Smyths.ie Toys.ie online buying - bad experience

pyzon

I live about 2hrs from the nearest Smyths so found it a breath of fresh air when they charged no shipping for orders +€100. so ordered the christmas gifts, but after confirming order realised I'd ordered 2 of one item by mistake. Promptly emailed the Customer Service people and replied to the auto email order that the order should be cancelled and I would re-order correctly. This was late weekend night. Re-ordered stuff correctly same evening. I heard the following Wednesday via e-mail that it was too late the order had shipped...I though WTF..I emailed my request less than 5 mins after ordering....so they said just refuse the deliver and we will issue refund.

Aside from the order arriving in a 'huge' box the young recipient saw the box and the writing on the box identifying it's contents...(really Smyths you should change this especially at this time of year...) the posty was not impressed with having to take it back and decided to leave it with us and collect it later, upon arrival the young-lad stood solemnly over it with two hands on the box as it went back to the posty, obviously having been incorrectly delivered to us by An Post/Smyths instead of to Santa..

Now two weeks later after numerous e-mails (I will not ring their extortionate 95cents a minute CS line and lose money on this sham - I alredy tried this for two days but it just rang out...)...I still have no refund..but have my new order..

...their CS is junk, their online ordering system is not recommened by me if you have issues with your order...and I find the whole thing a sour taste in my mouth..bah-humbag at you Smyths...

I'll still visit from time to time, but you'll not see any electronic funds passing to you from me any more...!! (and give me my bloody refund already!!!!).

edit - is there anyone out there with a contactable email address in Smyths other than cs@smyths.ie or orders@smyths.ie ? tks.

AlwaysAmber

To be fair a lot of what you describe isn't Smyths fault.

The first email you received was probably an automated one (do you really expect them to have people working 24/7?) and if they had prepared your order before they read your email the following day... that's actually a sign that they dispatch quickly.

You can't really blame Smyths for your child seeing the box or the postman's attitude.

The length of time it takes refunds to appear back in customers accounts, is down to banks most of the time. Once the merchant processes the refund, they have no control on how long it takes to reach the customers account.

The issue was caused by you making a mistake, not them... maybe you should give them a break.

pyzon

your response is baffling and misses the point of my post.

of course this was an error on my part initially and shortly after the initial mistake was noticed i reordered with Smyths and received the order in good time (strangely with no outside markings as to the boxes contents).

I'm aware most online companies use automated emails for order processing and shipping, this is not the issue. What you are saying is they probably don't work 24/7 but are able to process and ship my order before being able to read my email about it which is a toss up between fast delivery and proper delivery, and I've noticed most reputable online delivery companies will actually give you time to cancel/review order before it is 'processed/picked/boxed/posted' by the non 24/7 staff.

I'm aware most couriers require external paperwork for shipments with details, smyths did not they have a list of the boxes contents on the box clearly visible and I merely mentioned they should be a little more sensitive at this time of the year, i'm sure anyone ordering online and having kids at home when deliveries arrive would maybe see this as 'awkward'.

postman's attitude? - did I miss a dot or forget to cross a t somewhere also? - what is your point in your reply - this is a simple rant about Smyths online ordering experience and nothing to do with An Post - our posty is a very personable and friendly guy and we like him and hit attitude on the day was not our issue in fact he didnt' have one it was just added into my post as part of what happened.

the order was refusted two weeks ago, it takes 2/3 days to return to Smyths, they scan barcode system is updates and overnight they batch their sales/refunds/etc to their electronic transaction processing company who run daily jobs that process payments to Smyths and refunds to customers etc...this does NOT take 2 weeks...

However my point is they have no Customer Service, two weeks and no replies and they expect you to dial a 95cents a minute number?

I like Smyths it's a great store, but they should stay out of online order processing until they can provide an online Customer Service that is somewhat in the 21st centuary.

No doubt you'll pick holes in this post and blame me on this and that, fire away, I won't be responding, I didn't post my experience of shopping online with Smyths to be criticised or blamed, it's here for others to read and consider when ordering online with Smyths.

quit trolling.

jor el

pyzon wrote: »

I emailed my request less than 5 mins after ordering....so they said just refuse the deliver and we will issue refund.

You re-ordered before they confirmed the cancellation, so this is your fault. Perhaps their system doesn't allow for cancellations, or perhaps they didn't see the mail in time.

pyzon wrote: »

Now two weeks later after numerous e-mails (I will not ring their extortionate 95cents a minute CS line and lose money on this sham - I alredy tried this for two days but it just rang out...)...I still have no refund..but have my new order..

Have they responded to any of the emails, and if so, what did they say. If you paid with a credit card, you can get the bank to query the charge, and they can reverse it. They will contact Smyths about it.

pyzon

this isnt really about fault here, its about the experience of using Smyths for ordering online and if they dont have a cancellation then they are not really setup for online ordering. They emailed me today 2nd reply, first was to tell me what to do with the 1st order, and said the refund was passed to their accounts dept and would be processed Monday, apologies all over the email and blaming the volume of orders, perhaps next year they'll be a little more prepared.

91011

Just to let everyone know, most bigger online stores have a dispatch system & a custoemr service system.

Customer service will normally work monday to friday office hours, a dispatch system at this time of year could be from 5am.

I'm involved in an online store and order print on a warehouse sytem and can be picked from 7am to 9pm 7 days a week. (6am this morning!!) - If there is a query, this will be answered from 9am to 5pm 7 days a week. As we're not huge (yet) we only get goods collected twice a day, so order issues usually can be rectified before a parcel leave.

In this case - Smyths are probably too efficient for their own good with order being dispatched within hours of being placed. - Problem is, if there was a 2 day delay, everyone would be complaining that they're not quick enough.