There's nothing quite like waking to the ping! of a debit order SMS notification from your bank at 7.22am on New Year’s Day to drive home the fact that the party’s over.
So happy new year, dear readers, and commiserations if you were similarly awoken on Friday morning.
I’m sure those SMSes didn’t endear you to either to your bank or the company which got your money.
Whether we consumers are doing business with companies via bricks (in traditional retail stores) or clicks (online), we constantly come up against policies and procedures which are clearly designed to suit the business, not the customer.
Too many till points and bank counters left empty during lunch hour, for example, resulting in long queues.
Such scenarios always bring to mind a frame from a Dilbert comic strip.
“Our highest priority is satisfying our customers,” he says. “Except when it is hard…or unprofitable…or we’re busy.”
Mostly they just fail to put themselves in the customer’s shoes.
Hazel Gace’s experience with Woolworths’ online site shortly before Christmas, is a classic example of this phenomenon.
“Do you know,” she told me, “that if you place an online groceries order for delivery with Woolies, and they phone you to ask if you’d like to add anything to the order, or offer you a substitute, anything that gets added on to your original order doesn't get charged at the promotional price?”
When Gace got that call about substitute products after placing her order – one of the downsides of online grocery shopping – she was asked if she needed anything else. “I asked whether they had any of those ready-to-eat prawn rings, and was told they didn’t, but offered the 350g pack of prawns at a special price – two for R90.
“So I said, ‘okay, send me two’.”
But when she got the invoice shortly afterwards, Gace was incensed to discover she was charged R124.95 for each pack of prawns – in other words, about R250 for both, instead of R90.
Naturally, she called the online customer help line, assuming it was a billing error.
“But a woman told me it was right, the promotion didn’t apply because the prawns had been an ‘add-on product’.
“When I said that didn’t make sense, I was told: ‘That’s how the system works’.
“Then she asked if I still wanted the item, to which I said no, I’d be better off going back online and doing a second order for the two prawn packs, thereby saving myself R160. It was then that she offered to refund my credit card.
“I’m blown away…you’d think Woolies would want to encourage customers to add to their orders, when asked.”
What happened to Gace was in contravention of the Consumer Protection Act, as she was misled by the first agent she spoke to, with regard to the promotional offer on the prawns. She had a duty to disclose the actual price.
In any event, to my mind it’s unacceptable for a store to deny a customer the advantage of a promotional deal if the items are to be a substitute or “add-on” to an original online order.
Especially as the add-ons are initiated by the retailer.
Responding, Woolworths offered a very technical response. “When purchasing items online, the price of items is fixed at the point of check-out.
“Any promotion applied is calculated at check-out and applied to the basket.
“Unfortunately any item added later in the process is treated like a base-priced item and no promotion is applied. No matter what the ruling conditions are for that product, the online shopping portal treats it as a stand-alone item. There is no re-calculation of the basket.
My jaw was hanging open by the time I got to the admission that this may not be the most consumer-friendly way to do things.
“We acknowledge that this is not the desired customer experience and so a solution is part of our future improvements to our online shopping system.”
I should think so! And in the meantime, staffers should be trained on how the system works, and how to advise customers correctly. Remember, Gace was offered the prawns as an add-on and told the promotional price. It seems even the staff don’t get it.
“Under normal circumstances our trained staff would not add a promotional item to an already processed basket,” Woolworths said.
“However, during this time of year we take on seasonal staff to assist with additional requirements in stores.
“A member of the store team made an error by adding a promotional item as a substitution, not realising that the items would be charged at their base price.
“This is a training issue and we will continue to train our staff to ensure less mistakes of this nature are made.”
And let’s hope the humans can re-programme the computers to offer add-ons at the applicable promotion prices, in the interests of a desirable customer experience. Down with Dilbert mentality in 2016!
Woolies online service not consumer friendly
So happy new year, dear readers, and commiserations if you were similarly awoken on Friday morning.
I’m sure those SMSes didn’t endear you to either to your bank or the company which got your money.
Whether we consumers are doing business with companies via bricks (in traditional retail stores) or clicks (online), we constantly come up against policies and procedures which are clearly designed to suit the business, not the customer.
Too many till points and bank counters left empty during lunch hour, for example, resulting in long queues.
Such scenarios always bring to mind a frame from a Dilbert comic strip.
“Our highest priority is satisfying our customers,” he says. “Except when it is hard…or unprofitable…or we’re busy.”
Mostly they just fail to put themselves in the customer’s shoes.
Hazel Gace’s experience with Woolworths’ online site shortly before Christmas, is a classic example of this phenomenon.
“Do you know,” she told me, “that if you place an online groceries order for delivery with Woolies, and they phone you to ask if you’d like to add anything to the order, or offer you a substitute, anything that gets added on to your original order doesn't get charged at the promotional price?”
When Gace got that call about substitute products after placing her order – one of the downsides of online grocery shopping – she was asked if she needed anything else. “I asked whether they had any of those ready-to-eat prawn rings, and was told they didn’t, but offered the 350g pack of prawns at a special price – two for R90.
“So I said, ‘okay, send me two’.”
But when she got the invoice shortly afterwards, Gace was incensed to discover she was charged R124.95 for each pack of prawns – in other words, about R250 for both, instead of R90.
Naturally, she called the online customer help line, assuming it was a billing error.
“But a woman told me it was right, the promotion didn’t apply because the prawns had been an ‘add-on product’.
“When I said that didn’t make sense, I was told: ‘That’s how the system works’.
“Then she asked if I still wanted the item, to which I said no, I’d be better off going back online and doing a second order for the two prawn packs, thereby saving myself R160. It was then that she offered to refund my credit card.
“I’m blown away…you’d think Woolies would want to encourage customers to add to their orders, when asked.”
What happened to Gace was in contravention of the Consumer Protection Act, as she was misled by the first agent she spoke to, with regard to the promotional offer on the prawns. She had a duty to disclose the actual price.
In any event, to my mind it’s unacceptable for a store to deny a customer the advantage of a promotional deal if the items are to be a substitute or “add-on” to an original online order.
Especially as the add-ons are initiated by the retailer.
Responding, Woolworths offered a very technical response. “When purchasing items online, the price of items is fixed at the point of check-out.
“Any promotion applied is calculated at check-out and applied to the basket.
“Unfortunately any item added later in the process is treated like a base-priced item and no promotion is applied. No matter what the ruling conditions are for that product, the online shopping portal treats it as a stand-alone item. There is no re-calculation of the basket.
My jaw was hanging open by the time I got to the admission that this may not be the most consumer-friendly way to do things.
“We acknowledge that this is not the desired customer experience and so a solution is part of our future improvements to our online shopping system.”
I should think so! And in the meantime, staffers should be trained on how the system works, and how to advise customers correctly. Remember, Gace was offered the prawns as an add-on and told the promotional price. It seems even the staff don’t get it.
“Under normal circumstances our trained staff would not add a promotional item to an already processed basket,” Woolworths said.
“However, during this time of year we take on seasonal staff to assist with additional requirements in stores.
“A member of the store team made an error by adding a promotional item as a substitution, not realising that the items would be charged at their base price.
“This is a training issue and we will continue to train our staff to ensure less mistakes of this nature are made.”
And let’s hope the humans can re-programme the computers to offer add-ons at the applicable promotion prices, in the interests of a desirable customer experience. Down with Dilbert mentality in 2016!
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