OHSHIT REPORT: We didn't ship enough Daelmans Jumbo Caramel Stroopwafels
48Background
On Wednesday, December 9th 2020 we sold Daelmans Jumbo Caramel Stroopwafels.
We sold them as 96-packs. We took 731 orders for 791 of the 96-packs (some customers bought multiple 96-packs) for a total of 75,936 stroopwaffels.
Shipping
Our warehouse team is running multiple and extended shifts for the holiday season and generally working around the clock. We typically wait until the day after our meh.com daily deals end before we ship orders in order to maximize efficiency. However, this close to Christmas we’ll grab groups of orders for early processing to increase the chances customers in extended delivery areas get their orders by Christmas.
On 12/9/2020 11:29am CT we grabbed a group of these orders earlier than normal to process. On 12/9/2020 12:56pm CT we printed the shipping labels. By 12/9/2020 2:41pm CT we had some of these loaded on FedEx trailer 5210942.
Delivery
For this deal, our standard shipping was FedEx SmartPost. We also offered an enhanced shipping upgrade option that we shipped FedEx Ground for an extra $2.99. 17 customers took us up on the enhanced shipping upgrade option.
Because we shipped some orders early and because some customers upgraded to enhanced shipping we started seeing some deliveries as early as 12/11/2020. It was at that point where we saw some comments in the forum like this one.
WTF. Got my package today. Only 24 in the box. Not 96. Where’s my stroopwafles?
Investigation
We began investigation about what went wrong 12/11/2020 3:52pm CT after we saw five similar support cases and a tweet.
By 12/11/2020 5:43pm CT we had figured out the root cause. The Daelmans Jumbo Caramel Stroopwafels were delivered to our warehouse in case packs containing four boxes of 24 stroopwaffels for a total of 96 stroopwaffels in each case pack. We intended to ship the case pack, but instead we broke down the case pack and shipped the box of 24 stroopwaffels.
We intended to ship 75,936 stroopwaffels but only shipped 18,984. OHSHIT.
Here’s a photo from the warehouse:
Solution
At this point we knew we needed to send all customers 72 more stroopwaffels for each unit they purchased. We also knew we needed to do it quickly so we could ship the remaining 56,952 stroopwaffels as soon as possible.
By 12/11/2020 6:31pm CT we had modified the original deal on meh.com to indicate the item we originally shipped was a 24-pack and we added an additional item of a 72-pack.
By 12/11/2020 6:59pm CT we had written a custom script to place an additional free order that included a 72-pack for each unit purchase.
By 12/11/2020 7:07pm CT that script completed the creation for all the additional free orders of 72-packs.
We started processing these in the warehouse on 12/12/2020 6:15am CT. By 12/12/2020 7:06am CT we were printing the shipping labels and by 12/12/2020 9:18am CT we had these loaded on a truck.
Hope we get these stroopwaffels to you all soon.
- 21 comments, 30 replies
- Comment
Someone needs to design an official OhShit logo for stickers!
Nice turn around!
Told you they were Poopwafels.
And ya know, these are really not jumbo. these are the size they were, before they made them smaller.
@Cerridwyn oh so like the ‘sales’ for prime day and black Friday this year?
@rogerbacon
ayep
Congratulations. You played yourselves.
I do not care about Stroopwafels. But I deeply enjoyed the write up of what went wrong and how it was corrected.
Maybe something is wrong with me. Maybe to much time finding/fixing defects. Either way well done.
The timestamps are a nice touch
@unksol I particularly appreciated that they quickly took steps to correct their mistake without waffling.
Ba-Dum-Ching!
@macromeh they always quickly resolve/own errors. It’s the transparency. And the way @shawn writes them up. That makes them so satisfying. It reads like the way I write up things to management. When something goes wrong. Never been that specific with time stamps though. That is something I would do if someone wondered why “it took so long”.
@macromeh @unksol
(That was for the waffling pun) lol
@macromeh @unksol Yes, they had a wafer-thin window to fix it.
@Ukmu
/giphy they’re wafer thin
I did not order any SWs but I’m impressed with the way the OHSHIT event has been handled.
That’s a lot of free orders of 72 Stroopwaffels to get mailed out. Good job!
I didn’t order any this time, but I was wondering if they could be softened by holding them over a hot BATH?
@G1 that sounds like a personal experiment
@G1 Move over shower beers, it’s time for the sauna stroop!
@G1 ISWYDT!
Thought I was getting extra stroopwaffels for free. Now I realize I’m “only” getting what I paid for. XD
TL;DR we fucked up, you caught us, we fixed it (we hope).
/image hope
/giphy fix it
/youtube caught red handed
/8ball “did anyone lose their job?”
