Dumbest Shipping Department Ever-Updated

I will not name the company yet, as there is still a remote chance that I will receive my order (although I am not holding my breath).

Back on Dec. 20 I ordered a coat online. The company's shipping policy states that "We ship...via U.S. Priority Mail or FedEx." When I entered my shipping address, there was a little box to check if my address was a P.O. Box. Presumably this is done so the company will not ship FedEx, as that company will not deliver without a street address. I checked this little box.

I waited, and I waited and finally, today, I went and clicked on the tracking number in the confirmation email I had received. And guess what? They shipped the damn package via FedEX, and it made it all the way to Madison before it was sent back to the company in MA.

So I called the customer service number and the woman at the other end confirmed that the package had just arrived back there today. She said that in their attempt to get a lot of things out before the holidays they had switched a number of orders to FedEx (as if this were a reasonable explanation).

THEY KNOW FEDEX WON'T DELIVER TO A P.O. BOX, SO WHY DID THEY HAND OFF A PACKAGE WITH ONLY A P.O. BOX ADDRESS TO FEDEX?

The customer service lady said that they had done this "at no additional cost to you". Well I should hope not!

And the FedEx guys? Why did they accept the package and send it as far as Madison? Couldn't someone have pointed out that the address was going to be a problem?

Aargh! So I asked the customer service lady if they would now re-ship the package to me via U.S. Mail. Well, no, they would just credit my account. What??? WTF???? They have the item that I ordered and paid for and still want, and that they messed up on shipping, and they are just going to return it to stock and not send it to me?

I pointed out to her that I did not consider this acceptable. She said that since it had just come in today and it hadn't been opened she would "try" to have it sent out, but that she certainly couldn't make any promises, and that she could only hope that someone might notice the "flag" she was putting on it. I asked whether I could just go ahead and re-order the item I had ordered in the first place. No, I couldn't, because they no longer carry that item. But you just told me you have the one I ordered in the first place. It's in your receiving area. You just told me that.

(Now this comes on top of the hassle I had already gone through last week concerning the fate of the other item I ordered at the same time, and that the web site said was in stock and "reserved" for me. First I got a "back order" email. Then I got a "back order but we have our doubts whether we can get any more" email. It was a sale item, and they had another item that looked identical except for the fabric. So I asked it they would substitute that at the same price. No, they would not. The whole thing was beginning to smell like bait and switch to me. According to the customer service lady today, this one is finally on it's way. We'll see.)

At the end of the conversation she asked, twice, "Is there anything more I could help you with today?" Since she clearly wasn't going to do a thing more to solve the problem I had called about, I could only assume this was a tactful way of asking whether there was anything else I would like to order today. Yeah, right. Riiiiiiight.

(Bangs head on keyboard while tearing hair)

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Well, I'm happy to report that the first (originally backdated) part of the order arrived, and is the right size, and I'm happy with the item. As far as the rest of it, well, we'll see what tomorrow brings (or doesn't).