Maddi

I'm glad you asked Jenny, because it shows that you want to learn First I'll start with examples of etailers whose customer service is extraordinary in my mind and keep me going back for more of their goods: Sweet Melissa: Her packages arrive in record time, she has wonderful sales, she packs everything with care, always includes a take-out box FULL of freebies (which is how I sample things I normally wouldn't have in the first place and that's how I found new "favorites") AND she always includes a thank you note, hand-written, in all my orders. I've ordered from her about 4 times within the last month alone and every order had that note...it's the personal touches like that which make me feel valued as a customer. It takes the "production line" feel out of it and places the personal feel. She told me she appreciated my business and her notes prove it to me. She has me as a customer for life...and I've started threads about her site because I was blown away by her product and service. (customers not only talk about the bad...we love to brag about the good too) Lathers and Lights: Same as above. I feel like I'm getting personalized service and my orders always arrive well packed and with care. With each of my Christmas orders she threw in a christmas duckie and I thought that was cute. Another example of personal touches and care. Elementals: Here is my only other snafu with a company. My order arrived in a state. I ordered buckets of bath salts and peppermint facial cleanser (and a few other things). The bath salts leaked everywhere along with the peppermint facial cleansers so my box was a big salty oily mess. I emailed them and the owner responded right away, very upset FOR ME, offered me options as to what would make ME happy (she even offered me a full refund on my entire order even though not everything was ruined). I refused that offer since I didn't think it was fair to her plus I was really wanting the product. So instead she told me she'd replace my items. What I didn't know was that she repacked EVERYTHING (again, even the things that weren't affected), my ENTIRE order, and threw in a slew of freebies for my "trouble" and sent it to me priority mail. I was so blown away by her kindness and generosity so I just placed a HUGE order from her store to do something to try to thank her for thinking of me like that and I wrote about my experience in the "positive experience" thread. Like I said, we like to talk about our good experiences too. So in summary, I like to feel valued. I like to feel comfortable in the fact that if there is a problem with my order, the etailer is going to not be suspicious of me and instead feel bad for the problem and try to rectify it in such a way that I see she/he doesn't view me or my problem as a nuisance. I will always order from those companies I mentioned above because I know they trust and value me. Look, things are going to happen. Items are going to arrive broken. There are people out there who will recieve broken items at no fault of their own. It's how you handle your customers which separates you from an etailer...and an EXCELLENT etailer. The Wallmart example is not the same. If I drove to a store and bought a broken bowl, sure, I'll drive back and get a replacement. However, if I ordered something online, I expect my replacement to arrive to me ONLINE. And someone else mentioned something about part of her order not arriving and the supplier just mailed a replacement, no questions asked. That's wonderful. On the flip side, wouldn't it suck if the etailer made you feel like you actually DID get the item but was trying to rip them off. Or you found out they wrote a negative post about you being a problem customer because of it? A little kindness and trust goes a long way with most of us. We aren't out to get you. We just want what we ordered, and we want it in one piece. We don't want to have to place new orders to recoup our loss. We also dont want to read about ourselves on other websites, in a boasting manner, making us feel like the etailer was happy that our loss somehow caused her some sort of financial gain. It's insulting. That's my two cents.