Location: Ontario, Mississauga
Industry: Technology
Company: Future Shop
This is a copy (99%) of an email I sent to the Toronto Star today regarding the "fun" I have had of late with Future Shop:
On December 24, 2007 I went on line to order some of the boxing week special items at Future Shop. My desire was to order a replacement fridge, stove, washer and dryer … stainless steel for the kitchen appliances, and plain white for the laundry pair. I had planned on the Maytag laundry pair, a GE stove and an LG fridge.
That night was the night that the website e-commerce portion crashed. I spent three hours that night waiting and watching (and reading the increasingly frustrated rants of other customers on the FS community site). Eventually I was able to order the fridge and the stove, but not the washer and dryer.
I went to my local FS the morning of December 26 to order the washer and dryer. At the time, I asked that the delivery be set to coincide with the fridge and stove delivery, although I did not know what that date would be. The order was placed by the sales associate. He asked about the pedestals for the pair, and I indicated I needed to check on space first. A delivery charge was added to the order, similar to when I ordered the other two items on line. The salesperson indicated that this could be reversed when the delivery happened. Delivery was scheduled for January 3, 2008.
I returned to the store on December 27 to inquire about the pedestals. I was told by the same associate that they were not in yet, but that I could pay for them to get the best chance of having them show up. They could not be sure that the pedestals would be delivered at the same time as the washer and dryer. I paid for the pedestals, with the salesperson putting the order in after reviewing my original order.
I returned to the store on January 2 to check on the status of the pedestals, and was told that the hoped for delivery of the next day would not be possible. I also at that time had the delivery rescheduled for January 15 (including the pedestals), and added on the option to have my existing washer and dryer taken away, for which I paid $40.
I went to my local FS again on January 3 in the evening. I wanted to change the fridge that had been ordered on line to a larger (and more expensive) one. I waited for 15 minutes in appliances with no-one showing up, then hunted down a cashier to assist. She paged someone (Chris) to appliances; I waited another 10 minutes with no-one showing up. She then went to hunt someone down. The person who came back indicated that they could order the fridge but could not do anything about the one ordered on line … I would have to call customer support (CS) for that. I declined ordering from him, as I wanted to make sure that I did not end up with two fridges. The timeframe for delivery was between noon and 9 PM; the associate said that a more definite time would be provided to me in the pre-delivery call I would get the day before.
I called that night to CS and spoke with a person (Chad, employee xxxxx). They indicated that if I placed the order on-line they could put the cancellation order in. They were also going to update the requested delivery to be January 15 so that all items would show up the same day … thereby providing a single delivery charge (I was now up to three of them – one for the washer/dryer, one for the fridge/stove, and one for the replacement fridge) and making sure I did not have to reserve two days for the delivery. I was told this should be possible. The CS rep said he would contact me within 3 to 5 days to confirm all of this, and indicated that the credit to my card for the cancellation would take 7 to 10 days.
By Saturday, January 12 I had not heard from the CS rep and was getting worried. I called in (waiting about 20 minutes again for someone to pick up) and spoke to another rep (Ruth, employee xxxxxx). They indicated that the cancellation for the first fridge had not been put through, that the second fridge was scheduled for delivery on January 21, and that they could not be sure that the replacement fridge could be changed to be delivered on the date of the other deliveries. She said she would put the request through. I expressed my extreme displeasure … it got me nowhere.
I received a call from the delivery company the night of January 14 saying the delivery was going to be as planned the next day. They could not tell me if the replacement or original fridge was being delivered. They also indicated that they could not give me a better idea of the delivery time (despite what the sales associate said). They gave me a number to call in the morning to get the better idea of the delivery time.
I called the number they gave me at 10 AM – I did not speak with anyone, but had to leave a message. I did so, giving my name phone number and street name and asked to be called back. No one called back.
No one had showed up by 6 PM so I called through again. The person I spoke to said it was out for delivery, and should be there by 9. Shortly after 9 PM it had not arrived, so I called the number again … no one was there – they closed at 9 PM.
A little after 9:30 the delivery truck showed up. It had the original fridge on it (not the replacement). The pedestals which the salesperson had ordered were also the wrong ones – I had ordered a Maytag set, and the pedestals were for a Whirlpool set. The delivery and installation person indicated that they would NOT work for my Maytag set. Therefore, I declined the fridge and the pedestals. Oh yes … and they did not have notice that they were to take away my old washer and dryer … I showed him my sales receipt for it and he then took them away.
So … the summary:
- The salesperson in store ordered the wrong pedestals for my set.
- The on line CSR did NOT cancel my original order as he had promised
- The on line CSR did NOT arrange for the delivery of the replacement fridge on the same day as the other items
- The salesperson in store (or someone) did not make sure the delivery company knew to take away the old washer and dryer.
- I have been charged 3 delivery charges
- The charge for the cancelled fridge is still on my credit card
- I did not get a clearer timeframe for delivery on the pre delivery call
- The call the next morning to ask this was left ignored with no call back, despite my request to get a call back.
- The call just after 9, by which time the items were to have been delivered, was unanswered as they were closed … I do not understand this – how do you find out if the delivery was lost, delayed or something else if you cannot get through that night?
- I had to go back to the store to get a credit for the pedestals – another 45 minutes out of my day. They could not yet process the credit as they needed to email / call with the warehouse. They did credit one of the delivery charges (their's, but not the web site ordered ones). The salesperson told me that the pedestals would work fine … that they are from the same company. Given the choice of believing someone who delivers and installs them versus someone who works in a store, I chose to decline this and have the cancellation and credit to my card processed.
The entire process seems to be set up to serve the profits and needs of Future Shop with little concern for the customer. From what I can see, there are 4 parties involved in my orders – Future Shop (the store), Future Shop (the website), the delivery arranging company, and the delivery company. None of them seem to communicate with each other.
I find it astonishing that I could have received such consistent poor service, pack of lies, mistakes in ordering and delivering, and lack of response.
I would love to hear what Future Shop has to say about this, and what they can do to satisfy my level of upset. Regardless, I can guarantee that I will never order something from either Future Shop or Best Buy that I cannot carry out of the store… this process was just too damned painful and time consuming.
Mike G. from Mississauga
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