great purchase, excellent product, lousy customer service.
Written: Sep 25 '05
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i had a very mixed encounter with smith+noble. i began with a great purchasing experience and finished with a very satisfactory product, but in between i found the company sorely lacking.
i made my purchase of a set of soft-roman shades following a day long fiasco trying to purchase a similar product live from jc penny. i was primed for displeasure, presuming that it was the product and not the producer that was the source of the dificult experience. but then my 45 minute trip through the smith+noble purchase process totally turned me around. their web purchasing system is great. the selection of style, pattern, sizing, etc., etc., was outstanding. as i said, we accomplished in 45 minutes what jc penny couldn't give us in 6 hours. and, they did it at less than half the price, including delivery. we were ecstatic. i heaped praise upon them in my on-line evaluation - to such an extent that it stimulated a very nice letter from their web customer support.
upon receipt of my confirmation email, i returned to their site with my electronic order number and checked what the order status had to say. all that it said was "processing". this was reasonable given the time frame and so i let it sit for a couple of days. however, the next time i went to check, i got exactly the same response. nothing on the status page changed. as i thought that there were any of a number of informative responses possible, i responded directly to the person who had written me personal email. she came back a day or so later with an apology that included the fact that this complaint had gone up to their web department on more than one occasion with no result. she then offered to get me a status report and sent me another email which stated that my order was in the factory and would be shipped on such and such a date with delivery by such and such. i sent a thank you response and sat back to wait.
now, when such and such delivery date came and went, i called their customer support line. i was informed by the lady there that my order did not appear to have been shipped. further inquiries on her part came back with the answer that the pattern we selected was on back order at the factory. and furthermore had been on back order since june of this year. and, this was the first she had heard of the fact that this pattern was on back order. she said the material would be at the factory some 2 weeks hence and that given the factory's current manufacturing delays would not be ready to ship for another 2 weeks thereafter with arrival another week later. and there was nothing short of reordering the whole thing - not my choice - that could be done about it.
i immediately fired off another email to my contact to let her know of the apparent snafu. in the meantime i had encountered the epinions website and had included the url to let her know that my experience did not appear to be the exception. to this email i received no response.
then 3 days later, roughly a week after my order was to have arrived per my emailer's original estimate, i came home to find a package from smith+noble on my doorstep. it contained all of our soft-roman shades along with all the appropriate installation material and instructions. we were very happy with the material and construction of our new shades, but given some of the experiences cited on this site remained hesitant until our afternoon's installation had come off flawlessly. i might add that this was our first such installation. we are now the very happy owners of a set of wonderful soft-roman shades which adorn the 4 large windows in our new bathroom.
i let my contact know that everything had arrived and that the installation had gone well. i did mention the fact that i didn't feel i could recommend smith+noble given the treatment i received twixt purchase and delivery. in an effort to assuage my feelings, i think, she set about to rescind my shipping costs - thank you very much.
soooooo, make what you will of this epinion. i did check yes on the recommend option, but did so hesitantly as i am not sure if i will ever use them again. mostly i am recommending that the potential buyer read my review and then make up their own mind.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? soft-roman shades
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Epinions.com ID:
ricket
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Reviews written: 1
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