The Mighty Pen

In the past, I have teased my sister, Kathy on her complaint letters. If something didn’t taste right, if she received bad service or was slighted in any way…a letter went out. She usually received a response with a satisfactory solution…either a free item, a reimbursement or some sort of compensation. It made her happy.

On Nov 30th, Winnie advised me that JC Penney was having a Cyber Monday sale with free shipping and I discovered my pair of “Esther” boots were on sale for $29.99. I paid $45! Unfortunately I realized this at 10pm but I still had 2 hours until the deadline and ordering on-line is simple or so I thought.

For 2 hours, I tried to place the order. It took forever to load and when it finally did, the site would freeze. I finally gave up and called the toll free number to place the order that way but the line was busy, busy, busy! In frustration, I clicked on the “contact us” link and fired off an email complaining of the horrible shopping experience I just encountered.

The next day, JC Penney put out an “Urgent” message informing the public that due to an overwhelming response to their Cyber Monday sale, their site had problems (no kidding) and they were extending the free shipping for one more day. That was all fine and dandy but when I tried to place my order, the boots were back to $45! I was disgusted. I figured I would just keep an eye on the boots and see if they would come down in price later. I am allowed a return on the $45 boots until February.

Around 10pm on that same night, I received an email in response to my complaint letter. They were going to honor the Monday prices and free shipping promotion. Although I was now able to maneuvered through the site easily, the price of the boots still showed as $45. I had to call them. I was on hold for about 5 minutes and then Amanda assisted me. She placed my order…I wanted it shipped to the store for pickup since I didn’t want to be sitting at home waiting for them and she had to transferred me to billing for the price adjustment. After another few minutes of being on hold, Tiara was able to adjust the price to $29.99 and I will be able to pick up my order on Friday after 4pm. All this took about 20 minutes but was worth it to me.

I was very happy with the way that JC Penney handled my situation - restoring my faith in shopping with them. I am so glad I wrote that email! So I will write the words that Kathy loves so much….”Yes, Kathy - You were right..once again!”