Very doubtful
@Yoda_Daenerys
I hope not! I’d rather like to know that Team Leader’s/ Manager’s have been approved to AWARD select pods of employee’s for going that extra mile, thinking outside of the box and taking prompt action to implement a best case solution! And for maintaining Great Attitudes as the stress levels pelted them. Great Job Meh! Thank you!
You guys’ll never learn, the casual labor that hangs out under the tree at Lowes is far superior to the casual labor that hangs out behind liquor store.
Yeah. That picture of the stroopwafels in the box? Exactly how they were shipped. No packing peanuts. No bubble wrap. No “Texas air” bags. Just thrown in a box way too large for 24 wafels and way too small for 96. WTF Meh? Do you think you could at least PRETEND to care protecting your shipments?
@Trinityscrew They do as well as Amazon. Which is a low bar, I realize.
@Trinityscrew
actually they are pretty bulletproof items. I have yet to have one broken in the package.
@chienfou @Trinityscrew Where do you think some IRK items come from?
@Trinityscrew @chienfou my
firstorder of stroopwafels came with the three packages (flimsy trays in cellophane wrappers) stuck in a mailer bag, which my mail carrier folded up and crammed into my mailbox along with a good bit of other mail. A few of the stroopwafels were curved but none were broken. They were fine.@djslack @Trinityscrew
I seem to remember reading that in a prior post…
These are amazingly resilient… but OH SO delicious!
@djslack @Trinityscrew
I am currently prepping some of the 216 stroopwafels to distribute to the ancillary departments at the hospital I work at. Some of them (the depts. not the stroopwafels) get shafted each year (i.e housekeeping, dietary, maintenance, business office, IT) since the Drs will send stuff to the floor, ER, Lab, Xray, Respiratory etc but not those depts. I always get them a tin of cookies or some chocolates etc. with a ‘thanks for what you do’ note signed ‘from the ER’.
Now they really will be the gift that keeps on giving! And I may or may not work at a distribution company and lemme tell you unit of measure is a constant PITA.
/giphy box-carton-case
I only got 24 too.
It was my first order with you guys.
Will I automatically be shipped the remainder?
@GirlPleeeeze yes.
I believe you’ll see another order on your orders page.
@Ignorant Right you are! Thank you.
@GirlPleeeeze Welcome to the asylum.
@ThunderChicken thank you! I finally made it.
I got my initial 24 Stroopwaffles pretty quickly and got shipping notification for the additional 72 on December 12th. I thought 96 would be too many, but since we are having them with our morning coffee now, shouldn’t be an issue going through them, except possibly going into a sugar coma
Now this is an RCA that you can seek your teeth into
@bmike *sink
So do we need to order the additional or are they automatically being sent out?
@MiladyJody automatically sent out, you should see a new order on your orders page.
/giphy bravo
It’s been said before but this level of transparency is rare and part of why you keep such loyal customers.
@djslack
and why we love seeing these OHSHIT reports.
"To err is human. To really fuck up you need a computer…
still not nearly as fubar’d as the sending folks the surveillance camera. i made a tidy profit off that event… and yes, i was one that voluntarily sent the money you asked for.
i have absolutely no memory of what my original purchase was supposed to be.
@Noddy93 'twas a lantern, or a pair of them actually.
Ok. One last complaint about my stroopwafel order.
You shipped my “short” order FedEx and I got it pretty quickly. You shipped the “correction” order using Pitney “BLOWS”.
I know you’re trying to minimize your financial impact from the error, but ultimately you’re screwing us for your mistake. The stroopwafels will probably be expired before I see them.
Ok. I’m finished. And I don’t feel any better. Meh.
@Trinityscrew Curious, were you one of the 17 customers that paid for the enhanced shipping upgrade?
@cengland0 No. No enhanced shipping. And my “correction” order has been in a Pitney BLOWS facility in New Jersey since 12/15. This is BS Meh.
On Dec 12th, there is a scan indicating that my package was being transferred to PITNEY BOWES. There was one more scan after that (also on Dec 12th) saying “Departed Shipping Partner Facility, USPS Awaiting Item”, but nothing after that. I’m starting to wonder if maybe the label was generated for USPS, but there is no package to transfer?
@sm85 19 days after “shipped”, they finally arrived. Sigh.
I STILL DON’T HAVE THE CORRECTION ORDER. I’LL HAPPILY PAY THE SIX DOLLARS FOR THE 24 I DID GET. BUT I’M ON VACATION FROM THE END OF THE DAY TODAY THROUGH 1/4/21. THEY EXPIRE ON 1/5/21.
I KNOW THEY WON’T BE “BAD” BUT I ALSO DON’T WANT TO GIVE MY CO-WORKERS EXPIRED PRODUCT.
REFUND PLEASE.
@Trinityscrew this is better addressed through meh.com/support than the forum. The people there can help, we can just talk about it here.
@djslack Yeah, I know. I haven’t formally complained to support yet. Just venting. Thanks for the feedback.