No blame attached
A few weeks ago, we posted details of a customer service issue which caused us some minor merriment. Twitter liked it too, judging by the number of RTs the post url received. However, we decided that perhaps it wasn’t that funny after all and deleted the post. It’s not even in Google’s cache so don’t waste any time looking for it 
We had thought that the correspondence which led to the previous WP post was a one-off. We were wrong. It would appear that there are lots of people out there who dedicate their lives to finding fault with everything, who believe the world is conspiring against them, and that ecommerce retailers in particular are a bunch of charlatans. No matter what you the retailer does to try to help, they’re never going to be happy. In the end, regardless of the fact that you know you’ve done nothing wrong, you just have to give in.
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Order
Date: 29 Jan 2010 03:15:24 GMT
From: x@yahoo.co.uk
Message:
Thought I’d completed the order payment through HSBC but was waiting on arrival of email acknowlegement of order before closed final HSBC window. BUT email never arrived – so when did subsequently close final HSBC window – it told me the transaction had failed and asked me to contact you …
I’d expect that once I’ve confirmed payment HSBC or you should have sent an email to acknowledge the order. HSBC needs to make its final screens clearer on this issue.
fig1
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: Order
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:31:28 +0000
From: Snorestore
To: x@yahoo.co.uk
Good morning.
Thanks for your email.
The final page of the HSBC site asks you to click to complete your purchase and return to the merchant’s website (see fig. 1 attached). This action triggers a payment success advisory to our website, and the email confirmation is then sent automatically (fig 2.). If you close the browser, this can’t happen I’m afraid.
fig2
We’ll send you a copy of the email for your records and your order will leave us today.
Yours sincerely,
JG
Snorestore Ltd
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: Order
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:48:55 +0000 (GMT)
From: x@yahoo.co.uk
To: Snorestore
Yes – but it also asks you to print off the final page ‘for your records’ before continuing a) not making it clear that continuing was required to complete the order (only that it would return me to your website I believe) and b) not making it clear that this was also required before it would send the confirming email. I couldnt print of the final page with the order number on it because my printer was out of ink – so either I made a note of the number or I waited, as I often successfully do with other web site orders for the confirming email.
Your knowledge of how this works isnt much use to customers who do not understand whats required because the final page doesnt make this clear and also leaves you stranded with the dilemma of not being able to print of the order – in my view probably a common occurrence.
This is an issue for HSBC surely – if it shows the order number – the implication is that the order and payment has been accepted and that an email acknowledgement will follow.
Your frankly short tempered defensive reply doesnt help… you should refer complaints like this to HSBC and if they dont respond – use another method to accept payment – I was actually hoping that you would have used PayPal for example as many websites these days give you multiple choices of how to pay.
The attachment by the way is corrupt – it asks me to select a folder but not to save to and nothing displays.
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: Order
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:19:58 +0000
From: Snorestore Directors
To: x@yahoo.co.uk
Dear Mr xx
Thank you for comments which are duly noted. We have no plans to change our payment service provider and we have not had a similar complaint in the 8+ years we have been trading.
We can assure you that the attachments are not corrupt; we have tested this with emails to other recipients just now and they can see them and save them.
To help you, we have now uploaded them to our website and you can find them at:
http://www.snorestore.co.uk/fig1.jpg and
http://www.snorestore.co.uk/fig2.jpg
Yours sincerely,
GJ
Director, Snorestore Ltd
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: Order
Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:27:32 -0800 (PST)
From: xd@yahoo.co.uk>
To: Snorestore Directors
Thanks – but having seen the screen images from HSBC its still unsatisfactory and less than clear -
‘Your Completed Order’ (in bold heightened red letters – suggests the order has been ‘Completed’ – to me anyway)
but then seems to be contradicted by ‘Click Continue to complete your order and return to the merchants website. The merchant will confirm if your order has been successful.’
