The Good, The Bad. The Customer.

Have you ever been wowed by an online shopping experience?  If you are like me, most online shopping experiences are mediocre at best or worse – terrible. Online shopping is easy and right now with almost four-year olds twins, easy wins.  Recently, I had an exceptional online customer service experience that still has me wowed.  It was, of course, followed by one of the worst online customer service experiences I have ever had.  I grew up in customer service working alongside my parents at their different businesses, but that was brick and mortar – you had to physically interact with people.  Shopping on-line is a new game. You don’t see a face or hear a voice. There is no neuron mirroring or feeling people out; it is a blind purchase.  So how does an online company provide customer service in addition to providing a product?

The good.

My husband and I are closing in on our mid 30’s.  We thought at this “advanced” age we should maybe cast-aside our metal-mattress frame and invest in a “grown-up” bed.  We are hard to please, I am not going to lie. Finding what we want rarely happens. It takes my husband and me years to find the right piece of furniture within our budget for our house. It is exhausting.

After realizing no local furniture stores had what we were looking for, I did what every red-blooded American does, I Googled beds. After hours of bleary-eyed searching, the sky opened-up and the sun poured down on my computer screen and the bed we wanted sat in front of me (okay, that didn’t actually happen, but I can dream).  But it is only available online, of course.  However, something caught my attention on the screen “365-Day Home Trial, Lifetime Warranty, and Free Shipping and Delivery” (both ways, if we don’t like it for any reason whatsoever in the first year, they pick it up free of charge).  This seemed like a win-win to me!  I took advantage of their online chat.  They responded surprisingly quickly.  During my interaction, they suggested sending a free swatch set to choose our fabric.  One came in the mail (no shipping charge) in three days.  I read review after review.  I checked the Better Business Bureau (BBB) for their rating (A).  Most were positive, some glitches here and there, but the company always responded to complaints and took care of the issue.  I was sold, but now to sell my husband. After long consideration and deliberation, we did it. We purchased our bed!

It doesn’t stop there. The next day, someone called and thanked me for purchasing our bed stating they know it is hard to decide on furniture sight-unseen and they appreciate the trust we put in them. It took two months for our bed to be built and shipped. To help us feel more involved in the process, they sent email updates on our order and posted status updates on my online account.  I could report to my husband, “Yay, our materials are in!” and finally “Woot Woot, it is under final inspection before shipment!”  Then, it was delivered and set-up.  We have a grown-up bed and I love it!  A few weeks later, they sent me a link to submit a photo and review our bed with a $50 credit towards future furniture.  Overall, a refreshing online experience!

Now, the bad. 

I print small quantities of lots of things, as a small business graphic designer, so I need a reliable printer that provides affordable pricing and a realistic turnaround.  I hate it, but unfortunately local printers end up costing more than I can afford for small orders.  It just isn’t economical.  Luckily, a few years ago, I stumbled upon an online printing company whose mission is basically me and other people like me out there:

To small businesses and graphic designers who demand perfection, Overnight Prints is the preferred online printer of business cards, postcards, brochures, and other printed materials. Launched by founder Brett Heap in 2003, Overnight Prints has risen from a twenty-man operation set in an office to one of the largest online printing companies in the world. The secret to our success – a simple formula: Combine high quality products with eco-friendly practices and make sure it’s all delivered to you exactly when you need it…even if it’s tomorrow.

So, I tested them out on myself first with Christmas Postcards 2013.  Arrived on-time, high-quality product.  I was sold. I started using them for most of my projects, recommending them to my clients, and boasting about them.  For most products, I was pleased.  A few minor printing faux pas (with the understanding that I can’t be as in control over something from a big business), but they always arrived on-time, if not early.

Fast forward to Christmas Postcard 2016.  I finished my postcard design early and, as always, easily submitted it online.  I received them on the expected delivery date, which gave me plenty of time to address and mail before the Christmas rush. This is where the good ended.

I opened up the box, excited to see my cards in print, but my eyes instantly went to the edges. The coating was curling.  It seemed that the trimmer was dull and pulled the coating on every single card.  It, of course, was Friday evening – homemade pizza night in our house. I was brooding, upset and irrational. Christmas was ruined. I was being dramatic – what if this was for a client?  Luckily, my husband took over making the pizza and I hopped online to solve this problem.  I took pictures and sent in a complaint.  They responded saying they needed more pictures. I sent lots of pictures.  I only ordered 75, but for some reason they sent me 250 and I photo’d those babies up.  Finally, on Monday, I started getting a response.  After making it clear I wanted my postcards reshipped in a disgruntled dialogue that went back and forth about six times in an online chat, they said they would place the order and I would receive them in the 5-day shipping allotment I had paid for. I again restated that this is not acceptable, I had not made the mistake and this is under a Christmas deadline, obviously! He finally came back to our chat after supposedly talking to his supervisor to say he could bump it up to 4-day shipping. Seriously?! He said they would be here by Friday and my instructions were to send the original cards back once I received the new ones.

All day Friday, I waited.  Nothing.  I passed the pizza making duties to my husband once again and called at 5pm (they are available until 6:30 PST, so it was 4:00 PST when I called) and jumped on-line to chat with someone.  It took 45 minutes for chat to respond and the phone call never did go through.  I explained to the chat lady how I never received my new product. She looked it up and, get this, the order had never been resubmitted.  WHAT??  She gave me three options: A) reprint, receive in 5 days (no faster even after pointing out their multiple mistakes), B) cancel and use the originals and receive credit for half purchase price for future purchases (which was never actually applied to my account), or C) cancel order, send in originals (to get a full refund) and purchase cards at a box store.  I was not happy.  They had messed-up twice and wouldn’t overnight my postcards.  It is in their name for goodness sake, so I know it is possible.  The loss of one customer wasn’t important to them.  So, what did I do?  I used the originals. My tainted cards went out the Saturday before Christmas.  Luckily, my kids are cute, so no one said anything.  But I would never have accepted this quality for a client, NEVER.  I would have eaten the cost of a re-print and overnight shipping and I would have been ashamed of the delay.