Web shop? I call this bullshit.
For the past two years, Lufthansa has been very close to my heart. So close that I would have taken one of their flights to work, although I’m living three blocks away from the office.
Every business trip I’ve made, I flew Lufthansa and they never disappointed me, not even when they lost my luggage in Frankfurt. Shit happens and I know that. These trips yielded a quadzillion miles that I conveniently decided to spend in their WorldShop for Christmas presents. But alas, big mistake.
I placed my first order on December 2nd, just in time for the present to “land” under my Christmas tree. It was a VGS guitar pack to complement the Rocksmith retail game I was about to get. My miles have been debited, the order went through, but the package never showed up. On December 28th I called Customer Care just to learn that my order has been cancelled because the desired product went out of stock after I placed the order. The €10 voucher I used for the order has also become void, even though the order did not get through.
Well, tough luck. Shit happens, one can’t control the stock at all times. But they can send an e-mail or call just to notify the customer that their order has been canceled. It did not happen in my case.
With my miles refunded, I placed another order for an Onyx Jawbone UP this time, another toy that I’d like to tinker with but never really got the heart to spend money on. Lesson learned, I contacted customer care to check whether they could deliver on time and I’ve been assured that the product is in stock and ready to ship in the remote part of the world I live in.
“Concerning your order B47****0 you will receive a shipping confirmation as soon as we will ship your order. This article “1743342 Jawbone UP-Fitnessarmband, Onyx” is available without any delay at the moment. If you wish to use your newsletter voucher for this order please contact us by phone after you received the shipment. We will check if an encashment (sic) will be possible.” (email received on Dec. 27th, 2013).
On January 5th, I get a contradictory update stating that:
“We regret to inform you that this article is not available at the moment due to the surprisingly high demand. In spite of great efforts made by our suppliers to fulfil your request on time, they were unfortunately not able to manage delivery in the appropriate volume and time period. Of course, the delivery will be made immediately after we receive the goods.”
When I checked again the status of the order today, I got the following:
…which triggered the WTF reaction I’ve been holding inside since I missed the Christmas present.
Dear Lufthansa, I really enjoy flying with you and I can hardly wait to get aboard one of your plane every time I have the chance, but when it comes to operating a webshop, you’re complete noobs. So I respectfully chip in with a piece of advice: either you fix things up, or please, please ditch it, because its results are different from what it was supposed do. Instead of incentivizing me to fly more with you, it made me hate the brand.
