A Shipment Confirmation when item discontinued



  • Hi, I've been reading your site occasionally, but it wasn't until today that I thought something SO egregious happened that I had to create a login and post it.  Since I don't seem to have permissions for the Daily WTF forum, I'm posting here in general discussion.

    Thanks!

    Jean

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    <font face="Arial" size="2">I recently ordered a swimsuit on speedo.com.  Today I got an email from them with the subject “Shipment Confirmation.”  But check out the paragraph beginning “Please note” that they have mixed in the text of their long email:</font>

    <font face="Arial" size="2"> </font>

    <font face="Courier New" size="2">Your order shipped today. Details are listed below. </font>
    <font face="Courier New" size="2"> </font>
    <font face="Courier New" size="2">Please note that if the quantity ordered is not listed below, this item </font>
    <font face="Courier New" size="2">is no longer available.  Your credit card will not be charged for any </font>
    <font face="Courier New" size="2">unshipped item (s) in this order.    We apologize for any inconvenience </font>
    <font face="Courier New" size="2">and would be happy to assist you in choosing another item.</font>

    <font face="Arial" size="2"> </font>

    <font face="Arial" size="2">My order has a quantity of 1, so I guess it shipped.  But can you imagine getting an email that said “Shipment Confirmation” but was actually telling you that the item is no longer available?  And the only way you know is because there’s a blank in the quantity column?  What's up with that?  I'm sure 99.9% of people in that situation would be waiting for a shipment that never arrived and then make angry phone calls to speedo.  Why couldn't they generate an  email with a subject header of "Item Discontinued" if the quantity is 0?  It would save them a lot of angry phone calls.</font>

    <font face="Arial" size="2"> </font>



  • I'm going to go ahead and make a couple assumptions here.

    The first assumption I'll make is that you can order more than one item number in a single order.

    The second is slightly less probable than the first, but still considerably higher than fifty percent.  That assumption is that they might actually send you a different email if everything you ordered was discontinued and no longer available.  Such a system would not be unreasonable to encounter.


    Until you have a "Shipment Confirmation" email with no items shipped, you really can't rule out the second assumption.



  • Some people may not even read the email sent. I know many people, including me at times, that would see the confirmation and assume it was just a formality.


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