Apoplectic at Waterstones.com

Millie's_Mum

I am absolutely furious with Waterstones.com I ordered two books from them on 13/11/2007, it said on the order page on their website that they were on special order with their suppliers.

Last monday when it still said that and no update I rang the number on say no to 0870 who said that customer service was not in the same building but they would pass a message on to ring me back, no reply by Thursday so I emailed them, no reply to that so today I rang them on the 0870 number and was on hold for 16!!!!!!!!minutes before I spoke to a person, asked hime to get a manager to ring me back because of what i have detailed above.

Manager rings back an hour later and doesn;t apologise but does say she will look into it and call me back.

Shes just rung and said that one of the books is out of print and the other one is not yet published (not true it was published in Sept 07).

I am furious and I wonder how long it would have been before they would have let me know if I had not rung them.

I will be banging a letter off to their Chief Exec just as soon as I have calmed down enough to write it properly And i now have about 10 days to find two christmas presents that i thought were sorted. aaaarrrgggghhh!!!!!

superscaper

Is it cheaper than getting your local Waterstones to order them in? I've found my local Waterstones absolutely great and go well out of their way in terms of customer service. Maybe going online is a bit too impersonal and their general CS is a bit poor as a result.

Millie's_Mum

superscaper wrote: »

Is it cheaper than getting your local Waterstones to order them in? I've found my local Waterstones absolutely great and go well out of their way in terms of customer service. Maybe going online is a bit too impersonal and their general CS is a bit poor as a result.

Yes maybe thats it but the lure of quidco and a £5 off online voucher lured me in!

First draft of letter below

Dear Mr Johnson

I am writing to complain about the appalling service I have suffered at the hands of your online service (I use the word 'service; loosely).

I placed an order with Waterstones.com on 13 November 2007 for two books which were intended for Christmas presents, the tracking system on the website showed that the items had been placed on special order with your suppliers.

I had no updates from your company so last Monday I rang your head office on 020 because I had no desire to use an 0870 number the person who answered the ‘phone said she would pass a message on to customer services to call me back, no callback was ever made. On Thursday of last week I emailed using the contact form on the website, to date no reply has been received despite the fact the website says enquiries will be dealt with within 48hrs or slightly longer at busy times.

Today I finally bit the bullet and rang the 0870 number and true to form I was kept waiting for over 16 minutes before I spoke to a person. Your company must be making a great deal of money from that line!

I explained the trouble I had already had trying to get a response from the company and complained that I had been on hold for 16 minutes but the assistant did not seem to think any of this required any sort of explanation or apology so I asked to speak to a manage and was told that I could not speak to a manager but a manager would call me back.

The manager Laura Harvey called back and could not offer any explanation other than that they were busy but did offer to look into it and call me back, when she called back at the end of the day she told me that one of the books was out of print and the other one was not yet published.

It is now the 11 December and I find that I have to try and find two books in less than two weeks before Christmas, two books which I had ordered in plenty of time. If I had been informed of this earlier I would have had more time, but it seems your company was too busy to respond to my earlier attempts to find out what was happening. I am busy too but I don’t really think that will wash as an excuse on Christmas Morning, do you?

I have a few questions

What system is there in place to ensure that special orders are chased up? It seems from my experience there is none.

Do you really think it is fair or reasonable to have an 0870 number as the only means of contacting your company and then to make people wait 16 minutes before answering it?

Why isn’t there a message on the hold system for the number saying how long the average wait is?

Why was a book which is out of print listed on your website?

Why was a book which is not yet published listed on your website? I believe that the book was in fact published in September

How long would it have been before you would have let me know you could not fulfil the order if I had not rung?

Is this the sort of service you believe you should be offering your customers?

You will understand that I am very, very unhappy with the careless way your company has treated me. I have been a loyal customer of Waterstones for many years, which I suppose is lucky for you because if it had been my first order with you it would certainly have been my last. I notice that your main online competitor, Amazon, who offer an estimated delivery date for out of stock books at the point of ordering and have an immediate call back service instead of expecting their customers to pay them to wait on the end of a phone line.

setmefree2

That's terrible and so close to xmas...you do wonder when they would have told you. Good luck and thanks for the warning:o

fiscalfreckles

Let us know if you get a reply, Millie's Mum!

If I may, I will join you in your apoplexy.

I ordered a lot of books for Xmas presents at the end of November, they never came, I too have had to go out and re-purchase them all (and I thought I was so organised!) - at higher prices, obviously.

What has really irked me is the fact that I cannot get anyone at waterstones.com to contact me. I don't think they even read emails (has anyone EVER had a response??) And I have never got through on the phone line. I simply will not hold for longer than 10 mins at that rate.

I have now written, outlining my disgust and demanding an immediate refund. I have been out of pocket for a month now and cannot believe how unhelpful they have been.

Will never use them again.

It seemed a good deal though - 15% off and free delivery.

:mad:

Millie's_Mum

Sorry I didn't reply to this fiscal freckles, my user cp is not showing subsribed threads for some reason, i have PM'd you.

Did anyone else have trouble with waterstones.com? Their explanation to me that it was a one off seems not to be the case.

shelley_crow

i've only used watersones online once. I ordered two books on boxing day, both were in stock. Received a confirmation email, then an email to say that one was out of stock but on order from the publishers. I was expecting an epic wait but they both came this morning.

I hope you get a result from this, their service wasn't good enough in your case.

Lavendyr

I've ordered twice from waterstones.com and both times have been no trouble at all, so I'm really sorry to hear of your problems, Millie.

fiscalfreckles

Just an update to my situation, if anyone's interested....

I had to contact the CEO of Waterstones directly.

He emailed me within a day, saying that the situation was clearly unacceptable, and he would look into it.

Within an hour of him sending the email, a Customer Services Manager telephoned to speak to me. She could not really explain why the order had gone astray (according to the only info she had it had been dispatched and cleared weeks ago) and could not really excuse the contact problems, other than to say they were busy on the phones (at Christmas, who would have thought it :rolleyes: ?!!) and that they had email backlog problems "for a few days" (I was emailing for over two weeks!).

She did, however tell me that there were "issues" with their customer services, and that in April they would be moving the call centre, as they weren't happy with it currently, and that they were hoping to introduce a free-phone number.

She actioned an immediate refund on my ccard, and asked if I was happy with that. I said not really, because of the inconvenience of having to buy the presents again, not knowing if they were going to arrive or not, and that I felt out of pocket, because as I did not get the books at the offer prices I ordered, I had to pay more in the high street. So she said she understood if I never wanted to order from them again, but if I did, she would credit me some e-vouchers.

So, although, it is long overdue, I feel matters have been resolved (for me personally, not with Waterstones.com in general). I will (of course!) use the vouchers, and know that I can contact them properly now, if there are any further problems. They did not really explain why both emails and letters were ignored though, but I hope the changes they are making will improve things - it is just RIDICULOUS that the only way I could elicit a response was by going straight to the top!

pinkthinks

Sorry OP, nothing helpful to add, but I'm loving your thread title :rotfl: