Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Have a Twitterful Christmas - Hard to get to the top of google?

How difficult is it to get to the top of google?

Using a random search phrase like "Have a Twitterful Christmas" is pretty easy. If a company wanted to show off their skills then surely they would choose a more difficult phrase to get to the top?

http://haveatwitterfulchristmas.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

My Pixmania Experience

This is just a quick blog about my experience with the Online E-Tailer Pixmania.

On the 5th October 2005, I placed an order with Pixmania for a 250GB USB External Harddrive. I also ordered a 4 port USB Hub. Both of the products were in stock. I paid for the order using my credit card and expected to receive my order within a couple of days, thanks to their 24 hour delivery services ...

On the 11th October I received an email from a person called James Felix. According to his auto signature, James is the Customer Care Manager at Pixmania.

In his email, James informed me that “As part of our policy of transparency and honesty, we are writing to warn you that, due to problems encountered by our logistics platform, there may be a slight delay in treating your order. This additional delay should not exceed 2 to 3 days and we apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused.”



I was disappointed when I received this email, because it meant that my 24 hour delivery would take more than a week.

On the 18th October, my delivery still had not arrived, so I decided to contact Pixmania again. I sent an email to Pixmania and within 24 hours I received another email from James Felix. This time James stated that "We have now found the source of the problem and every effort is being made to correct the problem in the next few hours to allow us to dispatch your order before Friday."



One week later, on the 25th October, I had still not received an update from Pixmania. I decided to contact them. This time, their customer support person told me that he would refund me the cost of postage and apologised for the problems that I have received. Later that day I received an email from James Felix confirming this. I would like to congratulate James, because according to his email autosignature he is now the Customer Service Director. Congratulations James, I am glad to see that your hard work has been recognised.


On the 28th October I was delighted to receive an email informing me that my product had been dispatched. The product listed was my 4 port usb hub. At the bottom of the email it stated that they had already shipped my hard drive. I had not received a notification of this shipment, so I gave them a call.



The customer support person informed me that my product hard drive was shipped on the 25th October. A couple of days later, I noticed on the Pixmania site that the product was now out of stock and it hasn't been shipped at all.

Each time I call pixmania I am left on hold before I get to speak to any customer support person. The amount of "hold time" varies from 20 minutes to over 60 minutes.

It is now the 8th November, 34 days after I placed my order with Pixmania and my product still has not been shipped! According to their website the product that I purchased is currently in stock. Why won't they just send me my hard drive? It really is unbelievable. I don't want to cancel my order, because I have received the USB hub already and will have to return this to them at my expence.

Today, I phoned them and tried to escalate the issue. I was on hold for 55 minutes before I got to speak to someone. She was polite, but could give me no information. I asked to speak to a supervisor, but unfortunately there are no supervisors available in their call centre. She gave me an email address ( one which I have been given before) and I informed her that I have tried sending emails to that address in the past and I have not received a response from it.

She then gave me another email address or the managers personal assistant. I sent her an email detailing my issue and am currently awaiting a reply.

I will update this blog when I get my response.


Keywords: Pixmania, Customer Service, Lack of Customer Service, Complaints, Online Ordering, No Delivery, Pixmania Sucks, E-Commerce, ETailer, Selling Online