The Post Office Stole My Woot! Shirt!
I ordered an awesome shirt from Shirt.Woot! How awesome? Awesome enough for the U.S. Post Office to tear it right out of the super-durable SmartPost package Woot uses to protect their shirts. The Post Office, bastion of empathy that it is, didn't want me to miss my order completely, so they delivered my ripped empty package wrapped in an obnoxious "WE CARE" apology bag. Heartbroken, I tried emailing Woot for help...
For those who haven't used Shirt.Woot! before, it's very similar to regular Woot. A shirt goes on sale each night for $10 and remains available for 24 hours or until it sells out, whichever happens first. This design sold out in around an hour. Woot holds onto a number of shirts that they then sell for $15 after the one-day period ends. My design was still available for $15 when I sent an email explaining that I would prefer a replacement to a refund. Woot agreed, but quickly reversed themselves, claiming "that design has been discontinued," even though it was still clearly on sale for $15. I instead have my $10 back, but what I really wanted was the shirt.
Crushed, I decided to take my useless bags to the Post Office for an explanation. They offered none. Since Woot doesn't insure their shipments, the Post Office declared that they were blameless.
This isn't the first time Consumerist has had a bad experience with a Woot! order. I may not have an awesome shirt, but at least I no longer trouble myself by visiting Shirt.Woot! at midnight to look for new designs.
Update: Woot! replaced the stolen shirt!
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Sounds like the Post Office to me. Shipped something first class once, but didn't insure it. It was lost. Went to the post office - and as soon as the guy discovered it wasn't insured he asked me "Well, what did you expect?"
I figure insurance is the bribe we pay to get them to deliver the goods.
sucks that you didn't get your shirt. chargeback?
Perhaps Woot should switch to plain packaging when mailing their t-shirts. Lower costs and makes it less inticing to break open and steal.
so you aren't going to shop at woot because the post office took your stuff?
ridiculous.
i've never had a problem with woot. i've bought from both the regular woot site and also the shirt site and i have been completely satisfied.
i'm assuming you got a refund. so you aren't really out anything. just disappointed. woot rectified the situation as best they could.
long live woot.
Woot is a great concept, but it seems like the majority of their goods are long discontinued products that while yes, may seem like an awesome deal, are probably fair market value for the item.
@mac-phisto: think that Woot only said no replacement... might give refund, but think OP wants that shirt...
I bought a BP monitor from Woot in December. It arrived defective, and they instructed me to contact the manufacturer. The manufacturer wants me to send it back at my cost and pay $7.95 to replace it. This after they admit that a whole batch of units sent to Woot was defective. I guess they are just going to get to keep my $30 because it would cost me $10 to ship it back and the $7.95 to replace it. I'm not paying more than half of what I originally paid for it just to get one that works. I decided not to shop at Woot anymore for things like that. If I want anything that is electronic, I'm going to go right to the store in my town, because at least then I don't need to worry about return shipping if there's a problem.
@Hawk07: That is sometimes true, but if you look in the comments for any item, people post price comparison links for reference, and woot's price is always somewhat lower.
@Hawk07: Not really. Some are junk but I got a 250 dollar Dyson and a 100 dollar iPod Nano (cheaper than Apple refurb) from Woot. And they had a 250 camera body 2 weeks ago that was over 200 dollars cheaper than its currently being sold for.
If you know what to look for you can get some INSANE deals through Woot.
I had a couple of suspicious incidents with my mail just before Christmas. One was a card for a free Bath & Body Works lotion that was missing from it's packaging. I blew that off and then a couple days later, I received my monthly copy of PC Photo Magazine. It was enclosed in a plastic pouch which usually indicates there is a "freebie" sent along with the magazine. All I had was the magazine and the entire top of the plastic sleeve had been cut open.
Pretty sorry state of affairs when the mailman is stealing your freebies.
There is a post office I refuse to drop my Gamefly game rentals at because I've had games go missing from there.
Other locations, no problem. But that location, it's happened at least twice in the past three years.
Is the guy in the OP certain that woot! just wasn't sold out of that *size* of the tshirt design? I know sometimes I browse the $15 shirts and get excited when it shows as "In Stock" only to find that all that have left is baby gurrrl xxs.
@taking_this_easy & edrebber: -12 reeding comprehenshun on my part.
