Thursday, November 11, 2004
My Publisher and their Coupon Police
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 09:30 PM
I received a strange message a couple of days ago from My Publisher:
"We regret to inform you that the order you placed using coupon code REFB777 has been cancelled. According to the data in our systems, you were not authorized to use this coupon. You will not incur any charges of any kind for the order you placed with this coupon. Effective immediately, this order has been cancelled out of our system and no charges for any purchase have been processed."
Here's the back story: last month, I placed two orders with My Publisher on the same day: one was for two books, the other was for five books. It was for the project I wrote about, only this time my relatives wanted copies of the book. On one of the orders, I can't remember which one, I used a coupon that I found using Google. I imagine most people do the same thing: just before you order something online you go to Google and see if you can find any coupons to save a few bucks. I found a few different coupons, picked one and used it - if memory serves the coupon saved me $20. Better than nothing! I tried using the coupon for the second order and it gave me an error, so I figured it must have been a "one customer, one use" code.
I've been wondering where my photo books were, and today I received the email I quoted above. The email went on to say that because I didn't download the software required to get that coupon, I wasn't authorized to use it, and they had cancelled my order. First, the message made me feel like a criminal - how was I supposed to know that the coupon I found was "unauthorized"? Why didn't their system just reject the coupon?Second, why did they cancel my order? Their Web site has no customer login, no order history - nothing. So I have no idea which of my two ordered they cancelled, which is incredibly frustrating. And why did it take so long? I should have had the books by now, and instead I have to start over from scratch. I called their customer service people two days ago and haven't heard back from them yet.
All in all, I find this leaves a very bad taste in my mouth and I doubt I'll use My Publisher again after I get these books re-ordered. I spent hours laying out the book so I can't just switch to using another book publisher, but any company who treats their customers so harshly doesn't deserve my business.
UPDATE: I've now called three times and left three voice messages asking to be called back, but in three working days I haven't received a phone call back yet. And as I mentioned above, I can't re-order until I know which one of my two orders were cancelled. Talk about frustrating!
"We regret to inform you that the order you placed using coupon code REFB777 has been cancelled. According to the data in our systems, you were not authorized to use this coupon. You will not incur any charges of any kind for the order you placed with this coupon. Effective immediately, this order has been cancelled out of our system and no charges for any purchase have been processed."
Here's the back story: last month, I placed two orders with My Publisher on the same day: one was for two books, the other was for five books. It was for the project I wrote about, only this time my relatives wanted copies of the book. On one of the orders, I can't remember which one, I used a coupon that I found using Google. I imagine most people do the same thing: just before you order something online you go to Google and see if you can find any coupons to save a few bucks. I found a few different coupons, picked one and used it - if memory serves the coupon saved me $20. Better than nothing! I tried using the coupon for the second order and it gave me an error, so I figured it must have been a "one customer, one use" code.
I've been wondering where my photo books were, and today I received the email I quoted above. The email went on to say that because I didn't download the software required to get that coupon, I wasn't authorized to use it, and they had cancelled my order. First, the message made me feel like a criminal - how was I supposed to know that the coupon I found was "unauthorized"? Why didn't their system just reject the coupon?Second, why did they cancel my order? Their Web site has no customer login, no order history - nothing. So I have no idea which of my two ordered they cancelled, which is incredibly frustrating. And why did it take so long? I should have had the books by now, and instead I have to start over from scratch. I called their customer service people two days ago and haven't heard back from them yet.
All in all, I find this leaves a very bad taste in my mouth and I doubt I'll use My Publisher again after I get these books re-ordered. I spent hours laying out the book so I can't just switch to using another book publisher, but any company who treats their customers so harshly doesn't deserve my business.
UPDATE: I've now called three times and left three voice messages asking to be called back, but in three working days I haven't received a phone call back yet. And as I mentioned above, I can't re-order until I know which one of my two orders were cancelled. Talk about frustrating!
