Gave myself a few days to try to put this whole buying a vacuum cleaner vs. Sam's Club issue aside. However, Sam's having some less than stellar customer service moments (due to the lack of clarity found on their own web site) and the very entertaining exchanges with their reps just begs to be a blog post.
If you want a good laugh, I've included pictures of the actual emails. Please be assured, I myself have no intention of doing business with them but I am in no way telling anyone else what to do. While I personally think that this level of service sucks, I also think that rep #2 will be promoted to supervisor by the end of the month!
Story starts with me finally deciding which Shark vacuum I wanted to purchase. I had received an email from Savings Star about the free membership open house weekend at Sam's Club along with a link to view their site. First thing I see, you guessed it, my vacuum in a bundle pack with an extra instant savings coupon and a free mop! No second thoughts, instantly signed up for my temporary membership. Please note that per their welcome email this expires in 24 hours. Time of sign up: 4:21 pm
Next thing I do, is read the fine print about the Shark bundle pack that is available for sale. In order to receive the special price, you must sign up with your email address and become a Club Insider. I regret to say that I did not think to screen shot the page of info about needing to sign up for this. You'll just have to trust me when I say it doesn't indicate that it won't work during this open house temporary membership weekend. It simply states I must sign up and then go request the instant savings and wait for an email confirmation from the savings link. I received the following confirmation that I have correctly signed up about a minute after the Welcome one above.
I click the link for Instant Savings, it takes me to a web page that lists all of the savings available. I scroll through and find and select the Shark box, submit form and about 4:28 pm I get the following:
I notice that it says I can pick up at Club so I look up store hours and on Sundays they are only open until 6 so I go through the process to place my order (figuring I can pick it up on Monday) and a box pops up to tell me that pick up option is not available on a temporary membership. Guess that is fair so I look up the shipping charge and it's only twelve bucks. The store is on the other side of town and closing soon so I figure it would be just as easy to order online. Might as well change that - I assumed it would be just as easy. We all know what happens when one assumes.
And now the fun begins!
After a few attempts, I manage to get the Shark into my shopping cart and all billing and shipping information entered into the computer. I put in all of the credit card info and in the Instant Savings block there is a big fat zero. Hmmm, double check credit card info, looks right, double check this and that and can't find any errors so I call that very prominently displayed help number.
Have a very interesting chat with a guy named David who explains to me that the Instant Savings will work with no problem on my order I just need to go all the way through the process to the final screen. When I get to the last screen to review before I submit the order the savings will then fill in. Makes perfect sense so I thank him for his help and back to the computer I go. Easier said than done! Try going in and out of site a few times, enter and re-enter info, nothing.
Don't laugh, everyone out there has done this, something in us just doesn't want to admit that it isn't working. Need to try it at least one more time just in case it will work!
Getting a bit frustrated but I really think this sounds like a great deal so back to the phone I go. Listen to all the options, work through that maze to get to customer service and receive a recording that they are closed for the day and call back Monday morning. Thanks David. Have a feeling he laughed all the way home...
Monday morning, go back into the website, pull up my cart and I now have a different screen, no spot for Instant Savings and with a non-member fee added. Figuring that the 800 number was pretty useless, decide to go the contact us email route and send off the following:
Two hours later was rather surprised to get the following reply:
At this point, I realize that I am totally wasting my time and energy and as most of you know, I just have no patience for stupid. My interpretation is the rep saying, "I really don't feel like dealing with you and don't care if you sign up and become a member or not so go buy your damn vacuum cleaner somewhere else"!
Spent some time doing some research, found a comparable deal, ordered it and then responded as follows:
Imagine my surprise when this showed up 9/16 at 8:11 pm! After 24 hours with no response figured that ended that. Proof that I was right, Sam's Club really didn't care about my business. Must admit though, this rep is one sharp cookie, take your time and compare the two responses...
Now let the laughter begin.
Like I said, she'll be supervisor by the end of the month.
No comments:
Post a Comment