Order cancellations and other screw-ups.
10My level of frustration with meh/mediocre/mercatalyst lately is the worst it’s ever been.
Let’s recap… Ordered two pair of the Altigo headphones, one red and one blue. I received one red and one white. Wrote into support to see about correcting this mistake and received this reply:
“Sadly there are no more blue headphones floating around.
May I suggest grabbing a blue sharpie and going to town?”
Yes, the Sharpie thing is an ongoing joke thanks to a fun moment almost 6 years ago. Haha, cute reply. What I didn’t receive was an apology for the fuck up, an offer to do something about it, or hell, even an offer to send me the damn Sharpie. Then the case was closed. Here you go, take what we have and you’ll like it. Do you want the white one back? Send me a pre-paid shipping label, I’d be happy to send it to you.
Next, I get a cancellation email for the 4 pack of Tub O Putty. Alright, along with that came a coupon code for $5 off a future order that’s only good until 8/31/20. When you fuck up and you’re making an attempt to compensate, your coupon code should not have an end date a month and a half away. It should be available to use for at least a year. Fine, maybe something happened with the supplier and they couldn’t provide what you bought from them. Just wondering, did anyone get this putty or were all the orders cancelled? An actual explanation as to what happened would go a long way in appeasing everyone affected.
And then… I get yet another cancellation email, this time for my order of 3 Tzumi IPX6 Speakers with Charging Docks. Not just one, but all three that I ordered were cancelled. What in the fuck is going on with your inventory system? I know you actually had these because I had bought one previously. I liked it enough to order these as gifts for friends. So what do I get? Yet another coupon code for $5 off that’s only good until 8/31/20.
I am just about the easiest going person around. I tend to let most things roll off my back and forget about them pretty quickly. But whatever is going on there behind the scenes is not good. I’ve always relied on meh to be the one place I could go to have a good time, find some great deals, talk to some awesome people, and to be taken care of when you all fuck up. There’s a reason I’ve been giving you $5 a month for the last 68 months. I consider it more than something to cover potential shipping costs. I look at it as a membership fee to support one of my favorite sites. @dave and @snapster - I feel like things are slipping away. I’ve seen more angry customers lately than I ever have. Granted, most of that is because of Pitney Bowes, but definitely not all of it. Maybe one (or both) of you could speak up and give us all an idea of what’s going on?
In conclusion: Fuck.
- 19 comments, 55 replies
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POPSOCKETS! COURT DOCKETS! FOLK ROCK HITS! AWESOME!
I also had a item cancelled…worst part was that it was a meh-a-thon item and there were only 2 sold. Really wanted it
@riceatusc That’s a good example of how bad the inventory system seems to be. Seriously, how can you fuck up two items?!
@riceatusc - also had Bluetooth headphones cancelled. Erased from my history after weeks of waiting like my purchase had never happened. More upsetting than the blunt cancellation was the lack of humor from customer service - felt somehow like I had been #$%&@#, and no kiss involved.
I’m not a fan of my cancelled items being removed from my order history.
@lichme That bugs me too. I mentioned that on another page. Leave it there and mark it as Cancelled.
I bet all those canceled items and those blue headphones are in thosee IRKs that just shipped out.
The snark/unprofessional behavior that can come out of customer service on occasion is, in my opinion, out of line. I know a few others have posted about that too. I, also, was on the receiving end of that once too. Snark (as long as it isn’t cruel or trolling) on the site is fine. Snark from customer service is not. I expect customer service to behave professionally regardless of the tone of the community the company built has. And as you say, apologies for screw ups is not an unreasonable expectation. (That being said most of the time my limited interactions with customer service I have gotten appropriate responses so maybe it is a training problem with a couple of people or maybe even a hiring mistake). And, in my opinion, having a strong community isn’t a “free pass” for the kinds of things you experienced. Sure it can give the company a free pass when things like this happen on occasion (as they will with any company), but the list of things people are posting about recently seems like it is creeping to more than “on occasion” and thus a signal they have an issue they need to get to the root of and work to fix.
@Kidsandliz
Thanks, mom, for telling the universe and this site how to operate. We all really needed that.
/s
Here, snark from CS is just fine and dandy … as long as the actual CS is good-to-excellent.