But could ‘Click Continue to complete’ (being generic) simply mean to close this webpage and move back to the merchants website (my interpretation) or (as you have subsequently explained) is required to actually complete the HSBC transaction. The fact that no one else has complained about this in 8 years probably means a) this particular poorly designed HSBC webpage has not been around for 8 years and b) other confused users have erred on the side of caution and clicked to continue anyway.
However – I’ve known payment sites in the past to quote the order number and ask you to continue for you then to NOT receive an acknowledgement of the same order number either by email or by returning to the original website. I didn’t know if this was going to be the case with you and also couldn’t print the order detail – hence my hope for an email acknowledging the order before I lost sight of the HSBC page. Often you get two emails, one from the payment website and a second from the vendor – but in my case I got neither.
But anyway – thanks for your help and hopefully the order will prove to be more useful.
Regards,
xx xx
= = = = =
We’ve really nothing more to say to this gentleman. We have looked him up on Google and found him on numerous retail websites which have a review facility. This leads us to believe that he is a veritable consumer champion. Or have we been hoodwinked and he’s actually a Henry Root or Colin Nugent character?
What we have learnt from this exchange is:
1. Don’t expect customers to read what’s on the screen in front of them.
2. Do expect it always to be your fault. Because it clearly is.
3. Don’t expect your customers to have ink in their printers.
4. Don’t bother to be polite because you’ll be accused of being “short-tempered” anyway.
5. Don’t bother having two different payment providers because the customer will only see one. We do indeed have two, clearly marked at the Snorestore checkout and explained here.
6. Do expect a lot of open brackets/close brackets in any correspondence of this nature.
7. Apostrophes are of course, optional.
8. Do expect the complainant to have a Yahoo email address. It’s a given.
9. Always send the follow up response from a male company director and send it from another email account, because it’s good sport to elicit a change of tone in the complainer’s responses. The fact is, I wrote all the responses. I just changed the name on the last one.
Too picky by half?
Partners in crime not welcome
The other week, on checking a credit card statement, I realised that there were two transactions on it that I didn’t recognise. This isn’t that unusual because unless the transaction is spelled out for me in words of one syllable, then I’m highly unlikely to connect a typed line of text to the lovely pair of socks I bought on a whim from an online store.
This time though, I knew something was seriously wrong. For starters, both transactions were on the same day, one for a small amount, the other for several hundred pounds. And then, when I checked the calendar, I realised I wasn’t even in the country that day. I was away on business and didn’t have that credit card with me.
A swift, panicky call to my bank and the awful truth was revealed. My credit card had been cloned. A familiar tale of woe, but one which happily in this case, was resolved within hours by my understanding bank. At no cost to me. Apparently they’re hot on the heels of the fraudster even as I type.
What’s all this go to do with Snorestore?
Every day, there are a number of orders which come through the Snorestore website which on first glance, look perfectly normal. But on closer inspection, there are signs suggesting that something’s not quite right.
It could be the time of day the order is placed: very close to our cut-off point for same-day despatch (2pm since you ask), or from a customer with a non-UK email address, or simply, a large order paid for by someone using a hotmail account, with different billing and delivery addresses.
Mostly though, it’s our credit card transaction processors HSBC and SagePay who alert us to inconsistencies. This happens immediately and the transaction, or attempted transaction, is flagged as potentially fraudulent.
What do we do in this situation? Sometimes, it’s clear that the customer has made a genuine mistake and hasn’t managed to put the correct information into the order form. We’re not saying what sort of mistakes these are, for obvious reasons, but many involve students, we will tell you that. Snorestore’s staff then ‘phone the customer and the matter is usually sorted out in a matter of minutes.
Other flagged transactions, though, are a bit more tricky. We don’t call the customer in this instance. We email. We explain the position and we ask for a response within 2 days. If that response isn’t forthcoming, the transaction is never processed to payment and the card used is never charged.
This causes some inconvenience on both sides, for us in terms of the amount of time it takes to follow up a risky transaction, and for the customer, who may have made a genuine error and thus have to answer some questions before we are prepared to ship their stuff.
Mostly though, this inconvenience is trivial. We reckon we intercept about 5 fraud attempts a week through a combination of our own scrutiny of order details, and the banks’ alerting system.
How do we know they’re fraudulent? Because if we don’t hear back from the “customer” when we email them asking for more details, we have to assume they were doing something they shouldn’t with someone else’s money. You’d be amazed how many people quietly disappear when challenged.
Patience, people, for your order is coming …
Snow? What snow?
Perhaps if you’d been ensconced in a cosy shuttered room, blindfolded and with some of our excellent earplugs stuffed in your ears, you’d have missed the fact that the weather outside has been pretty rubbish for the last couple of weeks.
OK. That’s pretty unlikely.
But clearly some people have indeed missed the “snow event” as the broadcasters would call it. Because this week we have had a steady stream of emails from people asking, mostly politely (some actually very rudely) where their orders are.
Royal Mail, gawd luv ‘em, have done an amazing job in the most trying of conditions to get mail out to people. But some delays have been inevitable. If your postie can’t get to work, then your mail’s not going to get sorted. Or delivered to your door.
So we’ve been alerting people to the possiblity of delays via a note on every page of our website, with a link to our own Shipping info page and from there, to Royal Mail’s.
Snorestore’s team diligently complete dozens of posting certificates a day, which are then hand-stamped by the guy who collects our mail, or by Mrs. Patel at the Post Office if our collection has been cancelled by the weather. So if your order hasn’t yet arrived, and you’re a bit anxious, just let us know (politely if poss.) and we’ll be able to show you where and when your order entered the Royal Mail system.
Welcome Back to 2010
Spare a thought for the postman in this
Hardly had we said goodbye to the snow just before Christmas, when we were pretty much overwhelmed by a whole new load in January.
Despite Royal Mail being unable to collect from Snorestore’s offices, we did what any resourceful company would do under the circs, and took our orders to the Post Office ourselves.
We didn’t take any risks, mind. We have winter tyres on the Snorestore van and these allow us get to places other cars can’t reach.
However, Royal Mail still has to get your order to your doorstep. We know that some areas have had no post deliveries for a week (Isle of Wight, parts of the Dales, rural Oxfordshire for example), so if you’re still waiting on your items, please be patient.
There’s still time
It's not too late ... yet
If you want to get your earplugs well and truly in place before the hordes of relatives (“geri mentalmen” as some would have it) descend, then you can order from Snorestore right up until 23rd December.
Royal Mail’s official last posting date for First Class items is Monday 21st December. The last date for Second Class has already passed – it was on Friday 18th.
If you do leave it until the last minute to place your order, you’ll need to select “Special Delivery” from the Snorestore Shipping options. Otherwise you might find Christmas rather less bearable than usual.
Snorestore’s present to you
Happy Christmas
Well it is Christmas, almost. So we thought we’d give you a little present. Spend just £12.50 on selected products at Snorestore between now and the end of the year, and you can add a set of Mack’s Roll Ups* to your basket. For free.
* while stocks last. We reserve the right to substitute an alternative product if necessary.
Tis the season to be … downright rude
Sometimes we wonder if all this being nice to people is worth it. We like to think here at Snorestore that we’re good to our customers. We don’t sell junk, we don’t rip people off, we send stuff out as soon as the order comes in, pretty much, and we’re happy to spend time on the phone and on email with people who need our expert advice.
So we’re always a bit taken aback when people are horrible to us. Somehow, it makes us question whether there’s any point in doing the good stuff. Yes, we know we’re supposed to take it on the chin, but hell, why should we? Rude people deserve to be named and shamed. And so, with the customer in question’s if not blessing, then tacit approval, read and digest the following exchange (spelling mistakes included):
===
Hi there,
I recevied my order the other day and am disappointed, the ear plugs* do nothing for me, after reading reviews i thought they would but its been a waste of money.
Can i exchange them please for something else?
