So I'm trying to order a birthday present for the two-year old daughter of a friend of mine. Snapfish offers some really cool books for kids, where you can import a picture of the kid that will then appear as a character in the book.Despite these books being called "Specialty Gifts", it is apparently impossible to send them with a gift card or any kind of note that lets the gift-ee know who the gift-or is. Seriously? You mean to tell me that it never occurred to the brain trust at snapfish, that someone might want to give their gift... as a gift?!? Lucky for me, snapfish does offer excellent customer support. They let you chat with a customer service representative (named Subhash) on their website. I'll copy and paste the whole chat. It's a little long, but I tried to make it as entertaining as possible:
Subhash: Hi. Welcome to Snapfish Live Help. How may I help you please?
Adam: I'm trying to order the "baby's first birthday" book. Is there any way for me to add a gift message to the order?
Subhash: Please note that while you are trying to place an order you will find "free gift message" link. If you find that then you can add a gift message. Otherwise it is not possible to add a gift message to your order.
Adam: "If I find that"? Fun, I like puzzle games. But, alas, I cannot find it... so does that mean that I cannot add a gift message to this specialty gift?
Subhash: I certainly regret any inconvenience this may have caused.
Adam: Really, the only inconvenience is how NOT helpful this is... why would you have a "SPECIALTY GIFT" where I can't include a gift message??
Subhash: I am sorry, there is no free gift message note for picture me books. Is there anything else I might assist you with today?
Adam: Do you think you provided me with good customer service today?
Subhash: I am sorry, if I have disappointed you in some way.
Adam: I am very disappointed
Subhash: Please accept my sincere apology for any inconvenience you experienced.
Adam: I do not accept your apology.
Subhash: Ok I will forward your request to our appropriate department.
Adam: Can you offer me something else?
Subhash: Due to this inconvenience I have issued 30 4x6 print credits to your Snapfish account.
Adam: That really doesn't help me. Here is what I want from you: dinner for two at a sushi restaurant in Chicago.
Subhash: I am sorry, but the gift message note is not available for book orders.
Adam: You already said that. What about giving me a gift certificate to a restaurant? When I upset my wife, she makes me take her out for a nice dinner. I think it is the least you can do.
Subhash: I am sorry, i cannot provide you that.
Adam: Why not?
(Please wait while your chat is transferred to Sara. You are now chatting with Sara.)
Sara: Hi Adam. I am sorry that you are upset. Is there something else we can assist you with today?
Adam: I was suggesting a sushi dinner.
Sara: We are a photo site, not a sushi restaurant. He has issued you 30 print credits. Is there anything else we can asssit you with today?
Adam: I don't think that 30 print credits properly compensate me for the frustration of not being able to tell a gift recipient that the gift is from me.
Sara: Thank you for your suggestion. I apologize for the frustration.
Adam: Subhash already apologized. Could you send a letter from Snapfish to the people that I'm sending the gift to?
Sara: There are plenty of cards you can create on our site that are perfect for this occasion should you wish to create one and alert your gift recipient.
Adam: I'm asking if you could personally send a note on Snapfish letterhead. I think it would go a long way towards making everything ok.
Sara: Sure...
Adam: Really? What would it say?
Sara: Dear so and so...then whatever you would like me to say.
Adam: Hmm. Well, maybe start it with "Dear Jason" because that is his name.
(Session terminated by customer service representative)
13 comments:
Ok, that really sucks, but it totally made my day. Nice post. :)
Dear Adam,
My name is Otto Imken and I am the Worldwide Customer Support Manager for Snapfish: Sara and Subhash work for me. I reviewed the transcript you posted and I even spoke with Sara earlier today while you were chatting with her. As they told you, the picture me product does not allow for a gift message because this feature was not added when we integrated with that particular vendor of ours. This is a bug or a design failure. Most all of our other products do allow you to give a gift message, just not this one. I think Subhash went out of his way to give you 30 free credits and Sara went out of her way to offer to personally hand write your note for you, so I have to say I am happy with their performance today in the face of, I think even you might agree, a "difficult" customer (asking for a free sushi dinner is a non-standard request for an online photo support team). ;-)
If you would like to contact me directly, I'll be happy to try to help you with your photo-product related requests.
I would also like to politely ask you to remove the "F--K Snapfish" header here since I do believe we answered your questions clearly, politely and correctly, though of course it is your blog, so all I can do is ask politely. ;-)
thanks for listening, Otto
Otto Imken
Worldwide Customer Support Manager
Snapfish by HP
otto.imken@hp.com
Tel: (415) 979-3910
Check out Snapfish's newly re-launched, searchable knowledge base at:
http://support.snapfish.com/
Wow - amazing. You ARE famous!
Hey Otto- wanna go hit up the club scene in SF? We could totally hit that shit up, bro.
Otto should really know better than to get in an argument on a blog. Especially one run by you, Mr. "What if it is a really good fake I.D." Hearn.
Hi Adam,
I got your voice mail message - thank you.
Unfortunately, you did not leave your email address or phone number so I cannot follow-up with you directly. Please send me your email address and I'll be more than happy to address your concerns.
And I REALLY do appreciate you changing the title to "Geez..." Thank you! otto
Otto Imken
Worldwide Customer Support Manager
Snapfish by HP
otto.imken@hp.com
Tel: (415) 979-3910
Otto, don't take it personally, Adam has argument management issues. To help you out, I am going to make Adam take ME to a Sushi restaurant for dinner. And this coming from a loyal Flickr customer.
Line of the day: "We are a photo site, not a sushi restaurant." That made me laugh out loud.
(But not letting you send a gift with a note is patently absurd. Snapfish should have waited to launch the product)
Seriously Otto, WTF with your private blog site? A link to a porn party? I mean, the LEAST you can do is invite me next time.
Cheers,
Andrew
Dude, did that guy just wink smile at you? I think he wink smiled at you... twice.
Dude.
"What if you get rear-ended, but you happen to be smoking crack at the time?"
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