Still no delivery – colour me shocked – so I used their email contact form to ask where it is and whether anyone was actually trying to resolve the problem. And, yes, I did know the answers to both those questions when I asked them.
Three days later a reply arrives.
I am sorry to hear that your order has still not arrived in store for you to collect.
Why don’t I believe that? Maybe it’s something to do with the general level of insincerity I have encountered combined with the apparent inability of any of your customer service representatives to actually do anything.
After further investigation I can confirm that unfortunately your order appears to have been lost in transit.
I was pretty sure it had been lost in transit the first time I called you, three weeks ago. And it’s not as though this was CityLink or UPS or a.n.other courier’s fault: this is you sending an item within your own network. It only had to get to my local Debenhams store.
Due to this I have now issued a full refund. Please allow 3 – 5 days for this to appear in your account.
Thank you for giving me my money back, you’ve only had it for a month. And thank you for checking with me before cancelling the order. You may note an element of sarcasm here.
Regrettably we are unable to send replacement items at the present time.
Seriously? You must be the only retailer on the planet who cannot send out a replacement order when something has been lost.
If you still wish to receive the original item ordered, please visit www.debenhams.com and place a new order. Alternatively, please contact us on 08445 616161 where an advisor will be happy to place the order on your behalf.
Yes, I will go and re-order the same item for substantially more than its original sale price. And I will believe that this order will arrive unlike the other one.
Oh, sorry, no I won’t.
I have ordered from small companies, medium-sized companies and large companies and I cannot think of any that has given me worse customer service than Debenhams even when, or, rather, especially when, things have gone wrong.
And I am still boggling at the idea that they cannot send replacement items.
Mischief & Me 