Tag: Shopping

What’s Up With That?

I don’t usually use my website to complain about something that is not 100% work related – it is impolitic to complain about my work since that basically means complaining about clients and I’m not sure clients exactly love that. But I do like to shop online and here is an odd and really unhelpful event that occurred after attempting to shop on the Lucky Brand website.

I’d been ogling this blouse because I love the print and the big sleeves. I don’t know why but I am a total sucker for big, flappy, drapey sleeves. I don’t hate my arms any more than the average female person over 35 who isn’t built like a lady Schwarzenegger or Stick Bug, I just like this kind of sleeve.

But I didn’t buy. Why? Because of the product images. The model is quite Stick Bug-esque and the shirt is styled tucked in. The horror! No additional images are provided with the shirt not tucked in. To confuse me even more the product description blatantly declares this shirt could be worn “as an unexpected cover-up over swimwear”. Describing an item of clothing as unexpected is not helpful! Why is it unexpected? Is it because this is a shirt you’d not normally wear as a cover up because it is short? Or because it is fancier than your usual coverup? This kind of playfulness in product descriptions is fine as long as it is playfully helpful not playfully confusing!

I spent a decent amount of time on this site and I read the product descriptions and details. As I browsed, I noticed that a lot of shirts had very similar product descriptions. As if someone had copied description text from one product and pasted it into others. I don’t have a problem typing. I can type and I am pretty wordy even when it isn’t my job to be typing wordily, like on my website writing unrelated-to-work posts.So if it is your job to write product descriptions for a major online shopping website why are you being so lazy? And who is your boss? Don’t they care that you are writing the same product descriptions for multiple items?

Still, this blouse intrigued me so I wrote to Lucky Brand to ask them how long it was and if it really could be worn as a beach coverup. Online, the product description clearly states the blouse is 100% Rayon and “can be worn as an unexpected coverup over swimwear”. I included the link to the shirt on the website and the product id number just so there could be no mistake about which item I was inquiring.

Here is the reply I received from customer service:

Thank you for contacting the Lucky Brand Corporate Customer Service. Unfortunately, this item would not be appropriate for a beach cover up top.
This blouse is made from silk chiffon and should be worn with pants for a dressier occasion. The blouse also is not very long and can only be tucked in or left out.

They didn’t even bother to check the product I was asking about!!!

A Very Sad State Of Affairs

I don’t always get everything I order online. This saddens me deeply because shopping online is my favorite way to acquire things (I don’t have to deal with people). The very big downside to shopping online is SHIPPING. In my case shipping is fraught with fears of non delivery and larcenous neighbors. If a package is delivered by USPS the gamble is on: will I get it? Will I even get a notice of delivery slip? It’s never smooth with USPS. Only one time in the almost 7 years I’ve lived at this address was a package delivered by USPS to my door that I actually received. The other time the package was put on the truck and delivered to my address it was stolen— by a neighbor or the driver, it was never decided.

Woes Continue
I hardly ever get a notice of attempted delivery, often I have to write the number down by hand and drag my butt to the Post Office on Myrtle which keeps very mysterious hours. The mysteriousness of the hours at this location is only matched by the elusiveness of the workers.

It Gets Worse!
I have no problem getting bills or official mail. I have no luck getting personal mail. It makes me very angry because when it comes to mail it should not be a matter of luck and yet it is, on this route. Our mail is divided into 2 boxes, one for the upstairs and one for everyone else which means everyone has to paw through everyone else’s mail to find their mail. So while I am pawing I often see my neighbor’s hand addressed envelopes which can only mean that I am the one with bad luck because I rarely receive mail that has been hand addressed.
Recently our carrier said she was not going to ring the buzzer anymore so the landlord installed a key keeper so that she could unlock the key keeper, take out the key, open the door, deliver the mail and then replace the key and flounce off. Last Friday a neighbor had a party and early the next morning I saw the key on the ground. Someone had busted into the key keeper and the card was either thrown on the ground or fell there. I guess now our mail will be stopped again until the key keeper is fixed. Another month without mail! And I am breathlessly awaiting my Damages Season 2 DVDS from Netflix. Oh Drat.

A Local Business Fares No Better
I had a chat with the lovely Karen of Karen’s Body Beautiful about how she cannot ship internationally anymore because packages sent with USPS get stuck at customs forever or get lost (or stolen). Too bad because USPS is the only carrier that ships internationally at reasonable rates. We had another subject to discuss: people claiming they never got all the items they ordered. She said the first few times she got these kinds of complaints she would just faithfully send out another item. The no questions asked partial order replacement policy at Karen’s must have caught on because a lot of people began to claim they never got all their items, either. Karen said this prompted her to film every order from shelf to box and keep an archive of the videos. This smart step covers her if a customer claims they did not get this or that from their last order. We did not discuss what actions she takes if a customer claims they never got the package at all…

Other Carriers
About 98% of the time I have no problem getting parcels & packages delivered by other carriers, especially UPS and never with Fedex. That was until 12:45 pm on February 24th, 2010 when a package containing my February 22 order of a Waring Pro Stainless Steel Roaster Oven, weighing a hefty 30 lbs, was delivered and possibly left by the front door by a UPS driver. I’m not sure if Front Door means it was left inside or outside (our neighborhood is not nearly safe enough for packages to be left outside). The only other theory is that it was left inside the front door and one of my neighbors took it.

I have to hand it to Rue La La. They promptly responded to my email and said they would put out a tracer on my oven. Until then it’s toaster oven cooking for us, same as usual.

Back to Normal?
I am beginning to wonder if shopping online is a good idea for me anymore. It isn’t as though I live in a remote village where online shopping is probably the only way people who live in remote villages can get good stuff… I’m in Brooklyn! I can get anything I want. I just have to go out and deal with people. Oh well, they’re not all bad.

Update

Just had a chat with the UPS driver who delivers to this area. He was dropping off a package for my neighbor Christina which he left halfway up the stairs.He stated he left my package in the exact same spot.
“Didn’t you get it?”
“No, I did not, somebody took it!” He looked shocked.
“Your own neighbors?”
“My own neighbors.”
We both shook our heads.
He gave me the tracer notice to sign. I picked up Christina’s package and put it outside her door – we share a common hallway that has a securely locking door. Can’t trust nobody. Rue La La told me they were just going to refund the money to me. I am glad not to be out the 63 dollars and change and I am glad Rue La La is so reasonable (I wouldn’t be this reasonable) but I still feel ripped off. Not by Rue La La but by one of my neighbors. My own neighbors? I don’t want to believe that someone who lives in this building stole my package. But that seems to be what happened. So to my sticky fingered neighbor: you’re a poop. I hope the 1st thing you cook with my oven gives you the runs for a week.

Carroll Gardens Shopping Trip!

I love Brooklyn
I first stopped at Lee Lee’s Valise (on the corner of Court and President) because I wanted to buy cotton tunics and I had an overwhelming desire to talk to the owner of this unique clothing store, for women size 10 to 28, about her website. I want to do a redesign of the store’s website and I offered to do it for free not a lot of money. I hope she takes me up on my offer… Anyway, I purchased a light-weight cotton print tunic and a cinnabar necklace. Personal agenda aside this is a must go to place for any woman who isn’t a stick figure. I am probably still 32 cheesecakes away from being their target customer,fat acceptance aside, if you are a size 12 you probably do not yearn to be a size 18. If you are a size 1-2-3 X, good on you for not wanting to wear shapeless tents and finding a store that shares your sensibilities.

The owner of Lee Lee’s Valise, Lisa Dolan can be found behind the shop counter. This is not a store where one is ignored or where the sales people deign to ring up one’s purchases, sighing like it’s a Chinese martyrdom to have sell you your stuff. And the sale people don’t over-hover. It’s a relaxed place. But you must get there fast or suffer the disappointment of not finding what you want in your size because the clothes literally fly out the door. If you need 2X or 3X however, there’s loads. I’m still shy of those sizes but you never know, my inner Babushka Bomb may yet go off. Remember:1X is quite a lot bigger than X-Large.

The last store I went into was LF, home of the various and numerous cotton dress and top. You can expect to drop over 100 bucks for a little cotton cami. I spent 78 on a “Popsicle” colored tank dress with racerback straps.This isn’t a discount store and they hold sales only twice a year.
I asked the sales girl with really great hair if the merchandise was exclusive to LF because I hadn’t seen the same clothes in other stores. The steepish prices might be worth it if you care about not wearing the same thing as everyone else.

How to answer dumb questions

Sweetly and patiently. No one has ever asked such a great question where have you been my whole life?

Although it might be tempting to make the questioner feel stupid and small because their question is kind of dumb and has been asked a zillion times already-for customer service this is a very bad idea.
No matter how “stupid” the question might be you never want to let the person asking it know they’re asking a really dumb question.

Case in point:An experience I had in a grocery store using the credit card machine to pay for the goods. This particular card swiper doohickey was set up differently than the ones I was used to-therefore the enter and clear buttons(the yes and no buttons) were in a different place and I didn’t see them. So I asked where the yes button was and the clerk said in a very snarky tone “it’s where the button that says yes is”. I’ve never gone back to that store.

Was I being too sensitive? Probably. But I am a customer and we are a sensitive crew. We like it when clerks are helpful and nice. We go back to those stores because being in a helpful and nice environment is a nicer place to spend our nice money.
If you want to make money don’t risk losing return customers just to have a one time “I’m smarter than you which isn’t that hard to be because you are incredibly stupid” triumph.
Most folks who run an online store aren’t going to act like that clerk in the grocery store.That clerk didn’t lose a dime when I never went back-the franchise owner did. Clerkie couldn’t give a crap and acted accordingly. If it’s your store it’s just that much more likely you’re going to be nice,that is if making money is more important to you than feeling smart. I used to be a clerk in a store. Like a former waitperson who tends to tip more than 20% because they remember how it felt to get stiffed, a good ex retail worker never forgets the customer is always right even when they’re wrong. We are all still customers no matter what our current occupations are. It’s easy to know how to treat other customers: like you would want to be treated.