A Promising Online Retailer - How my faith was lost...

Being unfamiliar with the legitimacy of publicly slating companies on this forum, for the purposes of this rant and to protect their identity, said company shall be referred to as “Giggle”.

My relationship with Giggle started well a number of years ago.  They had products for multi-discipline sports enthusiasts and fair prices.  Their online offering was plentiful and their service good.

Recently things have changed;

Early 2011: £250+ parted with for Tacx turbo which has a faulty part.  This is bought to Giggles attention, who fail to react in a timely manner.  The UK distributor for Tacx is contacted directly by me and the part obtained.  Giggle send their offering THREE MONTHS LATER when the sun is out and the turbo no longer required.

Late 2011: Despite clearly listing product availability on their website Giggle fail to deliver part of an order (value £150+).  Refund requested and product resourced elsewhere, last minute with hassle and extra expense.

Jan 2012 ... the final straw:  £112 trainers listed on Giggle’s website as available.  Part of bulk order.  Order turns up minus £112 trainers (this is apparently Giggle’s professional approach of making you aware that they may not be able to fulfil order).  Giggle say they’re checking on stock, which is now listed on their website as discontinued.  This is bought to Giggle’s attention but no action is taken until NINE DAYS later, when a refund is offered. 

Giggle have received correspondence highlighting these issues and my disappointment.  Giggle’s response is tantamount to “Ooops”.

Giggle continue to e-mail me every 48 hours promoting their MEGA SALE, now extended!  Well Giggle, your mega sale puts products on par with usual prices on your competitor’s websites and your customer service is APPAULING.

Giggle have lost my faith and my future custom.

Amen.

That's APPALLING!

You should  try WIggle instead, they have always given me excellent service

I found the Gore jacket I was after was cheapest at Wiggle at the weekend.

I do like the fact that they don't charge for postage, or returns

I am sure Giggle have reserved this appalling (thanks Wilkie) service exclusively for me.  Suffice to say the apparent disregard for how inconvenienced I've been, is what riled me the most.  E-mail me thrice weekly to tell me I should be coughing up my cash in your sale but take nine days to offer a limp excuse for an apology when there's a problem ... that strikes me as a little contrived.

My Wiggle order turned up on Saturday.......and the haribo's were missing

Chain Reaction's store is nearby to me, I was in there just this afternoon.  Their staff are as friendly, attentitive and knowledgable in the flesh as they might be on line.  I find they have as much time and patience for beginners as they do for the experienced hard core.

I have had a couple of run ins with on line running stores, mainly through them advertising stock available and it not arriving for weeks.

I've been using woggle for years with no problems at all, maybe the luck of the draw. (then the scout cried and I had to give it back *baboom tish!)

Second fb's recommendation for chainreactioncycles.

On the contrary Cougie, I've been attracted to the idea that by introducing the use of minimalist shoes (*cough* Vibrams) into my running program, it will help address my mal-coordinated, windmill-esq 'style' and reduce injuries.

I’ll not have it said that I’m a sucker for fads and good marketing, thank you.


Rw

Proven Robbie W wrote (see)

On the contrary Cougie, I've been attracted to the idea that by introducing the use of minimalist shoes (*cough* Vibrams) into my running program, it will help address my mal-coordinated, windmill-esq 'style' and reduce injuries.

I’ll not have it said that I’m a sucker for fads and good marketing, thank you.


Rw

Hmm, always been impressed with their level of service in the past.

However, in light of this post, I'm off to e-mail them for a progress report on a replacement part they promised to send me 10 days ago.

Oh I share your pain with Woggle.

Ordered bar end shifters, rear mech and a few other bits at end of July to build up my new TT bike.  In very very brief summary then parts never turned up, were sent untracked mail, had to wait until end of August when they could declarte order lost, then the shifters had gone out of stock, so cancelled all order, didn't refund postage charge, offered voucher instead, big debate, eventually refunded ordered elsewhere end of spetember had an email saying rear mech was out of stock and would follow (??) emailed them to ask what was happening, error in system been sent.  So week later all the parts arrive, so I am asked to post back and they'll refund me. Parts posted end of September.  FInally after months of discussion, excuses then get credit on 4 December. 

To top it all off then in mid August I got an email inviting me to review the parts that I never received.  I replied as follows:-

Dearest Woggle Customer Services,

"We welcome your opinion on Wiggle which you can include at the end of the
review form."

Perhaps if I may, I can offer a tiny bit of constructive feedback.  I appreciate
I'm not a customer services professional, and so this is just from a totally lay
person viewpoint and I do appreciate that you are likely to be much more aware
of how to liaise with customers than me.  Hoewver, not withstanding all of the
above, then I'd suggest that asking people for feedback on the goods that they
ordered 22 days ago and still haven';t received is not the best to improve their
mood.  On the plus side then I can at least print off the email with the images
and then stick to the pictures of the shifters and mechs onto the new $6000
frame that arrived from Canada in 4 days and the other components from
Chainreaction that arrived in 5 days and was sat leant up against the garage
wall for the entire duration of my weeks holiday last week.  At least then I
could pretend that the bike is ridable.

Or perhaps I can do the review now.  "Components are almost impossibly light.
Benefit of them being made of the new lightweight material is that they are much
thinner than the previous versions of Ultegra /Dura Ace that I've had before and
thereform much more aerodynamic.  This appears to have been at the cost of some
stiffness though."

Regards, and attempting to maintain a good sense of humour whilst also making
the point that I feel that you ought to ask your software engineers to include a
block on sending out the feedback requests when there is an open customer
service requst for the order.

Duncan

 

I managed to hit every problem going -  no tracked service, light fingered postie, noot free post, so they struggled to refund the postage as the computer isn't set up for that, then the refund for postage when most the world has a post free address for returns like this.  Then exchange rate issues (post in NZ$, Woggle needed to refund in UKP.  )  Was the first time that I'd used them since the great credit card

Chainreaction have been very good.  Ditto amazon for us, although I'll never understand how they split the orders into a box of 17 books, and another with 2 that get sent the same day but arrive a week apart..