/reminds self not to comment before 2nd cup of coffee
Isn't it refreshing that the post office cares when the bag has clearly been ripped open and the item REMOVED (not like a whole t shirt could fall out of a hole that size).
I have a $1700 chloe handbag being shipped USPS and I am seriously going insane worrying about it.
Makes me wonder how much free crap a postal worker gets before something is done.
What I take from this story is that Woot! was responsive to the customer. Maybe the result wasn't perfect, but they quickly came to a conclusion (and if the worst thing is that they got their money refunded, then we should all be that lucky).
Makes me happy to shop at Woot!
In Canada at least the posties are notoriously corrupt. I knew one myself - a great, upstanding guy, real sweetheart - shocked the hell out of me when he freely admitted to stealing items out of the mail because "the company will just send them a new one anyway."
Did anyone actually READ the story? The buyer got their $10 back.
While Woot probably could have accommodated the buyer, they're certainly not to be blamed for the shirt's apparent theft.
I know someone who ordered something around six months ago and they just got it with a stamped message from the USPS saying "FOUND IN SUPPOSEDLY EMPTY EQUIPMENT" although I have heard stories of things taking up to 40 years to get delivered after being found in supposedly empty equipment.
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Welcome back Carey!
I think it's highly unlikely that this shirt was stolen. Who would risk their job to steal a $10 shirt of unknown size and quality?
Furthermore it's far more likely that this package, and the shirt, got caught up in their machinery and ruined.
Really, would you bring attention to an item you stole by repackaging the container and forwarding it along to the recipient, or would you just chuck into the trash?
I think the fault here lies with Woot. The post office offers insurance for a reason. The vast majority of packages get delivered without damage, and most people don't need it. That keeps prices low. but its the chance you take.
At least the buyer got his original $10 back. If the shirt design was still available for ordering for the $15 price, he should have gone and given $5 more to get it. Woot shouldn't have given the discontinued line if it was still available, but at least he could still get the shirt he wanted for a little more cash.
It sucks that the post office lost the shirt, but at least they still sent the bag on so that you know it was lost and have proof to show woot.
I've had several cards torn open in the mail to extract gift cards. I've told my parents and distant relations not to send gift cards anymore because we won't get them.
The postal inspectors haven't really been interested in investigating this.
@loueloui: 'Who would risk their job to steal a $10 shirt of unknown size and quality?'
Well, our former mail carrier, for a start. She stole anything and everything that looked appealing from a box of chocolates to the birthday toys destined for a neighbour's kid. She also didn't deliver any mail left for pick-up and just stored it somewhere. Fortunately, she was caught early on after getting into a fight with someone who was sick of their mail not arriving.
On my first deployment when I was in the USN my mother sent me a care package of a bunch of books and other goodies. It never arrived, the label only got sent back to my moms place with a note that they couldn't find the package.
So this does not surprise me.
@loueloui:
The fault doesn't lie with woot, unless the OP wrote them when he ordered and asked to pay extra for insurance and they refused. No website automatically includes insurance unless it's specifically stated, and if it's not, and you don't request, that's your fault, not the companies.
I suspect you are the type of person that would complain if you had to pay more for shipping because insurance was automatic, and you couldn't opt out of it. Some people always want to blame businesses and expect huge kick back.
Woot didn't have to do anything for this guy as it's not their fault that the shirt didn't arrive, when it's obvious that they sent it. But they did, which proves what a friendly business they are.
@EllenRose: Conversely, why do people who skip out paying for insurance think they are entitled to compensation?
I honestly don't know where the OP got the idea those bags are "super-durable"; they are durable, but not invunerable. They're just thick plastic bags, and they are by no means puncture resitant. On the other hand, Tyvec is about the only material I've ever seen consistantly surviving the horrors of shipping unbroken.
@whitjm5:
Could have accommodated? They did accommodate him. Just because it wasn't specifically what he requested, doesn't mean that they didn't go above and beyond what is required of them in the situation.
@loueloui: If it was damanged, it should have been delivered damaged. Then it would have been a lot less pain about the whole thing. As of right now he thinks someone is where his shirt and so does about have the people in here. This just adds to every ones bad thoughts of USPS.
Damaged at least would be one reason to select a higher level of shipping from the site, I have not purchased from woot, but but some places off insured or shipping times that include insured. woot may look into adding that as a option and just pass the price direct on to the customer.
