Customer is king

This is interesting.

Shortly before my trip to Sverige, I came across a website that sold some rare clothes, including old E-type concert T-shirts. They actually have the right to manufacture the designs, it seems. Since I've been to the Euro Metal Tour in 2003, but failed to get a shirt (they were out by the time, it was the tour finale), I jumped at the chance.

That was September 4th. The website said 5 business days to Small Country, which did occur to me as slightly optimistic, if doable. I used to work for an online retail business, a fairly successful one, and I knew how long it takes to send a package from Small Country to Sverige.

Two weeks later, nothing. I sent them an email, and the response was that they were late with shipments because they just returned from touring. The shirt was now supposed to be shipped this week.

Well, today's Thursday, it's been a month and two days, so I went and logged a complaint with Paypal. Immediately, I get an email from the guy, tangibly pissed off but trying to be courteous - saying that he had no choice but to refund my money through PayPal, although I would still get the shirt.

The best part? The Paypal claim form has a field for information about the transaction, that's visible to the seller. The guy took particular objection to the fact that I said he gave me no reasonable excuse for the shipment being late.

Now, if I had told a customer of mine that their package did not go out a month after we got their money because "we were too busy", my boss would have my hide - and be perfectly justified in doing so.

The moral of this story: just because a website has kickass merchandise, doesn't mean they know how to do business. Oh, and the site is http://www.helloil.com - might as well give them a plug.

PS. Although free stuff and not taking any shit are both things I stand for - I do feel kind of like a bastard. The only reason for that though is that the guy knows a friend of mine from Sverige - and that person is one of a very select group; I actually give a shit about his opinion of me. So there you go.