Post Christmas Woes

I have an e-mail address with Yahoo Mail. I’ve had this e-mail address for years (at least since 1999). For awhile after college I used it as my main e-mail address, but eventually I moved on to another provider. I still use it as my e-mail address for all online business I perform. However since it is no longer my main address, I tend to only check it once or twice a month, or anytime I order something online. Today I happened to do just that, and as I was paging through the accumulated spam at I noticed an e-mail from Right Stuf that made me quite angry.

I tend to do almost all of my Christmas shopping online, and most of that through Amazon.com. I don’t generally have a huge list of people to buy for, mainly just my family, but fairly late in the shopping season this last Christmas I decided since Dan, Matt, Paul, and I had been gaming together for close to two years (and with Matt and Paul longer still) I should get them something. I opted for gift certificates. My first mistake was not thinking of this sooner, my second mistake was not getting everybody gift certificates from the same location. Instead I decided I’d tailor my choice of provider to better suit each of them, and add a small personal touch to the gift. Matt was pretty easy I just grabbed a gift certificate at the local music/book/comic book/collectibles/role playing/sports memorabilia/hobby store, and mailed it off to him. With Paul I compromised just a little bit, I had originally intended to get him a gift certificate from ThinkGeek, but something about the process (I don’t even remember what anymore, but I think it was time constraint related) dissuaded me so I instead got him a gift certificate from Amazon.com. For Dan the choice seemed obvious - I’d get him a gift certificate from Right Stuf. I have never been a huge customer of Right Stuf, but I have purchased things from them before and never had a problem. More importantly I know Dan is a pretty frequent customer of theirs, so on December 18, 2007 I placed my order for a gift certificate.

On December 19, 2007 I get an e-mail from Right Stuf informing me that in order to protect themselves from fraud they cannot ship a credit card order to an address that is different from the credit card billing address without me jumping through some hoops. I’m not thrilled by this, but I can at least understand their need to protect themselves from fraud. I’m given a few options, and the easiest one for me is to fax a copy of my credit card, and driver’s license to them. So on December 20, 2007 I send them a three page fax. Page one is a fax cover sheet listing my name, e-mail address, my order number, and the reason I’m faxing. Page two is the actual photo copy of my credit card, and driver’s license on which I included my e-mail address, and order number. Finally page three was a brief letter expressing my feelings on the process which pretty much boiled down to, “I know you have to do something to combat fraud, but your chosen tactic is rather inconvenient, and convenience is the main reason I shop online.” Later that day I got an e-mail back from Right Stuf customer service saying basically we’re sorry you found the experience to be inconvenient, but look on the bright side now that you’ve sent this information to us, you won’t have to do it again the next time you order a gift for somebody from us.

Today I found that on January 4, 2008 Right Stuf resent the e-mail telling me they cannot ship a credit card order to a different address without some further actions by me. I spent a few minutes stomping around my living room swearing to myself. Once I’d calmed down a bit I call their customer service number. I find out the order has been canceled because they never received a copy of my credit card and driver’s license. I asked how that is possible since I received an e-mail back from them after I faxed them a copy of my driver’s license and credit card. The lady I was talking to wasn’t sure how that could have happened, but did see that her manager had indeed sent me an e-mail on December 20th apologizing for the inconvenience. She’d have to talk to her manager to see what could be done. So about 30 minutes later Right Stuf calls me back and says, sorry we don’t know how it happened, but we lost your driver’s license and credit card information, and we still cannot send out your gift certificate without that information on file. They suggest they send the gift certificate directly to me, and I can turn around and give it to the intended recipient myself. I tell them fine. So Dan, belated Merry Christmas, you can except a Right Stuf gift certificate from me in the mail sometime next week.

So what have I learned from this? I’m too damn nice to customer service - I imagine if I’d let a little of my general annoyance and anger over the situation leak out during my two phone conversation with them I’d have gotten something other than an apology (would a discount on the gift certificate have killed them). I’m never buying a gift for somebody on Right Stuf again, but I probably would buy something for myself again, if they had the best deal on it. Finally I should do my Christmas shopping earlier in December so I have time to deal with annoyances like these.

Well woot for post 70. Sorry Matt you are going to have to wait for another day for a post about gaming this last Saturday.