Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Asking for advice

okay, so here's the thing. I feel I didn't do anything wrong here, and I'm feeling too lazy to want to correct someone else's mistake. But I don't know if it's the right thing....

let me explain, and you can help me out.

A few weeks ago, I ordered some scrapbooking things from Joann.com. The estimated time of delivery was 5-10 business days. A little over a week later, I got a BIG box from them, way bigger than needed for all 4 items. Inside were only 2 of the 4 things I ordered. Looking over the box, I noticed that one end was taped with that tape that has strings going through it, so is really secure, but the other side was taped with a single layer of basic packing tape, and had ripped at one end, leaving a hole about 4 inches wide. I hadn't seen the two things that were missing in person, and figured the hole was probably big enough for both of them to fall through.
However, and this is important, I realized that items are not always shipped in the same box. So I checked the packing slip, and ALL FOUR items were listed as being in that shipment.

So I called Joann's and told them that I had received the box, but two of the items were missing. They looked up my order, apologized, and assured me that they would send out replacement items. I said thank you, and asked for an estimated date of arrival. Again, they said 5-10 business days. I said that was fine, thanks again, and that was that.

About 5 days later (so sooner than the first time, but within their estimate), a package came with the two items. I noticed that one of them was maybe a bit big to have fit through the ripped hole in the first package, but figured I was wrong. I was happy, and went about my business.

Then TODAY, about 5 days after the SECOND box had come, so about 10 days after I called them, ANOTHER package arrived, with the two items again.

So what I guess happened was that the two items had never been in the first package, but had been shipped separately. So here's my problem. I have two things I did not pay for. BUT I did check the slip, and it said all four things should have been in the first shipment. AND when I called, shouldn't it have been in the system that the items were in a different shipment? Oh, and I had also received an email before I got any packages saying that my initial order had been shipped, and it listed all four items, and said nothing about multiple shipments.

I really don't feel like calling them up, and asking for a return slip (cause I am not paying to ship it back to them) then re-packaging them up and driving to the post office (out of my way for anywhere I go) and sending it off. I don't feel it was my mistake.

What do you think?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Personally, I think I would call them, and tell the story, then add that I did not want to nor feel it would be fair to have me go to the trouble, let alone shipping cost, to send them back, and what did they think was fair?
Another option is to just keep it all and if they try to bill you for it all, explain at that time. You're right, it was their mistake. The Altruist inside me would want to be square with it though.

Carol Chen Lord said...

As a vendor myself, when things like this happen, I usually just send them the books, making sure clients are happy and I will just forget about it - I wouldn't even want to know if they later find the "missing items." In the business, the less trouble (extra work, extra time to put in to solving a problem) the better. The product is really the least important concern.

In your case, I would just make sure they don't bill me again and keep the double shipment there for a month. I don't think they will call you. However, If they do call you to return the goods, ask them to give you a UPS or FedEx account number so you can call either UPS or FedEx to come and pick up at Joann's cost. Vendors like Joann usually have a long term contract with logistic companies to do the delivery on "collect" terms.

You could also demand them to send you "return box" first so you could simply put the goods inside the pre-labeled box. Again, I don't think anyone would call you for that.

And I think you don't even need to make to call to tell Joann the whole story again. It's the time (on their sale representative) that they want to save, not the products.

My $0.2