Back in March I blogged about an incident I had with the customer service at Art of Shaving. I meant to post it here sooner, but I had completely forgotten until I saw that message posted earlier.
So here's a... ahem... edited version of what I wrote about my experience. It's a little long, so please try to bear with me:
Over the past six months or so, I’ve gotten really into shaving. How this occurred and what it means in the grand scheme of things is not particularly important right now. The point is, I hated paying for those terrible Gilette cartridge razors, and have now switched to using a straight razor. In other words, I’ve decided follow the path of Admiral William Adama, because he’s the ultimate Man.
Pursuing this new “hobby” has opened my eyes to some of the awesome shaving creams and soaps that are out there. One brand (which was actually the first brand I tried several months back when I revamped my shaving routine) is The Art of Shaving. If you ask me, by name alone, it sounds like a stupid, gimmicky brand, and I wish I could dismiss them as such. The fact is, they make some excellent products. But here’s another fact: they are deceitful bastards.
I got a $10 off promotional offer from them, which I thought was pretty sweet, cause that meant I could get a full tub of really nice shaving cream for only $12. Though the thing that I really wanted was the shaving soap, that’s like 45 bucks at full price, and I wasn’t prepared to even spend 35 at that point in time. So I brought my little coupon in, bought the shaving cream, and went home. I think they have great shaving creams in general, but unfortunately this one did not work well for me. Burned my face, and made me cut myself more than usual. Maybe it was defective, maybe it’s just my skin, I don’t know. I wasn’t upset. I mean, I was disappointed because I liked that scent, but it was okay.
I tried it once again a week or two later, and when I got the same results, I decided to return it. At this point, I figured “I’ll just return this, get my $10 coupon back, and spring for the soap.” And this is where things got unpleasant.
The lady working was more than happy to let me return the shaving cream. She said I could exchange it for the soap and just pay the difference. So basically, I had originally bought a $22 product for $12. The transaction should have been very simple: I return the original product, and she refunds me the $12 I paid. At that point, I would have no product, and they would have none of my money. In other words, as with any refund, there was basically no transaction. Then I could have bought the shaving soap and re-applied the $10 discount to that instead. So I would pay $35, and also get that $12 refund. That would make sense.
Instead, she has to get on the phone with HQ and talk to someone for about 10 minutes about how to successfully complete this transaction. She gets off the phone, says a bunch of blah blah blah that doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense (either she didn’t know what she was talking about, or she knew it would confuse me), and I pay her about $35, get the soap, and leave. But then when I left, I looked at the receipt. The $10 promotion had NOT been applied. Instead, she deducted the price I’d paid for the cream ($12) from the price of the soap. Which meant that I was clearly not going to be getting a refund for the cream. And obviously they wouldn’t just send me a $10 promotional offer as pure cash or credit. So I went back in and confronted her about that. That was when she explained that the promotion can only be used once, and even though by returning that first product I had negated the original use of the promotion, it could never be used again. I told her that that made no sense, and she agreed.
Now let’s review:
-I receive $10 promotional offer.
-I buy a product, because I get $10 off.
-Product doesn’t work; it physically hurts me.
-I return product to exchange for a more expensive product (I am giving the company more money).
-Somehow, I immediately surrender the right to use the $10 discount.
So basically, if I had simply exchanged that tub of shaving cream for the exact same product in a different fragrance, they would have actually charged me $10. Well, shucks. If I’d known that in the first place, I would have just sold the shaving cream for $20 or so to someone who could use it. Then I would have made $10 (actually $8, but close enough) on my original transaction, and I could have used that profit to buy the soap and, in the end, spend a grand total of $35 instead of $45. Instead, The Art of Shaving screwed me. And I don't like that. Even though $10 is not a whole lot of dough, it’s the principle of the thing that I’m concerned with.
So I email their customer service, and explain all of this painstaking detail. No response. Clearly, they don’t think it’s worth their time to get back to me. I write another email, basically explaining everything again. I think my email was very clear, and I made a completely valid argument. I finally got a reply:
Case Number 18902
Customer Customer Support Cases
Creation Date 3/3/2010, 7:56 am (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Case Type Expert Advice
Case Origin E-mail
Case Priority Medium
Case Status Closed
Please see below for information regarding your inquiry. Your original message as well as our reply is attached.
Dear Jesse,
Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate your interest in our products and services.
All of our $10.00 off coupons clearly state that they are single use coupons and are not transferrable to any other transaction. Therefore, we are unable to apply this discount to your most recent exchange.
Sincerely,
Whitney _____
Customer Service
The Art of Shaving
Excuse me? Case closed? I don’t know about that. Pretty sure I'm the customer who’s upset. Maybe I should be the one who decides when the case is closed. Not only that, but the “Case Priority” is only “Medium?” Last I checked, customer satisfaction was a high priority for companies that make their money selling products to customers. Or am I just and idiot?
There's a bunch of expletives that follow in the original post, but I think this covers everything pretty well. I just felt like I really tried hard to get in contact with them and I didn't give up, so they should have at least given me something other than a curt reply. I don't plan on buying from them again. Really snotty employees much of the time. Also not particularly honest. When I bought the shaving soap, she asked if I wanted to buy a refill puck as well. They know how long these products can really last for.
