It was my grandmoms birthday on the 20th of Feb 2012 and I was scheduled to be in Goa during that time and couldn't spend it with her,so I settled on the next best thing which was to send her bunch of flowers.(She just loves doing up her drawing room,and its been recently jazzed up!)
I didn't want to leave anything to chance and so I started my research on what to buy ,where to buy etc early in the week.
I checked a number of sites and the first thing I did was to call up the customer care helpline to see the kind of response I would get.Chennai Flowers and Flowers for You had a customer care number that was perpetually busy and so I decided not to go with them (even though they had midnight delivery :( )
I settled on Indiaplaza.com because I have used them before.Not for gifting purposes persay buy I did buy a book from them and I remember an aunt of mine gifted me something from their site on my birthday(Which they home delivered).So I figured they must be good and most importantly they had a customer care line that always answered and seemed professional enough!
So I placed my order for a dozen yellow roses on the 16th of February and asked them to make sure they deliver it on the 20th with a little card that said "Happy Birthday Ammumee,Hope these roses add to your snazzy drawing room".Cute rite?I thought so too!
Anyway I left for Goa that day and got back in the wee hours of the morning on the 20th and spent half the day catching up on work mails and unpacking and it suddenly struck me that I hadnt got a call from home which means that the flowers had not reached!
I called up the customer care helpline (to whose credit I must say were very polite) and asked for the status of the flowers and was told it would get delivered before 7 p.m.Which was 2 hours away.So I waited patiently and called again around 8 p.m.I was again told that the flowers would get delivered before 8:30 p.m.And guess what?Their customer helpline shuts at 8:30 p.m too.So I asked them what I was supposed to do if the flowers didnt get delivered by 8:30 p.m?And the man on the pther end assured me that it WOULD in fact get delivered for sure!
And surprise!It wasn't delivered!
I angsted over the incident all night and with no 24/7 customer line to call and vent my frustration needless to say I bit my husbands head off quite a bit!
I realized that I wouldnt be able to sleep well at night (these kind of things irritate me!) unless I did something right then!
I searched linked in and google and found the CEO's email ID .
I then sent him a polite but firm mail stating my issue and order number and what I wanted done to make up for the fact that the flowers had not reached on time.
I also mentioned that I might not be a huge customer for them but it would hold them in good stead if they took care of all their customers.
I didn't really expect a reply but surprisingly there was one the very next day.From the CEO himself,apologizing for the delay.Directing the head of his cusomer care to contact me to sort out the issue and offering to add a complimentary chocolate cake to the flowers to make up for the delay.
That was a pleasant surprise indeed.
True to their word the flowers reached(on the 21st of Feb,i.e a day after the birthday),the cake reached and they called and apologized to my grandmother for the delay.
Now I completely appreciate the gesture and the promptness of the delivery once I made a fuss,but does it make up for the fact that they didnt deliver the flowers on my grandmothers bday?
Is it just me who puts sentiments over the freebies that they provided?
I'm still not sure whether to pen this incident down as a positive or a negative one!
Anyhow if (and that's a major IF since this blog is mostly private!) anyone reads this post they will be able to decide whether or not to go with www.indiaplaza.com,so I hope I have helped there :)
I didn't want to leave anything to chance and so I started my research on what to buy ,where to buy etc early in the week.
I checked a number of sites and the first thing I did was to call up the customer care helpline to see the kind of response I would get.Chennai Flowers and Flowers for You had a customer care number that was perpetually busy and so I decided not to go with them (even though they had midnight delivery :( )
I settled on Indiaplaza.com because I have used them before.Not for gifting purposes persay buy I did buy a book from them and I remember an aunt of mine gifted me something from their site on my birthday(Which they home delivered).So I figured they must be good and most importantly they had a customer care line that always answered and seemed professional enough!
So I placed my order for a dozen yellow roses on the 16th of February and asked them to make sure they deliver it on the 20th with a little card that said "Happy Birthday Ammumee,Hope these roses add to your snazzy drawing room".Cute rite?I thought so too!
Anyway I left for Goa that day and got back in the wee hours of the morning on the 20th and spent half the day catching up on work mails and unpacking and it suddenly struck me that I hadnt got a call from home which means that the flowers had not reached!
I called up the customer care helpline (to whose credit I must say were very polite) and asked for the status of the flowers and was told it would get delivered before 7 p.m.Which was 2 hours away.So I waited patiently and called again around 8 p.m.I was again told that the flowers would get delivered before 8:30 p.m.And guess what?Their customer helpline shuts at 8:30 p.m too.So I asked them what I was supposed to do if the flowers didnt get delivered by 8:30 p.m?And the man on the pther end assured me that it WOULD in fact get delivered for sure!
And surprise!It wasn't delivered!
I angsted over the incident all night and with no 24/7 customer line to call and vent my frustration needless to say I bit my husbands head off quite a bit!
I realized that I wouldnt be able to sleep well at night (these kind of things irritate me!) unless I did something right then!
I searched linked in and google and found the CEO's email ID .
I then sent him a polite but firm mail stating my issue and order number and what I wanted done to make up for the fact that the flowers had not reached on time.
I also mentioned that I might not be a huge customer for them but it would hold them in good stead if they took care of all their customers.
I didn't really expect a reply but surprisingly there was one the very next day.From the CEO himself,apologizing for the delay.Directing the head of his cusomer care to contact me to sort out the issue and offering to add a complimentary chocolate cake to the flowers to make up for the delay.
That was a pleasant surprise indeed.
True to their word the flowers reached(on the 21st of Feb,i.e a day after the birthday),the cake reached and they called and apologized to my grandmother for the delay.
Now I completely appreciate the gesture and the promptness of the delivery once I made a fuss,but does it make up for the fact that they didnt deliver the flowers on my grandmothers bday?
Is it just me who puts sentiments over the freebies that they provided?
I'm still not sure whether to pen this incident down as a positive or a negative one!
Anyhow if (and that's a major IF since this blog is mostly private!) anyone reads this post they will be able to decide whether or not to go with www.indiaplaza.com,so I hope I have helped there :)
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