The Big Move

Okay, so, I moved...

Fenlantalesandbeyond

Feel free to send me your tales of joy and woe in the retail world. I'll post them!

Thanks to all of you, and hope to see you on Wordpress!

xx

Double Heaven

My friend and I decided it'd be a brilliant idea to go into the McDonald's on Oxford Street on Hallowe'en Saturday afternoon. 

Better than that, I ordered a double Quarter Pounder regular meal, which I was advised takes a couple of minutes longer, which is well worth the wait!

I huddled in the express lane, trying to get out of the way of the frazzled Saturday shoppers. It was pretty hard, to be honest. 

After two minutes, the employees at the Express window gave me an update, with an apology - it'll be a couple more minutes. No problem, said I. After another couple of minutes, the team leader gave me an update, with an apology - it'll be a couple more minutes. No problem, said I. 

After another couple of minutes, the manager came over to apologise and to reassure me that it was on the way. Again, no problem, said I - they were clearly busy and doing their best to serve everyone, which is tricky when some of the customers are morons. 

Overheard: 

McDs (to the waiting lady at he front of the queue): Chicken nuggets and fries?

Lady (dismissively): No, I ordered Chicken nuggets and chips.

McDs: Yep, that's chicken nuggets and fries.

A minute later, I got a large meal and a complimentary apple pie - too much for me to eat, although I had a good ol' go, but appreciated nonetheless. 

Well done McDonald's!

Anyone else got good/bad stories on McDs?

Converse ain't so cool

I first spotted these in September, while idly browsing the American Converse site.

Pretty, right? Unfortunately, they didn't have them in stock, so I e-mailed them. With international shipping, it usually works out good value for money - products are quite often not available in the UK, they're usually cheaper and the VAT charged on entry means it still costs less than buying it in the UK would. This is definitely true of Benefit cosmetics, and some products on Amazon. Of course, you'll have to be careful of US only products, such as the Kindle (which I really want) and perishables such as food. 

Anyway, the e-mail came back within a couple of days, and was disappointingly machine generated:

ConverseOne  to me

1 Sep

Hello,

If your size is not listed then it means that we are unfortunately out of stock in that size. It is possible that we will get additional inventory at a later date, but we do not have that specific information at this time.

Please utilize the retailer locator feature in the help and info section at www.converse.com to see if there is a retailer in your area who may have this shoe available. Please note that we do not have access to retailer inventory so you will need to contact them directly for additional assistance with this item.

If we can assist you further, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,

Jessica

www.converse.com <http://www.converse.com/>

Customer Service

Of course, they're not available in the UK. Boo.

I kept checking back, and hit the jackpot at the end of October - they had my size! Unfortunately, I got an error message when I tried to enter my credit card number. I tried with three different cards, all with the correct details, with this error message appearing each time:

"We are unable to process your order. Your credit card information isn't matching up"

I dutifully e-mailed Converse in an attempt to get a solution before they ran out again:

Thank you for your interest in Converse!

We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing difficulties in placing your order. Please remember that when you place your order and enter your billing address it must be typed in exactly how your credit card company has on record for you.

If you are still having trouble placing your order, please give us a call at (888)792-3307 or 1-615-367-7171 and we will be happy to assist you in placing an order via phone. We are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and most Holidays!

If you have further questions please let us know. Thank you and have a great day!


Thank you,.

Jessica
Converse.com

Again, I got a disappointingly manufactured message. 

I tried again, in different browsers, but with the same result. I e-mailed Converse again, and strangely, got Jessica again.

Hello, 

Thanks for the prompt reply. 

My credit card details matched my address, my name and everything else needed to complete the transaction. 

I just attempted to place the order on a PC (instead of my Mac at home) and the cons I want are no longer available. 

I am extremely disappointed with this, as I have waited months for them to come back in stock in my size, and have been trying to buy them for a couple of days. Not only that, but I was able to place them in my basket, only to be advised that they are unavailable.

