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Friday, January 1, 2010

That's all you got, American Girl?

Luckily I decided to check my spam folder (which I try to do every few weeks, because it sucks) where I found a response from American Girl Customer Service. along with about 25 comments I get via email from y'all. Why does the real spam come to me & the good stuff goes to spam? crazy.

Anyway... Here's my letter followed by their response. Obviously they don't think Confessions of a Semi-Slacker Mom has any clout. it doesn't With a few tweeks just for Julie's

Letters of Intent

To whom it may concern: which is the slacker at customer service

I have always been pleased except for the price tag with all of my purchases from both the Atlanta store & this site, until about 11pm on Christmas Eve.

As we were putting together Kit's treehouse, one of the main wall supports was broken, or rather unattached. I should not have to super glue something for which I paid almost $300. which,by the way, is freaking highway robbery Thankfully the super glue worked because if not, my daughter's Christmas would have been ruined. and mine too, since I would never hear the end of it

I was also disappointed in the amount of adult assembly required. because I am not in the construction business & hubs even paid someone to put together the freakin' swingset

I will continue to buy your products because my girls love the dolls and their clothes (Baby Girl's Bitty Baby, P.A. has more outfits than me), toys, furniture & even their damn pets - like Felicity's horse that Sass also got this year; however, I did want to bring this to your attention since the amount of money we spend probably pays your salary.

I will also be posting a reference to this incident on my blog, Confessions of a Semi-Slacker Mom. http://barbourbunch.blogspot.com/ because if I say it's crappy, you might as well file for bankruptcy now

Thank you, Semi-Slacker Mom

------------------------------------------------
Dear Semi-Slacker Mom,

Thank you for taking time to share your feedback about Kit's Treehouse. but we really don't give a rip

We are very sorry to learn that you received a defective piece and that it required so much adult assembly. Please accept our apology for this disappointment! or not. again, we don't give a rip

We are glad that you were able to assemble the treehouse with the help of super glue, however, we want to assure you that all of our products are 100% guaranteed, so if you experience any ongoing problems at all with the tree house, we will be happy to assist you. so you can take a toy away from your child, tell her that obviously the elves do shotty work & then pay an arm & a leg to ship that ginormous thing back to us

Thank you again for bringing this matter to our attention. We hope your daughters will continue to enjoy American Girl products. cha-ching

Sincerely, American Girl® Customer


An apology. That's it. They could have at least sent a freebie. $5 off your next $1000 purchase? Anything...

22 comments:

Foursons said...

Ugh. You did not get the response Rachel got from Ben and Jerry's. I'm thinking Ben and Jerry's is a better company than American girl. Sorry it didn't get you more than just an apology. That totally stinks.

Thanks for linking up though, I love the follow up information!

Shell said...

Really- they should have given you something!

glitterbygrammie said...

It is terrible to get just an apology.Especially when you put out so much cash. I would send another e-mail. Tell them what you really think and don't be so nice. Tell them you can not take the toy from your daughter. Tell them off. Get Mean. You might get some kind of results.

Gracie Beth said...

I had several horrible CS experiences in 2009! I don't know where companies think they can get away with mediocre at best service and being rude to customers.

Poolside with the Girls said...

That's too bad. I have had such good luck with them too. I accidentally ordered the wrong dolls one year. NEVER opened the box until 12/23 at 11PM at which time I called in panic. On 12/24 a new shipment showed up with a call tag for the wrong dolls (that I ordered, not their mistake, my mistake) and I didn't have to pay the shipping to get the new dolls or to give the wrong dolls back...So that was over the top as far as I could tell.

I had a horrible experience with MY TWINN doll company and I would NEVER do business with them again. But AG has always been great with me. Sorry they didn't come through for you.


A gift certificate would have been a nice gesture.

Also, I doubt they would make you pay to ship it back. Typically they issue a call tag and you just have to catch the UPS guy to give it to them. If they don't offer a call tag, just ask them for one. They usually give one with anything that is their fault.

Bummer Semi!

Anonymous said...

woohoo a big 5 bucks...arent they special! ;)

Jennifer said...

So glad that my daughter hasn't gotten involved with American Girl. I plan to keep her as far away from it as possible.

Laura said...

Wow! And you got a response so soon!! I'm surprised about that. And Kudos for mentioning your blog!

Sandra said...

Huge disappointment in the company. I guess I need to do a blog that discredits their company, too. And really when you think about it, those clothes don't even have zippers and buttons, etc. I mean it's velcro! Ridic!! You should most definitely have gotten a coupon or something. You should send the thing back and ask for a new one. xoxo

KK said...

Cra-zee! $ was definitely in order. they failed BIG TIME.

Michelle said...

Sorry to hear! I went over to the dark side, Santa brought both my girls American Girl dolls. Luckily they both arrived in perfect condition.

Sam said...

That just sucks! American Girl should have comp'd you something!!! If it even sags when she plays with it, you should email them right back! That is awful. I loved the part about your blog, I guess they under estimate the power of the semi-slacker!

Rachel said...

Oh my goodness! I would have been so peeved at something so expensive arriving in less than perfect condition. I mean, it's not like you bought it off Craigslist or something.

(btw - I'm the "Rachel" Julie is referring to... apparently companies with $5 products care more about their customers - sorry).

Soooo... what do you think would happen if you sent them the link to THIS post? And the related comments that other potential buyers are seeing/leaving?

Helene said...

That sucks!!! They should have at least sent you a gift certificate for your next purchase or something!!!! I think they should file for bankruptcy now....seriously, some of these companies do not realize how valuable word-of-mouth feedback is and when a mother is unhappy with a company, chances are other mothers are not going to buy their stuff either!

the pink prep said...

Ewww tough! Same thing happened to me when constructing the Barbie 3-story house! But, I will say, that if you CAN return something to AG, they completely replace it with the same or like item, no matter how long your child has played with it or you've had it. We had to have a Bitty baby mobile & stroller replaced.

Unknown said...

I feel your pain! We had a simliar Zhu Zhu pet incident!

but don't worry I did not come empty handed! I have a blog award for you over at www.atlmomguide.com

Happy New Year

Debra said...

That stinks. Customer service is horrible these days. It almost sounded like a form letter or whatever they call it - they just fill in the blanks for your product. I would probably write to them again. It's ridiculous that you spend so much money with them and they treat you like crap. The really sad thing is that they're not the only ones.

I hope the treehouse doesn't have any other issues and that your daughter is enjoying it.

Nocona said...

They should have done more than that to fix the problem. What happened to customer service?

Cyndy Bush said...

They should've offered you some sort of compensation and BEGGED you not to blog about them!

mFw said...

American girl always used to pride themselves on being such a fabulous company. if they keep this up it wont' be for long.

Tracie said...

I'm glad I have boys and won't get sucked into the AG racket. Also, that is really bad customer service. They know the kidlets are hooked so they don't have to be nice. Boooo!

Paging Doctor Mommy said...

What exactly is American girl? I feel like I should know this, but I'm up here in Canada... do I need to search for a Canadian girl?

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