The upcoming wedding of my boyfriend's friend from college recently gave me an excuse to buy some new party clothes. With the dress (a gorgeous Calvin Klein from Filene's Basement, thank you very much) out of the way and the shoes settled on, I realized I needed a matching handbag for the occasion. With our departure date for the Pennsylvania wedding just over a week away, I knew I was cutting it close. But I set off on an online shopping journey anyway, confident that the ever-available option of expedited shipping would solve my problem.
After an exhaustive search, I added my perfect yellow faux-crocodile oversized clutch (I needed one of those anyway) to my Ebags.com shopping cart and proceeded to the checkout. I consulted a handy chart to see which shipping option I should select in order to receive my coveted clutch no later than next Wednesday, and found that NONE of the delivery options would cut it. Due to my addiction to Amazon's free 2-day shipping, this left me baffled. So, I picked up the phone and called Customer Service.
I reached a live customer service representative quickly (a plus), and I'll also give her props for being pretty friendly. However, she was ultimately unable to do anything to improve the situation. Ebags.com's 5-day warehouse turnaround time is, apparently, set in stone (for this particular product, at least). I find that sort of unacceptable. Lots of - if not all - online shoppers are accustomed to the convenience of overnight or expedited shipping when needed. My idea of expedited shipping is 2 or 3 business days - not 6.
[Rich points out that Ebags.com might not keep inventory of the items they show on their site. When I place an order, they then have to order that item from their supplier, adding another layer and additonal time to fulfill my order. I don't really care about this. We live in a world where instant communication and streamlined inventories are expected. Figure it out.]
Ebags.com has a great selection and friendly customer service, but they need to do one of two things: either offer standard expedited shipping on every item and delight customers every single time they place and order, or give their customer service team the option of rushing orders in the case of a fashion emergency such as mine. Check minus for Ebags.com.
Resolution: I couldn't possibly live without this bag and had no luck finding a suitable alternative from another vendor, so I had it shipped to a friend who I would be visiting en route to the wedding. I hated to give my business to Ebags.com but couldn't stand the thought of an unsatisfactory alternative. ::sigh::
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