Unfiltered Story #233790

A customer has called up to complain as he had just received his order, but some of the information on the manufacturer’s packaging did not match what he saw on the website. The product in question is a very popular product, so I am surprised that some of the vital information would be wrong on our website, as someone else really should have noticed it long before now.

Me: Ok, I am looking at your order now. So just to confirm, this was [product] by [brand], and your packaging says that this is a [type 1] product, but you thought it would be [type 2], correct?

Customer: Yeah. I mean, if your website says one thing and the packaging says another, which do I trust?

Me: I would go by the packaging, as it is more likely to have been a human error when creating the product page… Sorry, just to double check, the packaging says [type 1]?

Customer: Yeah

Me: I’m looking at our website now, and it definitely says [type 1]. We haven’t made any changes to this page for over 3 months, so you may have just mis-read it before purchase.

Customer: Don’t you f*****g lie to me. I am on your website right now, and it clearly says that this product is [type 2].

Me: *somewhat confused* You are looking at [product and brand]?

Customer: YES.

Me: The page I am on clearly states [type 1]. Could you please read out for me the address of the page you are on as I need to be sure that we are looking at the same thing?

Customer: www.[competitor] .co.uk slash…

Me: Ah, I think I see the problem here. You are currently looking at [competitor’s] website. We are [company].

Customer: Right, but I purchased it from [competitor].

Me: No, you purchased it from us.

Customer: No I didn’t.

Me: Yes, you did. I have your order in front of me with [reads off other items on the order]. You placed your order on [date and time] and if you check your packing slip in your package, it will confirm that it was from us.

Customer: So if I placed the order through [competitor], why have you sent my order? Did you steal my order from them or something?

Me: You didn’t place your order through them, you placed it through us. We have no connection to [competitor] what so ever, so we do not do any orders on their behalf.

Customer: Then why the **** have you sent me my order if I placed the order through [competitor]?

Me: Maybe you had both websites open at the same time and ordered from us by mistake?

Customer: I don’t think so. I know that I ordered through [competitor] and not you. Anyway, what are you going to do about [item] as your website was wrong.

Me: In this case, it was [competitor] who was wrong, rather than us, but if it has not been opened yet and is still in the sealed packing, you can return it for either a refund or exchange as we have some [type 2] products that are the same price.

Customer: I don’t want the hassle of returning this as the wrong website information wasn’t my fault. Can you get someone to pick it up?

Me: No, that is not a service we offer, especially as we are not at fault here. It would need to be returned to us through Royal Mail or a courier and I would recommend sending it tracked.

Customer: I don’t see why I need to go out of my way to send this back to you. I’ve had enough of this. I’m going to call [competitor] and tell them about this, and I know that they will sort this out for me free of charge! *click*