Random thoughts on outsourcing - Outsourcing … sales – not working well - at ALL!!!

 

I am in search of a gift to send to my daughter who is in college. After careful considerations I ended up choosing a box of 24 petits fours from Costco.com. The order was entered in on March 13. Notes on this item stated that it will be shipped within 3-5 days with next day delivery that is included in purchase price. I checked the company that has outsourced their sales to Costco.com : Dragonfly Cakes in California – great – the destination is also in California. I am in great shape to get box of cakes to my daughter by March 17.

Easy said than done.

I woke up on March 17 with this strange feeling that led me to the status of my order screen on Costco.com just to find out that my item has not been shipped yet. OK, I said to myself, everything is OK. I will cancel this order and get her flowers and box of candies with the same day delivery option from proflowers.com – another “outsourced sales” solution for local florists.

Called costo.com – asked them to cancel the order – ok I was told – it will be cancelled. In a minute I had another order entered… good… everything is just great. Oh well, little did I know… in a few hours I am getting shipping email confirmation from Costco.com – guess what? – my cancelled order has been shipped!

Patience, patience. Everything is OK. I called my daughter – hey sweetiy – you will be getting two gifts – one: flowers and candies today, and the other one: beautiful cakes: tomorrow. Ok, mom – she says, I will invite my friends over for tea then!

I am so positive .. I am … trying to be so positive.

At about 5:00 pm on March 18 my daughter calls me – where are my cakes, mom? Hmm, let me check – it’s easy: you just go to Costco.com and click on check my order status. And so I did. Unfortunately Costco.com could not retrieve the status of my order. But – the good news is that it has been shipped by UPS on March 17 with next day delivery service – which is March 18 – so it will be at the destination today.

Just to be sure I am on a phone with Costco.com support again. Nice voice telling me that the tracking number was incorrectly entered so they [Costco.com] people do not know when these poor cookies will make it Irvine! But they tried calling the shipping company: Dragonfly cakes, who happened to be opened till 4:30 pm and it was 5:30 pm.

I am at the right or left end of my patience … I am out of patience - !

Not only I could not get my gift on time, now she will be getting spoiled cakes while I already pre-paid for premier next day shipping@!

 

People – if you do outsource your sales – please make sure that your all supply chain is set up to keep up with your promises!

 

I am trying to stay patient preparing myself to another round of discussions with Costco.com, dragonfly cakes and UPS people to find out who owns me a refund!!!!

 

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