Tuesday 29 January 2008

Customer Service

Has anyone out there ordered something from Cath Kidston's sale and actually received it? I ordered an item on the 28th December. Having received nothing and no communication of any sort other than an acknowledgment of my order I phoned them to ask what the delay was. The lady in Customer Services told me she thought (!) they were expecting a delivery of this item at the end of the week! That's it! What terrible customer service from such a large and reputable company. If I didn't want the item so much I would have cancelled and asked for my money back. I had a similar experience with Laura Ashley - I was overcharged for something and after polite emails and letters which were ignored it finally cost me £9 in telphone calls before I managed to get my money back. Speaking to the Head of Customer Services I did suggest a voucher as a token of goodwill for all the angst it had caused me but nothing ever arrived! If we very much smaller traders treated our customers in this manner we would all be out of business. Rant over, I'll change the subject now, but let me know what you think.

Here are my latest 'Before and After' photos of a chair I have painted. It's not quite finished as I have to do the upholstery but it may be a while before I get round to doing this. I have seen a couple of lovely Kate Forman fabrics I think would look good on it and can't decide between the two. I bought the chair for £1.04 on ebay.

The seat and back were covered in a horrid green dralon. Now it looks like this...
Jane and I did an antiques fair on Sunday. These are some photos of our stall.
Sadly, at the end of the day it still looked more or less like this! There was very little buying going on. We covered the cost of our rent plus a tiny bit more but it wasn't worth all the effort really. I did hand out some flyers so hope some potential customers visit our website. I bought some nice braid and a lovely piece of kitchenalia so was pleased with them.

It's now 9 am, the sun is shining and I am still in my dressing gown so I must get dressed. I have just realised I have been reading blogs for the last one and a half hours!



13 comments:

  1. Hi,
    I have not ordered something from CK lately but when I ordered something last year, the customer service was so poor that I decided not to order from them again. I hope you receive your order soon though, its a long time to wait, particularly without any contact from them. Your stall looks full of goodies, shame it wasnt a better sale for you but the next one will probably be GREAT!

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  2. the chair is going to look a treat..sorry to hear about Ck website...that is so annoying..hope it aßives soom. Thanks for leaving a comment ..Kath x

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  3. Hi Ruth

    No ordering from CK so can't comment, but I'm sorry to hear your fair wasn't a great success. How disappointing for you both.

    Sue

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  4. Hi Ruth

    I'm with Sue on this - I tend to stick to vintage buying only! Customer service is paramount, but I think the bigger a business is, the less likely you are to receive good service every time.

    Sorry to hear the fair wasn't brilliant - is it one you do regularly? Perhaps it would be better in the coming months, as we head towards Spring.

    Have a lovely week!

    Clare x

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  5. Hi, the chair will look really good when it's finished and your stall looks full of interesting items...I'm sure we would have been tempted by all the gorgeous things.
    I'm surprised to hear about the poor service...not what I'd expect at all!
    Margaret and Noreen

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  6. Shame about the lack of buying. That chair though - fab! Well done.

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  7. Sorry to hear that the antiques fair didn't go that well but have to say you made a grand job of that chair. Haven't ever bought anything from CK so can't comment there but I have found customer service to be somewhat lacking with a lot of these larger companies and I sometimes wonder how they ever managed to get where they are.
    cd&m
    http://catondarlingandmoore.typepad.com

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  8. Sorry to hear about your fair, but at least it wasn't a loss. Hopefully your new contacts will make it profitable! =)

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  9. Sorry to hear about the bad customer service ordeal.
    Your right. If small time sellers treated customers like that, we wouldn't be selling for long.

    Your flea market booth looks so inviting! I can't wait until markets start back up around here.

    Kimberly :)

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  10. Hi Ruth, I placed an order with Cath Kidston in their sale recently, 2 items arrived with a note to say the third would follow, but other than that, no contact from them at at all. The third arrived about 3 weeks later. I wasn't impressed with their service, I think it lets them down, but I suppose they are so big and successful they don't have to bother so much. It certainly has put me off buying from them again though. Love what you've done witht the chair!
    best wishes,
    Lucy x

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  11. Hello Ruth
    It seems that you are not alone with the CK rant!
    Lucy Bloom has been equally discontent with the service and I myself find their customer service very poor of late. I have not bought many items directly from CK as I find them too expensive for what they are.. the clothes especially. I bought a bath mat last year that took a month to arrive... not good!

    I love your chair makeover... it looks just the sort of chair I would love in my boudoir..
    Sorry your fair didn't go too well.. sales can be a bit sluggish at this time of year but it is so unpredictable isn't it?!

    Would love to come along one day when you do a fair.. please let me know when the next one is.

    Michelex

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  12. Seeing your stall reminds me of the times I did antiques fairs with my mum. It was hard work but we used to have a great time being together. The best part was counting up the float at the end! x

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  13. I ordered fabric from the website & one piece didn't arrive - they didn't let me know that it was out of stock or unavailable - it just never arrived. :-(

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