The warehouse saga

I had ordered a portable synthesizer style keyboard from Yamaha on July 21 online at GuitarCenter.com. The availability status was 'ready to ship in 24 hours'. I was real excited because it had been a while since I last felt some meaningful creation coming out of my clumsy hands:-)

Well, little did I know that it would be 'back ordered' within 15 days, all after 3 calls and 2 online chats with the customer service, and their ignorance of where the shipment was. I got impatient now and demanded an answer around Aug 16 or else I will take the matter to a consumer forum, and to my surprise, the order was canceled abruptly. The email said: "Since you threatened to take the matter to a 3rd party, we cannot help you anymore. Your order is now cancelled."

I was reallllly pissed. Heres the fun part now: I found the email id of the CFO of GuitarCenter from some SEC filing document online. I wrote him a long email explaining all this, and that they should have this poor customer service experience looked into. Turns out I was not alone. 100s of others were giving GC bad reviews on bizrate.com for past 2-3 months or so.

Honestly I wasnt expecting to hear back. But the immediate next day I get a long apologetic email from a supervisor of customer service, stating how the company is moving inventory to a bigger warehouse which has caused all this mess. He offered a gift card as consolation, and promised prompt delivery after re-instating the order if I agreed. Of course I agreed.

The order now shipped last friday, and I am expecting it anytime soon.

Can you imagine how it will be if you had to get a CFO involved for every 200$ purchase? I certainly would be really wary when buying online now.