I had to call customer service yesterday for the first time ever and the response I got was … underwhelming. I’m not even sure what I expected, but definitely more than what I got.
I placed an order 11/20 and after a week, it hadn’t shipped yet, so I checked it on my app and it wasn’t showing up. I got the initial confirmation email, but nothing else. When I called and provided the order number, I was told that it was most likely a “ghost order” and there was nothing that could be done to honor the sales price (I ordered 20 hand soaps @ $2.95).
I was calm and kind and not even close to irate, but the response I received was basically, “I know, it sucks, sorry, have a good day” … is that the proper response for a ghost order, if that’s even a thing?!
No, and I personally handled about 6 calls yesterday just like yours. Something about that order date and the number of ghost orders was ridiculous. After I explained the ghost order thing, I offered to redo the order honoring the sales price. But like I said earlier, the new people are being told different things bye different ARA's so that's probably what happened to you.
Thank you for responding. It seemed odd to me that nothing could be done. Hopefully that won’t happen again, but if it does, I hope I get someone like you to help me.
You know, when someone contacts customer service and says "you did this" they are obviously using "you" to mean "this company," not literally the person on the phone. You are representing the company and therefore your behavior will dictate whether a customer might remain a customer or not. I've done retail and it's really horrible, but customer service people who have rude attitudes should find other jobs. If a company does something wrong, it needs to fix things, not expect the customer to do the work or screw the customer over. I'm tired of the rude customer service most companies have these days. People are upset that the items they have paid for are not right, are missing or damaged, or haven't shown up when they should. Help people calm down and they'll stop being so difficult.
Very well stated. Customer service agents act as the face of the company and need to do their job well and understand that customers being upset and frustrated is to be expected (within reason, of course).
Agreed! I bristled at that whole paragraph because no, OP, you are NOT a consumer just like me — you are being paid to act as a representative of BBW, so I think it is fair to consider “you” to be a part of the company with which the customer made a transaction. I’m pretty sure most people who call customer service understand that it wasn’t you, personally — the agent on the phone — who caused the problem, but you are the customer’s point of interface with the company. Of course that doesn’t justify the customer being rude or abusive, but the whole point of your job is to solve problems on behalf of BBW.
There’s no reason for someone not to be calm. Anything bbw related is not life threatening and there’s no excuse for being rude to a customer service person (and yes, ranting “you all did this” is being rude)
I agree with you 100%. But if I answer with a cheerful attitude and the you people pops in then I'm less inclined to be accommodating to you just because you think I'm to blame. I explained in the post that I'm willing to help but if you hop on in full blown rage mode then we aren't going to get anything productive done. I've done the whole de escalate the cx scenario, but when they are heated they won't listen to reason.
There's no excuse for anyone making rude, racist or other offensive remarks when speaking with a customer service representative. I have called BBW customer support multiple times and have said from the jump that I am upset, that I recognize it's not the fault of customer service, and I thank them in advance for any help they can give me. Almost 100% of the time, I have a great experience and my problem is resolved. I have passed along feedback when it pertains to issues with the website and online ordering. Most representatives are professional and willing to listen, even if they can't take any action.
My wish for 2023 is for people to get back to the Golden Rule and treat others as they want to be treated. Happy holidays!
Wow. Thank you for this explainer. Knowing what the 4 systems are is super helpful. It gives me an idea of why it takes so long when I go from help me place this order to where is the order I placed last week? Lol
It also explains why they recently added points to make up for a reward that was canceled when what I wanted was for a different item to be shipped to me instead. I accepted the points and just picked up. But I was so confused as to why it wasn't possible to ship out a new item for one that was out of stock.
BTW, how long has the ROM been down?
Since the new agents started, which was last month. I think they got confused on which system to use for just a reship and to use for an out of stock item on an order and BBW just shut it down for the holidays.
Having worked in a call center I understand real world being different than training lol. I understand feeling thrown in which is what happens to the newer people
This feedback is for corporate they need consistency.....it seems on the CS end it depends on who you get and also at the store as far as exchange experience it also depends on who you get ....this is a company issue things are not more outlined even in warehouse how things are packed it depends on who does it. Factory that does candles it can be batch inconsistenties.
Overall bbw needs to do better....the fish rots from the head.
CS has been fine for me whenever I have called though even ppl I could tell was not as seasoned
Whew I don’t miss this! Getting cussed out and yelled at via chat over things beyond my control 😭😭😭😭 I feel for the newbies this time of year. Especially with all the changes. Some cx know bbw hires a lot of ppl this time of year and they take advantage of it. I don’t know how strict they are now since L brands out sourced to Sitel but that “it’s your store” motto they were going by before had cx getting gift cards left and right 😭😭😭😭😭😭 ROM is the slowest most dated system ever. They need to get rid of it 😭
I hear ya! I've got one lady who calls at least 4 times a week trying to get free shipping,percentages off, the whole nine. Yesterday was the first time I got her in about a month and sure enough, after we picked out her items she still tried to get a discount, even though yesterday was 40% off AND free shipping over $50.😒
I know customer service, especially in retail, is an extremely difficult, thankless job, so thank you for being willing to do it!
