Thanks for stopping by! Hey, why don't you do what all the cool kids are doing and subscribe to my RSS feed? You know you want to, so go ahead, be bad, be very very bad... :) Thanks.
I began shopping online about a month ago for my fiance’s birthday and have run into so many problems with some etailers that I felt it necessary to post my experiences. I began like most of us do when shopping online by doing some searches in Google. I found some etailers that I knew and began surfing around. My first stop was Bluefly.com
BlueFly.com - I think their site is pretty well done. It is easy to navigate and you can break your searches down by not only a product but by size as well. I found several things I thought Leigh would like so I ordered them. When I added the 4-5 items to my cart, they were all listed as “In Stock” and according to Bluefly’s web site, all packages are shipped out 3-5 days from ordering. No problem, I was ordering a whole month in advance. Order placed, my job was done.
Three weeks go buy and I get or hear nothing from Bluefly. I submit a question about my order through their online form, I get no response. Finally I decide to call them and the nice operator tells me that they have recently moved warehouses and all orders are backed up. I respond, “Well, why didn’t you tell me that when I ordered online?” Yea, she did not have an answer for me. I told her these were presents and I needed them. She told me she would put a rush on my order and get it shipped out. Nice operator, thank you. I then get an email from Bluefly two days later telling me that my ENTIRE order is out of stock!! Bluefly may you rot in fashion hell forever! You will never get another dime from me!
I now have to move on and find something else. So my next stop is Newport News.
Newport News - The site is again pretty well done, finding things are easy and once again I find several items that I think Leigh will like. I once again place the order, but before I click submit I want to find out their shipping information to make sure I have enough time to get it delivered or do I need to pay for quicker shipping. This is what is written on their site.
Standard Delivery. An order that is in stock and placed online by 5 PM Eastern Time will usually be on its way to you the next business day. Most items should arrive in 3 to 7 business days.
Great, I am two weeks away, no problem. I placed the order after 5 pm on Wednesday Aug. 1st. Today is the 6th and I still had not gotten an email letting me know my stuff has shipped. So once again, I went to their customer service section to try to find the status of my order, but because I did not have a customer number I could not find that online, so I called. The nice operator told me my order shipped out today except one item that will not be delivered to Aug. 23. I asked why if the item was out of stock hadn’t the web site told me that before I ordered? Once again, she had no answer. I asked when will my order arrive, she said Aug. 15th. The 15th!!!! Fine, Newport News, you got a stupid name and now I am not ordering from you again!
I have several more stores to talk about, but this is already too long so I am going to end with this. If etailers would start putting more money into customer service and delivery, they would not have to spend so much money on PPC and advertising to keep getting new customers. How much money does it cost to get a new customer compared to keeping an existing one?
Popularity: 2% [?]
Technorati Tags: etailers, shopping online, Google, Bluefly.com, Newport News
You may not be spending another dime in either one of those stores, however, some percentage of your 437 RSS readers, and whatever number of site visitors you may have will visit one or both of those links you so kindly inserted into your post. Using rel=nofollow would have been one way to have posted the links, however you’d still have visitors clicking through. And the unfortunate reality is that there will be some (hopefully, small, very small) percentage of those visitors are going to buy something from one of those etailers.
Just to show my personal support, I’ll state publicly that I will not click on either of those links, nor will I buy anything from them (unless you change your mind when/if they perform some satisfactory customer service for you.)
Hoping you got your fiancé something nice from your local brick and mortar shop in town!
Hi Cord,
The nasty thing is that your experience is far from the exception, gravitating towards the norm.
I’ve had similar results with about 7 different second tier PPC engines in the last week.
It’s as though the huge cost of poor service and customer experience was a huge unexplored secret.
On the other hand, it also demonstrates how much space there is for small entrepreneurs to jump in and do it right.
James,
Thank you for the comment, but I absolutely wanted the link to be a follow link. If these sites have a clue they have someone checking to see who is linking to them and I want them to read this article. If one of my readers read this article and still decide to click on the link and buy that is absolutely up to them.
My goal here was to state what happened to me and by linking to them, holding them accountable for their poor customer service. Thanks for your support.
Alex,
I could not agree with you more. My question is are their any etailers out there doing it right? The only one that I can absolutely say yes to that is Amazon. I am a member of Amazon Prime, so everything I order I get free 2 day delivery and they have been perfect with everything I order.
Hey Cord,
I wish I could add to your list but Amazon is the only one that comes to mind for me also.
Others have done ok, but that’s considering the bar is set very low.
What if he used anchor text, such as “blood-sucking bastards?”
I’ve had similar problems with Overstock.
Cord, you’re right about the the cost of a new customer versus a returning one; however, I think most of these companies have already budgeted that money. If a new customer takes the place of an existing one, then they probably consider that a positive metric.
I would absolutely agree with Alex’s statement about the opportunity for small businesses to jump into the fray. One of my clients who sold gift baskets used to send a hand-written note to EVERY customer, along with a coupon for their next order. Those personal touches make a big difference. This is in addition to sending the order correctly and on-time.
Overall, it’s painful to watch the bar being lowered.
The ironic thing about this is that etailers cannot afford to drop that ball with so many competitors (and even moreso when all those competitors have to do is ship an order on time and provide a functional website).
Makes you wonder how they would act if they were a retailer.
“I would like to buy this item.”
“Sorry, can’t sell you that yet.”
“What? Why? It’s on the shelf.”
“True, but we only have one left. What will we do if someone else wants to buy it?”
“Okay, I will take that other one, then.”
“Fantastic! You can pick it up in a week.”
“A week? The hell…?”
Hope you managed to get something nice and on time for your fiance
This comment is a little late, but the post struck a cord with me and so I felt the need to respond.
What I like about this post is the feedback and warning you are sending out to people such as myself. I have been writing about the importance of quality feedback and your post falls right in line with what I’ve been talking about.
You can bet I won’t even go near Bluefly or Newport because of your experience. Thanks for the heads up.