Online store keeping me on edge

[Ludovico]

Buy local.

 

[mlyday]

Ive ordered a bunch of stuff from midwest, never had a problem.

 

[tvtoms]

I never emailed them to change anything.

Here's a nutshell.

I ordered 6 foot of tubing, a fermenter, a beer ingredient kit and a case of bottles.
In the comments section of the order, I referenced my past order and pointed out that I owed them 3 bucks.


Thats it.

And the problems were:

1) no noticed that order shipped
2) order arrived with the wrong yeast
3) order arrived with the wrong tubing
4) employee hand added an item to the order which was not asked for.
5) the employee's who picked and packed the items did not stamp the packing slip, making it impossible to even know who screwed up when they asked me for it.


So lets be clear that this was a simple 4 item order, and not something where I tried to ask them to do ANYTHING whatsoever after the fact.

The ONLY email I sent before receiving the order was 4 days after the order was placed when I realised that I hadnt gotten the notice that it'd shipped. And in that email, I even assumed (correctly) that it HAD shipped and that it was a screw up on the shippers part (not so clear on this, never confirmed).

So again, I want to state clearly: This was a simple online order and the tale that grew naturally from it.

 

[FlatcapBrew]

Doesnt really sound like a horror story actually. You were wronged and the company tried to fix it, there was confusion and they tried to fix it again, when you decided that you didnt want a replacement product they decided to be nice and refund your money, as a good company should do. the funny thing is that if they hadnt tried to fix things this would have been a thread about how there customer service sucked, except for the tubing size when you wanted to rack your beer there didnt seem to be huge inconveience other than having to write a few emails. I would personally like to see a company try to fix their mistakes, even though they shouldnt have been made, that just tell me that its un lucky that they screwed up. just my .02

 

[starrfish]

i always just go to home depot for vinyl tubing if thats what youre really looking for. theyre usually cheaper and you can get a pretty long length

Is it food grade tubing? sorry for the hijack

 

[klyph]

None of what I use is food grade. It is all however, beer grade.

 

[tvtoms]

Doesnt really sound like a horror story actually. You were wronged and the company tried to fix it, there was confusion and they tried to fix it again, when you decided that you didnt want a replacement product they decided to be nice and refund your money, as a good company should do. the funny thing is that if they hadnt tried to fix things this would have been a thread about how there customer service sucked, except for the tubing size when you wanted to rack your beer there didnt seem to be huge inconveience other than having to write a few emails. I would personally like to see a company try to fix their mistakes, even though they shouldnt have been made, that just tell me that its un lucky that they screwed up. just my .02

Well, it's wrong to assume that if they hadnt tried to fix it that I'd have made a thread about it. I posted this because it was funny, like the keystone cops. Like the three stooges getting stuck in a doorway on the way to correct a problem is what it felt like and was the theme going in.

And you can see from my posts that I was making it clear that I knew they'd try to do the right thing. But some would agree that it became quite comical. All I was trying to do from the first was pay the extra money for the bottle, lol. And then they kept giving me free ones, then made me pay for one, haha.

And with the yeast, they offered to send me the correct as I knew they would (which was beside the point of course of getting it right the first time), and also I knew they'd want to correct the tubing issue. As I'd hoped, they also wanted proof of which of their employees had screwed up. I even sent them a photograph of the slip to PROVE nobody had stamped it as they were supposed to have (and they'd always stamped my previous orders perfectly).

So of course they tried to correct the mistakes as I knew that they would, and said all along up there ^^ that they did.

I WILL say though that "sorry for the inconvenience" is a lame attempt to tell someone how sorry you are for your own screw up and how much you want their future business. Thats just a simple common sense thing though, right?

 

[Mbart]

I WILL say though that "sorry for the inconvenience" is a lame attempt to tell someone how sorry you are for your own screw up and how much you want their future business. Thats just a simple common sense thing though, right?

I am confused, I thought you said in addition to apologizing they did everything they could to correct the order and gave you a refund??? That sounds exactly like they are showing you how much they want your future business. Not sure what more they could have done. You were upset when they refunded your money because of the credit card activity? Never had a problem with Midwest.

 

[tvtoms]

It could be that I expect more out of people than others.

In the decade or so of retail management that I put in though, I never had the balls to tell someone with a problem that I was sorry for their inconvenience after I clearly and demonstrably had screwed up on multiple occasions on one ticket.

It conveys as "this was merely an inconvenience to you and nothing else. End communication"

 

[Mbart]

It could be that I expect more out of people than others.

In the decade or so of retail management that I put in though, I never had the balls to tell someone with a problem that I was sorry for their inconvenience after I clearly and demonstrably had screwed up on multiple occasions on one ticket.

It conveys as "this was merely an inconvenience to you and nothing else. End communication"

I would bet that the majority of people could care less how a company worded their apology and care a lot more about what they did to address the issue. All I expect is for the retailer to admit a wrong and fix it ASAP. A properly worded apology will not help me make beer.

 

[timm747]

I need help understanding how the "activity on your credit card" for a refund is a bad thing or reflects on your credit negatively. Seems like a lot of worrying or complaining over nothing really.

