Linda sent a message to Marvin R. Ellison President of J. C. Penney Company Inc.- email address that said:
Dear Sir,
Good Afternoon, the reason for this email is to make you aware of some serious customer service and shipping concerns with JCPenney.com from a customer's standpoint. Quite simply, adequate shipping services and policies are problematic.
After ordering eleven items from JC Penney on December 9, 2015, of which all, but two, were gifts, I received only five of the items. After receiving two email confirmations saying, "Your order is on it's way!", in actuality they were not. On the 14th of December, I received an email from JCPenney saying that 2 items were no longer available from one of the orders. Well, that wasn't too much of a surprise, as they were NFL ties with the Patriots logo on them. Although I was disappointed that the items were unavailable, after a promise of shipping had already occurred, I took it in stride. Although, you should be disappointed and embarrassed that your inventory numbers do not match your availability when an order is placed. After all, this is not only lost revenue, but a potentially disappointed shopper who might not return.
The second shipping disappointment came later. After two items were shipped out, timely in fact, a third shipment was not. That third shipment contained clothing. My husband and I were ready to travel and bring at least one of the items with us to Florida on the 15th of December. However, as the shipment did not arrive, we decided to buy other gifts while in Florida. I was confident the other shipment would arrive before Christmas Eve and told my daughters to be on the lookout for it while we were gone. Alas, when we returned to our home in Massachusetts on the 24th of December, we found that the shipment had not arrived. Unsurprisingly, we were disappointed.
After tracking the missing shipment, we saw it had been damaged in transit, returned to the shipper, and was delivered to the dock (presumably of the shipper). As it was Christmas Eve, we felt there was no need to contact JCPenney, we would wait until after the holiday weekend to address this situation. Perhaps, we thought, by then, JCPenney might send an email in regards to the missing shipment which appeared on their dock. However, that was not the case.
After waiting until 12/29/15, I finally called JCPenney's customer service 800 line. A woman, Sophia (or Sophie??) from Columbus, Ohio, was the first representative I spoke with. To be honest, she needs more customer training. Her answer to my dilemma, was, "JCPenney could not possibly advise the customer as to where it's shipment had gone. It was impossible. There are so many boxes in the warehouse how could they possibly keep track of them all." If this is true, then JCPenney has a serious problem with the tracking of its shipments and contacting their customers regarding returns.
As the customer service representative was combative rather than helpful, I asked to escalate the call to a supervisor, which was done. Erin, also from Columbus, was put on the call. She did an excellent job of remaining professional and was apologetic. She saw where the shipment had gone and why. She offered to reorder the items and ship them out asap. Which was done. However, she did not see any record of the NFL ties order, so those items will not be reordered or shipped.
In the end, three things have occurred here that ought not to have happened. First, inventory should be updated more frequently. There is no need for items to available upon order, then said to be shipped, only in reality to have not been available at all. Second, when a shipment is returned to the docks it should be scanned and that scanned number should be attached to the customers order. The customer should then be notified that the shipment has been returned....was this in error? ..... did the customer return it?.
Once the shipment has been returned, JCPenney's customer service should immediately be involved. Third, customer service employees should have more training on how to handle situations like this. They should not have to escalated to a supervisor.
There is no excuse for the warehouse not to keep track of all the boxes in the warehouse. They should know where and why all those boxes are there. As for the items in that shipment, were they truly damaged? How damaged were the items inside the box? Where did those items go? These are all considerations that must be contemplated. Otherwise, you miss opportunities to find and correct any possible loopholes that might open your company up to employee merchandise theft. It also provides you opportunities to prevent monetary loss by both refunding purchases to unhappy customers and rewarding points to customers.
Regards,
Linda
