It's April 28th - and my sister tells me that for her birthday she would very much like the Glow in the Dark nail polish from American Apparel. I'm familiar with the brand but I've never ordered anything from them before, though I do like their clothing.
I look it up, and despite being priced a little steep for a nail polish, it's for my sister's 21st on the 18th May and I knew she'd never buy it for herself at that price. I know she wants to wear it on her actual birthday - so I place the order then and there on April 28th.
I got it delivered to my sister's address directly, and stopped thinking about it after that. I figured it was on its way - job done (remember how I was going to be a decent sibling?). A week or so later my sister queries where it is. I tell her it's ordered and on its way. The week before her birthday she asks again and I decide to phone customer services.
"Oh," the representative says, "It looks like we didn't have stock of this item in our warehouse and we made a request to a local store for their stock. As far as I can see, we're still awaiting a response."
I wasn't about to have a go at the woman, I know it's not her fault, though I asked her to chase it up. "I'll put another request in for the item today, but be advised it may take 2-3 weeks to arrive."
WEEKS?! Now I was frustrated. I politely muttered my thanks and quickly told my sister to expect disappointment.
The next day I see an email in my inbox to confirm the item has shipped - it's estimated delivery date was a week later, and unfortunately it was estimated correctly so it missed my sister's birthday. I began to wonder what would have happened if I'd never called customer services about the missing item. I thought that ordering 3 weeks prior would have been sufficient plus some, and I'm disappointed to have been wrong.
I'm not unrealistic, I know these things do happen with deliveries sometimes and perhaps I was just unlucky with American Apparel on this occasion. This blog post is more a commentary on how one bad experience can put a customer off from ever ordering again. Looking at their website, I did like a lot of stock - but I think I'll be putting money towards efficient services in future.
