Thin Red Line shirts 'customer service'

eurokage

LOOONG time reader. First time poster, I just had to get this of my chest.

I heard about an offer at Thin Red Line Formal Shirts Club (Google it) at the beginning of the week.

They are an online shirt retailer and have a 'Spring Sale' with all shirts priced at £14.99. I registered and tried to purchase some shirts, but the majority in size 15 were out of stock. I sent them an email inquiring about stock. Today, after 5 days and no acknowledgement or reply I emailed again. I asked if this was a legitimate offer, or some kind of 'scam'. It's not the first time I have heard of companies doing offers and not having stock. This time I got a quick reply, and here is how our email conversation went (I have removed the name of the person I was chatting with):


Thin Red Line: Hi - no scam, it's just that size 15 has pretty much sold out. Had you come to us last week you would have been able to pick your choice. Many apologies for the inconvenience.

Me: A notification method, or update on stock replenishment would be a useful addition to your site? Also my first 'contact us' email was never acknowledged, and I feel my second only responded to, due to the questioning on legitimacy of stock.

Thin Red Line: We're selling shirts that are as good or better than the best out there at £14.99. We try to respond to all emails but if your first email was simply a stock query then it would have been ignored. We sell what we have in stock and we have no ability to magically create stock from nothing. Sorry about that. Kind regards.

My Reply: I'm sure you believe you do, it would be nice to be able to purchase said shirts. You have no way to notify a potential customer of stock availability, and ignore stock queries. That may not be the best combination for business? And two emails later and still no indication of when elusive stock may magically appear...

Thin Red Line: Why do you feel in some way indignant about what we do or, do not have in stock? What is available for sale is there. Maybe buy a few Domino Supremes and you'll get to a 15.5 - in which case you'll have something to choose from.

My reply: That's three emails...

Thin Red Line: Four.


I'd just like to thank Thin Red Line for their excellent responses to my questions. Multiple emails later I have no idea of when stock will be replenished, but thankfully I may be able to eat pizza to allow me to fit into a larger shirt size! :j

Perhaps others may have better success, good luck!

paddyrg

I don't get it? You tried to buy an out of stock size during a sale - did they take your money and not refund it? Or is it that they didn't show stock levels on the website? Or that they don't email everyone with a rolling update on how many of each colour/size they have?

The pizzas thing seemed a well-humoured, well-intentioned joke - they said they can't just create stock from thin air, so what are they to do? I'm not sure if this is praise, a vent or a warning?! ;-)

eurokage

After five emails they where unable to let me know when they may get any stock, but recommended a dough-based 'competitor' to help me fit into current stock.

Am I angered? No. Praising them? Certainly not. Venting? Sure, I have a wheat allergy so Pizza is no go :rotfl:

Techhead_2

I'm afraid I still don't understand why you are so unpleasant, as to accuse someone of a scam, when all that has happened is that something has sold out?

nearlyrich

The phrase get a life springs to mind here!

Pollycat

eurokage wrote: »

LOOONG time reader. First time poster, I just had to get this of my chest.

I heard about an offer at Thin Red Line Formal Shirts Club (Google it) at the beginning of the week.

They are an online shirt retailer and have a 'Spring Sale' with all shirts priced at £14.99. I registered and tried to purchase some shirts, but the majority in size 15 were out of stock. I sent them an email inquiring about stock. Today, after 5 days and no acknowledgement or reply I emailed again. I asked if this was a legitimate offer, or some kind of 'scam'. It's not the first time I have heard of companies doing offers and not having stock. This time I got a quick reply, and here is how our email conversation went (I have removed the name of the person I was chatting with):


Thin Red Line: Hi - no scam, it's just that size 15 has pretty much sold out. Had you come to us last week you would have been able to pick your choice. Many apologies for the inconvenience.

Me: A notification method, or update on stock replenishment would be a useful addition to your site? Also my first 'contact us' email was never acknowledged, and I feel my second only responded to, due to the questioning on legitimacy of stock.

Thin Red Line: We're selling shirts that are as good or better than the best out there at £14.99. We try to respond to all emails but if your first email was simply a stock query then it would have been ignored. We sell what we have in stock and we have no ability to magically create stock from nothing. Sorry about that. Kind regards.

My Reply: I'm sure you believe you do, it would be nice to be able to purchase said shirts. You have no way to notify a potential customer of stock availability, and ignore stock queries. That may not be the best combination for business? And two emails later and still no indication of when elusive stock may magically appear...

Thin Red Line: Why do you feel in some way indignant about what we do or, do not have in stock? What is available for sale is there. Maybe buy a few Domino Supremes and you'll get to a 15.5 - in which case you'll have something to choose from.

My reply: That's three emails...

Thin Red Line: Four.


I'd just like to thank Thin Red Line for their excellent responses to my questions. Multiple emails later I have no idea of when stock will be replenished, but thankfully I may be able to eat pizza to allow me to fit into a larger shirt size! :j

Perhaps others may have better success, good luck!

I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill.

Your first email implied that their offer may have been a scam.

They replied politely.

You criticised their website and AGAIN mentioned the legitimacy of stock.

They again replied politely.

You then criticised the way they do business.

What part of 'out of stock' do you not understand?

THIS extract from the TRL Home Page website should have told you that there may be limited stock:

What We Do
We make the finest men's shirts, ourselves, at our own premises. We don't stitch huge quantities because we're fastidious about the detail. Instead, we release a few formal shirt designs each month, which are available to our members at exceptional prices

I'm with this poster:

nearlyrich wrote: »

The phrase get a life springs to mind here!

Azari

I agree that the OP is a bit OTT but why clothing manufacturer's are so useless at maintaining stock is something of a mystery.

Cotton traders make some good quality stuff and there are certain 'classics' that are always in their on line catalogue.

But try to actually buy something and you'll likely end up with a size/colour chart that has the majority of combinations marked permanently out of stock.

Make you wonder if they really want to sell stuff.

eurokage

Azari wrote: »

I agree that the OP is a bit OTT but why clothing manufacturer's are so useless at maintaining stock is something of a mystery.

Cotton traders make some good quality stuff and there are certain 'classics' that are always in their on line catalogue.

But try to actually buy something and you'll likely end up with a size/colour chart that has the majority of combinations marked permanently out of stock.

Make you wonder if they really want to sell stuff.

Exactly. They only have 12 styles, with a choice of fit and cuff, yet all the white and blue shirts are out of stock. I bet when the 'summer offer' ends we can miraculously expect stock...

But hopefully all the ice cream I'm scoffing will get me up to a size in stock