Mindy Is Not A Beanbag
The founder of Sumolounge.com, an online beanbag company known for high quality products and good prices but not necessarily great follow-through on the shipping/delivery side of things, responded personally to our post yesterday on Eric's troubles with them. Among other things, he says our theory about Mindy is incorrect: "She is not a bean bag."
This is how the scientific process should work, and for that we thank him. On a more serious note we're glad that he jumped into the thread so quickly and resolved the issue. More important, he addressed the overarching issues with customer service, which several other readers/customers pointed out in their own comments. As catastrophegirl notes in the comment thread, "I just really do find myself amazed and respectful of company representatives who respond on this site because they open themselves up to a lot of... feedback." Here's hoping all that feedback helps them address customer issues more quickly in the future.
"Beanbag Chair Website May Actually Be Run By Beanbag Chairs"
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Comments:
Nice work, bean bag guy! I love it when people who work for the companies we talk about here, join in. And it's awesome how helpful a website can be to a lowly, jilted customer. Keep up the good work, Consumerist!
I'm sure they're taking it seriously and taking steps to ensure something like this never happens again.
What would be really awesome is if these companies employed people and allowed them to solve problems without any need for the Consumerist to be involved in the first place.
To put it another way, the founder of Sumolounge.com is getting praise for jumping in and putting out a fire. I wish s/he never allowed the fire to start in the first place.
@Jacob Morgan: Here someone actually did correct the problem. My comment was supposed to go with the story about a Verizon driver who ran over and killed a man. That problem won't be fixed anytime soon.
Andrew offered to make good on my problem too. I had a customer service issues with Sumo back in January of 2009. I find it funny that Andrew offered to send the original thread starter ywo free sumo sacks to quiet things down. Although Andrew he addressed my problem, I find it amusing that he only offered me a bag of peanuts. Styrofoam peanuts, but peanuts none the less.
I would like to thank Andrew for responding to me in a timely manner and offering to correct the situation with my Sumo Omi.
@Murph1908: Hear, hear. I am horrified at some of the official communication I've seen from companies, particularly on this site. It's enough to make me swear off a retailer. If you can't form a complete, reasonably punctuated sentence, I'm not giving you my money.
@Murph1908: I totally agree. How can someone expect to be taken seriously when he communicates (and permits his employees to communicate) in a manner that would get him held back a grade in middle school?
@KixStar: I'd rather see companies where they do things right the first time instead of browsing the web all day on damage control.
I read the title as
"Mindy is not a Douchebag"
Damn the dyslexia!
But if Mindy WAS a beanbag... well, there is a big gap between inflatable dolls and the Real Doll. Time for me to put together a business plan and find a few investors.
Did the founder leave a comment/email/voicemail? I'd like to see the actual response.
I still want to know if Mindy is hot.
@dangermike: No matter how good the company, errors happen, no one is perfect. Andrew did the right thing and is correcting this problem as well as problems others have reported here, and for that, he should be applauded.
@Murph1908: My view is if you wouldn't talk to a customer wearing horribly stained or torn clothes then why would you correspond with a customer using improper grammar? When you are online your words are the only representation you have. The customer can't see you, hear you, smell you, or really talk to you. They can only read what you have written, and when you write in broken or improper grammar it shows how little you truly care about the customer, and it makes both the company your represent as well as yourself look bad.
I find myself amazed, but not respectful, of companies that allow their front-line communication to be conducted by people who do not know how to form a complete sentence.