactical]

After the adress mistake was brought to my attention, I did take responsibility (see the email thread) and made multiple attempts to go to the shipping address. Nowhere was there blame pointed at the seller. (see the entire thread). But the entire email thread is there to see.

I was trying to be professional to protect the seller (no names, no product, no identifiers) while still getting a perspective check from my peers. If I am to he faulted, so be it.

And as a response, I did make a note on the order requesting local pick-up, called at least a couple of times (left messages) and went by the local storefront at least a couple of times to pick up the order.

 

[Shootin 4 Fun]

How much time lapsed from when the order was placed and when it shipped?

 

[Mitch H.]

What day and what time did you call? I'll be more than happy to check my phone records. Did you leave a message?

I received no calls or messages from you asking to pick up an order.

If not paying for your mistake makes me unprofessional, then so be it. Your timeline is missing some of our conversation. Why not post it all?

 

[SoonerTactical]

Please post all of the email if I have left anything out. I have admitted my ordering mistake for all to see. If I have left anything out, please bring it to light. I simply asked you if you would be willing to help when a mistake had been made, but you weren't willing and were unprofessional in your final response.

I simply asked my peers for their perspectives, but this is descended into a childish and immature argument. There was no intent to discredit any local business nor slander anyone personally. I purposefully sanitized the thread so there was no way to get back to you.

I ordered a product I wanted to pick up locally because I wanted to reserve some of your products before they went out of stock. There was no option for local pick-up on your order form. The wrong address was placed in the order form. I was not able to pick them up locally, nor was I able to retrieve the products from the shipping address.

It is a frustrating situation made worse by snarky comments.

And for the record, I never asked nor implied you should pay for anything, so don't know where that comes from.

 

[vvvvvvv]

If you want local pickup, why not pick up the phone and make a phone call to ask for that option.

If a site doesn't have a local pickup option, I mostly agree. I say mostly because I'm the type of customer that is highly unlikely to call and will just move on to some place else. Part of that is because I hate phones. The other part is I know how few small businesses have their in-store inventory in sync with their online inventory.

The e-commerce sites that I build that have a local pickup option only do an authorization hold on a credit card when the order is placed, and then the business triggers the capture at the time of shipping or pickup (which also helps when it turns out one of the products in the order turned out to be unavailable since the capture can be less than the hold). Technically, the business could cancel the online authorization and then do a card-present swipe in-store, but most don't because the online fees are often lower and it can cause problems for the customer while that initial authorization is still in effect (especially with debit cards where most banks don't honor a merchant's request to void the hold). To me, that's a win-win because the buyer can reasonably be sure that the item will be held because the seller can hold the item with limited risk because the transaction has already been authorized.

Still, the fault for the item being shipped to the wrong location lies with the buyer for not confirming the autofill address. And with most carriers, the destination can be changed any time before delivery (some by the buyer, most by the seller). Of course, the seller's choice of words about the mistake weren't that great either... But there's nothing here that would keep me from wanting to do business with the seller in question.

 

[SoonerTactical]

Order was placed on July 10th with a note:
"I would like to come by on Saturday and pick up the order because I live less than 2 miles from the shop."

Order was shipped on July 16th

 

[Mitch H.]

I'm waiting for the dates and times you called. I've wasted enough time with your attempted pity party.

 

[SoonerTactical]

I will go to ATT to get the records (switched to Tmobile since then) if that is what you want.

 

[Shootin 4 Fun]

Order placed on July 10th with note that buyer will pick up July 13th.
Order shipped on July 16th.
One week later on July 23rd buyer sends email looking for the shipment.

Is this correct?

 

[SoonerTactical]

Yes, because I had went by a couple of times to pick up the order and found the storefront closed (that Friday afternoon and then Saturday morning) Then i got an email stating that my order had been shipped.