I have attached the screenshot of the message in case it helps. 

Any advice or help you can give would be much appreciated - all I want to do is order the aforementioned cons in a UK size 6 - shouldn't be too hard!

Thanks for your time, 

Suze

Jessica replied:

Hi Suze,

If you are still having trouble placing your order, please give us a call at (888)792-3307 or 1-615-367-7171 and we will be happy to assist you in placing an order via phone. We are available to assist you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and most Holidays!

If you have further questions please let us know. Thank you and have a great day!

Thank you,.

Jessica
Converse.com

After figuring out that I can't actually call internationally on my mobile, I thought I'd ask for Jessica to call me, after all, they have a clear international shipping policy and a big hearted brand reputation to protect. Surely they could give me a call, or even look into the issue?

Hi Jessica,

Thanks for your e-mail. I would love to phone you about this, but neither my work phone or mobile are set up for international calling. 

I've attached two screenshots to show you the error message - please note, in the second one I deleted my security code after I submitted. You never know who's looking, right?

Feel free to call me - I'd like to get this issue sorted out because I love the shoes and you can't get them in the UK! If there's something obvious that you can see is a problem, please let me know. I've now tried this on about four different browsers, and I know that the information is correct.

My mobile number's in my signature.

Thanks, 

Suze

Apparently not - note the lack of 'Have a super swell day!!!!!!' at the end of this.....

Hello,

Regretfully, we are unable to contact you via  phone.  You must be able to place your order online or with us via phone.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Thank you,.

Jessica
Converse.com

 There endeth my Converse dealings. I cannot place the order online as their website has a bug or bugs in it. I work in a web team, so I'm not exactly unfamiliar with corporate websites. I cannot call them, because 

my phones are not set up for international calling. 

We appear to have reached an impasse, dearest Converse. I was looking forward to adding to my decent collection with the dazzlingly pretty multi uppers, but it seems that it is not to be. 

Anyone else have issues with the Converse site, international or not? 

HQhair update

I posted a couple of months ago about HQhair.com and how their site is not Mac friendly. I bought a gift certificate for a family member's birthday before realising that she can't use it, as she has a Mac at home.
I called HQhair to get a refund, and was told categorically that they don't do refunds on gift vouchers. This was before I'd even explained why I wanted a refund, so once I'd cut through the customer service apathy, the customer service rep said she'd take my number and ask their technical department how to do it.
After hearing nothing for twenty four hours, I called again, and got the same person. For a pretty complex site, I don't think there's a huge customer department. She told me that the site was being updated and as from this week (around the 14th of September) it would be possible to complete payment on a Mac.
Great news! It's only taken them around three years to do something about it, from when I first e-mailed. It's yet to be proved as I really don't need any more stuff at the moment, but I'll let you know when I try it out.

A good egg

For Mr Charming's birthday this year I wanted to get him some trainers he'd oohed over a little while before. I ordered them from Sole Trader on the Monday before his birthday, assured that the delivery will arrive on Wednesday.

That evening, I realised that I'd managed to order the wrong size of trainer! After six years, you'd think I'd know what size shoe he is. So I was in danger of being a bad girlfriend by leaving my man with no proper birthday present, and only peripheral ones.

I trawled the internet searching for those specific trainers (pretty hard to find, actually) and even looked up the couple of specialist trainer shops in Norwich, with no luck. Eventually I stumbled across Alan's Store, a skater/BMXer online shop which sells brands like Vans, Volcom and, inexplicably for me, Nike.

They had the trainers, in the right size and they were even slightly cheaper than Sole Trader, brilliant. I placed the order around noon the day before Mr Charming's birthday, where I added a note:

Hello,

My boyfriend's birthday is tomorrow and although I know it's extremely short notice, I would be grateful if you could send this out as soon as possible. I've been looking for the trainers for months, after he spotted them in a magazine, and know he'd be thrilled with them on his birthday. It would make me look like a good girlfriend as well!

