Online Customer Service

Ski season is quickly approaching and so I have been looking to replace some of my old equipment. Generally you can find good deals on the Internet. You do have to be careful though as you may run the risk of getting ripped off. Fortunately there are services like "Google Trusted Stores" to help ensure you do not get taken advantage of.

Saturday afternoon I found a great pair of ski bindings for my son's new skis. I found them on a site I trust with a retail presence in Utah. I purchased them and paid the $7 to have them shipped to the house. Sure I could have gone into the retail store, picked them up, and saved myself some money. However the convenience of not having to go anywhere was well worth the small price. A few days later I got a call from my son asking if he could open the package. I told him he could whereupon he hung up so he could use both hands to rip open the packaging. A few minutes later I got a call back and he explained that only one part of the bindings arrived.

I happened to be at a department offsite and so I couldn't follow up with the seller. When I got back to my office I could not get a hold of them on the phone. They did have a chat app on their website and so I opened the window and asked if a second package might be coming any time soon. Nope, the warehouse had made a mistake and shipped one of two boxes. I needed to take a picture of the parts that arrived along with the packaging. I had a slight problem: everything was in Utah and I was in California. I tried to get my son on the phone but he had taken off for an evening activity. Fortunately my daughter helped me out and sent me the requested photo. I forwarded that to the website and the customer service guy created a new shipment. He even went so far as to personally go to the warehouse, get the second box from the shelves, and send me back a picture of the bindings along with the shipping label. To make things right, he even threw in a few extra low-cost items.

People make mistakes. When you purchase something from a physical store, you have a much lower chance of mistakes being made. I appreciated the customer service representative trying to make amends. Fortunately it is only September and my son doesn't need the skis for a couple of months. I would hate to think how upset we both would have been if snow had already started to fall and we wanted to go skiing the next day. So if you plan to buy stuff online, make sure you don't need it immediately. Otherwise you could be very disappointed.