Another Jantzen poll... - Page 2

Many folks are-about once a month the "Jantzen didn't send me a confirmation" starts up again.

True

Just ordered another shirt tonite......*fingers crossed*

Realise that I'm not exactly the customer being polled here, but Ill post my experience...Ive always bought in store, found the service very good, Ricky and David and that strange little guy with the blue hair that crawls around on the floor to be really friendly (they taught me some filthy words in Cantonese, was great), and the turnaround of their shirts incredibly fast.

In person his customer service is really pretty good. I mean they are rude, crude and obscene, but in that good way.

As for the internet stuff, all I can do is relay some things Ricky has said to me when I have been in there.

The internet business is a very small part of revenue for them, but, unfortunately, seems to take up a great deal of their time, and bring in the vast majority of their complaints.

When I was in there once he was kinda wringing his hands a bit over some internet customer who had just called complaining at him, and he explained basically that this order had come in, and they had immediately queried it, saying that 'this dude has freakishly short arms' - and they called the customer back and said 'we think your measurements are off, no one has a body this long and arms this short, are you looking for a 3/4 sleeve/extra long body of shirt or is there a mistake in your measurements'. Customer abuses him, saying he knows how to use a tape measure, is perfectly numerate, and just make my shirt needle-boy. Ricky shrugs, makes shirt, ships. While I was there the customer called back abusing him for making a shirt with insanely short sleeves, demanding Ricky pay all shipping and so on for the repairs.

Anyhow - the above isnt an excuse for not answering emails - my point is mostly that the internet orders are a small part of his life that causes the most frustration and least revenue, and perhaps as such he is more focussed on delivering good customer service to the in-store ppl who comprise much more of his business. Similarly, I guess a simple answer would be 'hire a customer service guy to man the emails' and this similar counter would be 'why take on an extra salary for the smallest part of my business...that just makes the margins even smaller'

As to your other comment....I wouldnt call the place dirty in like an unhygenic sense, but its clearly very messy.

Basically he has a tiny shop, with wool piled floor to ceiling on your left as you enter, cotton swatch books piled up in front of that, shopping bags waiting for collection on the floor (generally in a straight line down the left hand side but sometimes spilling out of the store). On the right is the Ricky computer, then the mirror, then a desk, then more crap. At the back of the store (hidden behing lots of suits waiting collection/alteration) is a miniscule fitting room.

At times you have to basically line up to get inside.

...and i may add: these guys (ricky, david, 3rd guy) spends much of their time with walk-ins. the 4 times i went there last week, i've never seen resting or sitting down. its totaly organized chaos in there. you can't even have the 3 chaps working at the same time in there, there'd be no space left.

My experience exactly, to the word.

just looked at the stats..and currently only 40 users have voted..
from reading other posts..i would have imagined more..
not sure if users are simply not bothering to vote...or jantzen really don't have that many online customers.

I have yet to order, but I do plan to. However, my research across AAAC and here has produced the following concensus:

1. If you have not received an email confirming the order after a couple weeks, give Ricky a call.

2. If you have received an email confirming the order, but have not received your order, and 4-5 weeks have passed, gvie Ricky a call.

The solution for those who have yet to receive shirts seems very simple to me; give them a call. Don't rely on email; as I am sure it will not get read as quickly as you'd like it to, if at all.

Anyone else here confirm my findings?

Pretty accurate observations.

But would anyone call this "innovative customer relationships" (source: www jantzentailor com)?

While most of us are used to a certain way business is handled, I've noticed that a lot of Asian businesses, especially smaller ones, establish their own definition of customer service. Here in the US, my experiences with both small and big businesses is that they do want to please the customer as much as possible. The old addage, "the customer is always right" as disappeared with most businesses, likely due to increasing dishonesty with its customers, especially in regards to product returns, legal threats, etc. I've worked retail before and there are so many blatant lies from customers wanting to return a product, stating it did not work; sometimes even when the warning label on the box tells you not to use the product in that fashion. So while we perceive a perfect relationship being able to depend on Ricky to respond to customer emails, make our shirts, and then ship them to us in a timely manner, Ricky's perspective, which is the one that counts, is likely different. To him, it's possible his end of the bargain is filling the orders he has and shipping them as soon as possible, as well as the walk-in customer orders. Even with modern technology, orders can be lost. Sure, it sounds like Ricky could do a bunch of different things; but would that work for him? If it doesn't, like any business, he's not going to do it. What may work for the customer sometimes doesn't work for the business; and when that happens, the business has to do what will work for them. Like I've said, this is different than what most customers are used to, but there is a difference in the way businesses across the world operate.

I would say - simply wait 4-6 weeks after order. If your shirts have not been delivered, give Ricky a call. E-mail confirmations are very rare, but that's not a problem. If they haven't arrived in another 4-6 weeks, give Ricky a call. Repeat.

Ok, changing my vote. Five shirts arrived today. I won't be trying them on until I go home tonight - and assuming no gross errors won't be able to tell that much until I wash them once or twice - they look great. I really do love that janzten fabric selection. I do notice out of the box that all of the shirts have "normal" buttons whereas I'm pretty sure I asked for the "nature-made" funky starfish-pattern buttons on the one white shirt in the order, but I can live with that (not that I have much choice, practically speaking).

When did you order, lawyerdad? I ordered in early May and received an "order will be shipped ASAP" email on May 23rd but still nothing.

Congrats! Still waiting....