It’s the CS sucking that’s the prob. The snark can be quite funny.
@f00l Thanks mom for the lecture. I’ll keep in mind that I need to agree with you in the future and not to express contrary views.
@Kidsandliz
I don’t mind contrary views. I mind when they start getting precious.
@f00l
/image precious ring
@f00l @Kidsandliz
I think that is the rule everywhere these days, not just at meh.
I also ordered the Tzumi speaker during the Meh-rathon. It’s been showing as “Picked up and Processed by Agent” since July 7th. Along with three other items purchased at the same time.
And my putty got canceled too, with the same $5 coupon good until the end of August.
@banksnld At least your speaker is out there somewhere in shipping land.
@cinoclav Your luck is terrible today. Make sure to look both ways when crossing the street.
@sammydog01 Was that in your fortune cookie today?
@Barney And my lucky number was 37.
@sammydog01 Considering the week I’ve had, I’m going to close my eyes and attempt crossing the highway.
@cinoclav Be sure you do that in Cambodia though and not here. There the traffic flows around people. Of course what goes on there on the streets is chaos in slow motion.
Hope your week improves.
@Kidsandliz
Snark is part of the customer service culture here. You know that perfectly well. And just today you called the Meh staff unethical. So why are you here? I know it’s your right as an American to stop by and whine and condescend and rain shit whever you want, but why do you want to since you feel you are treated so unfairly? There are probably a ton of other places you could go.
@sammydog01 No I didn’t call customer service unethical. You need to read more carefully if you are going to continue to attack me.
@Kidsandliz I said staff not customer service and here’s your quote:
“To me I think it is unethical for a company to encourage people to do something permanent”
Unless Meh has achieved cosmic intelligence this was done by a staff member.
@sammydog01 I do think it is unethical to encourage tattooing since there are unexpected medical issues for some. Having games and fun stuff like they have done in the past for free irks is another issue. Clearly we don’t agree on that. You are welcome to disagree with me. You are not welcome to attack me.
@Kidsandliz
She didn’t attack you.
If it were me in your shoes, I’d calm the fuck down already. You appear to be having a bad day.
But not my call.
@snapster @dave
So … back to the real problems?
What’s the deal with CS responses being promised within a week or so?
That’s too long. Hire or train some people if you’re not too squeezed for cash.
And … what the deal with CS answers being promised within a week or so, and then not even that happening?
That’s bad.
A little communication about that, and about suckfest PB would be great.
And, given what I’ve read, I really hope you get out if the PB contract.
Coronavirus? Ok that’s good for some degree of slack.
It doesn’t excuse their lying to customers with their tracking info tho.
And it doesn’t excuse stuff arriving months late.
I just wanted to pop my head in here and see if I can give some answers and context where available from the CS team side.
First things first, we hear you. We see all the emails and messages. We understand that there has been frustration with CS and some of what has been going on for the last few months.
Here is a basic rundown of what happened to get us to where we are. When CoViD happened, we adjusted to working at home and got settled into new routines. As soon as that happened, CS got overwhelmed with cases, as you can imagine with people working from home who had never been able to web surf at work before. That basically happened over the course of a few days. We’ve been fighting through that wave ever since.
On the other side of that coin, the whole PB delay situation caused huge amounts of frustration on our end. You are absolutely correct that things shouldn’t arrive a month late. It’s been draining to my entire team to deal with. Especially seeing case after case from people asking for updates, which starts the cycle of slowing us down more.
So. Let’s chat about context, where we are now kinda stuff.
Cancellations - This is something we are actively working on in the company. We know there have been more than normal lately, and we’re working to improve. If you have an issue with a resolution or a coupon code, let me know and I can look into it. The coupon mentioned above as expiring 8/1 actually expires 10/1. So there may have been some typos/miscommunication.
CS Response Time - It’s been long. But it’s starting to get better. Based on what I see now, the info showing on the website is correct. You should be getting responses in around 7 business days, but that is improving. I’m doing everything I can to get that number down. I hate seeing it so high. It drives me nuts. It’ll get better. Be sure to take advantage of the new meh.com/support where you can see what you’ve submitted. There is no need to submit 10 cases for one problem. We’ll get to it. Help us make the situation better if you can.
