Have you ever suffered from one of these problems?
- You're not sure your order went through, you want to check with someone right now before you miss out
- Your package hasn't arrived yet, it's overdue
- Your purchase arrived but it isn't what you expected, you want to return it for a refund
- Your purchase is faulty, you want a refund or a replacement
What do you do in these situations?
Do you:
- Pick up the phone and call customer services?
- Find an email address on the contact page?
- Fill in a contact form on their website?
- Open a support ticket using their online system?
- Click "Reply" on one of the daily newsletters and write your message there?
Have you noticed that not all the Daily Deal websites offer all of these contact methods?
Have you noticed that most of the time you can't find a phone number at all, they force you to write an email to them?
Why are they so secretive about their phone numbers sometimes?
Perhaps they only have a couple of staff and they are too busy finding new products for next week, they are too busy to talk to you?
What are your thoughts on this?
- How annoying is it not being able to find a phone number and talk to a real person?
- Can you understand their perspective for not providing a phone number?
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Good article! I made a similar comment yesterday about this. It definitely helps having a real person to talk to!
You sure did John, and it was my inspiration
I just had to return an item to OffTheBack.co.nz. It was a little bit tricky finding out how to do so but I found the email address I needed and got a reply within a few hours which was great. And they provided me with a FreePost label which I think was a really nice touch.
I have had to deal with Xtra/Yahoo’s deal website before to return a faulty keyboard. The email address they gave kept bouncing back my emails stating that their email quota was full.
I had to contact the company that ran the website (hubsta) to get it sorted out. Things were sorted out alright after that.
Also just dealt with Firstin’s customer service. Was pleasantly suprised how quick things were worked out, and how polite and friendly they were. A+.
I ordered one product of catchoftheday and was expecting as the website stated to receive an email stating when the order had been dispatched. I never received an email, I read on their site that it could take up to 3weeks to receive package and after this time to contact them, so I did as the website suggested.. waited.
Logged in to find that low and behold it had been dispatched the day after the order was made. I emailed them it took 2days to receive a reply. Then they told me the tracking number and it had said that it had been an attempted delivery (find that hard to believe since I am home all the time as is another member of the family) well found out eventually that the package was apparently scanned return to sender. It took 3weeks ontop of the month I had already waited for the package to hear anything else as they had to lodge an inquiry. I only heard after I had emailed them asking what the outcome was, all I got was a refund! Ok great money back! Disappointed that I never received my item though.
I ordered another item two days after from another site and received that within a week.
Most annoying thing was that I couldn’t even call anyone as they don’t list a phone number on their website, found it hard to figure out how to contact them in the first place!
Ouch!
I had to return a faulty MP3 player to offtheback once. Those guys are awesome. I had a refund the same evening and an email saying basically ‘return the faulty product if you want but we aren’t too stressed about it’. Can’t ask for any more than that.
Wow, that is cool!
Ordered a deal [from 1-day.co.nz] on May 16th. I live in Hamilton, so its a local delivery. I’m still waiting – promised delivery was May 19th. I have emailed 4 times – no reply. I have left a message 3 times on their live-chat message board as there is never anyone live chatting (they say they are too busy). I posted a to-the-point comment on their facebook page but it was removed within 5 seconds. I’m getting really pissed with them, especially as I have ordered 2 more items in the interim. I certainly shan’t be ordering any more. This is the first time I have had a problem with this site, it’ll be the last.
That’s pretty stink Ray. Keep us up to date how it goes.
The first comment was about 1Day. I have also had issues with Firstin but at least they were really good at responding to my complaint and sorted it straight away.
Just made contact with 1Day on their on-line chat (at long last!!). It seems they have had email probems but also that they “lost” my order. They have offered to supply an alterative product as the original has all gone so I guess that’s fine. I have received both the other orders and I see that they are now sending a dispatch email with tracking details so that’s a definite improvement. I guess I will give them the benefit of the doubt but once bitten………….older and wiser eh
A satisfactory outcome then? Nice.
Just wondering how long is an acceptable time to wait for a response by email? I have tried to contact 1-day twice in the last two weeks to resolve an issue with a faulty product. I have only had an automated response and their “Online Chat” is always offline!
I have dealt with a couple of other businesses recently (not one day sale sites) and in both cases I sent an email in the evening and received a response and resolution first thing the following morning. I know they (1-day) must be busy but i still feel that 2-3 days is plenty of time to respond to a customer complaint. If you can’t achieve this then the answer is simple – you need more/better customer service staff. Judging by all the negative comments on their Facebook page they have a few customer service issues at the moment.
I have made plenty of purchases through 1-day and always been very satisfied (except for 1 bag of crap that really was crap and went straight in the bin!)
Maybe it’s time to get Kevin Milne on the case………..
The only thing more annoying that a faulty product is being ignored when trying to return it!
Am having the same problem [with 1-day] have sent three emails as I want to return faulty product. No response, getting very frustrated.!!!!!!!!!!
I can see why Blanche, this must be very annoying.
I brought a cell phone last week off the new IT Deals site, under shipping it says that usually online orders from main cities (I live in Tauranga) take 1-3 days. I thought, great, and made the purchace. Then reading through the T& C’s it said that cell phones take 1 week for delivery, which I thought OK, so not great but at least it’s only a week.
Seeing how I hadn’t used this site before I emailed them and asked for conformation of which delivery time frame I should go with (deliverey address was my work place and I wanted to make sure someone was there to pick it up), they got back to me straight away and advised it would be 1 week. OK, I thought, it’s only one week…
Today I emailed again as the week was up and I wanted to know when the phone was likley to turn up. The reply I got back from IT Deals was that the ETA was looking like the 20/07 almost another week away! Now I may sound a little impatient and maybe I am, but my feelings are if they knew it was going to take that long why couldn’t they have siad that at the point of sale? After this phone finally turns up, I doubt I will be ordering anything else from them.
I know exactly what you mean Bex. If I was told “it will be delivered in 3 weeks” I’d be a bit gutted but at least I’d know how long I have to wait for. But to be told “1 week”, and then “another week” and then “another week” drives me crazy!