Okay, here is the deal. It is not only frustrating, it is not good business to let money be lost because you cannot get in contact with a business either by email or telephone. Snail mail is just too slow. Therefore, public media websites like Facebook may be the quickest way to get the a reply from an unresponsive business owners.Our Story:
This is what led to my discovery of the real value of using Facebook.
Fedex called us telling us that they had attempted to deliver a case of wine to our Oregon address and we are in Arizona for the winter. My husband and I could not figure out why our wine seller would send us a case of wine now. They knew we were gone.
How? In an email to them we said, "We will be gone from December to March. Do not send any shipments to us during that period of time." They responded that they would follow our instructions. Pretty clear don't you think. What part of that email didn't they understand?
We did not know what to tell Fedex to do with the box of 12 bottles of wine. We didn't want to return it if the money would not be refunded. But Fedex told us they were not going to hold the shipment and they needed some direction. If we had to pay for it no matter what, we would have given it to someone in Hillsboro near our home. The wine seller did not need more wine!
We called the wine warehouse company 4 times in one day. We left a message each time asking them to respond as soon as possible. We sent emails on that day too. By 4 in the afternoon we still had not heard a word. We were stumped about what to do. The clock was ticking.
That was when I found the wine seller on Facebook and went to their fan page. I placed a query in the timeline section (so that everyone could see it) and asked for a response. Like magic my husband had an email within minutes!
You are going to love this...they said they wanted us to have a "special case of holiday wine" and that they had contacted us so we could tell them no if we didn't want it. In other words, if we DIDN'T respond they would ship the wine and charge us money because we were so special. Doesn't that seem a little backward? Again...what part of that earlier email didn't they understand? It is a good thing that they agreed to accept the wine back and return our money.
We called Fedex and had the shipment returned. The money was refunded that same day. Amazing! Public media CAN make businesses sit up and take notice, especially when they think the world may be watching.
Oh by the way, we will NOT be dealing with that business again.
I am just saying!
b+
Excellent suggestion. I know how frustrating it can be to try to get someone to return a call or an email if they don't want to. And, even though it all finally worked out, I absolutely agree with your decision not to deal with them again. Just be sure that you let them know why you are leaving their wine club... maybe via Facebook.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad idea. We will see who we go about it. I do not like that act of retaliation and that is why I did not offer the name of the business.
DeleteGreat idea! I just used it to complain about a certain medical supply company with awful customer service. Don't know the outcome, but I like having another place to be heard.
ReplyDelete