A few weeks ago I told you about the Default Case company. I was pretty impressed with the newly launched iPhone case company’s approach to doing to business. They seemed to be willing to go out of their way and pretty much willing do anything to satisfy their customers.
I liked the fact that their representatives used their first names when communicating, they answered the phone when I called, and they were willing to answer all of my questions and concerns.
Their current promotion (all cases cost only 1 cent plus a $3.99 shipping fee) has garnered a ton of attention for the company, but it seems at a cost for the consumer. What cost? Nothing financial, instead it’s costing the consumer broken promises.
I’ve followed the talk about Default Case on Twitter over the last two weeks and there seems to be a problematic trend occurring. Lots of people who’ve ordered but still not received their cases. Count me amongst that group too. If you read my initial article you know that after I hung up the phone with the CEO of Default Case I felt so good I went ahead and ordered 4 additional cases. That was back on September 4th. To date I’ve received only one of the four I ordered.
Several users have reported received cases that were cracked and some reported the case’s color starting to peel off after only a few days of use. Sure damage could have occurred during shipping but that’s not the point here. The company always seems to make good with damaged cases telling their customers to call in for a replacement and that’s they way all case company’s should handle this sort of problem.
Here’s the bottom line…….
Default Case, are you listening?
It’s great that you’re behind a positive customer service relationship and I applaud you for it. It’s cute that you respond with whimsical one-liners when people ask about international orders, future cases etc. and I think it’s even better than you’re working hard to create the perfect design.
But guess what? All that doesn’t mean much if you aren’t shipping the product that people have already ordered!
I’m not sure about all of you, but for me three weeks or more to receive a case doesn’t sit well.
It’s time to quiet down, stop making jokes, stop making promises and just start shipping product.
Last week I complained over Twitter about my order. I was told to look for an e-mail confirmation on Friday. I did receive one but it only showed that one of the remaining three cases I was waiting for had shipped. And oh yeah, it contained yet another promise.
I sure hope Default Case is able to keep that one. Shipping out all orders within 24 hours is a pretty tall order and one that some of the premier case companies manage to somehow do. Let’s hope Default Case can do it too.
I am getting so frustrated too! I received one case for my wife’s 3GS immediately but it cracked within the first week. I am still waiting on the replacement as well as 2 iPhone 4 cases to arrive. I have been promised a probably ship date the past 2 weeks that went without any cases shipped. It is not about the money at this point, but the relationship with a business. Great idea that I am calling FAIL!
Hello, this is Ryan from DefaultCase.
The bottom line is that we want to make our customers really happy. We know that we screwed up by taking so long to ship out some recent orders. We wanted to fix quality control issues and improve our design based upon customer feedback. This was only supposed to halt manufacturing for a few days and our available inventory should have supported the demand, but our popularity skyrocketed to levels we could not possibly have anticipated and the improvements took longer than expected. Orders could not be filled quickly enough. Since than, we have made an incredible excess of DefaultCases to accommodate current and future demand. I am pleased to report that we have tightened up our turn around time to 24 hours.
$0.01 DefaultCases are a brand building strategy, not a profit center. We want to make it up to customers who have been impacted by shipping delays. If all you want is your case(s), most have already shipped, and all others will ship Monday. For anyone who feels unhappy, please contact us at 877-834-4010 or via and we will do anything that we can to make it up to you.
We apologize. We are new at this and learned from our mistake. We will not allow a delay like this to happen again and will communicate better with our customers from now on.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Ryan @ DefaultCase
@Ryan – thanks for taking the time to reply here. I do appreciate what you are going through but also believe that you could have avoided this entire issue by simply communicating. Instead of continuing to take orders for cases which you knew you couldn’t fill in a timely manner perhaps you could have listed the cases as back-ordered, with a realistic ship date next to them. I know I personally would have been much more understanding if I’d known the truth.
I’m with Larry. I understand the problem with an influx of orders, it is the communication that is the issue. I have been told twice they are shipping in that week and they have not shipped. It makes the customer feel like they are getting the runaround. Very frustrating.
RT @GearDiarySite: Default Case: Good Customer Service Only Gets You So Far http://goo.gl/fb/96sh2
Me too! RT @lgreenberg @uncletone99 I agree: http://goo.gl/fb/96sh2
RT @lgreenberg: RT @GearDiarySite: Default Case: Good Customer Service Only Gets You So Far http://goo.gl/fb/96sh2
Default Case: Good Customer Service Only Gets You So Far http://goo.gl/fb/96sh2
RT @GearDiarySite: Default Case: Good Customer Service Only Gets You So Far http://goo.gl/fb/96sh2
RT @geardiary: Default Case: Good Customer Service Only Gets You So Far #Apple iPhone and Touch Gear http://bit.ly/aSL6a7