I don’t like to complain. Really. I try to keep my blog very friendly, happy, and embracing—the kind of stuff I like to read.
But.
If you’ve followed me on Twitter or Facebook recently, you might have caught an annoyance. With Piperlime. The clothing company. The one owned by GAP.
You see, last Tuesday, January 11 at 3 pm EST (which, btw, is noon PST, which is San Francisco’s timezone. And San Francisco is, of course, GAP’s home), I ordered a pair of Winter-weather snow boots. You might have seen me talk about them on Friday’s Mom Chic post. I selected regular, free shipping, which was promised to arrive within 3-5 business days of the date the order was placed.
Okay. Look. I’ll admit that I have become spoiled by the Zappos, Diapers.com, and Amazons of the world. When they promise 2-day shipping, you get it in one. I’ve ordered from Zappos in the past on a Friday and received it on a Saturday.
So, 3 days later, Friday, I’m expecting a package to arrive. Perfect! I think. My post goes live today, and I’ll get to share how much I love the boots.
At sometime around 3ish, when FedEx, UPS, and the USPS have all come and gone by my house, I search my email. There’s no shipping announcement. So, I signed on to my Piperlime account. The order at 3 pm on Friday says it’s still processing.
Saturday, 3 pm? Same message. At 11 pm EST, Saturday night, I finally received an email saying that my order had shipped. Saturday night, 11 pm. Of course, Monday was a holiday. Not a business day. Forget the fact that FedEx still delivered and came down my street twice. Forget that I ordered my boots on Tuesday. I knew better than to expect the boots on Monday.
So, they arrived on Tuesday morning. And. I. Hate. Them. (Now, this is not the fault of Piperlime. But what is the fault of Piperlime is that I wasted a stinking week waiting for these boots to arrive only to find that I need to return them. Meanwhile, had I ordered from Zappos, I would have been able to send them back a day later. That. Is a difference.)
Here’s my other Piperlime issue. They lack in social media services. And lack isn’t really a strong enough word. On Friday, I tweeted and Facebooked. On Facebook, I asked my followers, friends, and fans.
“Are you so spoiled by super-fast shipping (a la Amazon and Zappos) that nothing else will do? I’m very impatiently awaiting a shipment. I thought it would be here by now and just learned it hasn’t even left the warehouse. (4 days after placing the order at a major retailer.)”
I tweeted similarly. Immediately, Zappos was on it. “We’re sorry you’re having trouble. Can we help?”
But when I tweeted that, I was still waiting for my boots to ship and asking a question of Piperlime? Nothing. And no reply from GAP, either.
In fact, Saturday night, we ran searches for Piperlime and GAP on Twitter. And there were more complaints about Piperlime’s horrendous shipping than any other comments. Guess what? We didn’t notice any replies.
So, I’m hating on Piperlime. I’ll still shop at the GAP because, as a mom of 3 kids, well… they fit, and they look cute. But Piperlime? They aren’t worth it. Because if you’re shopping at Piperlime, you can pretty much guarantee lousy attention and horrible shipping.
