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International Online Store Fuck-Around
desperaterobots
perth, ausRegistered User regular
perth, ausRegistered User regular
Hey dudes.
I placed an order for flowers for family in England (I'm in Australia).
They confirmed the payment twice by email (once to say it was processing, second to say the order had been checked by their admin and the order was being processed). Funds were taken.
About 12 hours later I got an email saying my order had been cancelled, blaming me for proceeding with an order despite the website advising no further orders could be placed.
The website said no such thing. Although the site now DOES have big red notices saying 'no further orders for delivery prior to christmas', it didn't at the time. They're essentially blaming me for the fuck-up and I want to prove to them I didn't see anything of the sort.
Is there any magical internet way to do this? I tried google cache but it shows the site with the red warning banners - looks like the last cache was about 5-10 hours after I placed my order. Any help?
http://www.eden4flowers.co.uk/content/content_main.asp?idarea=1
That's the site.
Cheers for any help!
I placed an order for flowers for family in England (I'm in Australia).
They confirmed the payment twice by email (once to say it was processing, second to say the order had been checked by their admin and the order was being processed). Funds were taken.
About 12 hours later I got an email saying my order had been cancelled, blaming me for proceeding with an order despite the website advising no further orders could be placed.
The website said no such thing. Although the site now DOES have big red notices saying 'no further orders for delivery prior to christmas', it didn't at the time. They're essentially blaming me for the fuck-up and I want to prove to them I didn't see anything of the sort.
Is there any magical internet way to do this? I tried google cache but it shows the site with the red warning banners - looks like the last cache was about 5-10 hours after I placed my order. Any help?
http://www.eden4flowers.co.uk/content/content_main.asp?idarea=1
That's the site.
Cheers for any help!
desperaterobots on
0
Posts
"When is your Christmas Order Cut-off?
4:30pm Wednesday 23rd December (delivering 24th)"
So if your confirmation e-mail is dated and timed earlier than that, surely you have grounds to go back to them and say you were in before the deadline. If i'm missing some other message on the website let me know.
Regardless, I think you need to brace yourself for the fact that even if you are in the right you may have difficulty guaranteeing Christmas delivery. At the moment the UK is struggling to cope with snow and weather conditions that are slowing down traffic - making deliveries take much longer. As such it is unlikely they will have the ability to change or add to their deliveries as they will have enough trouble fulfilling their orders. Doesn't mean you shouldn't necessarily call them on it, just be forwarned about what you are up against.
From a customer service perspective - did the e-mail seem like an automated response? Could be you got one of a job lot of order cancellation e-mails when the company realised they were completely overbooked? If so perhaps getting in touch with them and having them look at your case would help.
I have gone through a different florist now, but I'm still $150 down (haven't seen a refund) and I am being blamed by the customer service agent I'm dealing with for ignoring their big red warning banners, and thusly any inconvenience is being pinned as my own fault. I just want to show them there was nothing to ignore at the time the banners went up. That it was their fuck up, basically. It's been 5 or 6 emails back and forth now and they're not owning up to it and IM ARGUING ON THE INTERNET ABOUT IT (and I'm ashamed). Basically I'd just like something to point to that would show I wasn't to blame here - if it's not possible, oh well.
So I've responded with this (Spoilered for kind of long):
At first I was disappointed, upset, and angry that you would not take any responsibility for this problem or make attempts to accommodate my simple request (to remind you, it was for a few bunches of flowers to go to my wonderful Mother, her Sister (My Aunty, by the way), and my Mother (which is what I call my Grandmother - an odd naming convention that I still struggle with to this day, since it makes it sound like I had two mothers - a physical impossibility for people on my planet.)
But being angry at this time of the year is just so unsuited to the mood and, let's face it, decor - so I've tried to take a scientific approach to explain how this problem arose. Science is generally a dispassionate profession, except in America, where I understand people are forced to leave their schools or jobs for not believing in the Statue Of Liberty.
Now: I notice your website now offers XMAS EVE delivery for flowers and hampers. Correct?
Of course it's correct, I'm looking at it right now.
