I read "Customer Service Woes" by Sibin Mohan, and felt compelled to share my story. The following is an email exchange I had that was so bizarre I have kept it for four years. The names and identifying information have been changed to protect me from a defamation lawsuit, but truly, I rarely enjoy conducting therapy when ordering Christmas gifts.

----- Original Message -----
From: Alexandria Jackson
To: The Crazy Nut People
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 1:17 AM
Subject: order # 18119

I placed an order on November 8th. I expected to have received it by today. I just checked the shipping status at your site and it hasn't even been shipped. Next week is too late for me to ship the items. Therefore, I request that you please cancel my order ASAP.

----- Original Message -----
From: The Crazy Nut People
To: Alexandria Jackson
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 3:02 PM
Subject: Re: order # 18119

we have been checking on your order but it probably shipped days ago. [really? Cuz my info said it hadn't shipped yet]
we have been swamped and the shipping status is not updated to the current status. That is why you get the status as not shipped but it may not be correct. [so I guess now you'll ship it right out so I am stuck paying??]

We will let you know more as we get more information.

~ #1 Nut Job

----- Original Message -----
From: Alexandria Jackson
To: #1 Nut Job
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 1:17 PM
Subject: Re: order # 18119

I will have to refuse the package when it comes. It is too late now for me to ship the items to my friends. I'm sorry, but what am I supposed to do with 10 pounds of nuts for Christmas, since they didn't get here in time for me to ship them out? FYI, an apology would have been appreciated.

Sincerely,
A.J.

----- Original Message -----
From: #1 Nut Job
To: Alexandria Jackson
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 6:31 PM
Subject: Re: order # 18119

We got the order on the 8th of November and shipped on Dec. 16th. You ordered some nuts which were not scheduled for production for another 5 days. The order was shipped on Tuesday the 16th and will arrive at your address on Friday. [OK, I was never great at math but let's see, November 8th plus 5 days is November 13th...right?] If you refuse the order you will still be responsible for the freight because we performed and do not intend to lose money on the shipment. [performed what exactly?] If the product returns here in proper resale condition -we will of course credit your credit card for the amount of the product which you will not have received. [huh?]

We could apologize but I think that you are probably not able to hear us if we did so. I sense in your tone that you are mad and ready to do whatever is necessary to upset us. [Once again, huh?]

While we never like returned product, we did ship and we did so in a reasonable time. If it was too late for some date - we did not know what that time frame was. We assumed you wanted it for Christmas but we cannot know this. If you would have said in our comment box on the web order form that you had some special instructions and if we had not done them - then we might assume some responsibility. [special instruction: an order placed in the first week of November should arrive in 7-10 business days]

Lacking that we believe we have done what was expected of us. We shipped good product and we responded to your query as soon as we heard you were concerned. We immediately received e-mail to cancel the order but once we looked into it (which only took a few hours) we learned that the order was on a 3 day shipment with Airborne Freight and would arrive tomorrow. [Interesting, because I didn't pay for air shipment - I wonder why they would do it now....?]

So that is kind of where the entire matter now stands. You ordered before Xmas intending to reship the product and things did not go the way you thought they should.

I would hope that you would bury all the emotion and simply accept and enjoy the items you purchased. [burying emotion? Someone watches too much Dr. Phil..]

~ #1 Nut Job

----- Original Message -----
From: Alexandria Jackson
To: #1 Nut Job
Sent: Thursday, December 18, 2003 4:04 PM
Subject: Re: order # 18119