Online purchases

[Thurston Garden]

Has anyone used the superstore online which claims to be ethical.com? I have used them very infrequently in the past for bulky goods: ecover and such. I took advantage of a free delivery code they sent me recently but the goods took 8 days to arrive, despite being shown on the website as 'in stock and available for immediate delivery'.

Being dissapointed with the delivery time, I emailed them to ask why it had taken so long to get the goods out to me. I paste below the reply (which took a week to get to me!):

in reply to your email i have looked at your order which was placed 20.08.09. you did not choose or pay for our next day delivery option. please see our terms and conditions on our website which state that standard delivery on UK orders will normally be received within 5 working days but can take between 3 to 6 working days. you ordered 20.08.09, your order was despatched on 25.08.09 which was 3 working days and you received your order 28.08.09 which in total you received your delivery 6 working days after you placed your order. please dont hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries regarding your order.

I am always impressed when you order stuff and if arrives the next morning, or even after a day or two. I was pretty dissapointed at this ethical superstore not only on the slow delivery, but also on the tone of the explanation. The writer also appears to be missing a shift key from his keyboard!

Anybody else had similar from them? Maybe there are glowing reports of other similar suppliers out there?

[the.fee.fairy]

Not had any dealings with them. I used Ethical Superstore. They do bulk orders, and their delivery time is usually wthin a week. They also do free delivery if you order over £50, and occasionally they have special offers, so if you order over £30, you get the free delivery.

I've had nothing but good service from them, and once they sent me a bottle of Ecover fabric conditioner that i didn't order, so i emailed them and explained, and they told me to keep it! Bonus!

[Brij]

Has anyone used the superstore online which claims to be ethical.com? I have used them very infrequently in the past for bulky goods: ecover and such. I took advantage of a free delivery code they sent me recently but the goods took 8 days to arrive, despite being shown on the website as 'in stock and available for immediate delivery'.

Being dissapointed with the delivery time, I emailed them to ask why it had taken so long to get the goods out to me. I paste below the reply (which took a week to get to me!):

in reply to your email i have looked at your order which was placed 20.08.09. you did not choose or pay for our next day delivery option. please see our terms and conditions on our website which state that standard delivery on UK orders will normally be received within 5 working days but can take between 3 to 6 working days. you ordered 20.08.09, your order was despatched on 25.08.09 which was 3 working days and you received your order 28.08.09 which in total you received your delivery 6 working days after you placed your order. please dont hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries regarding your order.

I am always impressed when you order stuff and if arrives the next morning, or even after a day or two. I was pretty dissapointed at this ethical superstore not only on the slow delivery, but also on the tone of the explanation. The writer also appears to be missing a shift key from his keyboard!

Anybody else had similar from them? Maybe there are glowing reports of other similar suppliers out there?

You know, the letter looks like a school report where rather than the teacher writing down what they would say to your parents, they check a few boxes in a list of applicable comments, and the rest is done automatically.

I would email them back and say that you are still disappointed, that you didn't expect a miracle, but that you particularly feel that they have been rude enough to not even get someone to send you a polite, individual response with acceptable grammar. Also mention that you are so disappointed that your friends, who are also ethical consumers, will now be avoiding their business, and that you hope they will not miss the custom too much.

You probably won't get a response, but it will take all of a couple of minutes to do, and you might just get sent a freebie or at least a free delivery code or something.

Always worth kicking up a stink if you can! (I have been in France far too long...)

[Thurston Garden]

Brij I did email back along those lines and got an instant reply apologising that I had been dissapointed. I asked to be taken off the mailing list and was assured that this had been done. I have had 2 email fliers since......

Why can some outfits get it right and others get it so, so wrong?