I’ve been delaying writing this blog for months, partially because I’m a bit worried it’s going to be a mammoth one, but mainly because I was hoping all these issues would have been resolved by now. I’m finally biting the bullet and writing it now though, inspired by the positive response I got from 1 of these 4 companies. I’d normally write this sort of subject up on the Tamar blog, but since these are all starkly my own opinions (and in some cases I may get a little snipey) I thought it safest to write it here… So here’s the low-down, as I believe the kids on the street (don’t) say:
Company: The Google Store (run in the UK by ‘Merchandise Mania’)
What I paid for: A bunch of Google branded merchandise – a baby-gro (which will no longer fit, if it ever arrives), a cool USB laser-pointer thingy, plus a few other bits.
What I got: Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Ordered on September 3rd 2010, still no merchandise.
What happened when I complained: I’ve sent numerous e-mails, submitted an enquiry on the website and tweeted about it a few times, but if I’m remembering correctly I’ve never even had a reply. To be fair to Google here, the store is operated by different companies around the world, so I suppose this is more the merchandiser’s problem, but I would have hoped Google might have kept a closer tab on complaints and issues.
Company: Lastminute.com
What I paid for: I booked a stay at the Custom House hotel for the night of Kevin Smith’s big O2 gig, which I had tickets for. Didn’t break the bank, but I spent a bit more than I could have as I thought I might as well stay somewhere nice for my “evening out”…
What I got: Upon arriving for a pre-gig check-in, I was told that due to some error they didn’t explain, I had been moved to an “equivalent hotel” – the Ibis “over the road”. After walking the 20-minute walk to the Ibis, I checked in to the crappy Ibis. I should point out at this point that the reason I chose Custom House was for 4 specific reasons: It’s closeness to the DLR station – walking around the Docklands late at night is not a fun prospect; It’s promised facilities, including “On-demand HD movies”; High-speed internet access; Room service – perfect for the post-gig dinner. The Ibis had NONE of these features – the TV barely even picked up ITV, and I had to eat my dinner in reception!
What happened when I complained: My initial query was ignored for a few days, and only when I tweeted about it did I get a proper response. The customer service lady kept phoning me at the office, despite my plea to deal with it over e-mail – a classic technique to get me to accept a cobbled apology and move on. The gist of the initial “resolution” was that the Ibis disagreed, so tough shit (I’m paraphrasing). I didn’t give up at that, so after they’d made more enquiries and ignored my e-mails for weeks on end, they eventually gave me a £20 partial refund, basically to shut me up…. I was massively disappointed by this, especially from a company who seem to pride themselves on their great use of social media and their super customer support. And don’t even start me on the next time I used them – I’ll save that for another day, but needless to say I lost the £20 I got refunded!
Company: RockYou, the Facebook app developers
What I paid for: Wanting to see what this game was like, I started playing “Zoo World” for a few days, before seeing what I’d get for a tenner. Being a long-time Packrat player, I’ve always been very impressed with what you get from Alamofire when you pay for credits in their game, so I thought I’d give this app a go. I used PayPal to buy a $20 pack of ‘wildlife points’ – points you can use within the game.
What I got: What I paid for.. at first. It has since disappeared!
What happened when I complained: Despite being the biggest app developer on Facebook, raking in millions of dollars a year, Rockyou have utterly shit customer support. I’ve complained about the disappearance of my “credits” on their offsite forum, their Facebook fan page AND the main RockYou website, but haven’t received a single reply. The bastards… :D
The silver-lining after all this cloud….
Company: Coca Cola – cokezone
What I paid for: I’ve been religiously collecting CokeZone points for almost a year, with the aim of getting one of the magazine subscriptions you can swap them for – namely, Empire. Having collected 250 points, I claimed my subscription in late November 2009…
What I got: As of last week, my “rewards” page was still listing the subscription as being “processed” – almost 2 months later….
What happened when I complained: I made enquiries through the CokeZone website, to little avail, when I decided to try Tweeting both @EmpireMagazine and @CocaCola about the problem. Both replied within 20 minutes, with Coke passing me the e-mail of a person who very quickly solved the issue. Not only did they get the subscription (hopefully) sorted, they also refunded me the 250 points as an apology. What a nice gesture!
There you go, I told you it would be a bit of a mammoth post….! :D
Good post Henry – sad to see such bad customer service these days, and from companies that should do it better. You kind of expect it from big old school companies, but all of these should be more approachable in the social media age. Got me thinking I should do a post myself about the same in Australia…