We’re quick to point out praise and back pat ourselves on positive news and we’ve been doing plenty of that after what has turned out to be our biggest Christmas by far. We also love to publish testimonials, when we have permission to do so.
So I thought it only fair to share a surprising complaint we received shortly after Christmas.
“I want to let you know how disgusted I was and am at receiving my Christmas hamper sent by my Mother, Mrs X X. I was so elated to get the parcel, and came in such a big box promising to be such a wonderful and unexpected present from Mum. However, my elation soon turned to disappointment and disgust when I undid the parcel - only 7 items and only one of them was of any decent size. I did take a peek at your website to find out how much money my Mum had wasted on this present (I don’t normally do such sneaky things) to discover that it was nearly $90 plus postage. How dare you take money off innocent people in such a blatant ripoff. I certainly won’t be using your services and I will be passing on to all my friends and family what a pathetic excuse for a gift basket that I received from your company. I notice that I was supposed to get a Christmas pudding - well that was certainly not in my box. The size of the boxes is just dismal. I received some smaller baskets from other relatives which cost far less than this one and they were much better value. I know it is buyers beware, but when you operate through the internet customers only have the testimonials that you list and the awards. I hope you print this “testimonial” and that you consider giving my Mother back some of the money that you ripped off her. As you can tell- I am not happy.”
Mrs Kay Thomson, Toogoolawah
Ouch! Some pretty damning criticisms there that had us scurrying through our records to find out what we possibly could have sent to offend someone.
Here is my reply sent on the 28th of December. (We are officially closed between the 25th of December and the 5th of January, but an issue this serious required immediate action.)
Hello Mrs Thomson,
Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.
We feel extremely disappointed that you were not happy with your hamper. We are a small business, and pride ourselves on the quality and presentation of our gifts. To find that one of our gift recipients was not satisfied is disheartening, especially as this is the first complaint we have received from the hundreds of hampers that were sent this Christmas.
Were any of the contents not of expected quality or damaged in some way? Our aim is to strive for 100% customer satisfaction. Please let us know if you would you like us to contact your mother to see how best we can help her.
In the meantime, if I could address a few of the points you raised.
We are not at liberty to divulge the purchase price of our gifts, however, I can say this gift was organised well before the Christmas price rises and therefore it cost substantially less than the currently advertised price.
Unfortunately some items are replaced with items of equal or higher value if we are out of stock of specific products, which is why you did not receive a pudding. We would be happy to send you a complimentary pudding if you would like us to.
We are always interested in ways we can improve our services, so we thank you again for raising your concerns with us.
Kind regards
Darren Johnson
We didn’t receive a reply to this message so I sent a follow up note on the 30th of December. I did not want to leave someone out there with such a poor opinion of our business. We work very hard to establish a solid reputation and we needed some swift action here. Here is the follow up note:
Hello Mrs Thomson,
I haven’t seen a reply from you regarding my previous e-mail.
I was hoping you could get in touch as it concerns [sic - missing the "us"] that you are an unhappy gift recipient.
Hoping to hear from you.
Happy New Year.
Kind regards
Darren Johnson
I received a reply from Mrs Thomson on the evening of the 1st of January. The full message is re-produced below.
I see no point in continuing writing to you. I have already expressed my feelings in my previous correspondence.
As you pointed out my mother ordered my gift well before the Christmas price rises and it is a little concerning that even then the pudding could not be arranged as quoted in your website. And no, I am not happy with the quality or the quantity of whatever it was that replaced it. I have taken photos of the hamper without it’s wrapping which show the paltry amount of goods involved, and I have also shown it to some of my friends who also expressed their horror at the quantity of goods in the hamper.
Please don’t send me a pudding, I am sure that I will be disappointed with the size of it any way. You might as well save your money.
The purpose of my writing to you in the first place was to give you the opportunity to know that one of your recipients is not happy with the
quantity of goods in the hamper. And, I can appreciate that not too many recipients would complain about receiving a hamper, most of them would not have any idea of how much they cost and it is always nice to get a present after all. However, I have researched hampers before and know what to expect for the amount of $s that are invested - all are very much over priced. By complaining to you I am giving you the opportunity to lift your game.I still will not be using your services and certainly will not be recommending you to any of my friends or family.
My reply as of the evening of the 1st of January 2009 was as follows:
Hello Mrs Thompson,
Thank you very much for replying.
We appreciate your feedback and your opinion.
With your permission, I would like to contact your mother to offer her a refund. Since you are not happy with our product, we feel it would be unethical to keep her money. Would you mind if we contacted her to arrange the refund?
We are very proud of our products and operate in a highly competitive environment of well informed customers. We supplied the hamper with seven products which was the hamper chosen and purchased for you. I’m sorry you are not happy with the hamper you received. However, as you can see, we have very high personal standards of courtesy and service and we will do whatever we can to rectify the situation for any unsatisfied customers.
The replacement pudding we were offering to send was a 400g pudding by Quality Desserts. If this size is acceptable to you we would still be happy to send it, as well as provide a refund. We had also planned to send some other products along with it. We’re not interested in the money for one hamper, just providing quality products to happy customers.
Please let us know if we can send you those bonus products.
As requested in your previous mail, we will be publishing your complaint on our site along with our responses to it. I think it illustrates how much further we go than the average business to ensure our customers are happy, or if we can’t make them happy, then we will gladly give them their money back.
My name is Darren, by the way and I am the proud owner of this business.
Kind regards
Darren Johnson
I was very pleased to receive the following message from Mrs Thomson today, Sunday the 4th of January, 2009.
Hello Darren
Firstly I want to thank you for taking the time to acknowledge my complaint about your hamper. You should be proud of your customer service ethics, I work in customer service myself and pride myself on being able to go that extra step that is often required when dealing with customers. I applaud you for that.
Until yesterday, I had actually kept from my Mother the issue that I had with the hamper that she sent me, but on receiving your latest email I decided that I should tell her what has transpired. Of course she was initially upset, but she did not take it personally and that is what I was concerned about as she lives on her own in Canberra and is in her mid 80s. Both Mum and I are impressed that you have offered the refund on the hamper, and in fact according to my sister, Anne Miller, you have already refunded the money into Anne’s account. Thank you very much for that.
If you want to send me the other products I am more than happy to accept them, but please don’t feel compelled to do so. I am happy with the service that you have already provided. I am more than happy for you to publish our correspondence including this email if you want to. The only issue that I had/have is with the product itself, not your service.
Congratulations on your ethics and your customer service skills.
Sincerely
Kay Thomson
This is the first complaint of this kind we have ever received in three years of business. We certainly have much bigger hampers in our range, but we supplied the product that was chosen by the person sending the gift. Despite being disappointed that anyone receiving one of our products was unsatisfied with it, I feel we have resolved this issue as best we possibly could.
Hopefully by publishing it here we, others can feel safe that we really do stand behind our products and make every possible effort to ensure complete satisfaction for the buyer and the recipient.
And thank you for Mrs Thomson for keeping the communication channels open, so that we could resolve the issue for you.
