I’ve gotta add a disclaimer before I get into this post proper.. Okay, in fact make that two disclaimers. Firstly, this is going to be a really lengthy complaint so avoid if you are not in the mood to hear me gripe. Secondly, it is usually not my practice to be so lethal with a lapsed service provider. I write feedbacks directly to the company yes, but I don’t go as far as to strike out via social media.
This time round I am doing so because I am of the opinion that deal.com.sg really deserves the public shame. And I am not alone in having this opinion. In the rest of the post I will be showing proof of my proposition.
I start with the background information. On 13th December 2013, I purchased 2 wine decanters from http://www.deal.com.sg. A few days later, armed with my printed vouchers in hand, I made my way down to Woodlands Bizhub where the merchant RTR Global was situated to redeem my wine decanters. To my utmost disappointment, RTR Global informed me that they were out of stock for the decanters and the new shipment will arrive 2 weeks later. And hence can I either return 2 weeks later for the collection, or send them an email so that they can get deal.com.sg to refund me.
I explained to the unapologetic RTR staff (who was still grinning dumbly up to this point) that I meant for the wine decanters to be Christmas gifts, and if they were going to arrive late, then there was no point in me getting them anymore. I also chastised the staff and told him that if he weren’t capable of filling the orders, then he shouldn’t have allowed the coupon platform to allow the orders to go through. He said that they had already informed deal.com.sg, but it was the latter who didn’t put in the control for the order-taking. I was immensely pissed off at having to travel all the way down to such an inconvenient place but to no avail, and the service recovery of RTR was bullcrap. I left the shop in a huff.
On 23rd December 2013, I sent in my email to RTR Global and copied the CRM at deal.com.sg. I cited my coupon numbers, expressed my displeasure once again, and firmly but politely requested for my refund to be processed via my credit card. I received a standard auto-reply email from deal.com.sg telling me that a CSR will attend to my email in 3 days.
5th Jan 2014. I sent a 2 liner chaser questioning if anyone is even giving attention to this issue at all? Received only auto-reply.
29th Jan 2014. Still no reply. I demanded to have someone with authority to speak to me directly. Received only auto-reply, but this time I noticed that the 3 days had morphed into 5 – 7 days. Interesting.
5th Feb 2014. Still hearing no reply from them, I took things up by a notch and wrote on their Facebook page wall. (You’ve gotta excuse the spell errors as I was so angry my digits just skimmed over the keyboard.)
And 3 hrs 10 mins later, I received a reply on this Facebook post. It went like this – “Hi Xueying Zhang, we apologise on the inconvenience caused. Rest assure we are trying our best to accomodate to all our customers. Kindly advise your voucher number so we can assist you. Thanks!”
To which I gave and then they responded and said that they will look into it. On 6th February 2014 6.15pm, I FINALLY received an email from deal.com.sg. And it went like this –
Dear Merchant,
Good Day!
The customer listed below have yet to receive the product purchased till today:-
Voucher Numbers :
78985C4A
44582B44
2× Only $18 for Wine Decanter Set – Exclusive for Wine Connoisseurs
Please assist to check and deliver the product to customer.
We have attached the e-vouchers for reference.
……………
I seriously felt like taking someone by the neck and wringing it at that moment. Sometimes I’m glad that virtual communication is, you know, virtual, so nobody can get hurt. Off to Facebook again I took – “I think you haven’t gotten the problem right. Pls refer to my email sent on 23 Dec 2013 at 10.56pm and solve the problem accordingly. Your merchant told me it is ok to write in to get a refund. Pls make sure you talk the same talk and do not confuse your customers.” Like · Reply · February 6 at 3:37pm
No reply since.
But social media is a powerful tool indeed. I had “supporters” commenting on my post and advising me to go to Small Claims instead of to CASE because it is less costly. “Supporters” also forewarned me that deal.com.sg has the knack to delete Facebook posts from irate customers. And talk about irate customers indeed! On almost every single Facebook update by deal.com.sg, there’s at least one upset customer making his/her complaint known to the world. I’m citing some examples here that I took off from the Facebook page…
“deal.com.sg just sucks to the max! they got time to upload new deal on fb, but no time to check for us for our items! what kind of stupid customer service is this!”
“please reply to my email n pm. been weeks past YOUR PROMISED reply date via email and via hot line! what is this kind of service? paid in full for the purchase on 25th Nov 2013 n still have not received the item. emailed and emailed, auto reply say reply within 3 working days, now passed 3 WORKING WEEKS AND NO REPLY?! and called your hot line and always engaged. finally got thru last week and said that will get back to me by monday. today thursday still no one call me! IF YOU DONT HAVE THE STOCK, PLEASE HAVE THE DECENCY TO REFUND AND INFORM ME INSTEAD OF IGNORING ME!”
“Where is our order dated 20 Nov till now no sound or sight of our items!!!
Voucher 1CD39F64
I have called n emailed u on FB. What kind of service is this. Pls refund!”
All the above which are proofs that there is some real serious issue with deal.com.sg. They are operational screwed and I can’t even demand to speak to the management because the management is so insulated by layers and layers of good-for-nothing customer service representatives who don’t reply to complaints but continue to update their Facebook page with new offers and deals.
All sanity and diplomacy is lost in the face of such a loserish company and their staff. I have encountered similar “out-of-stock” incidences with Groupon before and though frustrating as they were, on both accounts their service recovery was remarkable and efficient, so I was adequately appeased and found no reason to belittle Groupon anymore. But this deal.com.sg, they really take the cake. And I’m not going to take it lying down. Even if my refund or decanters will never ever see daylight, I am going to pursue and hunt down the management of deal.com.sg and give them a piece of my mind.
Stay tuned for the good news.
P/S – I am sure that staff working behind deal.com.sg or RTR Global are all good-hearted people who are just working for a salary or running a decent business. I want to emphasise that my anguish is directed to the episode per se and not personal attacks of any form to the staff and their characters.
PP/S – I am however DEFINITELY directing it at their incompetencies, as well as deal.com.sg’s severe operational issues. Just trying to set things right here. Thank you.
Beauty is NOT SO Skin Deep! 