I don't like how it seems like it's the whole post office to blame when it is an incident that most likely happened from one person. Articles titled this way just lead to misunderstanding. It's the same for all places, some employees are bad, while some are hard working and honest, and titling a story like this degrades them as well, this becoming innocent casualties.....
@lotussix: No, as best they could would have been to send him another shirt. If you read, it shows that they had the same shirt for sale and they said they would ship him the shirt. then they waffled. Bad service.
FedEx or UPS anyone? Whenever we send something that actually has to make it to its destination, it goes either FedEx or UPS. USPS is for junk mail and greeting cards.
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That is all.
Woot should have given the guy a replacement shirt. That's good customer service, it's part of doing business. They shipped his item, they (Woot) failed to insure it, they should replace it. And with the actual shirt, since it's still available.
Bad Woot. No treat for you.
Woot has terrible customer service. I placed an order, successfully, during a woot-off a few months ago. After my order hadn't arrived a month later, I contacted woot. In short, I ended up getting my money back after receiving a few condescending e-mails laced with sarcasm. F*ck woot! F*ck them, f*ck them, f*ck them!!
@Posthaus:I've ordered shirts from Woot, and I can tell you those containers are not mere "thick plastic bags". They are multi-layered and quite robust. A breach such as the one displayed above would- to my thinking- be unlikely to be unintentional. The shirt was purloined.
@Posthaus: This story isn't illustrating a crushed box that broke a wineglass, it's about theft by postal workers. No way a properly folded shirt "fell" out of a hole that small. (I know that automated sorters can catch on loose items from broken packages, but this is a tear in the main flat surface of the bag containing a folded flat item, not a torn seam. There would be nothing to hang outward from there.)
@Barrister76: UPS stole my stuff! The tracking info said "package is ripped, contents are missing." I got a refund from the shipper, but UPS could care less.
Woot is a crap shoot, which is fair, cause they tell you up front that they often sell broken and worthless merchandise. I have gotten both good and bad from them, and decided they weren't worth the effort.
The USPS is another story. They are really crappy about taking responsibility. Nothing is really safe at that place. I never send anything important via USPS.
Last year, I had UPS "lose" two $3500 17" Mac Pros that I ordered for work. Tracking would show "out for delivery" every day but it would never get delivered.
I ended up having to go to the Apple store and buy two more. Which worked out, because eventually Apple shipped us replacements, and I ended up getting to use one.
OK, correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't Woot! use SmartPost? SmartPost is through FedEx. That adds many different areas where something could have been taken, from the guys who pick it up, to the person who unloads the truck to send it on a semi/plane, to the thrower who unloads it, to the delivery guy who delivers it to the USPS depot. I think it's wrong to put the onus on the USPS solely. I wonder if it arrived at the USPS depot in the state it was in, so they just bagged it, and it spent it's entire time in the USPS system as it arrived to the OP. Just my 2¢.
@EllenRose: Early 2008 I returned to the US from Kyrgyzstan. My $2,500 computer was damaged in shipping, and the damage was catastrophic. I had insured the computer, took it into the post office and had to leave the PC there. Long story short the cost of the computer wa "pro-rated". I got $1,600 back out of $2,500. However, the base cost of the components had cost me far, far more than $1,600. I don't know how or what they pro-rated the cost with, but it wasn't even CLOSE to the cost of the parts and shipping I paid.
When I contacted the Post Office their response was "You should have been glad you got anything at all."
After rebuilding the computer to the exact specs I'd had before it cost me $2,200. :| The Post Office really fucked me over.
@RedmondDesomma: I would take a shirt there and stuff it in the bag and throw it around to see how long till it "fell" out. That hole is ridiculously too small for a shirt to come out of it by itself.
It's not the USPS as a whole, it's the bad apples. With the fed bureaucracy, though, it takes a while to get rid of the bad apples. I've had family that has been serviced by a "bad" post office, so they ended up going to another town to do their mailing.
I've received a couple of packages that someone had obviously attempted to steal from. Luckily, the contents were boxed as well, and filled the outer box enough that they couldn't be removed without actually opening the box.
Woot telling you that the design was discontinued when it was still up on their site is surprising. It's the first bad customer service story I've ever heard from Woot.