refund – Adam Jaffrey

2012-10-162012-10-22

My blog ranks higher than a retailer’s website in Google Search

Humour me with a quick experiment: run a Google search for the keywords “yd refund” or “yd refund policy“. If your search results are anything like mine, you’ll see a blog post written by Adam Jaffrey on 8 Jan 2010 in the top few results (it’s called Start your complaints at the top | by Adam Jaffrey).

My blog post ranks higher than Yd’s website in Google Search.

Continue reading “My blog ranks higher than a retailer’s website in Google Search”

2011-01-182012-08-17

Do companies care about Customer Service?

Last year I wrote a post explaining that when having trouble with retailers (or, I guess, any company), failing an initial success you should take your complaint straight to the top. The reason this works is because people in head office have little time/patience to deal with petty complaints and will just sent the order down the lines to comply with your request. This all, of course, assumes that you have a valid claim for complaint/exchange/refund/etc. in the first place.

Well, it seems that this method has come through again!

I won’t reveal which company it was to ensure this post remains impartial, but in summary: I was denied an exchange/refund of my faulty product at the store level, so I called head office. A day later, I got a call back saying that the company was willing to organise a replacement product for me, citing it was, “for customer service” reasons.

What are “customer service” reasons? What the company was trying to tell me was that they were replacing the product in good faith, not because I had a legitimate claim but because they wanted to ensure ‘the customer remain[ed] happy‘. Apart from that attitude being incredibly unprofessional and childish, it also proves the exact opposite of what you’re claiming to do. It shows you don’t care about the customer and are just complying in order to make the issue disappear. Not that it matters to me because I get what I want, but it shows cracks in the overall ethos of a company which strives to please its customers.

What this goes to show is that even though comanies may not take customer service seriously, they will do what they can to make problems go away – they just need a little nudge in the right direction first. But what does it show for the overall state of customer service in the retail industry (or any industry for that matter)? I know it’s not the first time I’ve reluctantly received a refund.

Regardless, I’m happy to say that in no time I’ll be donning my newly replaced Converses from Foot Locker… Whoops.

Image source: http://www.theshoespoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/converse_all-stars.jpg

2010-04-042012-08-17

Wolfram|Alpha finds the answer

Wolfram|Alpha is a mathematical computational knowledge engine. Instead of searching the web and returning links like a conventional search engine, it generates output by doing computations from its own internal knowledge base and publicly available data then expresses it in a structured and intuitive manner. It really is quite amazing. Make sure you check out the introductory video, it’s something you do not want to miss!

Back in 2009, Wolfram tested their mobile optimised website as a trial for their iPhone App. Upon the release of the iPhone App shortly thereafter, they pulled the mobile website from free use and were controversially charging in excess of $50 for the Wolfram|Alpha iPhone App! This staggering price was clearly not a successful strategy and failed dismally.

However, over the past few days Wolfram has re-evaluated their strategy and decided to drop the price of their iPhone App. The price drop comes as Wolfram release their new iPad formatted App which comes at the same low price. Also, the mobile website is back!

The announcement comes as Wolfram is uncharacteristically offering to refund the cost of the App to customers who are unhappy with their original purchase. It’s not unusual for companies to amend their pricing strategies, however it is odd for one to offer refunds to customers who paid the high release price. Visit http://www.wolframalpha.com/iwantmymoneyback/ to claim the refund.

Commentary: Kudos to Wolfram for acknowledging their fault and fixing the problem. This is a great way to rebuild broken customer relationships, and gain new ones (I bought the discounted App!). Toyota could take a leaf out of the Wolfram|Alpha book next time to avoid their PR nightmare!

Check out Wolfram|Alpha at http://www.wolframalpha.com/ or try the search box below:

2010-01-082012-08-17

Start your complaints at the top

Disclaimer: The following may be a fairly lengthy explanation of the (somewhat) interesting point I’d like to make, but I’ll bore you with the details anyway to help demonstrate my claim effectively.

The situation:

A couple of weeks ago I bought a pair of jeans from yd, a division of the Retail Apparel Group. (I’d like to mention straight up that I used to work for Connor [who’s website seems to be currently down]; another division of the RAG, along with Tarocash.) So anyway, I bought these jeans on 20th December 2009 as a Christmas present for myself. For various reasons, I didn’t get around to trying them on until into the New Year, only to realise that they didn’t fit.

Now I’m the kind of guy that wants his clothes to fit perfectly, or I simply won’t wear them. So on 7th January 2010 (a little over 2 weeks later) I attempt to return the jeans in exchange for a refund.

Step 1 – Refund attempt #1:

The problem I faced was that I originally bought the jeans without the tags on them. Having worked within RAG previously, this kind of thing is common practice and not at issue in any way. However, when I tried to return the jeans, the manager at the Forest Hill store of yd was less than helpful, claiming that I could not get a refund for the jeans because I did not have the tags.

To the letter of the law, yd’s refund policy states that for a refund, one must return garments:

within 30 days (check);
with proof of purchase (check); and
with the barcode (which I never recieved).

yd has no other disclaimers on their refund policy leaving a grey area, however whilst I worked at Connor it was fairly common practice to allow returns of items without the barcode, provided it was clear that the garment had not been worn.

Regardless to say, I was unhappy with the outcome. Those who know me will know that I don’t like being ripped off as the customer, and this case was no exception.

Step 2 – I take it to the next level:

Well, I lie. I didn’t quite take it to the next level. I took it many levels higher. A quick phone call to the RAG head office explaining the ridiculous situation to one of yd’s chief of staff resulted in a phone call to Forest Hill’s area manager and then to the Forest Hill store.

Within 5 minutes of wandering the shopping centre I received a phone call back from yd head office with the green light to head back to the store and claim my refund. All in the time it took to get my brother’s birthday present.

Why is this an interesting story?

Well the point that I make is that maybe it’s best to start your complaints at the very top. The big guns in companies don’t have the time or patience to deal with the day-to-day problems which really should be easily fixed by their bottom tier. I honestly believe I spent more time arguing with the store manager at the yd store than I did on the phone getting my issue resolved! All you need is a little bit of heavyweight authority coming down the chain of command to get what you want. I’ve found this same technique to be effective in may different scenarios where the pleb you’re forced to deal with can’t seem to (or simply doesn’t want to) help you.

So next time you find yourself wanting to throttle the person on the other side of the counter (or over the phone), ask for their brochure or look up their website and find their head office phone number. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you get some action when the big boss is involved!

Side note: Those who know me will be pleased to know that I enjoyed the power trip of getting what I wanted when I walked back into the store. Needless to say, the store manager was much more helpful second time around.