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Wed Jan 09, 2008 11:16 am  |
EDS and its fabulous customer service have spoiled me perhaps. All I know is that there are some etailers that could really take a lesson or two in customer service from them. I thought I'd post a warning about my very frustrating experience with Beautyrose.com here.
On December 1, I placed an order from them for a makeup brush that I intended to give as a Christmas gift. My paypal account was debited that same day. I got a confirmation email from them with a link to follow for order tracking. The link led nowhere.
On December 19th, I sent a followup email inquiring about the status of my order and was told it was on backorder but would be shipped "next Friday." Well, I waited another two and a half weeks. No delivery, no further communication.
Today I sent another follow-up email asking where my order was. I got a one line response indicating that it was due "any day now." Needless to say, I cancelled my order and will be checking my Paypal account to ensure that my money is returned. If I don't receive satisfaction, I'll be filing a Paypal complaint. But I thought my experience might be helpful... |
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Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:26 pm |
Update: I just received an email from Paypal that my credit card has been credited with the purchase amount. So, story over.
Still, I am annoyed. A planned Christmas gift never arrived and Beautyrose had the use of my money interest-free for nearly a month and a half. But that's not the part that I find truly aggravating. It's the lack of any customer service that ticks me off about this episode.
I realize that there are some things that are out of an etailer's control. Late replenishment of supplies from suppliers, for example. (Although it would have been nice if Beautyrose had contacted me and let me know that the item was out of stock...)
But other things are completely within an etailer's control. Like communicating with a customer when an item isn't going to be delivered within a reasonable time frame. Or, having promised (perhaps in good faith) that the item would be shipped "next Friday", emailing the customer when it turned out that wouldn't be the case. Or, when politely asked five weeks later when the item could be expected, giving a better, more sympathetic answer than "any day now."
It would be nice, especially if the etailer doesn't have an in-stock, out-of-stock indicator on its website, that a link provided to "track your order" actually worked. Or else be removed until it could be made to work.
Although it isn't a hard and fast rule, it would be nice if customer credit cards weren't debited until the item was shipped. Especially when it might be weeks till it shipped. If ever.
And, even if an etailer were going to run a business without worrying much about on time deliveries, it would be nice if they at least gestured in the direction of sympathy for a disappointed customer. In my case, no apologies were ever tendered, including today when I cancelled my order. At no time did they contact me to let me know that there would be a delay. Only when I contacted them did I hear anything at all from them. In fact, they didn't even bother to acknowledge by return email that they were cancelling the order.
I guess they figured that there are plenty of new Internet customers online available to them so that being courteous to me was not required. Caveat emptor, friends.
And be grateful for the truly exceptional customer service at EDS!!! |
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Wed Jan 09, 2008 3:42 pm |
| Thanks for posting this....they are now on my trusty "do not buy from list" |
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Wed Jan 09, 2008 5:00 pm |
| I'm glad I read your post. almost placed an order with them. The thing I hate most is when a company charges you credit card, and doesn't send the merchandise. That should be illegal. |
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Wed Jan 09, 2008 6:10 pm |
| Thanks for sharing. They will be on my do not buy from list. |
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Mabsy
Moderator
 
Joined: 17 Aug 2003
Posts: 9644
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Wed Jan 09, 2008 6:36 pm |
| Just to chime in on the payment front... Most of the online stores I deal with do charge the credit card only when they ship out the goods. However, this is not the case when you pay with PayPal. PayPal is an instant money transfer system and there is no way (as far as I know) for the retailer to delay the $ transfer if they don't have your parcel ready. They would have to cancel your payment, refund it, and send you another PayPal invoice once they had the item ready to ship. I think it's just one of the limitations of PayPal. I haven't bought anything from beautyrose.com before but it is possible that they would have only charged you upon shipment if they took a credit card payment instead of a PayPal payment from you. |
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45, NW20, combination skin |
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Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:42 am |
I think you're right about Paypal, Mabsy. And honestly, that doesn't really bother me, except that it added to my suspicion that, having already gotten my money, this outfit didn't care one way or the other whether they ever shipped out my order. Ironically, if at any point in the exchange they had troubled themselves simply to say "sorry for the inconvenience, we expected the item to be re-stocked before now" I wouldn't have been annoyed enough to cancel.
There's some interesting research out there that shows that people file lawsuits against doctors and lawyers for malpractice when they feel that the professional was unsympathetic about bad outcomes. Cases with equally bad outcomes where the doctor or lawyer apologized or expressly sympathy with the disappointed client or patient seldom result in lawsuits. Seems like it's the same in retail... |
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