Touch of Class

I had a very frustrating time with this company today. I wanted to order something from them. I “Google”d for the particular item. At one time at the top of their home page I saw that if you ordered over $100 you would get free shipping. I also “Google”d to see if there were any coupons/discounts available for them. I found some promotion codes from some of the so-called (as I learned later) “coupon” websites. When I started the order process I saw a promotion code for the free shipping. However, I put in a promotion code from one of those so-called “coupon” websites that was to be for 40% off. The 40% off would have been worth more than the free shipping. Well, much to my surprise (or as it turns out I should not have been surprised) the promotion code did not work. I closed my browser (IE) and tried again. Every time after that when I tried to order it would not show the promotion code for the free shipping. It only showed the promo code for the 40% off. I called the company’s toll free customer support number. I was told that my so-called 40% off promo code was not a valid promo code. I asked if they could give me the promo code for the free shipping. The person I talked to said the support people don’t know any of the promotion codes. So, in frustration I hung up. I decided to calm down by going for a walk. While I was walking I thought to myself, that perhaps if I delete browser history, cookies, etc. that that would clear that so-called 40% off promo code. But it did not. I then switched from Internet Explorer to Firefox thinking that Firefox would not “know” about the 40% off promo code. As expected, it did not. But it didn’t show the promo code for the free shipping. I thought, well, maybe I have to submit the order before the free shipping shows up. I did that, but, as you can guess, I was charged me for shipping. In frustration again I called this company’s customer support number. Again I was told they don’t know the promo codes. However, the gentleman I talked to said he could cancel my order. I took him up on that. (Hopefully that will happen and I won’t get double my order.) I asked to speak to his supervisor. After a pause, the same gentleman came back on and told me that I may have come to their website through a search engine and that particular search engine may have offered the free shipping. I guess online sellers make deals with search engine companies for these kinds of offers. Pity the poor saps like me that aren’t savvy enough to know that. So, lesson learned here – don’t go directly to a company’s website to place an order. Go through a search engine. So, back to Firefox search engine for me. I searched for the item I wanted. And lo-and-behold I got a link that offered the free shipping. I followed that link, placed my order, and indeed got the free shipping. Finally success. But also lots of frustration and a waste of half my day. This company needs to enable its customer support people to provide people that call in with these promo codes. I should add that the dollar value of my order was not insignificant. One company that I have dealt with recently that has great customer support is Redbox. More companies need to follow suit. I’m not sure if I will do business with Touch of Class again until they fix their customer support. I will look elsewhere to make my purchases.