Fannie May – Oh My!

 

First off, let me say this Chicago Chocolatier extraordinaire puts out a wide range of totally delicious products. The quality is superb, and their customer service people are some of the friendliest I’ve spoken to.

 

So… why am I showcasing them on my Rogues Gallery?

 

It’s because of their inane online ordering form!

 

I wanted to send a gift to my Mother. Went to the website, saw what I wanted, clicked off all the appropriate boxes (it was a build your own tower deal) and was ready to check out.

 

The final question was a box that asked if the gift was to be sent to myself or another person.

 

I naturally selected the “Other” option.

 

A new box appeared. No explanation, just a box popping out of nowhere. I didn’t know what they wanted (name? address? zip code? whatever?) so I left it blank.

 

I clicked on Checkout… and… zilch.

 

Nothing. My order wasn’t accepted.

 

I tried again. Same input – same results.

 

One more time for the Gipper! This time, Gipper lost.

 

I called their friendly customer service number – got a live person in under 30 seconds – and explained to her my tale of woe.

 

Ah.. says the fine woman representative – you have to fill in the blank, unnamed box with the new recipients name.

 

I of course asked why there was nothing on the site indicating that.

 

She answered she didn’t know. The only reason she did know the solution was that she had the same problem herself, and found out entering a name was the only way to get the item into the checkout cart.

 

I asked why she didn’t put in a suggestion for placing some sort of short verbiage in that empty box. Her employer Fannie May was undoubtedly losing more than a couple of sales from people who just signed off in utter frustration when their shopping cart remained empty.

 

She said she had. 3 times. And 3 times her suggestion was ignored!

 

I looked on the web to find the name of the President of Fannie May. It’s Terry Mitchell. (To be honest, in the articles I read, I couldn’t tell if Terry is a male or female name.)

 

But anyway, Mr. or Ms. Mitchell… when your own customer service rep tries to inform your company about a rather serious ordering page flaw, and gets shot  down multiple times… it’s time you raised some serious Cain!

 

How many dozens (or hundreds!) of times a day do your other potential customers get stonewalled at this critical buying junction?

 

And how many sales are you losing because if it?

 

I warrant a pretty nice chunk of change is being frittered away because of this one silly design miscalculation, especially during the lucrative Christmas Season!

 

In any event, keep up the great product!

 

I’ll be ordering again for sure.