Forget AOS. They're jerks.
-JP
So here's a... ahem... edited version of what I wrote about my experience. It's a little long, so please try to bear with me:
Over the past six months or so, I’ve gotten really into shaving. How this occurred and what it means in the grand scheme of things is not particularly important right now. The point is, I hated paying for those terrible Gilette cartridge razors, and have now switched to using a straight razor. In other words, I’ve decided follow the path of Admiral William Adama, because he’s the ultimate Man.
Pursuing this new “hobby” has opened my eyes to some of the awesome shaving creams and soaps that are out there. One brand (which was actually the first brand I tried several months back when I revamped my shaving routine) is The Art of Shaving. If you ask me, by name alone, it sounds like a stupid, gimmicky brand, and I wish I could dismiss them as such. The fact is, they make some excellent products. But here’s another fact: they are deceitful bastards.
I got a $10 off promotional offer from them, which I thought was pretty sweet, cause that meant I could get a full tub of really nice shaving cream for only $12. Though the thing that I really wanted was the shaving soap, that’s like 45 bucks at full price, and I wasn’t prepared to even spend 35 at that point in time. So I brought my little coupon in, bought the shaving cream, and went home. I think they have great shaving creams in general, but unfortunately this one did not work well for me. Burned my face, and made me cut myself more than usual. Maybe it was defective, maybe it’s just my skin, I don’t know. I wasn’t upset. I mean, I was disappointed because I liked that scent, but it was okay.
I tried it once again a week or two later, and when I got the same results, I decided to return it. At this point, I figured “I’ll just return this, get my $10 coupon back, and spring for the soap.” And this is where things got unpleasant.
The lady working was more than happy to let me return the shaving cream. She said I could exchange it for the soap and just pay the difference. So basically, I had originally bought a $22 product for $12. The transaction should have been very simple: I return the original product, and she refunds me the $12 I paid. At that point, I would have no product, and they would have none of my money. In other words, as with any refund, there was basically no transaction. Then I could have bought the shaving soap and re-applied the $10 discount to that instead. So I would pay $35, and also get that $12 refund. That would make sense.
Instead, she has to get on the phone with HQ and talk to someone for about 10 minutes about how to successfully complete this transaction. She gets off the phone, says a bunch of blah blah blah that doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense (either she didn’t know what she was talking about, or she knew it would confuse me), and I pay her about $35, get the soap, and leave. But then when I left, I looked at the receipt. The $10 promotion had NOT been applied. Instead, she deducted the price I’d paid for the cream ($12) from the price of the soap. Which meant that I was clearly not going to be getting a refund for the cream. And obviously they wouldn’t just send me a $10 promotional offer as pure cash or credit. So I went back in and confronted her about that. That was when she explained that the promotion can only be used once, and even though by returning that first product I had negated the original use of the promotion, it could never be used again. I told her that that made no sense, and she agreed.
Now let’s review:
-I receive $10 promotional offer.
-I buy a product, because I get $10 off.
-Product doesn’t work; it physically hurts me.
-I return product to exchange for a more expensive product (I am giving the company more money).
-Somehow, I immediately surrender the right to use the $10 discount.
So basically, if I had simply exchanged that tub of shaving cream for the exact same product in a different fragrance, they would have actually charged me $10. Well, shucks. If I’d known that in the first place, I would have just sold the shaving cream for $20 or so to someone who could use it. Then I would have made $10 (actually $8, but close enough) on my original transaction, and I could have used that profit to buy the soap and, in the end, spend a grand total of $35 instead of $45. Instead, The Art of Shaving screwed me. And I don't like that. Even though $10 is not a whole lot of dough, it’s the principle of the thing that I’m concerned with.
So I email their customer service, and explain all of this painstaking detail. No response. Clearly, they don’t think it’s worth their time to get back to me. I write another email, basically explaining everything again. I think my email was very clear, and I made a completely valid argument. I finally got a reply:
Case Number 18902
Customer Customer Support Cases
Creation Date 3/3/2010, 7:56 am (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Case Type Expert Advice
Case Origin E-mail
Case Priority Medium
Case Status Closed
Please see below for information regarding your inquiry. Your original message as well as our reply is attached.
Dear Jesse,
Thank you for contacting us. We appreciate your interest in our products and services.
All of our $10.00 off coupons clearly state that they are single use coupons and are not transferrable to any other transaction. Therefore, we are unable to apply this discount to your most recent exchange.
Sincerely,
Whitney _____
Customer Service
The Art of Shaving
Excuse me? Case closed? I don’t know about that. Pretty sure I'm the customer who’s upset. Maybe I should be the one who decides when the case is closed. Not only that, but the “Case Priority” is only “Medium?” Last I checked, customer satisfaction was a high priority for companies that make their money selling products to customers. Or am I just and idiot?
There's a bunch of expletives that follow in the original post, but I think this covers everything pretty well. I just felt like I really tried hard to get in contact with them and I didn't give up, so they should have at least given me something other than a curt reply. I don't plan on buying from them again. Really snotty employees much of the time. Also not particularly honest. When I bought the shaving soap, she asked if I wanted to buy a refill puck as well. They know how long these products can really last for.
Forget AOS. They're jerks.
-JP
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