Wednesday, May 18, 2011

In a Quandary

I'm in a quandary.   Awhile back, I purchased a purse online.  Since it's a small shop, they advise, "All items are shipped within ten business days of your order, unless otherwise contacted."

I waited for the requisite two weeks and decided to contact them as I'd not received any communication.  They advised it would be at least another week before it would ship.

I decided to cancel the order as I'm one for instant gratification and receiving it a month from order was a bit too much, especially considering I'd not been notified of the delay.  They offered an unspecified "free ship" (for this order?  for the next?), but I'm disappointed and broke and requested the refund, which I saw appear on my statement that day.  I used a virtual card number, so I closed it out thinking all is well.

Fast forward a week and a half and I've received notification that I have a package from the shop.  I emailed them thinking they can log in to the shipping site and have the package redirected, but they advised that it should be delivered tomorrow and then I can send it back.  Once I received it, I opened the envelope to obtain a return label and found it was not sent with one. 

I've emailed them requesting a return label be sent to me, but the thing is, I still kind of, sort of want the clutch.  I understand that companies get busy and mistakes happen; however, I feel it is how you handle those situations that define you as a company and obtain lifelong customers.

So here are the options that I see:
  1. I can do nothing and wait for them to send me a return label.  My money being returned is not a point of contingency, but I don't know when they'll send it to me and I'd prefer that if I return it, it's out of my hands sooner or later.
  2. I can ship it, at my expense, back to them and request reimbursement.  It will take care of the sooner part, but I'm at risk of losing money for something for which I was not at fault.
  3. The last option is I can open a new virtual card, have them charge it for the price of the clutch, and keep it.  While I would like to keep it, after all this, I'm not sure if it's worth rewarding a company for inconveniencing me.
What do you think I should do?

Also, as a side note, when deciding whether to cancel the order or not, I had flipped a coin, heads I'd keep the order, tails I'd cancel it.  It came up heads, but I still cancelled.  Is this fate's way of telling me I ought to keep the clutch?  Did I anger the coin flipping gods?  Is there really karmic retribution for me returning a purse in the face of a heads verdict?

2 comments:

  1. These days, I do believe in letting fate/the universe/coin flipping gods/karma help make buying decisions.

    I recently got an email saying a beautiful Mulberry Bayswater bag I wanted was now back in stock "in limited quantity." It was a little pricey for my budget, but I thought, it's a classic and will last me forever. I don't do credit cards, so I just had to wait until payday to order it.

    After I got paid I went back to the site and the bag is now out of stock again. In a past life I would have scoured the Internet, trying to find it somewhere else, but I'm more Zen about these things now. I think the universe is telling me I don't need that lovely, expensive Bayswater after all.

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  2. Update on this: I decided to ignore the coins and return the clutch. I couldn't justify spending money at a company that disregarded their customers.

    In the end, I found a similar clutch that I was able to custom order with pink stitching on which I intend to paint a design. Even better, it was cheaper than the initial clutch. I'm waiting for that to arrive and will post pics once it's done.

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