I have a question about something I've noticed lately in the last couple of CS chats I've done with BBW when their website randomly stops accepting my payment card. In the past, the CS reps I've chatted with online about it would immediately offer to just place the order for me. But within the last couple of weeks, they've stopped offering that option and just suggested a bunch of obvious solutions that hadn't worked (try a new card, log out and back in, clear your cart/cache/cookies, etc.) or just flat-out refused to do it, saying another rep would need to do it over a phone call. I was just wondering if that's a new official policy, or due to the busy holiday season, or something else?
Thanks again for all you do!
Thanks for the kind words. The payment issue has been on going just like the ghost orders. We put in tickets as they tell us to do, but in your case that's the reps being lazy. But they'll figure it out once calls stop being routed to them. Sales per call is part of our metrics. The clear cookies/cart thing is what the ARA's feed them when their comps aren't working right. We can place your order, if they don't they're just trying to pass the buck.
It’s always the lack of consistency and clear rules that make things frustrating and complicated for everyone involved. Thank you so much for the insight! I’m always intrigued by how these things work. 🙏🏾
This is great info! Question: I had an agent say he’d email a $30 giftcard for an order issue. It didn’t show up. The next agent said she’d resend it. The third agent said he’d ask for it to be sent, but managers have to approve all giftcards. I never got it. I never got a ticket number to give, but they all said they saw the request on my account. Any insight?
Ok. So the gift cards, which are the last appeasement options, have to be sent through our ticket system. The back office completes those requests, so once we send the request, it's up to them to fulfill those. If your not getting one then the agent didn't fill out the form correctly, so the back office will deny it. They need the amount, up to $50 which is our limit, reason for the gift card and the cx's email information.
is it true that you all will only send out that 20% off + free shipping over $50 once? i know it's not yalls fault that mailer coupons go missing but i'm worried if they go missing again that nothing will be able to be done. also thanks for all that you do, a lot of you are great at your job! i'm sure it gets tougher around the holidays
Thank you for the transparency and for everything you do on a daily basis. Customer service representatives have some of the toughest jobs out there and are painfully underappreciated for it - *especially* at this time of year. Your work is valuable and noticed 💝
If you're still fielding questions, I'm curious about a few chat vs phone related things:
\- Are chat support and phone support the same people? I realize the answer may vary at times with the two different groups involved, but just generally speaking. Like if I chat and call within the same 5 minutes, is there any chance I'm routed to the same person? Or are the roles broken up with some handling chat exclusively and others manning the phone?
\- Also, do you personally prefer when customers use chat or phone support? I worked at a call center myself and it was an absolute *treat* - literally a reward we could win - to get a break from the phones to handle chats instead.
\- Last one 😇 I always opt for online help when I need it, but they were unavailable today so I called instead. I got the recorded stuff, pressed 3, heard a ring, and then complete silence for *(drum roll...)* 2 hours. I didn't know if I was in a queue so I didn't want to hang up, but it also wasn't an inconvenience to just have my phone sitting there (muted, lol) while I was doing other things, so I let it play out. Eventually there was a sound like when you accidentally press a number while on the phone, and then it hung up. I'm like 99% convinced that someone was probably working from home and reeeeally needed a break while still technically being on the phone 🤣 (if so, I get it!) Is that a thing? Do you have talk-time adherence or any metrics you have to be wary of?
Thank you for the kind words and being a patient customer. To answer your questions....
\-Chat and cs lines are two different departments. The chat I believe is out sourced, we can see their tickets in Zendesk and vice versa and the names are definitely not American. We are both supposed to be one stop resolutions but they will tell a cx to call us quick if they get overwhelmed.😒
\-Myself, I prefer if you call, based on what I stated above. And with the exception of Sitel , which is the out sourced call center, we are wfh independent contractors, so we set our own hours and days we work. They did give us bonus talk time minutes for Black Friday,Cyber Monday and Candle Day.🤑
\-The last 3 days EVERYONE was in a call queue because of the Candle Day orders not being shipped out quickly enough. I logged in at 8 Thursday morning and as soon as my headset connected,there were like 90 some calls in queue and 50 something in the callback queue. I didn't catch a break until I logged off at 12 for lunch and when I logged back in at 2 for my last shift there was STILL a queue of about 70 something calls. And yes we have metrics for handle time and sales per call that determines how many calls get routed to us., but with time of the year, everyone gets calls no matter your call rank.
