06-09-2015, 07:10 PM
bazookaman wrote:
My brother had an issue with a company that charged his CC then told him it would take 30 days to receive a reverse the charge. He said "No. It took you two seconds to charge my card, you can uncharge it that fast." After going round and round with the person on the other end, he finally got a manager who got a manager who reversed the charge right then. It's all horseshit.
I did this recently. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM really screwed the pooch on a Valentine's Day order I placed this past February. Not only did they fail to deliver (on an order for which same-day delivery was guaranteed), they still hadn't fulfilled the order an entire month later.
An entire month, you say? Yes. My first attempt at calling their customer service department to resolve the issue was made the Monday after V-Day. I terminated that attempt after being on hold for an hour and a half. A follow-up call later that week met with similar results. Clearly I was not the only customer who experienced issues with the company's performance on V-Day. After those two abortive attempts, I decided to see whether the order would ever be filled and how long it would take.
After one month, I called time of death, picked up the phone and finally got a human being on the other end.
I give them credit for this: the CS rep with whom I spoke was very apologetic and very helpful. Honestly, he was everything you want a CS rep to be. Unfortunately for him, he was also very young (probably college-aged). I say that because I'm pretty sure I almost literally scared the crap out of him. I was not rude to him and I never raised my voice, but I left absolutely no room for doubt that our transaction would be concluded to my satisfaction.
In short, I requested three things:
- That a representative from his company call the intended recipient of the flowers to apologize in person for their failure to deliver.
- That the company fulfill the original order at no cost to me.
- That the entire amount for the order I placed be refunded to me immediately.
Item number 1 was agreed to and handled immediately. The CS rep actually placed me on hold while he placed the call himself. My friend later called to tell me that she appreciated that gesture more than if she would have actually received the flowers.
Items 2 and 3 is where things got squidgy. I told the CS rep that if his company wanted to keep me as a customer, fulfillment of those two demands was non-negotiable. I spent nearly an hour on hold while he ran my conditions up the flagpole, but even after getting escalated to a CS manager they refused to comply with my demands. The best they were willing to offer was to fulfill the original order for 50% off, with a refund of the balance. I told them that, given the magnitude of their failure, that response was inadequate and that I would appreciate an immediate refund of the full amount of the order and would never bother them again once that transaction was completed.
That's when they tried to tell me that the refund could take up to six weeks. I became much more direct at that point. I called bullshit and told them in no uncertain terms that since they were able to charge my CC immediately when I placed the order, they damn well could -- and would -- issue my refund by close of business that day. Which they did.
And that's the story of why I will never patronize 1-800-FLOWERS.COM again.