Please call me and let me know if there's anything else you need.
Thanks,
Suze

Around four hours later, I got this reply:

Hi Suze,

Your order has now been despatched via Royal Mail Special Delivery and should be with you tomorrow. Make sure to let your boyfriend think you ordered these weeks ago, and then you'll get more birthday cake :)

best Regards,

Excellent, right? The best thing about it was that they arrived on his birthday, just as we were finishing the present unwrapping - I thought we'd have to keep Royal Mail time of anywhere between 12 noon and 4.59pm for post.

Personal, fast and friendly service - I'd recommend alansstore to anyone looking for skater/BMX stuff that's more individual than Free Spirit. They seem to have pretty hardcore useful stuff too, which I know nothing about, like trucks and grip tape.
Enjoy!

Accessibility issues

I have Macs at home, and I get quite frustrated when websites don't function on Macs as they do for Windows, especially as I test websites and know how easy it is to check basic stuff on Macs and Windows.

There are loads of examples of this (your suggestions welcome!) but this is the worst one I've come across:

HQhair.com
The site stocks a huge range of high end cosmetics, accessories and other pamper products at decent prices. The shipping is a bit steep, but you can quite often get hold of online codes which reduce or get rid of the costs, which is nice.

The problem is that the site looks good on a Mac (Firefox and Safari, both latest versions), but once you come to checkout, you can't. It looks to me as if a third party hosts the actual payment, and when it comes to that, there's a blank space on the page where you should be able to enter the card information.
I have e-mailed them a couple of times about this, but have yet to hear back. As it was at least eighteen months ago, I'm not going to hold my breath.


I tend to use Beauty Bay now - it stocks most of the same stuff, for similar prices but most importantly, I can complete the order in the comfort of my living room!

When independent goes wrong

Amira Wear
December 2009, I saw a stall outside Norwich's Chapelfield Shopping Centre, selling dresses. They were pretty and reasonably priced, at £35 for a handmade tea dress. I picked up a dress to purchase, but the girl on the stall told me they were there for display, and my dress would be sent out within five days. This was on December 7th.
To be honest, after the order I realised I'd been a bit daft, giving out my credit card number to be charged later. I e-mailed 'Amira' to confirm the order. She sent me an e-mail back on the same day, assuring me that she would confirm the order and contact me 'directly'.
She never did, so on the 24th of December, I sent her an e-mail asking for my order to be cancelled.

Please cancel my order.

I was told when I ordered that it would be with me within five days, and now it's been more than two weeks.

I had originally wanted the dress for a weekend away on the 12th, but it didn't arrive. I then decided I'd have it for Christmas instead but it did not arrive.

Please confirm the cancellation and, in future don't promise your customers something you cannot or will not fulfil.

Thanks,

Suzanne

Harsh? Probably. Fair? Definitely.
To my surprise, I got this back, along with an answer machine message in the same vein:

Hi Suze,

My sincere apologies for any delay, I've been working away from home for a whole month traveling the country and I actually couldn't get back to my office until 1 day ago. Unfortunately for the last 5 days I've been hit with a very bad flu and need the couple of days over Christmas and Boxing Day to recover before I can visit the girl who ran the stand at Norwich. The girl you spoke to at Norwich was unable to work at the stand after 2 days as she fell seriously ill and was in and out of hospital so I couldn't visit her yesterday as planned as it would be totally irresponsible of me to be in close contact to her when I have such a bad flu because she needs every opportunity to get better and I wouldn't feel happy about passing on this horrible flu to her when she is already in such a delicate state. Both our well-being has to come first I'm afraid as I run a small independent fair-trade fashion label which comes from my heart, so yet again I'm so sorry for not being physically able to deliver your order to you at this time but hopefully you will understand the circumstances, I've only just starting touring the country after a year out from the business when I was caring for my mum who had terminal cancer and passed away recently, the last few months have been a very difficult time for me and I'm only just picking up the pieces and rebuilding my life and business. As I didn't personally guarantee your order I felt it only right to explain what has happened in the meantime, and I have no problem at all with canceling it.

