Is a company that goes the extra mile to fix their own error during the key holiday season really going “above and beyond”? I would have to say “no,” but Robin was still impressed with the way that Yankee Candle handled an error they made with her order. Except for how they wouldn’t have had to send a replacement item had anyone been available to answer the phone when Robin called.

This is actually a compliment to Yankee Candle’s customer service, although problems there cost the company extra money.

I ordered a gift set for a friend, who emailed me when she got it, wondering if I had sent it. It seemed to her like a gift I would send, but the gift tag said the gift was from someone she’d never heard of. I went online to check my account, and saw that Yankee had already realized their mistake and not only re-sent the gift tag, but also sent a whole new gift!

I called and waited on hold forever, twice made it to the ringing right before a live person might pick up, and was disconnected both times. I called a third time and selected the option to be called back, which of course never happened. So while Yankee caught their own mistake and fixed it (by Christmas Eve) –they could have save themselves the cost of shipping another whole gift set if they would have just called me back.

Retail call volume is maddening in the pre-Christmas runup, so it’s not surprising that Yankee found it more efficient to mail out a new package instead of calling Robin. We simple consumers just don’t understand. And in the end: woo-hoo! Free candle!

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