Right after Christmas, I ordered a pair of ear warmers that were from The North Face through a website called Experticity. Experticity is a website that offers steep discounts to sporting goods employees of certain companies. These ear warmers were only $7.20, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. Ha! It only went downhill from here.
When you purchase something from Experticity, it sends the order to the manufacturer, (in this case, The North Face), and the manufacturer sends you the product. Experticity just acts as the middleman. I got an email saying that my order had been approved, however I noticed that my credit card hadn’t been charged. A couple WEEKS go by and still no charge to my credit card. I decide to check my Experticity account and to my surprise, the order had been cancelled. CANCELED?!?! Thanks for the notification.
I decided to call Experticity and air my grievances, when they told me that since they merely pass along the order/offer the discounts, the issue actually lies with The North Face. The guy I spoke with gave me a number for their customer service department and told me to re-explain to them what happened. When I called The North Face, the woman told me that she has never even heard of Experticity and said there was literally nothing she could do. I explained to her that I just wanted to order the item again and wanted an explanation as to why my order had been cancelled, but all she said was, “I don’t know.”. She was literally of no help. I even asked to be passed along to someone else who might have more knowledge than her about Experticity, and she refused! Not going to lie, I got so frustrated that I just hung up the phone.
I decided to let an hour go by, calm down, and email message The North Face through their live chat feature on their website. The guy that I was corresponding with admitted to me that he didn’t know much about Experticity, but had a colleague who did and passed me along to her. She explained to me that the issue was with my credit card and that it probably flagged the transaction as a fraudulent one.
It doesn’t sound like the biggest deal, but I was so irritated by how the first woman that I spoke with from The North Face treated me. She totally dismissed me, and wouldn’t help me out in the slightest. Isn’t that the whole point of customer service? And if your company partners with a third party website, should you not have knowledge of the website in question?
I’ve purchased a new pair of ear warmers from Sugoi which should be here by the end of the week, (hopefully it’s still cold enough in Toronto to use them). Wish me luck!
-Running Fast, Lifting Heavy
P.S. Don’t forget about my discount codes page! You’ll find discount codes from my sponsors…definitely check it out!
😦
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My guess is that the problem really lies with Expercity — sometimes it’s true that when something is too good to be true . . . but refusing to pass along your call is a no-no. I know of few customers these days that actually have good customer service though. 😦
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I think Experticity shares some of the blame as well. I’very used them in the past, (I’ve purchased a Vivo Active HR Garmin watch, and a backpack from The North Face) so I didn’t think that this time would be any different. It’s unfortunate though that a paying customer gets treated the way I did.
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Customer service sucks pretty much everywhere. So sorry you had such a frustrating experience — especially on such a relatively small item!
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I know right?! Who knew that a little piece of fabric would cause so much trouble!
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I notice there’s no middle ground with customer service: it’s either amazing or absolutely pathetic. With there being so much competition, they have no need to treat clients well which is too bad. On a side note Nathan’s customer service is some of the best I have ever dealt with.
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I was actually thinking of buying a Nathan Hydration Pack, so that’s good to know.
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