How to Start a Business

Just tried to buy a gift card from Half Off Depot – My email explains it all.

Half Off Depot.

First, I think your idea is a great one. That being said I have had a bad experience with every step of your process. I have multiple points of confusion and concern. This has been a very poor customer experience. I would like to talk with someone as soon as you are able. See my points below:

1. I went through a relatively normal buying process and no where on your site or in the buying process did it tell me that the coupon or gift certificate needed to be shipped and that this shipping would take 5-7 days.

The process I went through: 1. get email 2. like the deal 3. click the link 4. on website click link to buy 5. fill out new account information (including credit card) 6. come to shipping option – only one – a radio button saying .99 (confusion at this point.) 7. verify purchase 8. read confirmation email and see that the item needed to be shipped. I thought the confirmation email would contain instructions to print my coupon. 9. After major confusion I called the office. Nothing. No person or no answering machine only a statement that the box was full 10. Then I went to the knowledge base articles and learned it takes 5-7 days to receive the coupon.

2. I then saw that your office hours (via the Help Desk) say 9 – 6 and that Atlanta Customers can pick up their gift certificate but you have to coordinate via phone. Well no one would pick up the phone and thus I can’t coordinate the pickup of my gift certificate.

I have called 5 times between 4:55 and 5:30 (it is now 5:30). I wanted pick up my gift certificate as we are going out tonight to Beleza. No one is picking up the phone and the voicemail box is full.

So the office hours in one place say 9 – 6 and in the other place (my email) they say 9 – 5. Which is it? Why the confusion?

3. Had I known that it would take 5-7 days to ship or that I could pick up the gift certificate I would have changed my plans for tonight or I would have changed the transaction. I am very frustrated by this point.

Also, I don’t understand why it takes 5 -7 days and .99 to ship a piece of paper. I can stick a card or coupon in an envelope and send it across town for .42 and it would be there in a day maybe 2. This to me is a very slow service.

4. The ad reads “Today’s Big Deal:
$25 for $50 Worth of Food and Drinks at Sotto Sotto, Fritti, Lupe or Beleza
Shop Our Regular Catalog This deal is available until 10 a.m. on December 17, 2009″

It then says on the right hand side of the ad:

“U Restaurants (Fritti, Sotto Sotto, Beleza or Lupe)
You Pay: Only 25
You Get: 50
You Save 25
Expires 12/16/2010
Details: No Cash value. Tax and Gratuity not included valid sunday – Thursday. Good at any U Restaurant location ”

So there are 2 dates mentioned in the ad. One says the offer is good until the 17th the other says something expires the 16th. I am still confused as to whether the coupon expires today or if the 50 for 25 offer expires today. If that is the case why are there 2 dates for the offer expiring.

Honestly, I thought the expiration date was for the restaurant coupon and thus it would then be delivered electronically so I could use it tonight (before it expires). In any case the whole ad is confusing.

5. You sent my login name and password through email. I have no idea if you stored my credit card info in my account; but, sending the password through email puts my account at risk and possibly my credit card information.

6. There is not an email address anywhere on your website to contact you. This is very concerning. I just gave you my credit card information yet the only way I can reach is by filling out a form. You don’t pick up your phone. You don’t have correct dates on your communication and products and your voicemail box is full. I have very little confidence that you will read this form. I think it is absolutely necessary that you put correct contact information on your website including your email address.

Forgive me if I sound rude. I am a concerned customer. As I said earlier I like the concept but I have had a terrible experience.

Please contact call me at 123.235.9876 so I can gain some confidence with this transaction and with your company.

Regards,

Jacob Dearolph

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4 Comments

1.   Jim Beach   |  Wednesday, 16 December 2009 at 4:45 pm

   restaurant.com offers the same service and the coupons are emailed immediately. A much better service.

   
2.   Rob   |  Tuesday, 29 December 2009 at 9:08 am

   I was in the FAQ section of half off depot website and it very clearly states 5-7 business days. Also if the coupon or the offer expires on the 16th or 17th is pretty much irrelevant because it is the 16th or 17th of 2010. There was no rush to use it that night other than you made a last minute decision to purchase the gift card the night you were going out. You also quote the ad verbatim and you only mention one date appearing in the ad. If you misrepresented what was in the ad you should correct it. Finally, if you pay through paypal your transaction would be secure. If you don’t have a paypal account, perhaps you should sign up for one. I have never ordered from this company, so I cannot comment on their customer service, but these other items were not their fault as far as I can tell.

   
3.   Jacob Dearolph   |  Tuesday, 29 December 2009 at 11:44 am

   Rob,

   I appreciate your comments however I believe you misread or misunderstood the primary points of my email and thus my argument to the company. It also sounds like you are arguing for or defending Half Off Depot. Perhaps you are employed by them or affiliated with them in some capacity. If so I hope you take my comments as something to use to improve your business instead of something to defend against. I didn’t make this stuff up. The purpose of my email was to let someone know of my concerns, to have them addressed and hopefully see some improvement on their end.

   Customer Experience should be a primary consideration when building a brand. My thesis is that my entire experience was very disappointing and I believe that others will have this experience. Thus, they will lose business. After talking to several people in Atlanta I confirmed that they too had similar thoughts to the ones described here.

   As to your points:

   1. You state that shipping time is clearly stated in the FAQ – I agree. It is clearly stated in the FAQ. However, it is not stated in any of the marketing emails and most importantly it is not stated anywhere in the buying process or in the purchase confirmation email. I should clarify that in my point 1 above when I said “site” I meant the front pages for the primary website and then the front page of the offer. Basically, unless you decide to go outside the normal buying process and look through the FAQ there is no way for the consumer to know that there is a shipping lead time of 5 to 7 days. This to me is poor business practice; the customer does not have his/her expectations set by the company, which will lead to confusion and frustration. I know many people that ignore half off depot and use other sites b/c of this.

   2. You go into an argument about the dates on the ad. First, the ad was made of a single web page with text and pictures on the top and on the right. On this ad website there were 2 dates, which to me didn’t clearly identify what was expiring. Your point is correct that one date was in 2010. My whole confusion was in not understanding what was expiring and when. I stated this clearly – 2 things were expiring with 2 separate dates: 1. The offer to purchase $50 of restaurant money for $25 and 2. The $50 credit at the restaurant. I did not misrepresent anything and my point still stands that the language and the dates weren’t clear.

   As an aside – you say something about waiting till the last moment to purchase the card. The whole nature of this business is to email a coupon out to drive demand. It worked in my case. I got an email for a credit at a restaurant. I got a group of people to go to this restaurant for a Christmas Party so we could use the credit. I bought the credit only to find it had to be shipped. On their site they say you can call if you live in Atlanta and arrange to pick up the gift card. Well I called before the office hours and no one picked up and the voicemail was full. So no way to get my credit for that night. I never would have made arrangements to go to that restaurant had I known I couldn’t get my credit for that day.

   3. Your point about paypal is invalid because the only option they offer a customer is to purchase via credit card.

   4. Lastly, you said you can’t speak for customer service. I can: I submitted my email ticket, I got a quick reply stated they will get back to me within 24 hours. That was 12 days ago and to this day I’ve not received anything from them. I have called their office number multiple times and multiple days. No one has ever picked up or responded to my voicemails. This is terrible customer service.

   
4.   kohls coupons   |  Wednesday, 21 April 2010 at 8:59 am

   There are some great ideas here. I must redesign my blog sometime. I am going to start from scratch this time I think.