Good Products, Fast Shipping, Reasonable Prices, (One?) Bad Customer Service Representative
Written: Apr 21 '05 (Updated Apr 22 '05)
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Overall the experience left a bad taste (but see the update at the end), although it started out so well...The site is pretty well organized and easy to navigate, the product information is good (they even have a "what's included" section to avoid misunderstandings). Their prices are competitive and their shipping rates are very reasonable. The items came quickly and in good shape.
Unfortunately though, and people make mistakes, no problem, they did not include any hardware (screws, rope, etc.) with the stand kit. Well, since they included a nice letter by "the owner" Doug Nielsen to contact them immediately with problems or questions ("our commitment is to bring you the best online shopping experience" and "if there is anything that is not 100% satisfactory, please let us know immediately"), I called their toll-free number on a Thursday at 11 AM CSDT. After about 2 minutes I had a real person, Eric, on the line.
He asked me how he could be of help and I explained that unfortunately my shipment was incomplete - among the hammock and tree straps I had received only the metal stands of the stand kit and no hardware. His first, slightly condescending response was "That's exactly all you get", which really took me off guard. I replied that I was looking at the picture and that it clearly showed the hardware. At this point he asked for my order number (5107223959535 from 4/17/05) and, after looking at my order, backpaddled a little bit and admitted that the hardware should have been included (no apology for his earlier statement though).
Next, when I asked if they could send it overnight since I had wanted to use the hammock on the weekend, he said that they can't do it "because the package is too small to be sent by UPS". Well, for sure that is not UPS's policy, because they're in the business to ship things, and if you wanted to ship a screw, they'd do it for $5 or $6 bucks. The point was, as probably all you customers out there understand, that they had made a mistake and were now looking for a cheap way to correct it. Money saved in the wrong spot, I'd say...
Well, I hope to receive a phone call from Doug, because if he knew how Eric treats customers...But who knows, maybe somebody with a better customer service attitude will send it overnight with UPS...
Clarity of Product Information: Their info on the "Thick String" hammock has wrong information copied from their "normal" Mayan hammock, i.e., that you can choose between various colors. However the thick string only comes in cotton and only comes in two color choices...you'll figure it out before ordering, but it makes you wonder slightly...
Update 1 - April 21, PM: An hour after I talked with Eric, I got an eMail shipping notifications. When I checked the shipping status it was shipped with UPS (they must have found a bigger box, so that it is not so small ;-), but unfortunately not overnight. It'll be here on Monday. Oh wel...
Update 2 - April 22: Received a voice mail from Dawn, the operations manager of hammocks.com (and other "outdoor" sites) today, apologizing for my experience (I had sent a copy of my review to the owner of the company). Very nice lady, very accomodating and sincerely interested in learning what I thought could be improved to create a better experience. Also, supposedly, Eric has been "reprimanded" for this. Well, I hope that she only said it to "offer" something, because I sincerely would not want him to lose keep his job or career, but rather to see this as a learning opportunity.
Now I definitely would shop there again!
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Hammock, Tree Straps, Hammock Stand Kit
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