lazychicken
Active member
I just had a really good customer service experience with Maple Hill Golf (www.maplehillgolf.com) and wanted to share.
Over Christmas break I bought a dozen Wilson Staff Duo Optix balls at PGASS and ended up really liking playing with them. They were $16.99/doz which was a great price point, so I went back to buy some more. That's when I discovered that that price was actually a sale, and they were more than that now. So I put it in my mind to watch to see if anyone else had these balls on sale.
A few days later I got an email or popup ad (can't remember) from Maple Hill saying they were having a big clearance, so I clicked to look for these balls. Sure enough, they had them on sale. The web site said they were $19.99/doz or $40 for 3 dozen. That was pretty attractive, so I set about adding them to my cart. Curiously, when I added them to my cart it said the 3 dozen pack was $29.99. Are you kidding me?? $10/doz for balls I like?? That never happens!! But honestly, it seemed like a web site error since right there in the item listing it clearly said "3 dozen for $40". I assumed the transaction wouldn't actually process at that price.
After adding these 6 dozen balls to my cart (seriously?? who needs 6 dozen balls??) I realized Maple Hill offers free shipping over $100. Sooo I did something even MORE stupid and added another 3 doz pack, and some Callaway winter gloves, to my cart to get it over $100. Then I completed the transaction, still fully expecting it to fail.
After the transaction went through, I immediately sent an email to Maple Hill's customer service telling them I think the price was listed wrong and I didn't expect them to honor it if it was a mistake. I wanted to let them off the hook. But then a bit later I got a confirmation and a shipping alert. Interestingly, the confirmation seemed to say I had ordered 3X one dozen packs instead of 3X three dozen packs. Except the Maple Hill item code appeared to allude to the three dozen pack. So that was weird.
The next morning, I called their customer service. Again, my intent was to let them off the hook if this was a mistake. I'm not about taking advantage of mistakes, especially with a small business. But first I asked what they think I ordered since it wasn't clear from the confirmation. The guy confirmed that I had ordered 9 dozen balls (just typing that makes me laugh at myself) and a pair of gloves. And he set my mind at ease about the price issue saying it wasn't a mistake. Wow!
A few days later the shipment arrived. It was a box too small to be 9 dozen balls. Sure enough, it contained 3 dozen balls and the gloves. So I called back and again asked them to confirm what they thought I had ordered since even the shipping manifest wasn't clear on that point. He confirmed that it was 9 dozen balls. I told him what I received and he was appropriately horrified and told me he was taking care of it immediately.
I hung up the phone and went to check out the gloves. I put them on and, as happens sometimes when you order something sight-unseen, they were slightly too tight in the pinky and ring fingers. Oh, and they also had the word "Mizuno" on them, which was interesting for Callaway gloves. I checked to make sure I ordered the right thing, and sure enough I had ordered the Callaways. At this point I started chuckling. And then my phone rang. It was Tristen from Maple Hill calling just to confirm one more time that I had received 3 dozen balls. I mentioned about the gloves. He freaked out hilariously.
A little bit later, I received an email from Tristen apologizing for the shipping screw-ups and telling me he had just shipped the rest of my golf balls and the correct gloves. And told me to keep the Mizuno gloves as a peace offering, even though there was never a moment in this process when I was upset in any way. And of course I very quickly received the new shipment with the rest of the balls and the correct gloves (which fit great!).
So why am I bragging about a company after such a seemingly colossal failure? Because of how quickly and urgently they made it right. It's easy to be great when everything goes right. To me, the mark of a great customer service culture is how they respond when the wheels fall off. And I can't say enough good things about the friendly and professional way Tristen responded when things didn't go well. I'll certainly shop there again based on this experience.
Mark
P.S. By the way, in case you're wondering, I'm donating a lot of these extra dozens of golf balls to a charity golf event I participate in. I'm not really going to leave that many bright green balls laying around waiting to be played years from now. I felt like that point was going to be worrisome for some of you.
