Recently, I had a really bad experience with customer service for
online purchase I made from a small retailer. Though the product I
bought was touted on numerous TV shows, the web site seemed nicely done,
and my payment went through smoothly and automatically via PayPal, I
ended up frustrated. After my payment was taken, I never heard from the
company - no email confirming my order, or thanking me for my
purchase. Well, I thought, I did make a purchase on Sunday so surely by
Monday I will get some information on my order and an estimated ship
date. Nothing. Tuesday came and went - still nothing. By now I was
panicked - what if I fell for a scam and the company doesn't really
exist? They already had my money! I called the number listed on the
company's site and got a machine. I emailed them at the address listed
on their site - no response. I privately messaged them through their
FaceBook page - still nothing. I publicly left a post on their FaceBook
page complaining of the lack of response - nada. I then submitted
their online "contact us" form. FINALLY - after calling, emailing,
messaging, and posting - I got a very curt one line response with a
tracking number (with no mention of how my product was being shipped -
via U.S. mail, or UPS - I had to figure that out on my own). Lesson
learned, I will never shop from this company again. Ever.
Moral
of the story: it's not enough to have an online presence and shopping
cart. If you are going to take customers' money 24/7, then you should
be prepared to respond to them 24/7. That means that setting
up automated "order confirmation" emails or automated "after hours"
messages for orders that come in when you're not available (like on
weekends, holidays or in the middle of the night). Then you need to
follow up with customers' inquiries during business hours. It shouldn't
take a customer contacting you 5 ways and threatening to cancel their
order and call the Better Business Bureau in order to get simple
information on when to expect their merchandise.