Customer First? Maybe not.
Yesterday I had some artwork signed off and sent it off to a new printers that offered great prices for high-quality litho printing. I downloaded their order form from the website, filled it in and e-mailed it back, complete with artwork, to have the job started.
I then get an e-mail with a 5 page document attached that I have to print, sign and fax back to confirm I agree to their Terms and Conditions. Fax back? What decade are we living in? So I print, sign and fax it back (USN have a fax machine that they kindly let me use). I then get a PDF that is an order confirmation form which I have to do the same with, including my payment details. If I pay by cheque I have to add 5 days onto the delivery time for it to clear. If I pay by BACS I have to fax a remittance. If I pay by card I have to add 3% service charge. I bite the bullet and pay by card becaue I am in a hurry. This form I then scan and e-mail back, having been advised I can do that instead of faxing.
In the meantime I have had an e-mail informing me that my login details for the online proofing service have been sent to me and I should use them to log in and approve the job. By this morning the details haven't arrived and so I have to request them to be sent again. I fire up Firefox and try to log in but am greeted by this:
I check out the troubleshooting page and sure enough they only support IE5 or higher. I switch to IE6 and log in, only to get this:
By now I am pretty annoyed. I approve all the artwork and then get an e-mail from the printer saying that I need to return the forms that I was sent yesterday. I reply to say that I already have.
This is totally ridiculous. They have gone to the trouble of having a fancy online approval system, why not have an online account creation and ordering system, bypassing the need for faxing forms back and forth? They are so close to having a great product/service but it is totally ruined by their reliance of old and selective technology. I have e-mailed them to tell them exactly what I think (in a polite manner though, I’m not rude).
I am so frustrated right now - does it show?
This experience highlights to me how important it is to make the customer experience one of your top priorities otherwise you will not get repeat business.
On the plus side I did get a free jar of humbugs sent to me today by a company that deal in Apple supplies and maintenance. Hurrah for freebies!
That’s 100% of rubbish. You should offer to make them a great new website (coming soon!)
Was the printing any good?
October 19th, 2006 at 11:32 amDon’t know yet - it should arrive some time in the next few days. It had better be bloody amazing.
October 19th, 2006 at 11:38 amThere is a term for this “Bag ‘o Shite”
October 19th, 2006 at 2:20 pmAwww *virtual hug* they sound about as useful as a box of frogs! I hope it gets printed ok… Humbugs are great, but it would have been the final straw for me to have someone send (BAH) HUMBUGS when I was grumpy!! xx
October 20th, 2006 at 8:57 amThe printing has arrived and, to be fair, it is pretty good.
I would still think twice before ordering from them again though.
October 23rd, 2006 at 10:59 amFuture-Proof Your Marketing With Online Newsfeeds…
64% of business e-mail is never opened. And there’s no way to know how many copies of your e-zine gather dust in busy mailboxes or how many are destroyed by spam filters before they get that chance….
February 16th, 2008 at 1:35 am