I’ve had three different experiences as a customer who had a problem with an order. I accept mistakes happen. As a perfectionist, I’ve made mistakes anyway and have learned to let go. If we keep reviewing our work, we’d miss deadlines and have unhappy clients. I think what’s important is how you handle the mistakes.
Personalization
I ordered a personalized Rubik’s Cube for Paul’s 40th birthday as a representative of the ’80s. This wasn’t an ordinary cube, but one that had pictures of the family on all the sides. Notice the picture shows hardly any black? Now look at what I got. Atrocious. The pictures should’ve taken up the full space like in the wedding photo that appears on the right square.
The site says, “1/4″ of the image will be trimmed on all sides – allow for that when uploading your image.” It didn’t say anything about what size the images should be to ensure they take up the full amount of available space. So I assumed the pictures would be cropped and fitted. Nope.
I emailed them twice in two to three weeks. No response. Finally, we called and got a response. The company is making and sending another one. If I don’t like it, I can send both back for a refund.
Ironically, Paul also ordered my birthday gift from the same company and it arrived with my name spelled “Merryill.” The order form had my name spelled correctly. The person doing the personalization must’ve been having a bad day. As a result, the gift that would’ve been on time had it been done right the first time… was late (no biggie — but for some people it’s a biggie).
Furthermore, there was a second part to the gift: a career sign. It’s a wooden wall hanging that looks weathered. As you can see, the form says to “specify any career.” There is no list of careers. The company called Paul (after they had already screwed up my name, which was ordered at the same time as the career sign) and said they can’t do “writer” or “journalist.” Specify any career, eh?