They replaced my Hydrometer when I bought my original kit from them because the first time I used it, it broke. They then sent me another hydrometer after replacing the first one and I just ignored it and kept the extra one. I wasn't bothered by them sending me two replacements and it wasn't an inconvenience for me to receive 2 replacements. Every other order (over 15) has been perfect. I don't receive emails when they ship either, you have to go into your order on the website and track your order that way. At least that's how I've always had to do it.

RDWHAHB



T

 

[tvtoms]

Shipping the items that were paid for is the least anyone could expect. Fulfilling it is simply crossing the finish line with the order. The refund thing is simply that I didnt ask for a refund and wasn't offered it or I'd have said no because I am using the product that was sent and they've already given me a free spray bottle. It's not really a complaint about big things, just about the small things.

 

[rawlus]

in a situation like this i would have dialed customer service and talked to a live person, ensured my explanation was understood and that they input a correction to the order directly.

i dont tend to rely too much upon the "notes" field in any order form. chances are high that the notes bypass customer service altogether and end up in the purview of a warehouse picker... i can see instances where the warehouse picker, accustomed to merely following a pick list, misses the nuances of a verbal instruction held within the notes... or may even have a lesser command of written english, given the nature of the job and that is is not typically a customer-facing position and make a mistake. then followup instructions in yet another notes field do not connect in any meaningful way to previous orders and so on.

it is an interesting time, in that we are so free to control our destiny through the use of technology and the internet.. from booking airfares to buying homes... but in this era of self-service we still expect a certain level of customer service... right or wrong, its curious... we prefer to do business with a faceless, nameless, non-human 99% of the time, but when the problems happen, those expectations switch 180 and we expect humans to rise to the challenge and come to our rescue. fun stuff.

 

[klyph]

For what its worth, I just received an order of starsan and keg parts from midwest with no problems at all.

 

[jkreuze]

It could be that I expect more out of people than others.

In the decade or so of retail management that I put in though, I never had the balls to tell someone with a problem that I was sorry for their inconvenience after I clearly and demonstrably had screwed up on multiple occasions on one ticket.

It conveys as "this was merely an inconvenience to you and nothing else. End communication"

I disagree. When my company's customers call with a problem, I fix the problem. Then I apologize for the inconvenience of having to deal with the consequences of our mistake. (Often I apologize for their inconvenience even when it's not clearly our mistake--"sorry" doesn't cost anything, and it makes the guy on the phone feel better.)

The idea is to make right what is wrong, right? So you fix the problem as well as you are able, and you apologize for the collateral consequences that you can't fix--you can't go back in time and make the problem disappear, so you do the next best thing:

you apologize for the inconvenience.

I don't know what other response you'd expect? Self-flagellation? Two free packs of Munton's dry yeast? Or, "hey, we tracked down the guy who misread your order form and we canned his ass!"? The business's options are sort of limited here, but they're doing what they can to (a) fix your problem; and (b) convey to you that they care about the trouble this caused you, this minor--inconvenience?--and that they're sorry.

Maybe I am missing something here. When a retailer says "sorry for the inconvenience" my response isn't anywhere close to, "buddy, you got a lot of balls to say that to me!"

 

[Captain_Bigelow]

I ordered a Temperature Controller from them a few weeks ago. It arrived no problem within a week of ordering, but I didn't get any kind of shipping notification email from them.

 

[tvtoms]

I disagree. When my company's customers call with a problem, I fix the problem. Then I apologize for the inconvenience of having to deal with the consequences of our mistake. (Often I apologize for their inconvenience even when it's not clearly our mistake--"sorry" doesn't cost anything, and it makes the guy on the phone feel better.)

The idea is to make right what is wrong, right? So you fix the problem as well as you are able, and you apologize for the collateral consequences that you can't fix--you can't go back in time and make the problem disappear, so you do the next best thing:

you apologize for the inconvenience.

I don't know what other response you'd expect? Self-flagellation? Two free packs of Munton's dry yeast? Or, "hey, we tracked down the guy who misread your order form and we canned his ass!"? The business's options are sort of limited here, but they're doing what they can to (a) fix your problem; and (b) convey to you that they care about the trouble this caused you, this minor--inconvenience?--and that they're sorry.

Maybe I am missing something here. When a retailer says "sorry for the inconvenience" my response isn't anywhere close to, "buddy, you got a lot of balls to say that to me!"

It's ok with me if lots of people disagree. I've long ago stated all I need to here, but I'll just say again that I do have tons of customer relations experience, including a decade of retail management. And "sorry for the inconvenience" is *not* an apology. I understand we disagree on that so.. it's as simple as that. In my book, it's an incredibly lame comment and takes absolutely zero responsibility for a problem.

I can take care of your next retail issue right now in advance, "sorry for any inconvenience you might experience". There you go, all set. Now all they need to do is do what you paid them for.. no matter how long it takes.. no matter if it gets lost in the mail... or any other related consequence stemming from it. All they need to do is make it right as you say. So if it takes 4 months for a grommet to arrive, you really cant complain. After all, you've had an "apology", and then they "made it right". What else can you expect?

I don't pretend that others set their lines in the same places anyone else does. This was just something that happened and I'm way past it. I may order from them in the future. Who can say.