Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
The Official "WTF MERCH!" Thread
Tshirtlimbo:
Summary of my QC merch experience:
I ordered a shirt at the end of August, 2008. I sent my first "everything okay?" e-mail about a month later (too early, as I noticed later), and then kept sending them about once a month for the next three months. I had no response at any e-mail address and couldn't connect over AIM either. On the verge of giving up I noticed the forum and then discovered this thread. I was unpleasantly surprised to discover that my story wasn't unique, and wrote a series of critical posts.
Sometime in November, I believe, Cristi came on this thread and invited people that haven't been able to get their orders nor a response to write to [email protected]. I did, and within a day had an exchange of e-mails. In the end, I received my order at the end of December (four months total wait).
I was informed that my shirt *had* been shipped earlier, but must have gotten lost en route. She told me the order would be re-shipped, and a few weeks later I received a shipping notice. In retrospect the "it got lost" explanation seems a bit shady given that I didn't receive any prior shipping notices.
I'm disappointed to read here that people are *still* unable to get customer service. I was really hoping that the QCmerch team would perceive this as a serious problem and overhaul the way they handle their business. I had suggested, among other things, that QC set up a qcmerch auto-reply and that the website text be updated (perhaps with the information in the first post in this thread). You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.
If I had returned to this forum to read that the systemic problems had been addressed, I would be optimistic about ordering from QC again. As it is, I'm done.
Tshirtlimbo:
One last thing. While I'm fully aware that it is unrealistic for any company that does a lot of business (QC qualifies in my books) to have a 100% satisfaction rate, I don't think that the problems identified in this thread simply represent the occasional person "falling through the cracks". If it were indeed the case that most (e.g. 99%) of e-mails were responded to promptly, then we would virtually never hear of customers being ignored despite *multiple* e-mails.
We know that QC often ignores inquiries (Cristi has said as much in this thread) if the inquiry comes "too soon". This suggests to me that the QCmerch inbox is being handled in a "on-the-fly" manner, without the sort of "everything must be dealt with" policy that people expect from a first-rate business.
We know that the merch team feels overwhelmed by the task of replying to inquiries. This suggests to me that important information is not being supplied up-front (specifically the more realistic timelines mentioned at the beginning of this thread), and/or that the QCmerch team is doing so much business that even receiving a small fraction of inquiries from customers is overwhelming. This latter issue is known as "a good problem to have" and suggests resources (a.k.a. money) ought to be available to either hire someone to handle customer service or hire someone to set-up an ordering system that can automatically handle more of the work.
We know that the task of addressing, packing, and shipping thousands of shirts is likewise borderline overwhelming. This also supports the "good problem to have" interpretation. This is 2009, selling t-shirts on the internet isn't rocket science, and I'm pretty sure that business solutions appropriate to QC's situation are there for the adopting.
Good luck to those still in limbo, and it is my sincere wish that QC both continue to prosper *and* clean up their act.
DNS:
Finally decided to jump into the madness here, after about 8 months of reading the comic and a mnth and a haf of order-waiting.
The good news is, it finally came yesterday. I ordered a "she blinded me with library science" shirt for my girlfriend who, at the time of order (Nov. 26th) was just finishing up her Information Management (formerly Library Science) degree at Dalhousie University (here in wonderful Nova Scotia).
I was a little ticked off that it wasn't here for christmas, but it ended up coming on a day that had been pretty shitty or her, and I left it for her to find on our bed and it lightened up her day a bit. (pics to follow soon?)
I happened to be looking through the forum after placing my order and found this thread; My stomach was immediately cletched and I regretted placing the order after all of these horror stories.
Anyhow, I just wanted to let others who may be reading this, worrying about their orders etc... that there is still certainly hope after the 2-4 week waiting period.
I do have to say, however, that it was disconcerting and down right annoying to have received an email saying my item was shipped (on Dec 18, no les, giving me false hope that it would be here for christmas), with a tracking number and a link to the USPS website. The annoying part? The fact that the USPS said that the tracking number was of a package that was not yet ready to be picked up from the sender... it said this up untill the day before it was delivered.
I am happy to have received my order, and I may even order again someday (but I am a student, and I am less likely to spend money on an item that may neve arrive). I do agree and sympathise with many of the complaints here, though. C & J should really work to streamline the process -- maybe they should take the store down for a month or two while they work out some sort of a new system?
I don't know... just a thought.
Thanks again for the shirt! She loves it!
Xobyte:
--- Quote from: jennyemelie on 06 Jan 2009, 00:46 ---Yup... I'm starting to get a little disgruntled here. Order was placed on Nov 18th and nothing... I have sent e-mails to both the @mac and @gmail qcmerch addresses.
Now thankfully my order wasn't a Christmas gift however it is intended to be a gift that I will need by the end of the month. I'm trying to be patient here but it would be nice if some sort of feedback were given. Even an auto-reply to let me know I was in fact e-mailing a real address would have been great at this point...
/sigh
--- End quote ---
Same here, down to the exact date ordered. I've sent four e-mails to the qcmerch address, and installed AIM to my computer for the express purpose of getting in touch. These shirts were supposed to be christmas presents, so saying I'm irritated would be an understatement.
I'll try the qcmerch AIM address later, in hopes of getting this sorted.
Edit: In the hopes that this post will actually help, here are the pertinant details of my order:
Ordered two shirts on November 18, 2008, "Cogito Ergo Nom" (in Cranberry) and "Can I Has Torrents" (in Chocolate) both in Lady's Large. Paypal address used for these was monkey_alpha (at) hotmail (dot) com.
I sent my first e-mail on December 30, 2008. I sent three more over the next ten days, and recieved responses to none of them. I'm also past the 45 day limit to file a claim through PayPal.
Like I said, these were Christmas presents. If the person wasn't already expecting the shirts (I had to tell them something when Christmas came and went), I'd tell QC to stuff the damn shirts and just refund me my money.
asdfghjkl:
I'd like to know if anyone else has NOT received a guaranteed-by-Christmas delivery. Because it's really bumming me out. I want my shirt. Also, I've emailed [email protected] at least 3 times with no response or anything. What the hell am I supposed to do?
EDIT: After reading all these threads, it makes me both relieved AND more irritated at QC. They really need better organization & contacting abilities if they're going to do this to so many people.
I think the things that piss me off the most are that I was guaranteed Christmas delivery and my credit card has been charged, but still no shirt. Grr.
Also, by now, it's past the 2-4 week waiting period, regardless of the fact that I was promised Christmas delivery.
Okay, I'm actually really angry. I kind of want a phone number for QC so I can call & bitch at them or something. This is the most awful service. It's made me completely wary of ordering anything online now, even from trusted corporations.
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