Reader 228
Dear FT,
This is my first time trying out online shopping and I stumbled upon THIS blog while searching for a bag.
25/04/09 - Saturday
I saw this pretty oversized bag and decides (albeit wary coz its my first time purchasing something online) to place an order on the order form. As promised, my order has been processed within 24 hours and a confirmation has been sent to me by the next day on the 26th of April 09 (Sunday).
I then sent an email in response to the confirmation asking:
"Just wanna ask, if I were to bank in the amount tomorrow, when will the postage arrive? Thanks ya!"
and the response is friendly:
"The bag is still with my supplier, if tomorrow you bank in before 12pm, I will place order from her, Tuesday will reach to me, and Wednesday you can receive ya :) Thank you."
27/04/09 - Monday
I went to bank in the money for the seller at 2.20pm, later than 12pm due to the heavy rain (she is informed of the delay). I then took a picture of the receipt after the transaction and MMS-ed it to her stating
"Hi dear, I just banked in the amount.sorry again for the inconvenience."
The seller did not respond to the MMS nor confirm receipt of the MMS UNTIL I sent her a message at approximately 11pm that night asking:
"Hey gal, did u receive my mms this afternoon? I banked in the amount ady."
Only then did seller reply "Yea, I got it."
It is written on seller's site that items will be sent within 1-3 days. So since seller told me that item would be reaching by Wednesday, I waited keeping in mind that it would be delayed for one day since I banked in bout 2 hours late.
29/04/09 - Wednesday
However I received no news from seller since that last message on Monday night. Till Wednesday morning, I sent seller a message:
"Morning girl. *me* here. Just wanna ask if the bag is gonna arrive today coz i hv somewhere to go after this n won't be around."
Surprisingly, she replied "My supplier will send today or tomorrow to me wor. When will you come back?". Today or tomorrow as in Wednesday or Thursday? I thought she is supposed to send within 1-3 working days upon payment? I paid the full amount 2 days ago! And she has yet to receive the bag from her seller despite stating on the blogshop that the item is a [Ready Stock]??
So I told her that "I'll be back by next Tuesday or so.
01/05/09 - Friday
She sent me an email stating:
"So sorry to inform you the grey one out of stock already, my supplier went to Singapore during post few days, just only responded to me. Are you okay with the black one instead? Please reply asap ya."
I have no access to the internet coz I was out of town till Tuesday therefore no reply was forwarded
03/05/09 - Sunday
The seller waited till around 1am today to send me a message stating:
"Hey babe just recalled you're out of town till tuesday. My supplier told me the grey office bag is out of stock. Do let [me] know if you're ok with the black one ya"
I told her "Ya, I'm okay with the black one.
05/05/09 - Tuesday
Despite being promised that my bag will be sent on Monday and arrive by today, it has failed to arrive. I waited patiently. No news from her either.
06/05/09 - Wednesday
And the bag is suppose to arrive already. Yet it has not... I'm so afraid that my money is absconded by now... My RM52 for the bag and RM10 for postage. Still no news from her.
07/05/09 - Thursday
Today marks the 10th day since I made payment to the seller. As a first timer, i kept in mind patience is virtue but this has been too long a wait... So i texted her:
"Hi gal, just wanna ask if u've posted the item."
She responded:
"Are you *me*? Yes I've sent it yesterday. You should receive today ya."She is suppose to send it on Monday. Why is it that she sent it on a Wednesday?
I can't wait to receive the bag and finally received it later today. I saw from the slip that postage is only RM6.95! She charged me for RM10, delivered the item so late, and did not suggest to refund me the postage when she posted the item! So I sent her a message to ask.
"Hi gal, *me* here. Received the bag ady. May i know why is the postage rm10? And since its so long delayed and not in the colour i ordered for."
Have at least the curtosy to OFFER a refund of postage coz you've broken so many conditions in our agreement already! She kept quiet about the extra postage charge until I asked. What if I didn't? She will continue to be silent on it and give all the other Blogshops a bad name.
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Here's the conversation in SMS, turbo emotions: -
Seller: "You told me you're okay with the black one didn't you? The postage I estimated wrongly. I can refund you alright?"
Me: "Please do. I'm okay with the black but I saw the postage price on the slip."
Seller: "please understand I've never seen the bag before and from the picture it looks heavy. I'm sorry for this mistake. Pls provide your bank acc."(Previously she says the bag would reach her first then she post to me. Now, she says she have not seen the bag. What is this?)
Me: "*bank account number*. May I know the amount of refund?"
Seller: "3.05 since i charged you 10 right?"
Me: "K. Thanks." ... "Please inform ur customers next time if its not ready stock and that u've not seen it. Its fairly misleading."
Seller: (here comes the retaliation) "It's ready stock with my supplier. I can't possibly say it's pre-order. If not my customer will think it takes 3 weeks to reach here, right?"
Me: "If its ready stock, the stock shld be with u. Time taken for stock to reach u from ur supplier does not categorize it. Especially when u hv no clue on availability of stock."
*after quite some time*
- END -
Seller: "Okay. It's all my fault. rm10 will be refunded to your account as compensation ok? Thx."
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Dear reader, you be the judge. Its my first time shopping online, I've spend extra money just to wait for my purchase to arrive much later than expected and have compromised with the colour of my bag. I'm willing to spend that money if the seller gives good services as promised. Good services won't include extra hidden charge and harsh tones would it? Other Blogshops and Buyers knows best.
