Nightmare webshop - with semi happy end
This has got to be one of the most nerve-wracking, excruciating experiences I have had in 25 years of online shopping. At first I thought that there was malicious intent, but it turns out that they are just unprepared for certain situations and severely lacking basic customer support skills and/or tools. The chain of events: I placed an order on June 26, 2023 for two items, that were advertised as exclusive early releases. One of the items became widely available at retailers in July, 2023. Months go by without any information about the status of my order. It turns out the order was shipped on November 21, 2023 without any notification of shipment being sent out. On December 9, 2023 I was told by customer support that my order was on the way. Since nothing happened, I contacted them again one month later and received a reply that it had been delivered to an address in New Jersey (it turned out to be their warehouse). Being located in Vienna, Austria I have had mail misdirected to Australia or Vietnam, so I don't think much of it and continue to wait. Since again, after a number of days no items are delivered and no update is sent, I review all the communication with RPM thoroughly. It seems they have an "order page" that's continuously updated and that is only linked to in the original order confirmation. There I find a tracking number and to my dismay realize that I made a mistake in the street address. The package had been returned to the sender. It is February 19th when I realize this. I immediately contact RPM but they seem to have no clue what happened. Apparently I am the first customer to ever mistype their shipping address. Multiple times I describe to them exactly what happened. I need to stress that the reply time is often more than a week making this whole experience even more frustrating. Since I really wanted to have the item I place another order on February 20 (I purchased the other item in the original order already many months ago at a local shop). On February 28, finally RPM gets back to me and tells me, that they received back the original order which was never picked up due to having a bad street address. It was waiting to be picked up at the post office 1km from my home without me knowing about it. Tracking history shows that it had been returned on January 3 and received back on January 11 - but I guess at their warehouse in New Jersey and they still had to get it to their shop in Canada. I discover later that this is due to the fact that they moved their entire inventory from one warehouse to the other, leaving them unable to locate or quantify their stock for MONTHS. So RPM tries to come up with solutions, suggesting to ship the two orders together, to which I agree. Fast forward to late April 2024 when I finally receive the second order (we are talking about a fulfillment time of two months) but of course without the items of the first order. At this point in time, I'm about to give up especially since I have to go through the events over and over again with their customer service agent (it also appears that they confused my order/claim history with that of another person).
FINALLY, on May 25 I receive the long awaited email and proof that my first order now had also shipped. Today, on June 19, 2024 I picked up the order from the post office - almost 365 days after I placed it on their website.
As I pick it up, the first thing that throws me is that it STILL has the wrong address despite me telling them 20 times about the error and the corrected street address. At least now I was able to claim ownership of the package as I had been given a tracking number.
Upon arriving at home, I open the package and realize that the complimentary, SG-branded shot glass they added broke into a thousand pieces. The outer sleeves of the LPs both have bumped corners and the inners seam splits due to lack of protection inside the box.
I am somewhere between anger and amused bewilderment. At least the ordeal is over.
19. juni 2024
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