Having read Lamby’s blog posting about his troubles with Aria I was reminded of my own similar trouble with eBuyer. This got me thinking about how everyone seems to have had trouble with at least one online retailer’s customer service, and every online retailer that I can think of has someone who’s had trouble with them. Obviously some are worse experiences than others (ranging from Lamby’s case to “they took an hour to answer the phone”) but there’s something in common for all of these cases; they screwed up in the first place.
As a result I’m wondering if it’s worthwhile putting the customer service issue on the back burner to the chances of them screwing up. Afterall, if they don’t screw up you won’t have to deal with the (quite likely) atrocious customer service department…
Taking this further it’s also worth noting that, if the error was with packing or something (as mine was), that the same people who made that error will inevitably end up in the chain for the solution. Hardly ideal, as the chances are possible that they’ll screw up again. Of course, this alone isn’t the best yard stick, but it might just be worthwhile taking it into account.