… And why you shouldn’t screw over a blogger with mad SEO skillz.

Backstory
My dad just got a ginormous pontoon boat which means full access for me all summer. So I traded in my Honda Accord for a Honda Pilot so I can pull the boat. Simple enough. I was told what hitch I need and a good place to order it.

Process
5/10/08: Ordered the hitch through their website at reese-hitches.com (notice how I am not linking to them), received a confirmation notice… Waiting for the shipping notice because, naturally, they market 98% Of All Orders Ship Within 24 Hours! on their website.

05/14/08: Running through my weekly financial routine and find I was charged the $233.61 for the towing package I purchased. This seems natural, although I have no confirmation yet that it has been shipped, processed, etc.

05/18/08: Getting worried now. Heading for Vegas for the weekend decide to call them when I get back.

5/23/08: Was too busy all week to deal with contacting customer support. No word on my hitch package. Getting real worried at this point. Crossing my fingers every day when I get home hoping it magically shows up on my porch. Ahh, I’ll call them next week.

05/29/08: Fast forward to today. Getting really pissed off that I’ve not heard anything… decide to be proactive and email them a friendly note asking about my order status. Sent the email to a standard customer service email address -> customerservice@thiscompanyblows.com. I get a response right away… Mailer Daemon Exception: this email address does not exist…

“Hi. This is the qmail-send program at 115984-app1.hiltonhg.com.
I’m afraid I wasn’t able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I’ve given up. Sorry it didn’t work out.”

Hmm… Not a good sign. As much as I loathe talking on the phone, especially to customer service drones, it’s time to pick up the phone and call. After giving them the order number they say they cannot help and they will call back…

WTF??? What kind of customer support agent tells you they will call you back? Try again… get the “experiencing high volume… will call you back scenario again”. Sent to a VoiceMail to leave a message and they’ll call back (yarghhhh). Call back again to talk to someone with a clue… After asking what website I was calling about (!!!!!) she again said she could not track down the order number and she would leave a message to for customer service to call us back (!!!!!).

Obviously at this point I am steaming. It’s time for expletives… where’s the contact form? After sifting through their website I find it and blast them an email. Natuarlly while I am doing this I am thinking … this is probably an email form that goes to customerservice@thiscompanyblows.com and no one will ever get it. Needless to say I have heard nothing back from the email or the phone calls…

What to do now? Besides telling Tom he needs to get out to wherever they are and whip them into shape I’m left with no hitch, -$233, and a real bad attitude.

My mission: 2-3 of the Top 10 Google Search Result for reese-hitches.com and other associated / related keywords for a website warning potential customers not to order from them and perhaps send them in other directions to get their hitch supplies.

Message to shady e-Commerce operations out there: You don’t want to piss off a blogger with good SEO skills. So just assume everybody fits this demographic and provide at least decent customer service…

Here are four tips to barely scrape by in the e-commerce customer service department:

1. Be Proactive. If there’s a problem, let me know. Don’t let me discover it.
2. Be Responsive. If I inquire about something, let me know you at least got the message.
3. Have an e-mail address that at least looks like it goes somewhere.
4. I’d rather be on hold then told you will call back. Take responsibility for your mistake and rectify the situation.

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