Thank you
Lucinda Parker
(*earplugs in question are our top rated Spark Plugs Soft with excellent reviews – not one negative review has ever been received)
===
Dear Ms Parker
We’re sorry your earplugs don’t suit you. As we say on this page (http://www.snorestore.co.uk/acatalog/understanding_earplugs.html), not all earplugs fit all ears. We also say on our home page “If you’re not sure which earplug is best for you, we strongly recommend ordering a Sample Pack first.” We are also happy to talk to customers who require advice before purchase.
Unfortunately it is not possible to exchange a set of earplugs for obvious hygiene reasons.
Yours sincerely,
Snorestore Ltd
===
Hello,
Thank you for your reply.
The ear plugs fit my ears perfect, except they don’t work. They don’t even block out any sound at all! I brought these after reading reviews but clearly these reviews aren’t true. You shouldn’t published reviews that clearly aren’t true, its misleading advertising. Do you publish reviews that state these don’t work? I bet you don’t?
I would like a refund then please.
Thank you.
Lucinda
===
Dear Ms. Parker,
The reviews on our website are from genuine customers. We don’t moderate them. For you to suggest otherwise is an insult.
It’s so easy to sling allegations and insults around when you’re writing an email isn’t it?
You didn’t take our website’s advice, you apparently didn’t read our last email and instead you resort to downright rudeness.
We’ll be publishing your comments in full on our website. We imagine our genuine customers will find them as unpleasant as we do.
Yours sincerely,
Glyn Jones
Snorestore Ltd
===
i haven’t been rude in the slightest, i have swore or used abusive language at all….i am glad you are going to publish my comment, might stop PEOPLE being RIPPED OFF AND BEING CONNED INTO BUYING A PRODUCT THAT IS TOTAL BOLL*x
IS THAT RUDE ENOUGH FOR YOU NOW??? hahaha
Lucinda Parker
Medically Approved
Dr Toby Bateson
If you ended up in hospital, and this guy was your doctor, you’re a lucky person. Dr Toby Bateson isn’t just an excellent A & E medic, he’s also the inventor of our newest earplugs.
VariFone earplugs came about after Dr. Bateson found his stethoscope earpieces crumbled repeatedly, and didn’t fit him anyway. So he designed a mouldable earpiece which worked. His stethoscope stayed in place.
Now, that idea has been turned into a fully commercial venture and custom fit noise reduction earplugs, the ZenPlugs, are the first ones off the production line. Snorestore is thrilled to be the first UK stockist of these earplugs. You can buy them here.
Another Christmas goodie
Serena Therapy Mask
Almost every day, it seems, another perfect product arrives at Snorestore HQ. Today’s highlight is a lovely, soft spa mask made from chenille and sateen and stuffed with flax seeds. The beauty of the Serena mask is that you can warm it up in the microwave* or cold it down in the freezer for those occasions when simply lying back and relaxing isn’t enough to help your sore head or stressed out brain. The Serena mask is available in limited quantities only. So if you want one, best get it now. Here.
* make sure to read the instructions first … as setting fire to the mask or to yourself is not recommended.
Music earplugs for the win
Alpine have a fantastic reputation for producing top notch earplugs for all sorts of applications. We’ve been stocking their products for years because the feedback has always been so good. Now Alpine have responded once again to the needs of the music industry and anyone else who enjoys music but doesn’t want to wreck their hearing in the process. They’ve come up with a cheaper version of their outstanding MusicSafe Pro earplugs.
Alpine MusicSafe Classic
Called MusicSafe Classic, the earplugs are exactly the same as their big brother, but have only two sets of filters for medium and high attenuation (noise reduction) rates, and you don’t get the third, spare earplug. Have a look at them on our website here.
Now here’s the really good bit. Do you know someone who would like a set of Alpine MusicSafe Classic for Christmas? Let us know and we’ll put their name into a hat and we’ll send a set to one lucky winner. Follow us on Twitter at @earplugshop and use the hash tag #musicsafeclassic to be in with a chance.