Over Christmas break I bought a dozen Wilson Staff Duo Optix balls at PGASS and ended up really liking playing with them. They were $16.99/doz which was a great price point, so I went back to buy some more. That's when I discovered that that price was actually a sale, and they were more than that now. So I put it in my mind to watch to see if anyone else had these balls on sale.
A few days later I got an email or popup ad (can't remember) from Maple Hill saying they were having a big clearance, so I clicked to look for these balls. Sure enough, they had them on sale. The web site said they were $19.99/doz or $40 for 3 dozen. That was pretty attractive, so I set about adding them to my cart. Curiously, when I added them to my cart it said the 3 dozen pack was $29.99. Are you kidding me?? $10/doz for balls I like?? That never happens!! But honestly, it seemed like a web site error since right there in the item listing it clearly said "3 dozen for $40". I assumed the transaction wouldn't actually process at that price.
After adding these 6 dozen balls to my cart (seriously?? who needs 6 dozen balls??) I realized Maple Hill offers free shipping over $100. Sooo I did something even MORE stupid and added another 3 doz pack, and some Callaway winter gloves, to my cart to get it over $100. Then I completed the transaction, still fully expecting it to fail.
After the transaction went through, I immediately sent an email to Maple Hill's customer service telling them I think the price was listed wrong and I didn't expect them to honor it if it was a mistake. I wanted to let them off the hook. But then a bit later I got a confirmation and a shipping alert. Interestingly, the confirmation seemed to say I had ordered 3X one dozen packs instead of 3X three dozen packs. Except the Maple Hill item code appeared to allude to the three dozen pack. So that was weird.
The next morning, I called their customer service. Again, my intent was to let them off the hook if this was a mistake. I'm not about taking advantage of mistakes, especially with a small business. But first I asked what they think I ordered since it wasn't clear from the confirmation. The guy confirmed that I had ordered 9 dozen balls (just typing that makes me laugh at myself) and a pair of gloves. And he set my mind at ease about the price issue saying it wasn't a mistake. Wow!
A few days later the shipment arrived. It was a box too small to be 9 dozen balls. Sure enough, it contained 3 dozen balls and the gloves. So I called back and again asked them to confirm what they thought I had ordered since even the shipping manifest wasn't clear on that point. He confirmed that it was 9 dozen balls. I told him what I received and he was appropriately horrified and told me he was taking care of it immediately.
I hung up the phone and went to check out the gloves. I put them on and, as happens sometimes when you order something sight-unseen, they were slightly too tight in the pinky and ring fingers. Oh, and they also had the word "Mizuno" on them, which was interesting for Callaway gloves. I checked to make sure I ordered the right thing, and sure enough I had ordered the Callaways. At this point I started chuckling. And then my phone rang. It was Tristen from Maple Hill calling just to confirm one more time that I had received 3 dozen balls. I mentioned about the gloves. He freaked out hilariously.
A little bit later, I received an email from Tristen apologizing for the shipping screw-ups and telling me he had just shipped the rest of my golf balls and the correct gloves. And told me to keep the Mizuno gloves as a peace offering, even though there was never a moment in this process when I was upset in any way. And of course I very quickly received the new shipment with the rest of the balls and the correct gloves (which fit great!).
So why am I bragging about a company after such a seemingly colossal failure? Because of how quickly and urgently they made it right. It's easy to be great when everything goes right. To me, the mark of a great customer service culture is how they respond when the wheels fall off. And I can't say enough good things about the friendly and professional way Tristen responded when things didn't go well. I'll certainly shop there again based on this experience.
Mark
P.S. By the way, in case you're wondering, I'm donating a lot of these extra dozens of golf balls to a charity golf event I participate in. I'm not really going to leave that many bright green balls laying around waiting to be played years from now. I felt like that point was going to be worrisome for some of you.
