Brendan Gates

This past Saturday I purchased a laptop from Woot. I took a shipping upgrade to ensure I would receive my new toy on Wednesday afternoon. The sale mentioned the model number but not which variant, so I decided to contact them and ask for it.

So as to not harm the (sort of) innocent, I’ve switched out the Woot employee names for names of Nickelback band members.

From: Me
Sent: Sun Dec 30 15:41 CST 2012
To: Woot

Hi Woot, I purchased a Lenovo ThinkPad L512 laptop last night, order #43090182. Can you tell me what the specific model number is that I’ll be receiving? There are several variants of the L512 and I’d like to go get the documentation for my specific model.
Thanks for your help!

Brendan

They replied.

From: Woot
Sent: Mon Dec 31 14:33 CST 2012
To: Me

Hello Brendan,

Thank you for taking the time to email us. We appreciate your concerns as well as your business.

Unfortunately, our records do not elaborate beyond ‘L512’. You can track your order via the following link: http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?tracknumbers=XXXXXXXXXXX1

Chad
Woot Member Services

Not what I had asked for, but still helpful nonetheless. Being that this was a laptop, I assumed it had been shipped with a signature required on delivery. Better to confirm, though.

From: Me
Sent: Tue Jan 1 11:39 CST 2013
To: Woot

Hi Chad –

I appreciate you checking on that for me. Thank you for the tracking info as well. Can you tell me if the FedEx shipment is signature required? If it is not, can we hold the shipment at FedEx? I will be at work on the day it gets delivered, and I’d rather not have it sitting on my front porch.

If a hold is possible, this is a FedEx location that is not too far from where I work:

FedEx Office Print Ship Center
1901 S Brentwood Blvd
St Louis, MO 63144
(314) 963-2700

Thanks again for all of your help,
Brendan

They replied again.

From: Woot
Sent: Wed Jan 2 11:57 CST 2012
To: Me

Hi Brendan,

A signature will not be required for this item. You should be able to contact fedex and request a hold for the item.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

Best regards,

Ryan
Woot Member Services

Bummer. I suppose it’s time to call FedEx and have the shipment held. That’s when I’m told that the package hasn’t even been picked up yet from Woot.

From: Me
Sent: Wed Jan 2 12:09 CST 2013
To: Woot

Thank you Ryan. I contacted FedEx to place a hold and they told me that the package hasn’t shipped yet. When I look at the tracking information that Chad sent me on Monday that seems to confirm the same:

http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?tracknumbers=XXXXXXXXXXX1

It should be Out for Delivery by now, but the tracking still shows that it’s in the initiated state. Can you confirm the shipping status? If it really hasn’t shipped yet, then I would like to be sure that it goes out today as next day air.

Thanks again for your help,

Brendan

Woot replies again, 27 minutes before the original scheduled delivery.

From: Woot
Sent: Wed Jan 2 14:33 CST 2012
To: Me

Hi Brendan,

It’s not uncommon for one day shipments not to update as they are being shipped.

That coupled with the holiday, could have something to do with it.

If the item isnt delivered, or tracking doesnt update by tomorrow, please let us know and we will proceed as needed.

Best regards,

Ryan
Woot Member Services

Tomorrow? Ugh. I’m getting blown off. I don’t want to be a total jerk but I do need to make it clear this isn’t acceptable.

From: Me
Sent: Wed Jan 2 20:16 CST 2013
To: Woot

Hi Ryan –

As I too work in customer service, please don’t take this as anything personal against you. But considering that I called FedEx and they confirmed that this package still hasn’t been picked up yet to begin its journey to me, we both know this doesn’t have anything to do with the holiday or tracking updates not keeping up with 1-day shipping. This package just never went out. And now we’ve waited yet another day to do anything about it, so the very earliest this ships out is Thursday.

The fact that you all have my money and the laptop, and that I’ve been so far unable to convince anybody that there is a problem, isn’t even my biggest issue. My biggest issue is that I paid extra for 1-day shipping so this would arrive today by 3pm, while my girlfriend is out of town. It could even arrive tomorrow by 3pm and I’d stil be fine. I can dispose of the packaging and tell her it’s a friend’s laptop, or that it’s an old one of mine that she just doesn’t remember. But tomorrow night, she comes home. A package arriving after that means that she sees it arrive, and yells at me for buying more computers. Of course it’s woot so I can’t return it, so then I have to go sell it on Craigslist. I’ll get an email from a seemingly trustworthy guy calling himself Arthur who is interested, but he needs to check it out first to be sure I’m not scamming him. So I meet Arthur in a mall parking lot where he stabs me and takes the laptop. Then I have no laptop, no money, and my girlfriend is yelling at me again because I went and got stabbed by a grifter.

Please help me. I don’t want to get stabbed.

Brendan

I thought that was a good mix of stern and “did he just say he was going to get stabbed?” to warrant some attention.

From: Woot
Sent: Thu Jan 3 11:14 CST 2012
To: Me

Hi Brendan,

We actually have a new tracking number for you, and it looks like your order should arrive today: http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?tracknumbers=XXXXXXXXXXX2

Best,
Mike

Wow. They didn’t even blink in the face of my creative little tale.

From: Me
Sent: Thu Jan 3 15:30 CST 2013
To: Woot

Tough crowd! I mean, c’mon – I wrote a really nice little tale about getting stabbed, and I even used the word grifter and I don’t even get so much as an LOL out of y’all. Whomever is doing your professional email skills training is doing a really good job.

And I can confirm that all is well now re: the shipment… I received the laptop this afternoon before the girlfriend returned, so no stabby craigslist adventure had to be undertaken.

I assume that I’ll be receiving a $3 credit since I paid for one-day shipping and got two-day?

Thanks again,

Brendan

$3 was the difference in shipping cost between one-day and two-day shipping.

From: Woot
Sent: Thu Jan 3 17:04 CST 2012
To: Me

Hello Brendan,

Thanks for noticing our professionalism 🙂 . I issued a $16 refund for shipping. You should see it within a few days.

Happy Wooting,

Daniel
Woot Member Services

Well, at least I got an emoticon from Daniel.

From: Me
Sent: Thu Jan 4 8:13 CST 2012
To: Woot

Thanks Daniel! You didn’t have to refund my full shipping amount, but it was kind of you to do so. I appreciate your help (and Chad’s, Ryan’s, and Mike’s help) getting this whole situation resolve. Have a great weekend.

Brendan

For the record, the new laptop is working out great so far.