Thursday, May 15, 2014

Rue de la Fete? Rue de la Faute! (Fault!)

Two days ago I ordered a pink pom pom from Rue de la Fete.com. It was 2.90. I wanted it for Saturday so I paid 9.40 for shipping. My order was confirmed via email and then again for the delivery, then I received an SMS with delivery confirmation details and what to do if I would not be available between 8h00 - 13h00 (1pm). I was home all morning, working on my computer.

At about 12:30 I was getting ready to leave and finally decided to check the website on where this delivery was. First I tried on my mobile but had user problems with order#, conf. # etc. (I figured it out by the time I got to the website.) I got a confirmation page showing the order had been delivered and signed for by "Joubeau" (which is a part of my married name). I was very amused by this considering I'd been upstairs in my apartment all morning and hadn't left and yet I had also, apparently, signed for a package!

I decided to go downstairs to the mailboxes and see what might be there. Jammed in my mailbox was a plastic envelope with said item. Aha! And yet, why did the delivery man decide to just jam it into my mailbox instead of ringing my buzzer and either delivering it or asking me to come down the two flights of stairs to get it?

When I opened the envelope I realized in my excitement about ordering said item, I didn't see it was only 1 pom pom and not 1 pair. Doh! So...I went through the whole process again, paying 2.90 for my pom pom and 9 for shipping.

Today I went downstairs and put a post-it on my mailbox saying, in French, "Dear Mr. Chronopost. I am here. Please ring. A thousand thank-yous!" and signed my name. Mid-morning my buzzer rang and it was Mr. Chronopost. I met him half-way and was surprised today to see a medium-sized box.
I'm really interested in what's happening at the other end of a company that ships the same exact item but using different packaging. Is it a human "error" with someone deciding one envelope or box is more efficient than the other? Did they run out of envelopes? Are they using a different fulfillment agency?

The points for review are several-fold. Postal carriers "laziness" to not ring and see if a customer is home; their decisions to "sign" for their customers packages; point-of-sale fulfillment centers deciding to use different packaging; no clear instructions on what packing to use for various items; "waste" of space in shipping small items in large boxes...

Anyway, I am happy to now have my two pink pom poms, despite the round-about-manner in which I got them!