MAY 28, 2008

Bad Service Award: Williams-Sonoma

We all lead busy lives. When I think about the one thing I crave most in my life, it’s time - time for the things I need to do, and time for the things I want to do.  So that’s why I get really, really annoyed when I feel like my time is being wasted.

My daughters turned four a few weeks ago, and someone in their class at school gave them two adorable presents: little aprons that say “Chef-in-Training” with their names embroidered on them. Very cute. So I decided that I would buy the same aprons for two other four year-old birthdays we have coming up in June.  I went online to see where they were from. I googled “chef-in-training”, “personalized”, and “apron” and quickly determined that the ones given to my daughters were from Williams-Sonoma.  There were, however, plenty of other online sellers of personalized kids’ aprons, many of which were less expensive than the Williams-Sonoma ones.

So, I went to williams-sonoma.com, found the aprons, chose the colors I wanted, and typed in the names I wanted to get embroidered. Stumbling block #1 was that once I had put the aprons in my basket, there was no easy way to get to checkout. First I had to close a pop-up window that told me, unprovoked, what was in my basket. Then I had to go to the top of the page, click on the basket icon, and THEN go to checkout. (Williams-Sonoma could learn a lot from Amazon.) Minor irritation, but not a huge deal.

Finally, I reach checkout. I put in the usual info… billing address, delivery address, credit card info… then “place order”.  Immediately, I am sent back to the checkout page and instructed to fix incorrect information in my billing info. I check and recheck the credit card number, expiration date, and card verification code I had entered. All are correct. Even more frustrating, the message in red that appears is “Please correct the information noted below.” None of my information is specifically noted as being incorrect or incomplete. So I start over - re-inputting my credit card number, expiration date, and verification code. Same error message. Now I am getting annoyed.

I decide to give Williams-Sonoma another chance. I hit “back” a few times and of course, get several error messages saying that the page is out of date. I click on the basket icon - nothing.  So I am back to square one. Williams-sonoma.com… search for the aprons… input colors… input names… close stupid pop-up window… click on basket (which now inexplicably shows four aprons, two of which I have to remove)… click on checkout… reinput all my information… reinput my credit card number… and SAME ERROR. No clue, again, as to what is wrong with my information - it’s just somehow unacceptable to Williams-Sonoma.

By this time, I’ve had it. This little online shopping errand has taken much more time than I had to give it. I go back to Google, search for “chef-in-training”, “personalized” and “apron”, and choose one of the other vendors on the list. I pick the aprons I want, fill in my billing information, and opt for Paypal this time, so as to avoid any further credit card shenanigans. (I’d put a link to the new vendor in this post, but until the aprons arrive, I don’t want to jinx myself by recommending them! Perhaps I’ll update the post in a week or two.)

Thanks, Williams-Sonoma, for wasting my time for no reason. And thank you also for being at least functional enough to have captured my email address, so that you could send me unsolicited emails like the one I got from you today “welcoming” me to Williams-Sonoma. I couldn’t have unsubscribed faster.

Honestly - companies? It’s 2008. Make sure your websites work. This e-commerce thing has been around for a while.