Online Order Issue - What do you think?

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

So since the board is slow...here's my wwyd or really wdyt (what do you think?) for the day...I placed an order from Kohl's on Wednesday night around 11pm. The order qualified for free shipping. Two of the items were available for pickup at my local store per online. The rest of the items were to be shipped to my house (still for free despite the two items for store pickup). Thursday morning at 9am I get a notification that one of the in store pick up items is no longer available and cancelled (funny part is this is the item I most wanted and the reason I basically placed the order). I see the item is still available on line in the size and color I ordered so I contact customer service to sort it out that morning. Turns out the item isn't available for pick up at my local store any longer. They refuse to ship it either to me or to the store for pick up, but have cheerfully repeatedly told me I am free to order the item online at a higher price than it was available for on Wednesday and with having to pay for shipping. I am super annoyed. I could have chosen to have all the items just shipped to me, but the site recommended in store pick up where it was available which was fine with me. Lesson learned I guess and I will never agree to in store pick up again. Honestly the issue plus the really negative experience I've had with customer service so far (not detailed here) has really soured me on making future purchases with Kohl's.

So what do you think of this policy?

 

[Christine]

Well, I think Kohl's should have honored the price and shipped it for free to your home since they were at fault. A good customer service oriented business would do that.

For the reasons you've outlined above, I never do store pickup with them. I've found their online inventory isn't 100% real time. I've had orders cancelled before also because of that.

 

[tvguy]

I would expect them to honor the price and conditions you ordered under.
But it has been my experience with national chains that their websites indicate items are in stock in individual stores that are not. And it always isn't within their control. I went to BevMo to get a specific wine that their website said was in stock. Nothing on the shelf. An employee checked their inventory computer. It said they had 7 bottles in stock. Employee's response....."looks like we've had 7 bottles shoplifter".
Or Home Depot. Corporate website said they had an item and even indicated an aisle and a bin that the item was in. Get to the store, nothing. Local store computer indicated they had never carried that item.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

I would expect them to honor the price and conditions you ordered under.
But it has been my experience with national chains that their websites indicate items are in stock in individual stores that are not. And it always isn't within their control. I went to BevMo to get a specific wine that their website said was in stock. Nothing on the shelf. An employee checked their inventory computer. It said they had 7 bottles in stock. Employee's response....."looks like we've had 7 bottles shoplifter".
Or Home Depot. Corporate website said they had an item and even indicated an aisle and a bin that the item was in. Get to the store, nothing. Local store computer indicated they had never carried that item.

I totally understand that inventory can change or can be incorrect. That makes sense and I wasn't too upset about that. I just thought they would be willing to either ship to me or to ship to my local store for me to pick up. I was fine with either option and wasn't asking for expedited shipping or anything like that so I thought I was being pretty reasonable. After the repeated response of "we can not take the liberty to change the method of delivery chosen by our customer" I started to really lose my patience!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Agreeing with @Christine above.

 

[sam_gordon]

I think that's poor Customer Service on Kohl's part. I agree with you. I understand inventory being wrong at the local store, but they should have offered to ship it to you for the original price you purchased it for.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

I also agree with Christine. Sorry you had that experience, Tinkerbellandpeterpan

 

[darnheather]

I think Kohl's is going to be the next KMart.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

This might be a first...agreement on the Dis!

Now Kohls looks doubly bad

 

[Smugpugmug]

I'm not surprised this happened with Kohl's. They have pretty bad customer service and I have never had a super pleasant experience shopping in their stores.

They definitely should've sent the item to you at the price you initially paid for it.

 

[maxaroni]

Not a fan of their customer service. I placed an online order, free shipping to home, 11pm. The promo was buy 1, get one 1/2 off. The next morning, I had an email from Kohls that was advertising sales they were having. It was the items I ordered at a much lower price. I called first thing in the morning and was told that since I had one promotion, they could not adjust the pricing to another promotion. I asked if I could cancel the order and place a new order. No, was the order placed at 11pm the night before was in process. I could reorder online and when the first order was delivered, I could return it. At the end of the day, it worked out for me, not a huge deal. However, other stores I have dealt with have worked with me and adjusted pricing.

Wanting to order something from another store, it appears that they do not pull inventory from all of their stores. If your local store does not have the item in stock, too bad. I tried changing stores but the option to ship to home was not available.

 

[AgentMama]

Terrible customer service. Your request was completely reasonable.

I really only go to Kohl's anymore if I'm returning something from Amazon. Their costs are overpriced and their sales don't seem to bring the cost down enough anymore. I usually hand my return coupon to someone in line as I leave.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I generally tend to have good luck browsing at Kohl's in person, but have had problems with online customer service before as well.

(I also wish they wouldn't email 14 times a week. - Note to all business, the more emails you send, the fewer I will actually read!)