“Hire More People, Cheapskates!” - We did! We have several new CS folks and I’d hate to think of where we would be without them. I cannot understate how challenging this has been and how many hours of overtime and how little sleep there has been. We’ll get back to normal.
AMA I guess? I’m happy to answer what I can and what I know about. The lack of communication is purely because of how busy we’ve been. Long hours. Long weeks. We have to sleep sometime. I know I’ve had email conversations with many of you, so if there is something you need, you can always send something to CS to my attention and it’ll get seen.
Personally, I want to thank the CS team, because they are all working crazy hard. CS in the pandemic world isn’t a fun game.
Ok, here we go. Blow up my mentions.
@ChadP Thank you for publicly commenting and explaining what is going on behind the scenes.
@ChadP Agreed with @Kidsandliz above. This, the willingness to discuss business practices and outcomes, what went right and what you learned with any new thing, is IMO the best thing about the company.
The pandemic disrupting everyone’s work plans, plus the surge in online retail that I heard happened, plus Pitney Bowes shitting the bed, is a recipe for disaster. You can’t please absolutely everyone, but hopefully this sort of honesty regarding what’s going on helps out with those who’ll listen.
@ChadP @lljk The “Oh shit” threads used to be useful for this too (and entertaining). Maybe meh wants to resurrect them for ongoing issues like this?
@ChadP
Thx for details.
I did say “hire if you can afford to”. I meant that. I didn’t assume you could; hard time abound, even online.
Glad you did hire. Hope the work from home kinks are resolving.
Now: do I get infinite free no-work-for-me IRKs for being so thoughtful?
I’d better. I expect no less.
I’m kinda hoping that SuckFest PB is performing so atrociously that you guys might have an out to your contract.
It doesn’t bother me much personally; I get stuff when I get it, or I forget I ordered it.
But the strong customer frustration seems valid.
Is there hope? Can you guys possibly escape from PB? (I’m aware you might not wish to talk publicly on this)
Are there alternatives to SuckFest PB that would work if you could get loose from the lawyer paperwork?
@ChadP Thanks for the update. Hate to have things dumped on you when you’re already carrying this burden. Maybe this is the kind of situation where one of the big guys should have taken the opportunity to speak up before it got this bad. Believe me, I understand the frustrations. I was once a cs supervisor for a large (much larger than this) e-commerce company. I’ll never forget when Oprah named one of the items we carried in her list of ‘favorite things’ and we were slammed relentlessly for a month straight. Take what you’ve been dealing with and add non-stop phone calls to it. Pure suckage.
Anyway, as said above, maybe something like the Oh Shit reports would help quell some of the frustration before it reaches a boiling point. I’m sure every single person has been told at their jobs that communication is key. It’s something you guys used to be awesome at but has been lacking for quite some time.
Whatever you do, don’t take it personally. We still love you.
DIPLOMAT! RAT-A-TAT! FAT CAT! AWESOME!
@ChadP
Have you ever been arrested?
@ChadP @eonfifty if yes, what for?
@ChadP @eonfifty @JnKL
What is your illegal drug of choice?
@ChadP @f00l @JnKL
In which jurisdiction?
@eonfifty In handcuffs and in a car, but not arrested.
@eonfifty @JnKL college stuff.
@eonfifty @f00l @JnKL Trust me, How i wish i Could tell you.
@f00l Can’t really speak to the PB stuff, other than it has been tough on us, too. That said, no IRKs. yet.
@ChadP @eonfifty @f00l @JnKL ooooo sounds good…
@ChadP
Were we the same person in college?
@djslack …I don’t think so, but that was a different time.
@ChadP @djslack
Just 6 years ago that happened to a friend of my daughter’s (she was in the car with her - both were young 20’s at the time). The infringement? A 4 day expired plate tag. I still don’t understand why this happened. The cop and the kid were both the same minority race and my kid looked as if she matched their race, so race had nothing to do with it. Cop even told me the kid was being reasonable with the exception of letting slip the f word once (but not in a name calling way, rather a WTF way).