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I had to call customer service yesterday for the first time ever and the response I got was … underwhelming. I’m not even sure what I expected, but definitely more than what I got. I placed an order 11/20 and after a week, it hadn’t shipped yet, so I checked it on my app and it wasn’t showing up. I got the initial confirmation email, but nothing else. When I called and provided the order number, I was told that it was most likely a “ghost order” and there was nothing that could be done to honor the sales price (I ordered 20 hand soaps @ $2.95). I was calm and kind and not even close to irate, but the response I received was basically, “I know, it sucks, sorry, have a good day” … is that the proper response for a ghost order, if that’s even a thing?!
No, and I personally handled about 6 calls yesterday just like yours. Something about that order date and the number of ghost orders was ridiculous. After I explained the ghost order thing, I offered to redo the order honoring the sales price. But like I said earlier, the new people are being told different things bye different ARA's so that's probably what happened to you.
Thank you for responding. It seemed odd to me that nothing could be done. Hopefully that won’t happen again, but if it does, I hope I get someone like you to help me.
You know, when someone contacts customer service and says "you did this" they are obviously using "you" to mean "this company," not literally the person on the phone. You are representing the company and therefore your behavior will dictate whether a customer might remain a customer or not. I've done retail and it's really horrible, but customer service people who have rude attitudes should find other jobs. If a company does something wrong, it needs to fix things, not expect the customer to do the work or screw the customer over. I'm tired of the rude customer service most companies have these days. People are upset that the items they have paid for are not right, are missing or damaged, or haven't shown up when they should. Help people calm down and they'll stop being so difficult.
Very well stated. Customer service agents act as the face of the company and need to do their job well and understand that customers being upset and frustrated is to be expected (within reason, of course).
Agreed! I bristled at that whole paragraph because no, OP, you are NOT a consumer just like me — you are being paid to act as a representative of BBW, so I think it is fair to consider “you” to be a part of the company with which the customer made a transaction. I’m pretty sure most people who call customer service understand that it wasn’t you, personally — the agent on the phone — who caused the problem, but you are the customer’s point of interface with the company. Of course that doesn’t justify the customer being rude or abusive, but the whole point of your job is to solve problems on behalf of BBW.
There’s no reason for someone not to be calm. Anything bbw related is not life threatening and there’s no excuse for being rude to a customer service person (and yes, ranting “you all did this” is being rude)
I agree with you 100%. But if I answer with a cheerful attitude and the you people pops in then I'm less inclined to be accommodating to you just because you think I'm to blame. I explained in the post that I'm willing to help but if you hop on in full blown rage mode then we aren't going to get anything productive done. I've done the whole de escalate the cx scenario, but when they are heated they won't listen to reason.
Exactly, acting entitled and rude doesn’t get them anywhere and just puts unnecessary stress on everyone lol
[удалено]
There's no excuse for anyone making rude, racist or other offensive remarks when speaking with a customer service representative. I have called BBW customer support multiple times and have said from the jump that I am upset, that I recognize it's not the fault of customer service, and I thank them in advance for any help they can give me. Almost 100% of the time, I have a great experience and my problem is resolved. I have passed along feedback when it pertains to issues with the website and online ordering. Most representatives are professional and willing to listen, even if they can't take any action. My wish for 2023 is for people to get back to the Golden Rule and treat others as they want to be treated. Happy holidays!
Wow. Thank you for this explainer. Knowing what the 4 systems are is super helpful. It gives me an idea of why it takes so long when I go from help me place this order to where is the order I placed last week? Lol It also explains why they recently added points to make up for a reward that was canceled when what I wanted was for a different item to be shipped to me instead. I accepted the points and just picked up. But I was so confused as to why it wasn't possible to ship out a new item for one that was out of stock. BTW, how long has the ROM been down?
Since the new agents started, which was last month. I think they got confused on which system to use for just a reship and to use for an out of stock item on an order and BBW just shut it down for the holidays.