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from Shoppink Queen
Dear fashion truth,
firstly i would like to make myself clear that i did not use harsh tones during the whole conversation. as she posted all the emails and sms, you can see i did not use harsh words or tones. i admit it's all my fault letting her waited for so long but me too did not get any responses from my supplier. i know as a buyer, she paid for the best services, but pls do understand that i'm still an undergraduate packed with assignments and tests. really busy these days so i could hardly response to her. until now i still have assignment to be completed although this is one week before my final exam. alright, no point finding myself excuses. i admit that i'm at fault this time, shouldn't have updated my blog knowing myself so busy would not have time for all these. since this is the case, i'd like to request that she returns the bag and i shall refund full amount to her, i did not want my customer to have dissatisfaction like this. thank you.
After reading this post I have a few things to say.
I believe that the blogshop in question had errored in delaying the posting, and for not communicating well enough to the expectations of the customer. However, being a virgin buyer of online goods, it is very rash of a decision for you to immediately complain to FT about this. Adamant on seeing the destruction of the blogshop owner, are you? If you are acting for the goodwill of other buyers, I fail to see how you are delivering this message positively.
In this case, it is you who is acting harshly towards the blogshop in question as this complain will damage the reputation of the website. I am curious to know how you perceive her tone to be harsh as it was all done through text messaging. Your assessment is clearly clouded with pre-judgements thus I feel your main objective here is not to educate or create awareness but to execute ‘shoppink queen’s business for the less than satisfactory service.
I am nowhere suggesting that the service you receive is acceptable. But bear in mind sh!t happens and sometimes coming up to conclusions so fast is uncalled for. The response Shoppink Queen provided explains that they are ready to refund the money for the purchased bag. I do not know whether both parties have had other means of communication but I think it is ridiculous to blow something so small into a blog post that creates more damage than good especially for blog owners.
As to the postage price issue, if a little over-charge bothers you, stick to walk-in shopping. I believe that online shopping saves customers a whole lot on the clothes thus the blogshop owners have the right to charge their customers a little higher in certain aspects.
ready stock should means stock that is with the seller, not with supplier.. -__-'
i think the 'dissatisfaction' if buyer came from the fact that seller stated that it's a ready stock and for the definition of ready stock in online shopping, it means that the item is with the seller and NOT the supplier as explained by the buyer. stock with the supplier is definitely a pre-order one.
buyer made order assuming that it's a ready stock and such one can't blame that buyer is in a state of dissatisfaction when the bag came so late and being OOS. it would be understandable and misunderstandings could be avoided had the seller put it clearly and classified it clearly that it's a pre-order(which normally takes weeks) and not as ready stock.
Dear Adeline Chin,
Kindly contact us after you have posted the bag and we shall refund you in no time.
Thank you for your patience and have such a forgiving heart :)
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p.s to all who had read this, I am sorry for my bad English, I have learned from my mistake and will never repeat it. Thank you for your precious time!
most of the excuses i found here from the seller/blog shop owner are always "busy with the assignment, meeting, school work. i'm a student and etc" cummon!! if you're so busy with your school work why don't you just go back to your school. No rush to earning extra money from people but you are giving a bad service. Wow, earn extra money from us but still get this kind of suffering from the BOSS!!
Dear Shoppink Queen,
I understand that you're still an undergrad and that you have assignments and exams and all, so do I. I have deadlines to meet, errands to run and places to go. I know you have a life, but so do others.
I find it rude for not informing a buyer about so many terms. If you are busy and can't make it on a certain day, then do tell that you can make it on another day and set it. Don't delay and yet not inform. The time factor is not non-negotiable, the bag is not for first aid purposes dear.
Its not a blame on you for the delay, its more of a reminder for you to inform of the delays and confirm to receipt of a message, especially its regarding transaction of money. I had not dealt with you in a business context and errors could happen in transactions. Its your money and you should be the one taking note, coz if the money is lost in transaction the buyer would be the one responsible.
By the way, the request of sending back the bag and refunding is a waste of time, for you and me. Who has all the time to go through another transaction when you are so busy, and so am I.
The dissatisfaction is not with the item, its with your service dear, hence there's not a need for all the fuss of returning and refunding. A tight schedule is not an excuse to forgo punctuality, what more an uninformed one.
PS: Thank you FT for publishing this story. ^^
clearly know how u're feeling ms. buyer.. and i have to agree with natalie that if one is so busy with school work, might as well take a break or something..or at least let the buyer know that u might not be available 24/7..
although the buyer has the right to complain, i think the tone and choice of her words could have been better coz i think you were harsh and not really understanding towards the seller. very uncalled for.
about the postage rates thing... as a seller myself, it's hard to accurately estimate the postage rates that we often just give a flat rate. the overcharge thing, i don't think it's really her fault because we only find out the price when we're at the post office sending the items.
the use of the "ready stock" term though, i think the seller has to probably place a footnote in her blogshop to clarify the real situation?
i agree with MizYingYing that the tone and choice of the buyer's words could have been better. Postage rates on blog shops are hardly exact so i don't think the seller's meant to overcharge.
While the seller could have communicated better, i think she realized her mistakes pointed out by the buyer. I would say the seller handled this situation well by making amendments in her blog shop and offering a compensation/refund to the buyer so *thumbs up* :)
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