I love graphic tees. The wit and creativity that can often be found on graphic tees make my life a little sunnier. I love supporting independent artists. So how could I not love Threadless - purveyor of all tees graphically delicious. And I did love them. Until now.
Earlier this week, Threadless had a major sale on their merchandise - $9.99 for selected shirts - and I wanted to take advantage of this. My cart quickly filled up with these shirts, amounting to almost $100 worth. And when I came across one particular shirt that was not on sale, I decided to go for that too. This shirt would be a special order "Lab" item that would need 2-3 weeks before shipping could occur. I was really excited about the things I'd selected, as a couple of shirts I'd been lusting over for months would soon be mine!
Now, while I'm not what you'd call an environmental crusader, I do take it upon myself to try to be green. So imagine my surprise upon checking out. Options for shipping speeds and prices, but where was the little checkbox to combine shipments? Nowhere to be found.
I turned to Twitter to find the answer. [exact transcription of my conversation with them]
me: I want to get 1 special order tee w/my order. Is there a way to make it so everything ships at once?
It took them so long to respond that I cancelled my $100+ order.
12 hours later . . .
them: Nope, sorry! :( Those will ship separately.
me: I wonder if it might be something you'd consider. More economical AND environmental.
Another 10 hours later . . .
them: Consider it considered! Sorry again it's not an option now.
Wait . . . what??? Is that really how you've trained your social media team to communicate with customers? "Consider it considered"??? By whom? The social media team? I know Threadless is one of those young hip companies, but I did not expect them to just dismiss my concerns like that. I'm down with colloquial and casual internet language. But to be so downright flippant about it is uncalled for and rude. They would have been better off just not responding at all. Or y'know, a simple respectful response would have sufficed.
Unfortunately our current shipping policy does not allow that. We're sorry for any inconvenience.
Is that so difficult? I came up with that in about 5 seconds.
Forget the extra shipping cost - it's a few bucks. But I'd expect any company to try to minimize their carbon footprint and shipping materials needed. Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed by Threadless and will not be purchasing anything from them for now.
Update: To their credit, a response from Threadless was left in the comments of this blog within an hour if its posting. While I appreciate this effort to reach out to me, I'm still going to think twice about ordering from them again.
3 comments:
Hi Gladys!
I've had to deal with this before, from both Threadless and Amazon. For reasons unbeknownst to me, Threadless deemed one shirt (out of an order of 6 or 7 that I was doing for friends) as a "special order" that would have to be shipped out separately, and 2 or 3 weeks later than the other 6.
At the time I was more annoyed at having to pay extra shipping and make another trip to my mailbox, but I can certainly see where you're coming from and definitely agree that Threadless should at least give the choice to the consumer to combine both shipments, even if it means delaying the entire shipment (at least in my case). It saves the consumer money, convenience and peace of mind that Threadless will use one fewer of those (unrecyclable) plastic packaging bags.
I'm on a Threadless boycott for a different reason though - they've stopped using AA tshirts and instead are now printing on these horrid paper-thin tshirts that you can practically see through and feel like they'll tear if you catch a corner. I was in love with a design, but didn't order it during the sale because it wasn't offered in a hoodie (which is still AA, thankfully).
I love Threadless but if they keep disappointing in multiple ways, I may have placed my last order with them...
Thanks for your response Laura. The shirt design you linked was actually one of the designs I had chosen too!
I would have happily waited the extra time for everything to just ship together. And I did not know about the shirt quality issue nowadays. Yet another reason to stay away . . . it's definitely frustrating when companies gain the trust of consumers, only to start cutting corners.
Hi there! I'm from Threadless support and I came across your blog and just wanted to reach out. First off, we're super sorry for the disappointment with the shipping situation in your order. We totally agree, it's something we'd like to offer for many reasons. Convenience to our customers and minimizing carbon footprint are definitely the two top reasons. While, as you mentioned, it's not available with our current set-up (sorry we didn't make that clear in our tweet response), it's definitely something we're working towards. Until we get to a place where we can make it happen (which will be soon)if you do decide to place your order, send over your order number and we'll refund you for the extra shipping cost. While it's not as good as combining and minimizing our footprint, we hope it's a step in the right direction. Just let them know I sent ya!
Thanks for your feedback about our Twitter support too. We try to solve problems as best we can in 140 characters, but there's always room for improvement. We really appreciate your input on how it could have been handled better for your situation. We'll take it to heart and learn from it!
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