Selena R. ordered a custom martini shaker for her mother’s birthday from Pottery Barn. Selena writes: ” I waited 6 weeks before I got pissed.” You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din. However, despite the fact that Selena had to wait over two months for her martini shaker, she’s actually walked away from Pottery Barn’s fubar a loyal customer.

Make the jump to see exactly how easy Pottery Barn made doing the right thing seem:

So I read the site everyday and the moaning and groaning about companies is for the most part well deserved. I, however, have a story about exceptional after the fact customer service.

In early December 2005, I placed an internet order with Pottery Barn for a glass martini shaker engraved with my mother’s intials. This site indicated the ship time to be one week. A couple of weeks passed as did her birthday for which the shaker was meant for. Poor mom, no customized shaker for her afterwork martini. I assumed it would arrive in time for Christmas as I checked the site and they had shortened the ship time for engraved gifts but alas it did not.

I let it slide thinking it would eventually come and there was no rush as the key dates I needed it for had passed and I had told my mother to watch for the package so she could start shaking her cocktails. 6 weeks. I waited 6 weeks before I got pissed. I thought about sending an email to customer service but decided to vent via the phone.

I called and the answer I got was. “There was a production error and we were just about to call everyone and notify them and….AND they had a good run of them and were about to send those out.” I cancelled my order. They knew back in December and held my order for 6 weeks.

I then proceeded to send an email to customer service rehashing the unsatisfactory answer I had just received from customer service. Pottern Barn replied. They were sorry. They will write my mother an apology note. They will waive shipping on another gift item at a discount. They have sent a $25 gift certificate to my home. I was still unsatisfied. I let the issue drop.

A couple of days later the manufacturer called to apologize and offered up the shaker at a super discount. I rejected the offer.

A week later the shaker showed up with a note that there was no charge. With that gesture, they officially won back my business. I will shop there again.

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