I’ve held off on writing this post as I had hoped things would have been easily resolved months ago. Sadly this hasn’t been the case, so I wanted to write this to warn others about The Scented Candle Store and the poor customer service they provide.
Usually my rule of thumb when purchasing items on the internet is to only buy from sites I know or can at least find testimonials about, unfortunately on this occasion I ignored my own advice and stupidly assumed that by purchasing via Paypal I’d be ok. I was wrong!
Way back in February my mum mentioned that my aunt had this amazing Yankee Candle that she really, really wanted. With Mother’s Day fast approaching I thought this would be an easy win, the only catch was the candle had been discontinued. Cue crazed searching of the interwebz.
Eventually I stumbled across The Scented Candle Store. Their website said the candle I was after was in stock and best of all they were offering free delivery. As I was a week away from Mother’s Day at this point I quickly popped the candle in my cart and checked out, leaving a note in the additional comments sectioning mentioning it was a gift for Mother’s Day and asking whether it was at all possible to ensure it was shipped Monday morning so it would arrive by Friday. Imagine my surprise when on Monday afternoon I receive an email telling me they cannot guarantee my order will arrive by Friday so they’ve cancelled it and refunded my money.
At this stage I was annoyed and surprised, surely in a situation like this you would contact the customer to ask whether they would prefer a refund or wait it out, but nope, nothing! I called the number on their website but it was just a dead line and then fired back an email asking them not to cancel my order and asking for confirmation that my order would still go ahead. And then I waited, and waited, and waited.
By Wednesday I was getting desperate so I re-ordered the item anyway. In hindsight I should have known no good would come from a company that had already failed so miserably at customer service, but like I said, I was desperate. By Friday it seemed my prayers were answered as I arrived home to find a Yankee Candle sized box on my doorstep, usually I’d rant about leaving a parcel unattended in full view of the street, but in this instance I was just glad it had arrived and in record time. Mother’s Day wasn’t going to be a disaster after all. Then I opened the box and knew instantly that things weren’t alright, they’d only gone and sent me the wrong candle.
They had helpfully put a business card in the box, so I grabbed my phone and tried to ring them. Surprise, surprise their phone line was still dead. Again I took to email explaining the mistake and asking for a resolution only to be met with a short reply stating they couldn’t swap this candle for the correct one as they no longer stocked it and hadn’t done for a while.
Suddenly the original cancellation made sense, they cancelled it because they didn’t have the stock. And once my new order came through they clearly thought it was too difficult to give me the option of buying elsewhere or accepting an alternative so they made the decision for me. Back and forth I went with them as they told me that I would have to return the unwanted item at my own cost. Eventually they agreed to pay back my standard 1st class shipping but when I asked whether they’d refund me the cost of recorded delivery I was met with silence. After asking several times I sent the candle back via standard 1st class shipping. Hindsight strikes again!
Can you guess what happened next? Nothing! I emailed and emailed and emailed to no reply. When I thought all hope was lost I decided to try and get my money back via Paypal but was sadly one day over their 45 day policy. Today they sent me an email saying the item hasn’t arrived and blamed the poor services of the Post Office. I’ve replied explaining the catalogue of errors that have occurred since placing my initial order on February 12th. I’m hoping that they’ll see the error of their ways and apologise but I’m not holding out much hope.
As for Mum, I finally managed to find the candle on eBay and am happy to report it arrived just 1 day after Mother’s Day despite only being ordered on the Saturday, now that’s what I call good customer service!
What’s the worst customer service you’ve received?
According To Gem 