THE BAD: I ordered a pair of boots from Frye directly from their website and quickly noticed a discrepancy in the way the colors were listed on different sites. Being a super consumer, I sent them an email inquiring about it. I then had a painful 4 emails-later-long conversation with their customer love department during which they INSISTED that their colors were correct until, finally, I got the email from them that I've posted above, finally admitting their mistake (this woman was adamant she was right, for 2 emails, which I am saving you the hassle of reading). Afterwards, all I wanted from them was a little retribution. A little acknowledgment. And, yes, perhaps a pair of boots on the house for pointing out what was sure to become a customer love nightmare for them. But I got nothing. Imagine how loyal and happy it would've made me. A shoe shine! A fake email from the COO! Anything! But they were pleased as punch I did their job for them and never really thanked me. And it was strenuous.
THE GOOD: When a strap fell off of said boots after so many loving wears, they speedily sent me a couple of replacements for free. Saving me the hassle and huge cost of going to a customized leather guy. So, thanks, but I'm still waiting for my free pair.
I find it interesting how the Frye Company treated you as though you were accusing them of being "wrong" and that you were somehow out to show them what was "right" as though the burden of proof was on you. Automatically assuming that they knew their system better than their customers could, they decided to take a defensive posture. If retail companies could train their front line customer service staff to treat customer inquiries such as these as free quality assurance ("QA") or as a free insight into how they could make their website less confusing and more user friendly, they would be much better off. This should result in more communication between the site developers, management (stake holders), and front-line customer service personnel.
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