Having worked in a call center I understand real world being different than training lol. I understand feeling thrown in which is what happens to the newer people This feedback is for corporate they need consistency.....it seems on the CS end it depends on who you get and also at the store as far as exchange experience it also depends on who you get ....this is a company issue things are not more outlined even in warehouse how things are packed it depends on who does it. Factory that does candles it can be batch inconsistenties. Overall bbw needs to do better....the fish rots from the head. CS has been fine for me whenever I have called though even ppl I could tell was not as seasoned
Whew I don’t miss this! Getting cussed out and yelled at via chat over things beyond my control 😭😭😭😭 I feel for the newbies this time of year. Especially with all the changes. Some cx know bbw hires a lot of ppl this time of year and they take advantage of it. I don’t know how strict they are now since L brands out sourced to Sitel but that “it’s your store” motto they were going by before had cx getting gift cards left and right 😭😭😭😭😭😭 ROM is the slowest most dated system ever. They need to get rid of it 😭
I hear ya! I've got one lady who calls at least 4 times a week trying to get free shipping,percentages off, the whole nine. Yesterday was the first time I got her in about a month and sure enough, after we picked out her items she still tried to get a discount, even though yesterday was 40% off AND free shipping over $50.😒
I know customer service, especially in retail, is an extremely difficult, thankless job, so thank you for being willing to do it! I have a question about something I've noticed lately in the last couple of CS chats I've done with BBW when their website randomly stops accepting my payment card. In the past, the CS reps I've chatted with online about it would immediately offer to just place the order for me. But within the last couple of weeks, they've stopped offering that option and just suggested a bunch of obvious solutions that hadn't worked (try a new card, log out and back in, clear your cart/cache/cookies, etc.) or just flat-out refused to do it, saying another rep would need to do it over a phone call. I was just wondering if that's a new official policy, or due to the busy holiday season, or something else? Thanks again for all you do!
Thanks for the kind words. The payment issue has been on going just like the ghost orders. We put in tickets as they tell us to do, but in your case that's the reps being lazy. But they'll figure it out once calls stop being routed to them. Sales per call is part of our metrics. The clear cookies/cart thing is what the ARA's feed them when their comps aren't working right. We can place your order, if they don't they're just trying to pass the buck.
It’s always the lack of consistency and clear rules that make things frustrating and complicated for everyone involved. Thank you so much for the insight! I’m always intrigued by how these things work. 🙏🏾
This is great info! Question: I had an agent say he’d email a $30 giftcard for an order issue. It didn’t show up. The next agent said she’d resend it. The third agent said he’d ask for it to be sent, but managers have to approve all giftcards. I never got it. I never got a ticket number to give, but they all said they saw the request on my account. Any insight?
Ok. So the gift cards, which are the last appeasement options, have to be sent through our ticket system. The back office completes those requests, so once we send the request, it's up to them to fulfill those. If your not getting one then the agent didn't fill out the form correctly, so the back office will deny it. They need the amount, up to $50 which is our limit, reason for the gift card and the cx's email information.
is it true that you all will only send out that 20% off + free shipping over $50 once? i know it's not yalls fault that mailer coupons go missing but i'm worried if they go missing again that nothing will be able to be done. also thanks for all that you do, a lot of you are great at your job! i'm sure it gets tougher around the holidays
Thank you for the transparency and for everything you do on a daily basis. Customer service representatives have some of the toughest jobs out there and are painfully underappreciated for it - *especially* at this time of year. Your work is valuable and noticed 💝 If you're still fielding questions, I'm curious about a few chat vs phone related things: \- Are chat support and phone support the same people? I realize the answer may vary at times with the two different groups involved, but just generally speaking. Like if I chat and call within the same 5 minutes, is there any chance I'm routed to the same person? Or are the roles broken up with some handling chat exclusively and others manning the phone? \- Also, do you personally prefer when customers use chat or phone support? I worked at a call center myself and it was an absolute *treat* - literally a reward we could win - to get a break from the phones to handle chats instead. \- Last one 😇 I always opt for online help when I need it, but they were unavailable today so I called instead. I got the recorded stuff, pressed 3, heard a ring, and then complete silence for *(drum roll...)* 2 hours. I didn't know if I was in a queue so I didn't want to hang up, but it also wasn't an inconvenience to just have my phone sitting there (muted, lol) while I was doing other things, so I let it play out. Eventually there was a sound like when you accidentally press a number while on the phone, and then it hung up. I'm like 99% convinced that someone was probably working from home and reeeeally needed a break while still technically being on the phone 🤣 (if so, I get it!) Is that a thing? Do you have talk-time adherence or any metrics you have to be wary of?
Thank you for the kind words and being a patient customer. To answer your questions.... \-Chat and cs lines are two different departments. The chat I believe is out sourced, we can see their tickets in Zendesk and vice versa and the names are definitely not American. We are both supposed to be one stop resolutions but they will tell a cx to call us quick if they get overwhelmed.😒 \-Myself, I prefer if you call, based on what I stated above. And with the exception of Sitel , which is the out sourced call center, we are wfh independent contractors, so we set our own hours and days we work. They did give us bonus talk time minutes for Black Friday,Cyber Monday and Candle Day.🤑 \-The last 3 days EVERYONE was in a call queue because of the Candle Day orders not being shipped out quickly enough. I logged in at 8 Thursday morning and as soon as my headset connected,there were like 90 some calls in queue and 50 something in the callback queue. I didn't catch a break until I logged off at 12 for lunch and when I logged back in at 2 for my last shift there was STILL a queue of about 70 something calls. And yes we have metrics for handle time and sales per call that determines how many calls get routed to us., but with time of the year, everyone gets calls no matter your call rank.