So, following your companies logic, if I ordered flowers NOW (as opposed to a few days ago), despite being within spitting distance of Christmas Day, you would have them delivered ON TIME.
Is that correct? Of course it is, your website says it is.
So, that would mean that flowers I ordered with MORE TIME until christmas CANNOT be delivered. That's true - that's why we're talking in the first place! Basically your emails implied that they FLAT OUT COULD NOT BE DELIVERED. It wasn't a case of simply running out of flowers, you were just too busy. There was simply not enough time.
But what's this? Flowers ordered with LESS TIME until Christmas CAN be delivered?
I don't want to exaggerate here, General Mhairi, but I have stumbled across something so incredible here that it could revolutionize not just the flower-delivery industry, but the way we view the world around us.
You see, the only explanation for you being able to fulfill orders with LESS TIME, and why you would cancel orders with MORE TIME, is that eden4flowers is operating in a universe where time runs backwards.
Think about it: This would be consistent with your insistence that I ignored 'no more order' notices that were posted AFTER I placed an order. It would also explain why you would cancel an order after, as your emails advised, your administration staff had checked my order and taken funds from my account and lined up my product for packing! Backwards, see?
Dealing with your company has been like starring in several different time-travel episodes of Star Trek, all mashed together. You would the bad guy with the cool make-up in this instance, I would probably be Patrick Stewart, who plays the very best Star Trek captain, Captain Picard - Much better than, say, Captain Kirk or that murderous Janeway.
And on a personal note, you have personally added an entertaining atmosphere of tension and suspense to my family's festive season that will resonate with us and our wider community for a very long time to come.
Have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year, and good luck with those other cancellations you have been forced to process on account of being placed too many days before Christmas Eve!
Your international friend,
Desperate Robots
Might as well have some fun with it. If anyone has an answer to the OP question though, I'd still love to know.
Unfortunately not getting any straight answers six polite but firm emails later drove me to FESTIVE SEASON MADNESS.
Does anyone know: If I paid with a VISA card, can I call VISA and ask them to reverse the payment if I still can't see a refund in my account after 72 hours?
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
Look at it this way: these guys work for a florist, which are always ridiculously busy around holidays. Who knows why the website's banners changed suddenly? Maybe someone put it up in response to the weather, or maybe they just wanted to give their poor employees a bit of a break. The weather can improve, or the employees can get their second wind, or any number of things can factor in.
Now, their mistake is clear when they cancelled your order. Again, busy--sometimes people fuck up under pressure--but they refunded your money and apologized. They don't owe you a full explanation as to why things when sour, just their obligation to either make it right or allow you to take your business elsewhere. And because you can out swinging, they'll probably be glad to be rid of you as a customer.
So my advice is to drop it, because shit happens man.
Just incase I struggle to recieve a refund after having my order cancelled, I'm interested to know if there's any way to line up the time I recieved my emails & my payment was processed with the time their website started showing the 'no more order' banners. Since google's cached link didn't help I was wondering if anyone knew of another way to do this, so I can say 'see, look!' if I need to.
They originally insisted that I had never been charged in the first place, which is one reason I'm concerned about actually getting my money.
And yeah, I'm not frothing at the mouth about this - the email I sent them came from a desire to express my frustration in a way that was light hearted, and I'm not going to press for anything more until 72 working hours have passed. Then, hopefully, when my funds are returned, then I'll drop it. 8-)
As far as showing you haven't been refunded, can you access a statement online? I would do that, save it as a PDF and send it to them. It'll clearly show the charge from them and no refund.
After their self-imposed "72 hour" window (which I find ridiculous. They don't give YOU 72 hours to pay, do they?)
72 hours isn't really the business' fault. If you're putting a return on a visa/debit it can take a few days to come though, depending on how they process it. The place probably already submitted it, but it's not going to show up on the OP's end for a few days. That's just how it works.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
The 72 hour refund bullshit isn't surprising. Thankfully I'm not desperate for the cash. After 72 hours, though, kablammo! ANOTHER SARCASTIC EMAIL!
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Well, I got a refund. Minus the two $5 international currency charges and the differences in the exchange rates this thing cost me about $17. The other company delivered, no problem, so high-five other company!
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH