Cafe press & customer service

I recently ordered this most rad t-shirt on line from cafe press:

After a month it still hadn’t arrived. So slightly upset  sent them through a note as below.

My email:

My order was meant to arrive between these times: Estimated Arrival: Monday 6/30/08 – Monday 7/7/08. But I am still yet to receive it and I am getting worried that It will never arrive. It is now 7/13/08 so it has been nearly a month! Can you please follow up for me. I am a first time cafe press customer and so far it hasn’t been a good experience.   

1st cafe press response:

Dear Steve,

Thank you for contacting CafePress.com! This note is to inform you that we have received your inquiry and are assigning it to a representative. We respond to all email messages within 24 hours. If you do not receive an answer within 24 hours please call us toll-free at 1-877-809-1659 during our customer service hours Monday – Saturday 9:00 am to 9:00 pm EST.

To help track your inquiry we have generated the following reference number LTK419015882692X. Please use this number in any further communication.

2nd ‘real person’ cafe press response:

Dear Steve, I am sorry to hear you haven’t received your order. I checked and it is past the date it should have arrived. To make sure there are no further delays please confirm back with your correct shipping address. As soon as I get this information I will replace your order at no charge. I look forward to your reply.  

If there is anything else I can do for you please let me know. 

Please click this link to take a quick survey to help us improve our service. 

Best Regards, Crystal R.

A few things for startups to notice: 

• Yes, it was an automated response, but a real living, breathing person got back to me within 24 hours. ‘We want to deal with real people.’ Only real people can respond to emotion.

• They offered a toll free number for me to call on if a didn’t hear within 24 hours. All websites should have someone you can call.

• They advised they would replace the order, no questions & immediatly. They accepted fault.

• They included a link where I could rate there customer service even though, I was potentially an upset customer. No excuses, no hiding on their behalf.

In short, cafe press offered; guarantees, to fix the proble, they accepted fault, and started a feedback loop which has lead to great customer service, from a potentially negative situation. Now I’m blogging about a positive situation when it may well have been the opposite.

Webpreneurs – Be like cafe press.