In the Boston Globe this morning is a short article on the struggles at Staples to meet it's revenue goals. While still profitable, Staples - the company that invented office supply superstores - is closing unprofitable outlets and will be cutting costs via management layoffs.
The piece reminded me of my recent (disappointing) experience with Staples. It was last month, when Mass was having a "tax free" weekend. I decided that it was time to buy the new Google Nexus 7 tablet that I had been thinking about. Truth be told, I first went to the Google website, where they offered free shipping. But when I went to check-out, they wanted to charge me the normal sales tax. There was no recognition of my state's "no tax" holiday and no option to avoid paying tax, so I cancelled the transaction and went to my normal go-to store for electronics - Staples.
The online site Staples.com did have a message that assured me that they recognized tax fee holiday, so I could order the product tax-free and go to my local store to pick it up to avoid delivery charges. OK, I thought, let's book it. But, then I was leery because the Staples product description for the Nexus did not specifically say that it was the NEW version that had been released in July. I spent another 15 minutes trying to compare the Google specs to the Staples specs. Finally, confident that my online shopping cart the right product, I went to check out. .....Hmmn, for some reason the Staples rewards number they showed on the website for me was different than the number I have on the card in my wallet. When I tried to check to see if any of my many previous purchases were getting rewards points, I was unable to get a simple report of purchase history. In effect, the message was: we do not have any history for you. Which means: None of your purchases have been counted. Frankly, I was pretty annoyed to think that I had been showing them my rewards card at the cash register for years, and the data was going into an effing black hole. Annoyed as hell, I decided to cancel the transaction.
Now, I was perplexed. My two first choices for Online shopping were a huge disappointment.
For giggles, I decided to see what old-line Sears.com had to offer. I was surprised to find myself rapidly taken to the correct product description and the same price as offered by Google and Staples. They had a banner indication that this would be a tax free purchase. They had a nice little summary of my reward points. I was impressed that the website of this ancient company was easier to navigate than the Internet 2.0 companies. I decided to buy the product for pick-up at the local Sears to save delivery charges. Bink Bink, easy peasy. A few days later, I got an e-mail confirming that my order was being shipped to the local store, and I would be notified when to pick it up in a following e-mail. Then, the next night I got a call form an automated robot telling me that "the computer you ordered is no longer stocked." And then some gobbledigook that I could call the store and get something different. They had cancelled my order!
It was a perfectly awful bit of customer service: a garbled hodgepodge of a message, The offered no valid reason - they did not even give me a number to call. Goodbye.
After all this, I started wondering why I needed a Nexus 7 anyhow. In the end, I decided I really didn't need one after all. So the bottom line is: No one got any money from me. Worse for them, I am so annoyed at these three companies that I will not shop online with any of them again. (I may still go to the local brick and o mortar Staples for their loss-leader paper rebate deals.)
If my experience is typical, the future of e-commerce is in trouble. It is clear that even in 2013, corporate management is clueless about the importance of accurate, integrated and up-to-date data to support the whiz-bang technology.
Google didn't know about states' tax free programs. Staples had fuzzy product descriptions and they can't seem to integrate the rewards program to the sales operations. And, Sears has wasted a lot of money building a web-site that works like butter, then sending me a confirmation of shipment and then cancelling my order and annoying me with a crap automated customer service voice messaging system that must have been a leftover prototype from 1977.
None of these companies followed-up, despite the fact that I filled-out opinion surveys and feedback emails to each of these stores. I was never responded to - in any way, not even a canned apology letter. This is why I think they must be clueless. Rule 1, Try not to piss-off the customer.
The VP's of these outfits probably need to try to use their own online websites. They might be in for an annoying experience.
9/26/2013
9/22/2013
Did Someone say Striper season is over?
especially when we catch fish.
Thursday turned out to be a great day for boat fishing. The high tide was late morning so we did not have to get out on the water at the crack of dawn. It started out cool (sweatshirt weather) then by about 11AM it was tee shirt warm. The water was smooth with a light breeze.
We had no luck until we encountered a school of mackerel, whereupon we managed to land 7 or 8. We hooked about twice that many but they got away before we could get them in the boat.
The fish keeper was not pumping fresh water and unfortunately, the mackerel died before we could get to where the striped bass were.
So, instead of "live bait fishing" we had to cut up the mackerel into chunks. No problem: Captain Clarke knew a "honey hole" where the Stripers hang out. They went after the fresh cut bait with gusto. Clarke landed a huge (40") fat boy. I reeled in the biggest striper I had ever caught - in fact the first one of "keeper" size. There were several other (smaller) strikes as well.
Despite the fact that I enjoy eating striped bass, we released all of the stripers, as they seemed too magnificent to chop up. They gave us a good thrill, which you probably need to be a fisherman to understand.
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