Ecommerce merchants should allow for partial orders!

On December 1st I ordered some lingerie for my girlfriend for Christmas.

The store was found simply using Google for a keyword search.

My order placed, I then sent an email telling them it was intended to be a set of Christmas gifts and that the sale was conditional for getting the items delivered for Christmas.

Now it’s Dec 21st and nothing’s arrived.

Apparently, of the items ordered, a single item is delaying shipment as it’s not come across from the USA wholesalers yet.

First point - ecommerce merchants should send out partial orders when possible. I don’t care about paying extra shipping fees - if it gets the in-stock items delivered for Christmas I would have been happy to pay extra.

Second point - it would be great to reply to support emails. I can get a reply to emails posted through their online contact form, but when I reply to these nothing has come back.

Third point - don’t list a 0845 number prominently on your website if you can’t even be bothered to pick up the phone or reply to messages left on the answering machine.

In the meantime, my girlfriend is missing a couple of big Christmas gifts, and unless I receive good news from the company pretty fast, I’ll be cancelling my order.

All it takes is a little professionalism to keep customers happy.

UPDATE: Okay, managed to get in touch by phone - partial delivery coming before Christmas. They were already doing this, but failed to *communicate* this, something they accept they could have done better on.

Still, so long as I get *some* Christmas pressies delivered in time, I’m happy.