RedEnvelope

Full review
In short, my experience with Red Envelope has been a nightmare.

Here's the long version: I placed an order on December 13th. With a predicted 4-6 day shipping time, there should have been plenty of time for it to arrive by Christmas. I expected that the company would be upfront if items were back-ordered, or if there was to be a delay in the shipping time for any reason.

On December 20th, having not received either a package or any email from Red Envelope, I sent them an email, asking why there was a delay (their website showed it had not even shipped yet) and asking for assurance that the package would arrive on time. I received no response.

The next day I contacted Red Envelope Customer Service and spoke with Lucy. After checking on the status of my order, she confirmed that the package would not arrive on time and she advised that she would comply with my wishes and cancel the order.

On the 23rd, I received a form letter email which advised me that the order was not going to be able to be filled on time, stated that the order had not been cancelled, and also stated that the order would be sent when the items were in stock.

I sent another email to them and informed them that this order had indeed been cancelled, at my request.

On December 27th, I received 2 emails: One advised that the order had been shipped to me on the 26th, and the other was a form letter which I assume was meant to address my complaint.

I contacted their customer service department via their online IM. CSR Sherwin A sent me "one moment, I'll be right with you" macros for 23 minutes before I gave up on him. April was more helpful, but the explanation that the package had shipped before they could cancel it made absolutely no sense, even if they are in San Diego and the shipping warehouse is in Ohio. I had cancelled the order 5 days before the first back-ordered item was shipped out.

While the order itself shows that the 2nd item shipped on the 29th, customer service continues to maintain that the item has not and will not ship.

I refused shipment for the first item and the warehouse has since received it. As of yet, they have not re-credited my charge card. (I'm waiting for January 2nd to refuse the second delivery, should it arrive.)

This is a lousy way of doing business. I've been inconvenienced by Red Envelope in so many ways, and their failure to provide proper customer service and guarantee satisfaction is truly unacceptable - and unexpected. I had heard wonderful things about this company, but sadly experienced none of it myself. The customer service has been extremely poor.

I am sure I will be able to find another company with quality products, that can come through with the goods, and who actually cares about their customers. I won't patronize this company again and I would not recommend anyone else do so, either.

***Update*** I had refused delivery of the order on December 28th and it was back in their warehouse by 1/2/07. I called this morning (1/9) to see when my credit card would post the refund. The customer service rep I spoke with said that it had just been posted on 1/8, and would show up within 5-7 business days. When I asked about the delay in processing the refund, he said it was due to the high amount of returns they receive after Christmas.