Retailers and their customer service - good and bad.

[magic]

It's not the corner:)

[boodude]

Lazzari

awesome service from Lazzari including resolving of a tiny problem with my item to my full satisfaction. Steven is great to deal with, fast communication and very helpful!

[diederik]

Also take into account that LN-CC went into administration - and have now been taken over (rescued?) by another company - so last couple of weeks were probably a bit rough for LN-CC (and I can imagine for the staff as well).

http://www.businessoffashion.com/2014/02/bof-exclusive-level-group-buys-ln-cc-administration.html

[Faust]

Yes, they definitely were. I wish them all the best - amazing store and great crew.

[likeaboy]

Purchased a jacket from ink-clothing, and a couples of days later they sent me an email. Saying my order has been cancelled because it wasnt available (I guess they didnt update their inventory, idk.) And im just siting here like, thats it, shouldnt i get some coupon codes or what not XD? Anyways i think the way they handled this is unprofessional.(maybe im just a greedy bitch)

[DudleyGray]

Why would you expect future discounts for an item being out-of-stock? I mean if you get one, then bonus, but what an awkward brand of entitlement, somewhere between 'everything should be affordable/cheap' and 'let them eat cake.' What a way to say "I can't actually afford luxury goods."

[Faust]

I also don't understand this asking for a future discount.

[curiouscharles]

that's a ridiculous expectation - although i can fully empathize with the frustrations surrounding stores' inabilities to keep their respective websites reflective of actual inventory levels.

[Shucks]

sometimes i suspect a 'bait and switch' tactic behind that... "hey, sorry, the item you just ordered is sold out. do you want us to refund you or would you like this [INSERT ANY CRAPPY ITEM HERE] instead?"

by the way, you can actually sue stores that do this, if you are in the US, and in the UK it is a criminal offense.

[likeaboy]

Idk man i remember someone from this forum had the same situation as me, but with Sneakerboy and they got like future discount code. It is what it is i guess. :s

[BrokenBoards]

Idk man i remember someone from this forum had the same situation as me, but with Sneakerboy and they got like future discount code. It is what it is i guess. :s

Then Sneakerboy clearly decided to go above and beyond. INK handled themselves like any normal business would. If you're after blue light specials and coupon codes, shop at K-Mart.

[likeaboy]

Yup sneakerboy knows their shit and knows how to keep their customers. I guess ink just lost a customer, but probably it doesnt even matter to them because im a cheap customer nuff said.

[ian+]

If an e-shop functions well then the only thing the owner has to do is to enter the initial quantity of a product and the software will make sure the inventory is always up to date.
To my experience though there are many online retailers out there with malfunctioning web stores, things are not as automated as they should be and this results to many mistakes since someone has to update manually the inventory.
I sympathize with the situation above, but Ink on the other hand is one of the greatest stores worldwide. Amazing service, prices, shipping, returns and personnel. And no Ink does not operate like a normal business, marking down values for customs without the client even asking for it is way above normal business.

[boodude]

^^ agree with the above although in the past I have emailed 2-3 times to INK to inquire about some WM rings and never got an answer. So I decided to spend my money else where. Did not see the "great" customer service you have experienced.

[BrokenBoards]

If an e-shop functions well then the only thing the owner has to do is to enter the initial quantity of a product and the software will make sure the inventory is always up to date.
To my experience though there are many online retailers out there with malfunctioning web stores, things are not as automated as they should be and this results to many mistakes since someone has to update manually the inventory.
I sympathize with the situation above, but Ink on the other hand is one of the greatest stores worldwide. Amazing service, prices, shipping, returns and personnel. And no Ink does not operate like a normal business, marking down values for customs without the client even asking for it is way above normal business.

In the case of INK, you might be dealing with a company who's web-store shares stock with their retail store(s) and a lot of POS systems don't operate in real time, even in this day and age. So their web inventory may not get updated until a system polls at the end of the business day.

It's also pretty common for e-comm platforms to oversell an item because a lot of the bigger ones (mr porter, anything yoox powered, the corner, etc.) have to review orders (i.e. all of the fun fraud prevention steps a retailer has to take). So if customer X places an order for an item and it's the last one and his order falls into review, 'technically' the item is still available. So if customer Y wants the item and places the order and his purchase doesn't fall into review, he gets the item.

I have no doubt that INK is a retailer that routinely goes above and beyond, so didn't mean to refer to them as 'normal' across the board, just in this particular circumstance.