When a Brick and mortar company sells online

Background 

My wife is a regular shopper at Biba a well known ladies clothing brand in India. They have several outlets, almost every mall in Mumbai has one of their store and in addition a lot of other multi-brand outlet have a small section in their clothing area where they exclusively sell Biba clothing. She makes it a point to visit an outlet when ever she is in a mall and invariably discount or not she has picked up one of two pieces of cloth to my utter amusement. 

Then one bad day she hurt her ligament and the plaster, rest, move with a walker, more rest meant she was not moving out of the confine of the home unless there was a need to like to go to her office (her supervisor was kind enough to allow her to use his vehicle).

That is when, though she not digital savvy meaning does not venture out on the web to buy things or pay bills (I do all the bill paying!) she discovered biba.in.

Like most website, biba has an excellent and visually appealing (clothes!) website and on that account they seem to recreate what they have in their brick and mortar stores. However the similarity end there!

Online purchase from a primarily brick and mortar store! 

We made the purchase, which was delivered in sometime - going by the delivery speed of the amazon's and the flipkart's the delivery was not too slow. May be we received it within a week. The size and the dress was as expected. Worn once. Washed as per instructions and lo the color of the cloth spreads!  In a regular shop purchase it could be probably a quick exchange armed with a bill. But not so with the on-line purchase.

The Incident

An email

"Dear Biba,
We find this dress not to our expectations of what we are used to from Biba.

This particular dress has lost its color, after the first wash and has become very dull.

Let us know what is the best possible remedial action from your side?"

got a response 

"We request you to kindly share the images of the product received by you as well as barcode tag, so that we can refer this case to our concern team and assist you in a better way." 

our response 

"Thanks for you email. 

This will s how the new dress looks. Not wearable thanks to the color spread. All over the place."

Almost immediately, "

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We would like to inform you that we have escalated your request to the concerned team. We request you to kindly allow us 48 working hours to update you."

After 4 days. We ask 

"Been 4 days.

Checking if you have some solution for this from your "concerned" team.

NB: Not sure who is the "concerned" team."

After 3 more days, we get a response 

"

We would like to inform you that we have already escalated your request to the concerned team.

We request you to kindly allow us some more time in order to check with our quality team, so that we can resolve your issue as early possible. "

We suggest ;-)

"I think the fair thing to do is to "replace the dress with a new one" or refund the monies" and then carry out your internal enquiry!

As a customer why should your "time taking" enquiry be imposed on me?

The extra time that you ask seems to demonstrate that there is no urgency on your part to resolve this quickly."

 Biba write "We would request you to share the URL/Product code from which you wish to exchange the item, So that we can arrange the reverse pick up as early as possible. "

We write back after almost a month

"https://www.biba.in/off-white-a-line-cotton-suit-set/p/11714560/8330586 size xx."

After a day 

"

We have accepted your return request and are arranging for reverse pickup.

Request you to please pack the product with its original packaging and accessories.

It would take us around 2-3 working days to pick the product from your given address.

Kindly mention the below address on the top of the parcel:

To,

Holisol Logistics PVT. LTD.

Plot No. # 434/2, Phirni Road (Budh Bazar Road)

Mundka New Delhi-110041

Kindly Note: Please do not pack the items, our courier executive will come and pack all the items which you want to return. Please attach the copy of invoice with the order while returning back to us."

We are happy, we write "

Biba| Request you to please pack the product with its original packaging and accessories.

We do not have the original packing - please let your courier guy know this please. if required, we can use the package that you send (with the replacement) to send back the (return dress). Please confirm this. (Am expecting that the replacement and pickup happens in one shot! + Can you make sure this pickup happens on a Saturday? Else we will not be at home to manage this replacement."

After 2 days "We would like to inform you that the replacement request for your order no# 5638846 with Product code: SKD5052OWHT in size-xx went out of stock.

We request you to kindly revert back, if we can refund your amount in the form E-voucher or into your bank account."

We are shocked. We write 

" This looks very odd!

When we sent you the request it was available - the least we would have expected is that you would have put on hold for us because you knew that it was to replace the "poor quality" dress that you sold us!

Can you send us the list of dresses which are available in the desired size 38 and allow us to choose - we would not want to go through another cycle where you say choose and when we choose you come back and say.... "sorry sold out".

And if you had the intent of refunding the monies, you could have give us that option earlier!

I think somewhere done the line you as an organization are missing the -normal- human touch, unfortunately."

Two more email exchanges over email and the attitude is that of we will refund your monies!

Then.

"Will let you know if we want another dress.

If we ask for a refund, I would expect Biba to pay back double the amount that we paid for the dress that we have since returned.

I think this is the minimum that you could do to make us feel better in this strange episode that we went through."

More email on we will refund the amount (as if they have not understood the email!), Then we write

" Guys,

Can I speak to someone who can tell me why you should not be paying 2 times the price of the returned item?

For all the hardship you have put us in?

Someone who can understand what we are trying to say instead of just repeating what you want to say without addressing our concern!"

No response. In frustration.

"

04-September-2017

We give up. 

Please refund our monies into our bank account. "

Almost immediatley,

"

As per your request, we are processing your refund in a/c and it will take around 24 to 48 working hours to initiate the refund.

Once the refund is initiated, amount will reflect in your account within the next 5 to 7 working days.

We appreciate your patience in the meanwhile."

We are rather surprised.

"05-09-2017

Cool.

We had a fantastic taste of a large company treating its customer with utmost disrespect.

I hope your customer care service improves their sensitivity towards your customers.

Please note you supplied a very bad piece of cloth.

You had the audacity to take your own time to find out what caused the bad piece!

Then you asked us to return the dress (thanks for paying for the pickup - this was the brightest spot in the whole interaction!)

You had the audacity to say that the piece we asked for is out of stock!

They you insist on paying back our monies

When we ask for compensation, you used all the trick on your sleeve to not reply to the point

Now you will -process- the payment back to us in 4-5 days time

You have the audacity to tell us that it will reflect in our bank account in the next 7 days!

You supply us a bad piece of cloth for which we payed in advance and then you pick the cloth back and pay us the same monies with your sweet own delay.

Long live your customer care.

You know how we feel! God Bless you on this teachers day!"

Then a mail saying that they have refunded the amount ... and then the show stopper.

"Dear Customer,

Greetings from Biba.

Hope you are doing well.

We would like to thank you for your gesture and we are happy to serve you all these years and would like to continue this.

Appreciate your understanding and patience. "

My Take

What the brick and mortar companies miss, when they go online is that they (hiding behind the mask of an agent representing the company in this case Biba)

• operate with the speed of snail and get away. 
• Respond when convenient and 
• respond only to things that they want to respond to. 

While one can blame the agent who is handling the email queries, it is important that the enterprise select their agents who can understand the email and respond with care.

In an online world it is important to treat a customer as if he was in your store - meaning his query has to be resolved as soon as possible even if it means skipping some process ("not to ask your customer to wait until you make your internal queries").

May be we will buy from Biba. May be we will not. But the whole episode leaves one with a bad taste ;-(