This is from an article I'm writing, hence its style:
Some people complain that Amazon is destroying the high street and traditional businesses. I’ve always doubted that it’s Amazon’s fault, as in my experience the high street shops are doing a pretty good job all by themselves.
But last week, while searching for a quality chess set and board, I decided to look outside Amazon and instead to a smaller, independent business. It was an interesting journey.
There are, in the UK, anyway, only three independent suppliers of chess equipment and I later learned that two of those get their supplies from the third - the largest, called Regency Chess. However, going on the websites alone I placed an order with a company called Official Staunton.
For those who may be unaware, the word Staunton refers to the design of chess pieces now used worldwide and was created by journalist Nathaniel Cooke who named the design after the English chess master, Howard Staunton. Using the name Official Staunton implies a guarantee of quality, something which proved not to be the case.
I placed the order on Sep 5th, and received an email by return promising me that I’d be advised by a further email when the set was dispatched. Okay so far, I thought, but that’s when things started to go wrong.
On the 10th Sep, we returned from shopping to find the dreaded red card through the door from Parcel force. The card advised us they’d tried to deliver without success and we could either collect it from the post office (three miles away) or we could rearrange delivery.
I chose the latter, gained confirmation from Parcel force that it would be delivered the following day, and waited in all that day. It failed to arrive.
By this stage I was becoming irritated: we’d had no promised email from Official Staunton, and lost an entire day waiting in for Parcel Force. I sent an email to Official Staunton and waited for a response. That didn’t arrive (how long does it take for a company to send off a quick reply telling you they’ve received your email and will get back to you?) and had to send a second.
The company did reply to that one but the reply was not an apology or admission of fault. They stated that they’d been on contact with Parcel Force who’d told them that they’d made two attempts to deliver. Sadly, Parcel Force was unaware that we have security cameras covering the front and rear entrances which record all movement and they’d picked up nothing at all other than a couple of large birds and a friendly cat.
I pointed that out in a return email to Official Staunton, and also their own failings in failing to send the promised advisory email on dispatch and also failing to provide a tracking number - something I found distinctly odd. They responded by claiming they’d been in touch with Parcel Force who’d argued there was no trace of the rearranged delivery time (which was shame, since I’d taken a screenshot) but interestingly not denying my claim that they were lying about having attempted delivery twice.
Being a long time user of Which?’s excellent legal service I pointed out that our contract was with Official Staunton and that specified delivery to our home. By failing to provide a confirmatory email and failing to supply a tracking number Official Staunton were not fulfilling their part of the contract and I gave them 24 hours to contact ParcelForce again and arrange a second delivery or I would exercise my rights and cancel the purchase.
All that was required of Official Staunton was to contact Parcel Force and ask them to do what they’d already claimed they had: redeliver the item on a specified date. The response from Official Staunton was interesting:
We are a very small independent business and do not
have manned lines to reply to complaints as quickly as you demand.
To be honest i am shocked you have raised such a complaint when
parcel force have attempted a delivery which you were not at home to sign for?
So the natural progression is to rearrange a delivery which you assert you did,
however after speaking with parcelforce they have no knowledge of this rearranged delivery?
The situation is if you do not collect the parcel from your local post office
the goods will be automatically returned to us and at such a time we will apply a full refund
I do not understand why you have emailed in a legal manner when we are simply
trying to deliver the order you placed and were not available to sign for in
the first instance. From that point we have simply advised that you collect your order.
So it appears that some small companies who clearly fail to deal with their customers well are prepared to lose a substantial sale, plus their postage costs, and for what? The time it takes to honour what they promised in the first place.
I believe this type of behaviour is why Amazon has done so well. Why would you want to put yourself through protracted wrangling and arguing with a business when you can simply get something from Amazon and know - with cast-iron certainly - that they’ll keep you informed as to the delivery date every step of the way and refund without question if anything goes wrong? This type of behaviour is why the High street is failing. I eventually ordered from Regency Chess - possibly the largest Chess set supplier in Europe - and received outstanding service.