The following is a guest blog-post from our friend Stephanie at Le Cheap c’est Chic. Stephanie is a twentysomething who loves fashion and documents her passion for it through her blog.
We were fortunate enough to catch a Twitter interaction between Stephanie and the company she mentions in her post. We took a look at her amazing blog and realized that her love of fashion would help us prove a great point — that a company’s service transcends its products. Be it commodities like paper towels and batteries, or high fashion items like Isabel Marant Tan Lacow booties, the experience from ordering these products is of the utmost importance.
Thus, without further introduction, Stephanie’s experience:
After a never ending search for the much-coveted Isabel Marant Tan Lacow booties—a cult footwear shoe of sorts within fashion circles—that was met with no success on eBay (my go-to shopping site for staking out my wishlist items at a fraction of the cost) I decided the Sam Edelman Louie Fringe Booties in Evening Rose would do the trick. Initially I was skeptical of their fringed detail, fearing it would lend them a cowboy aesthetic I wasn’t exactly after. But after I placed them in my Shopbop shopping cart—my go-to shop for anything I’m not bargain hunting for—I didn’t look back (I had a party that weekend I knew they’d outfit coordinate perfectly for) and waited anxiously for their speedy arrival.
Being the frequent Shopbop customer that I am (and impatiently natured), after two days went by and I still haden’t received them, I had an inkling something was up so I double checked the DHL tracking number online in the hopes of a status update. My eyes widened. They had been delivered the day prior to my office, (the right address) to someone named Michael. I work at a fashion magazine and the only male in sight is named Eli. Paniccccccc. Where were my shoes and who is Michael?! I couldn’t help but wonder if my dreams of owning Marant-worthy booties were simply not meant to be. After an infuriating follow-up with the DHL call center and two or three un-sympathizing agents (remind me why these calls are “monitored” if said employees are being less than helpful?!) I was left with nothing but frustrating despair and the thought that my boots were holed up with some dude named Michael who knows where in Montreal. Great.
The following day, I persisted. Finally after feeling like the whole thing was a lost cause, I decided to tweet (@stephaniechic) Shopbop (@shopbop) my unfortunate luck. Twist of fate. I got an email saying Shopbop was following me on Twitter. Awwwesome. Followed soon after by a DM asking me to provide them with my contact info so they could do whatever they could to help me out. I obliged without blinking and eye and within an hour I had a Shopbop customer service agent on the case, trying to track down my shoes with their respective (and very efficient) DHL rep.
The following day, after no sign of life from my Louie booties, I called Shopbop back and we agreed that the best thing to do at this point would be for them to send me another pair (their stock was rapidly depleting) and have the other pair shipped back to them whenever it was finally tracked down. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been a longtime online shopper, but always assumed that if something gets lost between the online store’s shipping warehouse and your delivery destination, it was a lost cause as there was no tangible evidence, really, apart from my irate state of mind, that the item in question was actually lost.
No sooner did the Shopbop agent (with whom I’d fast become buddies with over the last 24 hours, commiserating on the trials of online shopping and bonding over our love of well, Shopbop, our common point of interest) and I hang up (my mind at rest with another pair of booties on their way to me—via UPS this time—you see, you live you learn 
), did Mykaelle, an assistant stylist at the magazine where I work, show up at my desk holding a brown box. I gasped. OMG!!! I quickly flipped it over in search of the tag. Shopbop. DHL. Check. Check. My BOOTSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! They were in the office all along! My phone rang within a few seconds of Mykaelle’s appearance and it was the Montreal DHL rep, calling to inform me that my package had in fact been delivered to “Mykaelle” and not Michael, as was signed for by his very intelligent agent. Ten points for Shopbop. Zero for DHL. And the Louie boots? They haven’t parted ways with my everyday wardrobe since I first slipped them on back in April.
