Monday, January 08, 2007

Happy Customer Day!

A quicky for you. At the end of the summer I was in Canada and I picked up this cute little black handbag at a nice little shop downtown Vancouver. Boytek had gotten me one of their handbags before and I like the company (Montreal based, tres french) so I got another while I was there, why not, eh?

Well, I had that first bag a week and one of the little screws that hindge the opening came loose, so being the handy person, I tightened it back. Then, a few days later it happened again, then again. And it keept on happening until one day I lost one of the screws in my car, which I managed to find, luckily. I then asked Boytek to exchange the purse for me the next time he was in Vancouver because I was afraid I'd lose it and be shit out of luck. He did, and exchanged it for the same bag only in Raspberry (reddish-pink), which seemed like a really odd color for a purse but it grew on me pretty quickly.

Everything went swimmingly for about a month until I went to Seattle for Xmas and got plastered. I awoke Christmas morning to find Santa had not left presents but instead stole my hinge screws. BOTH OF THEM. Gaping purse mouth, Batman! This was not going to do at all.

So I went to the company's web site, Matt and Nat being the company name, and sent an e-mail to their returns department. I stated the facts of the incident (sans snitching out Santa) and asked if I could get some replacement screws. They aren't your run of the mill Home Depot screws, they're fancy decorative ones (evidently the kind that doen't like to live up to their potential). I received a reply stating they didn't carry replacement hardware and asking for a photo of the defective purse and a copy of the receipt. I fretted about this all weekend as I no longer had the receipt, having considered the matter taken care of with the return of the black purse I had probably discarded it about a month ago. I snapped a couple shots (including the one above) and wrote out an e-mail stating the following facts:
The original bag had already been returned once because of this exact issue
It was purchased in another country therefore it was unlikely I would be able to return it to the store it came from
This was my 3rd Matt and Nat bag, and I was a big fan of the company.
I attached my photos and off I sent my e-mail, sure that I would never hear from them again or getting a snarky e-mail saying "Sorry, no receipt. Company Policy" or something along those lines.

Well, you can imagine my surprise and glee when I received another e-mail back within 15 minutes stating a new bag has been sent to my home address. SHOCKER! All I had hoped for was a couple screw-fastners, at best I thought I'd be given a courtesy credit to use in their online store. But NO! A replacement purse! I am almost speechless.

So everyone visit Matt and Nat and buy a bag. Hell, get a couple, these people have better customer service than any American company I've dealt with in the last 10 years. And if it breaks, send them an e-mail and tell 'em SUZ sent ya.

Oh, and I'm super-gluing those fucking hinge screws together. You won't get me again!

5 comments:

Gnomeself Be True said...

Right now in some God-forsaken third world country, some 12 year old boy is having his ass whipped by a 'quality control' inspector for this gaf. He'll probably have his wages cut in half and his un-wed mother of 6 will have to sell one of her younger daughters in to slavery to pay the bills.
All because you've never heard of loc-tite.

Happy New Year...you insensitive capitalist, consumer you.

Vivalacrap said...

all my handbags are raspberry colored. Why is that weird or something?

Shawna said...

Matt and Nat are not getting my money, I just don't understand you women and the obsession with overly prices purses. Amazes me really. I would NEVER spend that kind of money on a PURSE....EVER. And yes, I know, these are cheap compared to the Coaches and all the other totally over-priced bullshit that consumers buy...


Ok, yeah, I'm done w/my rant.

House of Suz said...

Now calm down there, missy, I normally don't spend this much money or purses either, but Boytek got me one of their handbags and would you believe men, STRAIGHT MEN mind you, commented on it so much I picked up myself another when I was in Canada. As a treat.

Also, I bought a bag this weekend that was on marked down and then on a special 75% off of that price. Paid all of ten bucks for it. So there :-P Plus if you consider I have the new purse in the mail and the old one that I can most likely fix, well then that would be HALF PRICE. Want one?

Sounds like BOY-tek said...

As a proud Canadian I feel I have to stick up for Nat and Matt. The whole corp. is located entirely in Montreal and the company is totaly "vegan" that meens that they don't use any animal product in the materials, glues or threads. (No rasbery cows were sloughterd to make those bags)