Monday, January 13, 2014

Complaint Letter to Charles and Keith on Poor Customer Service

Update 3: Aug 7, 2015.
This page has been consistently viewed by hundreds of people throughout the period. Not sure how many people changed their mind from buying C&K, tell me please if you are one of those!

Update 2: Jan 15. I got a reply from C&K, as following. The tone of this email is the right attitude as a merchant. We as costumers didn't ask for anything difficult, but the staff kind of pushed all responsibilities away and just tried to protect himself. Maybe he faced some unreasonable customers before, but assuming all customers are bad people is just plain wrong. Maintaining basic courtesy is the bare minimum for a service staff to have. I hope C&K will do better after this.

Thank you for writing in your valued feedback to us.

We deeply regret to learn of the unpleasant experience you had experienced while shopping with us, please allow us to apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused.

Your feedback has sincerely brought us concern with the less than desirable service from our staff, and as such, we will be reviewing our internal channels as such behaviour is not acceptable in our operation standards.

Please allow us to apologize on behalf of our service staff, Domic for the lapse in service while performing his frontline duties. We are looking into this matter and will send him to undergo retraining and counselling if necessary.

In view of this, we would like to thank you for sharing your experience with us, as it is only with such constructive feedback that we can strive to maintain and improve the level of service provided to all customers.

On another note, please bring your defective bag to any outlet you prefer to do an exchange.  Do let us know which outlet you prefer so that we may make the necessary arrangement with our colleagues for your visit to do an exchange.

We sincerely look forward to your valued and continuous support for Charles & Keith and to have the opportunity to welcome and serve you better in future.

Hope to hear from you again soon.


Yours sincerely,

David TAN (Mr)
Senior Customer Service Officer
CHARLES & KEITH (SINGAPORE) PTE LTD


Update 1: I sent the message to C&K's Facebook page, and got a very polite message telling me to their customer care department via email. Very big company, very customer focused.

Recently I bought a bag from Charles and Keith (C&K) in the Suntec Store. However upon the first use, the bag already giving us some issue. Thinking this is Singapore, I brought the bag to the store where I bought it. However what I got is anything but good customer service. Here is the message I sent to C&K customer care department. Will update the blog if they respond.

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Dear C&K,

   Hope this message finds you well.

   I am writing regarding to an issue that I have had on C&K handbag that I bought as wedding gift to my wife. Please find the attached PDF file for images and description. [NOTE: I will share the issue of the bag in a separate blog post]

   On Saturday (Jan 11), I and my wife had taken the bag to the purchasing retail store at Suntec, and I would like to commend on Domic, the assistant shop manager, as a valuable asset to C&K. He has performed exceptionally well in protecting C&K's interest. Details follow:

1) Blame the customer: When we showed him the issue, Domic instantly said something like "You are not supposed to carry heavy things in the bag". My wife didn't bring anything unusual and she has been taking the same items in a lot of other bags, including the S$10 ones she bought at roadside, but so far only C&K bag has such problem. If C&K bags really had a weight limit, why don't this communicated clearly so that consumers will know beforehand?

2) Disown responsibility: After he opened up a new bag in store and found out the new one didn't have the issue we raised, Domic intelligently shifted the responsibility to the head office. He quickly asked us to come back again on Monday and managed our expectation by repeating: "I don't know, it depends on our head office. They need to see the bag first. Nothing can be done here. I cannot commit anything. I don't know"

3) Act blur: It was a good 20 secs where we stood face to face, and Domic, chose to remain completely silent. So finally when I asked him for a name card, he fumbled a couple of drawers for a few minutes, walked to the back of store, and couldn't even find _any_ name card. This is nothing short of impressiveness. C&K has an SOP, no?

4) Customer will exaggerate: Since my wife would fly abroad in two days, we asked if we could call the numbers directly. He said direct calling is not an option, because the description would be exaggerated. The issue is, he himself and the staff there already have seen the bag in person, why can't they help to describe the issue to head office if they think we customers would exaggerate??

  I understand products do and will have defects. In fact, we just wanted to check if the current bag condition was normal, and what could be done to fix that. We didn't ask for anything unreasonable, and instead, how about some sympathy and help? For example, offer to take down our numbers and help us to liaise with the office? It is appalling and disappointing to see such lousy bag and defensive customer services coming from a Singapore brand.

This shall be our last purchase in C&K.

14 comments:

Sharing site said...

You have a very poor customer service, my shoe was sent to the head office, but the claim was rejected.

I do not understand neither anyone from the shop call or tell me about the status of my complain. i had to go thrice and ask them, called at the shop for at least ten times in eight days but people working over there turned a deaf ear.

i need to know the reason for rejecting my claim.

Unknown said...

They have really bad customer care service. I had issues with two of my shoes. They didn't care to resolve it.

Poonam said...

I love C&K and own at least 20 pair of their shoes. Customer service is excellent in some of there shops for e.g. Store located at Inorbit mall Navi Mumbai, India. However, today I experienced extremely bad service at their store located at Phoenix market city, Mumbai. The staff was extremly rude. I had some stitching issue in shoes bought 6 months back. Their non supportive behaviour was so annoying that I just left the pair their with a promise to never go back again.

Anonymous said...

I use to be a loyal customer to C&K however yesterday and today I have had extremely poor treatment from a store manager in Doha City Centre. I bought 2 pairs of shoes on display from sales and which were clearly worn (god knows by how many people). Nevertheless I bought them and ordered a 3rd and separate pair from another store. I was told to return to the shop the next day for the 3rd pair as it was delivered from another store. Also, I wished to speak with the store manager about feedback on the worn and used display items. I went back the next day and told the manager that you should consider providing a discount on items that were clearly used and worn from being on display. The manager said that they have strict policies and they do not do this in C&K and that a customer should think that they are lucky to receive the last pair instead of wanting a further discount for a defective item. Actually I wasn't really expecting a discount it was more for feedback to C&K but C&K clearly wanted to dismiss any view and basically told me in the manner/tone to take-it-or-leave it. I was basically told, 'if you are so worried, then you can return them and they will someone who wants them'. The sarcasm from this person was overwhelming, and he even compared it the products at C&K to luxury high-end items like LV - saying they do not discount for worn display items!! You are not Chanel or LV, comparing apples with oranges! I could not believe this is the level of customer service at the shop. To top it off, the 3rd pair of shoes was not delivered that day and I was told to come back when they call me. Forget it about it - I'm never spending a cent there. Just before I left, the manager said "Good Luck to you". How very insulting. I say "good luck" to YOU C&K because you have now lost a loyal customer and I will not be buying anything from you in future (and I will be letting my friends and family know too). Piece of advice - redirect some of your profits from selling worn items to investing in customer service training please! Good luck!

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Unknown said...

I have been a loyal customer and own at least 15 pairs of shoes. My last order was lost in the mail. C&K never responded for a long time only after I sent emails everyday and live chats nonstop for 3 days until they finally answered my queries. They had the wrong tracking number even though I had copies of invoice with my correct address. They would not even honour the promo Keyring that when you spend over $150 you get a free gift. In the meantime, they have discounted the shoes and advertised on website. It's close to 2 months and I am still waiting and considering I've asked for compensation just to refund the difference ..they refused to give the gift and refund which I am entitled. The service was very poor..no inadequate response. Not happy at all!

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