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For more on Stephanie, check out her bio, follow her on Twitter and of course, take a look at her blog
At STELLAService, we order and return A LOT of products from A LOT of retailers. We’ve gotten tons of amazing responses when it comes to returns, both positive and negative. However the email chain below may take the cake for the most bizarre response to a customer initiating a return we’ve seen thus far (click the image below to see the thread full-size and begin reading from the bottom up). 
Although this is a great way to connect like-minded customers to one another, we doubt it’s in anybody’s best interests for retailers to be passing out customer’s mailing addresses.
I recently requested an invitation to try out a brand new banking service from a Brooklyn, NY based startup called BankSimple. About a day after requesting an invite, I received the following email:
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I’m (Name Redacted), a Customer Relations Representative at BankSimple. Thanks so much for requesting an invitation to try out our service! We’re still planning and testing, but we’ll begin opening up BankSimple soon.
In the meantime, though, I’d love to hear your story. I want to hear from you, personally, about what you want from a bank: your loves, hates, quibbles, desires, hopes, and dreams regarding your financial life. Really: what’s on your mind, and what are you hoping for from BankSimple? We’re committed to building the best service we possibly can, and the only way to do that is to know what you’re looking for. So, what’s up?
We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on– and get your insight into how we can make it better.
Thanks again. Hope to hear from you soon!
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Given that I NEVER speak to anyone at my current bank, a personal email from BankSimple asking about my personal finances was very impressive. When I enrolled at my current account, I vividly remember salespeople trying to up-sell me on products and services I didn’t need, with little to no consultation. Contrast that to the tone of the above email which is thoughtful and considerate. With that in mind, I most definitely plan on responding. I have no idea what’s in store from BankSimple, but given this consultative email, I’m very excited to find out.
It’s wedding season! In particular there’s a very important wedding that just took place, and of course I’m talking about William and Kate. Naturally, my morning routine of watching Good Morning America had been infiltrated with coverage of the “Epic Event”.
As part of its coverage, ABC found anyone they could who was attending the wedding and interviewed him/her about useless information. For some reason, I actually paid attention to the interviews last week. Glad I did… One young guy they interviewed was not only the very close Step-2nd Cousin of Prince William, but also happened to be one of the co-founders of Quintessentially, “the world’s leading private members’ club with a global concierge that provides a unique brand of service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.” Never hearing of this before, I was intrigued to see what something like that costs. After being made fun of by my “in-the-know” girlfriend for never hearing of Quintessentially, I Googled the company and did some perusing.
Starting at $1,500 a year for a General Membership, plus an additional $300 for joining, I am rewarded with 24-hour access to the world’s finest lifestyle management service. This started to make me think how much people are truly willing to pay for 24-hour service. AMEX Black Card holders must charge a minimum of $150,000 plus an additional $1,000 annual fee for their service. Yes it would be great to have a personal driver to escort me to work, instead of having to bike on the crazy streets of NYC or have someone take out all the brown M&M’s from my bag of candy because I can’t stand brown M&M’s, but I realize that’s not realistic and not necessary.
It’s obvious that not every ordinary person can afford these luxuries, but that doesn’t mean they are banned from extraordinary service. Our mission here at STELLAService is to bring transparency to the online shopping market, and help consumers find the best online shopping experience possible. By ordering a $28 pair of REEF flip flops on ZAPPOS I am rewarded with 24/7 attention, free shipping and returns! Now that’s service. Service I can afford and service that is extraordinary.
So in the coming weeks, I’ll prepare for the biggest wedding of my summer, my older brother’s. And although it won’t be covered by ABC every morning and no famous people will attend, I do know… I will buy my shoes at Zappos because if they don’t look good with the suit I ordered on J.Crew, I can return them for free. I’ll buy a new 3 wood at DiscountGolfWorld.com for the weekend of golf at the Bachelor Party. And order shiny china from Saks as a wedding gift for the newlyweds. I’ll do all this buying online with a smile on my face because I know, thanks to our online ratings, that you don’t have to be in Westminster Abbey to receive the royal treatment.
The Royal Treatment
