Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Well played, E.L.F. - Customer Service Success

I signed up on E.L.F. to recieve an e-mail when their NARS Albatross dupe (and last Studio blush I had to collect) "Gotta Glow" came back in stock.  Well, immediately upon recieving the e-mail that it was back in stock I placed an order (July 20th).  Imagine my disappointment when my box arrived sans Gotta Glow on July 29th.  There was a note in the box that I wasn't charged for the products that had been out of stock, but checking my statement I had, in fact, been charged ($3 but it's the principle of the thing!).  I was pretty P.O.'d because I wouldn't have placed an order at all had Gotta Glow not been back in stock, so I wrote their customer service this e-mail:

The Gotta Glow blush was left out of this order and the packing slip said if the item is circled it is out of stock but you were not charged for the items that did not ship, however, I was charged for the item. I should have a $3 refund against this order. I am upset about this because I actually placed the order because those were back in stock according to your company's e-mail. Apparentely, demand was too high, but I shouldn't have been charged for that blush. Please refund me my $3. Thank you, Sarah S.

I got a form letter in response the next day so I didn't hold much hope for getting my blush or money back, but two days later I got this semi-form e-mail:

Thank you for your interest in elf cosmetics.
We apologize for this discrepancy. At this time we do have this item in stock, 83139 Gotta Glow. Please specify if you wish for us to reship the items or refund your credit card.

Well, of course I wanted to Pokemon collect 'em all, so I answered immediately "Send the blush!"

Later that same day I got a response (excellent!): We apologize for the item(s) missing or damaged from your order.
We are sending the item(s) to you as quickly as possible and apologize for any inconvenience.

I got a shipping notice e-mail two days later on August 3rd and the blush arrived yesterday, August 8th.  What is rumored on the internet to be a mess (E.L.F. customer service) actually turned out just fine!

Well played, E.L.F. You're definitely keeping this customer!

Disclaimer: I order a lot of stuff online and I get a messed up order from any given company every month or so.  It's kind of the norm... I think what matters is how the company handles it to keep your business.

3 comments:

  1. I love ELF's customer service! It's sort of annoying because usually when I put orders in with them, I buy a lot since it's so inexpensive, and more times than not, there's at least a couple things missing, whether they refunded me because it was out of stock or because it was just a mistake.
    Normally that would turn me off from a company, but whenever I email them about it their customer service is so great that I don't mind!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I always order a ton from them because it's cheap and to get free shipping, but this was the first time anything went amiss. I'm glad their customer service was helpful for you, too!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree elf normally handles things so well! The only problem I ever had was when I bought a bunch of their Shimmering Facial Whips to use as highlighters. All of them were great except one was totally watered down and icky with almost no color. I emailed elf to see if they would send me out another one (It was only $1, but like you said, it was the principle of the thing!) since the product was ruined when I got it. They said they wouldn't send me out another one (even though I gave them an order number and all of the details) but they would refund my money. So I got no Shimmering Facial Whip, but I got $1 back on my credit card....not so good. lol

    ReplyDelete

I love comments <3