When I got there (about 1.5 miles from where we lived at the time) the cop asked me why I was there (my kid called me to come to get her and the baby - duh). When asked he told me they were stopped for an expired tag and went two business district blocks before pulling into a business parking lot before stopping. Was she speeding when she did that? Nope.
Then he asked me if he should search the car for drugs. WTF? I told him the kid in his cop car (and yes she was handcuffed) has worked nights at an auto factory for two years, unlikely she’d have stuck it out that long if she was doing drugs (car was not searched). He finally let me drive her car to my house so it wouldn’t be impounded since he was going to take her to the police station (still wouldn’t say why other than a 4 day expired tag and she wasn’t being an asshole).
I then went and got her a couple of hours later from there. She showed me the ticket for the expired tag and not turning on her turn signal when she pulled over for the cop (that later was really stupid). Still makes no sense.
@ChadP @djslack @Kidsandliz
Some of these are just cops being irrational; can’t be explained my social forces.
Sometimes cops to get a kick out of being the authority.
I’m glad it didn’t escalate further.
I just got an email that my order from September 2014 was cancelled.? Huh?!!
Part 2
@readnj there’s another thread about this.
https://meh.com/forum/topics/your-meh-order-of-saeco-talea-giro-plus-espresso-machine-refurbished-has-been-canceled
Someone made a booboo.
Meh.
Me putty get cancelled two.
/giphy cancel culture
wait…so people are actually purchasing the bluetooth speaker docks?
@njfan The Tzumi speakers are actually pretty damn good. Biggest benefit is being able to stick it back on the base to charge. Every damn speaker I have is usually dead when I want to use it.
@cinoclav @njfan It’s a tradition.
I love MEH. They gave me a refund on an order that went terribly wrong with Pitney Bowes and I did not even ask for the refund so as far as I’m concerned you guys are awesome.
PANS! GLANDS! CRAYONS! AWESOME!
Another brilliant warehouse move. Not exactly a good idea to throw an easy to bend/destroy sticker in with a t-shirt and ship it in a poly bag. Is there any modicum of common sense packing things?
@cinoclav hmm. I get stickers/cards from teevillain in most of my shirt orders. They are always ok but they put them inside the folded shirt.
@RiotDemon But are they die cut like the ‘meh’ sticker that’s easily mangled? The shirt itself was a balled up wrinkled mess, so the sticker had no chance. I didn’t even mention that the shirt isn’t printed straight. It’s a sticker, not a big deal, but it’s just another example of issues to be corrected.
@cinoclav some of them are die cut, yeah.
Obligatory, did you write in to support?
@RiotDemon No. Not worth bothering the already overworked peeps over a sticker. Just posted it here to make a point that there are still dumb decisions being made in shipping.
@cinoclav @RiotDemon I have extra stickers. I’ll happily send you a few if you want.
@RiotDemon @sammydog01 Appreciate it, but no worries. I am currently flattening my newest meh sticker in a book. Figured it works for flowers…
@cinoclav
If the printing of your shirt was your biggest issue, than that’s better than mine.
The seams on my t-shirt are in the wrong places, with the left shoulder seam not being centered, and the right sleeve being pulled on the bottom towards the armpit, resulting in the left sleeve being longer than the right.
(And yes, I reached out to support.)
Well… I think I’m pretty good with meh stickers for a while. Had notice of a delivery Friday and found this in my mailbox. I’m assuming this was your crazy doing @ChadP. Certainly made me laugh. Thank you very much. If it wasn’t you, thank you to the sender.
P.S. Anyone need a meh sticker?
@cinoclav Shrink wrapped for safe delivery!
@sammydog01 I should have complained about Irk and Glen stickers too!
@cinoclav it was Dave… Or Dave told someone to do it.
@RiotDemon In that case, thank you @dave!
@cinoclav @dave @RiotDemon I gave two people glen and irk stickers I had as they missed sales and wanted them. Maybe they each need a packet of 50 of each too?
@cinoclav Well I do have one irk left (the rest of my irks and glens just were given away to two people… so if you want that. I guess you don’t want any more irks ones?
@cinoclav thought you’d like that. I had some help from the warehouse, but still.
@ChadP It takes a lot to make me literally laugh out loud. This absolutely did it.