A Mayo Woman's View: Customer service at its worst

by Barbara Daly

I recently wrote about the difficulties in choosing between online shopping and shopping locally and this week I had an experience which clearly showed the benefits of the latter.

I needed new shoes for the children and I couldn’t get to town to get them measured so I decided to buy online and guess the sizes. I bought two pairs of children’s shoes for €90 from the brand I would have bought in the local shop.

A week later a package arrived from a well-known women’s clothing retailer with a gold skirt inside.

The same day I received an email from the shoe supplier telling me that they were delighted to confirm that my package had arrived successfully. I was slightly confused, as you can imagine.

I called customer service and this is where it all started to go downhill. I was helpfully informed that calls were recorded for quality and training purposes.

The customer service agent asked me to send an email with photos of the package and detailing what I had ordered and received.

I did this and I received a well-scripted reply thanking me so much for getting in touch but informing me that they could do nothing for me until I returned the skirt.

So I rang back and this time after long minutes on hold the agent told me that her system was down and that I would have to call them back in the hope of getting through to another agent.

She could not transfer me nor did she offer to call me back. I could feel my blood pressure rising.

I called a third time and after I got through all the palaver of ear-splitting hold music and choosing options, the third agent I spoke to informed me that yes I had to return the item before they would consider an exchange or refund.

At this stage I got cross. It was going to involve me driving 35km to return the package ‘for free’ and then I would have to wait until they processed it and sent me the items I had ordered and paid for.

I railed to the agent about their appalling customer service and the cost I was having to incur because they made a mistake.

I said that I wanted a refund immediately and did not feel I should have to wait as the mistake was all theirs. In her polite, detached manner she informed me that it was company policy and nobody else I could speak to would differ from this decision.

There is no getting past their policies and no room for appeal. They have my money, I do not have the goods yet they get to hold onto my money until I spend more time and money correcting their mistake. Not helpful.

There was no returns label in the package so they promised to email one to me. Five days later and no email has arrived.

Last weekend I took Callum and Beth to the shoe shop that we always go to and the lady there looked after them with such patience and kindness.

I paid €10 more for the two pairs of shoes but they fitted the children properly and both of them were delighted to be able to choose their own styles.

We all have to help keep these valuable small businesses open and not always get caught up in what looks like the faster, cheaper, more convenient option of online shopping.

Yesterday, with no warning and without my returning the gold skirt, the shoes arrived and one pair is too small.

Lesson learned.