I'm not even aware at this stage what item you ordered, can you please let me know as I still don't have any of the details of your order to hand? It would be very kind if you could confirm the details so that I know which order to cancel, as I don't guarantee any order until I know that it is still available, and there may be a chance that I have the item with me and can dispatch it Special Delivery as soon as the post office opens after Boxing Day as long as you can supply the payment details again.

Please let me know the details of your order, and thank you for your kind understanding.

Best wishes,

Amira

Wow. Talk about a guilt trip...
I didn't reply to this, mainly because if I did I would probably have written something regrettable about how plenty of people have parents who die, or manage to send e-mails with the 'flu, especially as a struggling business.

On February 3rd, I checked my credit card statement, and the money had been taken out! FEBRUARY 3RD! That's nearly eight weeks after I ordered the dress in the first place, and six weeks after I'd forgotten all about it.

An e-mail conversation:

Hello,

I was very disappointed to check my card statement this morning to find that a charge of £35 has been made to my account. As you can see, and as you know, I cancelled that order at Christmas time.

Please refund me as soon as possible, and confirm when this refund has been processed from your end.

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.

Suzanne.

Hi Suzanne, I did ask you to confirm what the order was for otherwise I wouldn't know what order to cancel, and I met the girl who ran that stand at Norwich last week and she explained that she had phoned everyone 2 weeks ago and that everyone still wanted their order. I'm so sorry for any confusion but I have just sent all the orders out yesterday. I suggest that the best way to resolve this is that when you receive this dress please return it to me, and as soon as I receive it back I'll issue you a refund, as this is standard procedure. It's a really lovely dress and obviously I'm unable to refund until I have the item back in stock. Looking forward to resolving this matter. Kindest regards, Amira

Hi Amira,

My apologies, I thought you would have been able to find my order by my name.

I will return it to you as soon as I receive it - I wouldn't want to wear it as frankly, my dealings with you have been difficult, to say the least.

The girl who ran the stall did not call me, so perhaps you should take that up with her.

I expect my postage to be added to my refund because it's your fault that you can't keep your records straight.

It's a shame - the dress is lovely. You ruined it for yourself from the outset.

I look forward to receiving the full refund.

Suzanne

Hi Suzanne, yes thank you, the dress arrived yesterday and I have already issued you a refund through WorldPay, please be aware that it will take 7-10 working days to show in your bank account. Again, my sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused, it has been a really difficult time in the last few months since the death of my mum and I know that she will be glad that I have continued with my business as she knows it comes from the heart. I experimented with work experience girls doing concession stands and have realised from this experience that it does not necessarily work out well, this is my business which I've been working very hard on and can not be held responsible for anything that voluntary helpers may have said. In future, I shall not be doing any concession stands to avoid circumstances like this. I never personally guarantee any orders as I'm aware of the responsiblity that comes with running a business, and all I can do is apologise for any misunderstanding that may have occured. The postage came to £1.45 so I'll have to send you a postal order for this amount in the post shortly. Thank you for your kind understanding, and I wish you all the best for the future. Kind regards, Amira


Really? So, only does she blame the fact that she cannot keep up with the orders, fails to communicate and steals money from people on her dying mother, she also blames the people that are helping her out, including the girl who was at death's door six weeks ago. Nice.

I also like the fact that she wheeled out the phrase "standard procedure". Nothing about this was "standard procedure".
If she had admitted responsibility for her business, carrying her name, I would've cut her some slack. But she never did, blaming the weather, illness, cancer, work experience girls and everything else she could think of.
I'm avoiding her like the plague, and I'll definitely be more wary about online orders taken through stalls in the future.

NB I'm not putting a link to her website on here, as I don't want her getting more hits than deserved. You can search for it if you want though, it's pretty easy to find.