Right to Your Door

I had to order a catered lunch for a meeting I was hosting on Tuesday of this week. I decided to do something a little out of the ordinary for a corporate lunch, and ordered Chicago-style hot dogs and cheeseburgers from Gold Coast Dogs through our corporate account at Seamless Web.

I placed the order on Monday afternoon to make sure that there was plenty of time. I scheduled delivery for 11:15 a.m., and giving a 15-minute leeway on either side of that time for delivery. I added in a tip for the delivery person, as well.

On Tuesday, my well-laid plans went sideways.

Here's my email to Seamless Web:

I am writing to let you know that delivery of this order was one hour and ten minutes late.

My receptionist called at the 20 minutes late mark and were told that they thought it was a pick-up order [even though there was a delivery fee, delivery instructions and a tip written right on the order form], and that they’d send it right over.

I personally called at the 40 minutes late mark and was told: 1) I’d “have to be understanding” because it was their very first order through Seamlessweb; and, 2) the driver was on the way.

When I called at the 60 minutes late mark, I again got the “have to be understanding” song and dance and reassurance that the driver was on his way. I informed the person who answered the phone that I wanted to speak to a manager who gave me another “you have to be understanding” song and dance. I informed him that I have a blog, a Facebook account, a Twitter account and am very familiar with Yelp and Metro Mix, and that if I didn’t get satisfaction for an order that I assumed (rightly) would arrive cold, I wouldn’t hesitate to express my displeasure on ALL of those outlets, as well as on the SeamlessWeb website.

That got me a promise that I’d be hearing from the General Manager ASAP.

At the one hour and ten minutes late mark, the order arrived, tepid and soggy.

I still have not heard from the General Manager of Gold Coast Dogs.

I never once heard the words, “I’m terribly sorry, Miss. We’ll get this fixed right away.”

I never once was offered the name of a specific person to talk to about this problem.

The nearest Gold Coast Dogs location is close enough that I could have walked there and back at least five times in the time it took to get this order delivered.

I do not believe we should be charged for this order. Furthermore, SeamlessWeb should be having a very frank (no pun intended) discussion with the management of Gold Coast Dogs if Seamless is going to continue to use them as a vendor.

I would like a telephone call from someone at Seamless to confirm that this matter is being given priority attention. I am holding off on letting loose on the various social media outlets listed above until the end of business today, but won’t hesitate to express my displeasure if there is no redress.

Thank you.

Here is Seamless Web's response:

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I’m very sorry to hear your order with Gold Coast wasn’t exactly Seamless! I spoke with the restaurant and have confirmed this shouldn’t be an issue for the future. Also, they have approved a 30% discount off your order which I have already applied. For our part I would also like to off you a 25% off code for your next Seamless order, which I hope goes far more smoothly. If there is anything else I can do for you please do not hesitate to let us know! Have a wonderful afternoon.

I'm still boiling mad that no one from Gold Coast Dogs called me to apologize -- as promised. Yeah, I took the discount, but the order really should have been totally comped. Their customer service is absolute crap as far as I'm concerned.

Seamless did their best, but they're more concerned with fixing things going forward, and I'm more focused on them making me happy. Which I'm obviously not.

I've used Seamless for other orders and never had a problem. Gold Coast Dogs, on the other hand, I'll never use again and can't recommend at all. And I'll be linking this to my Facebook and Twitter pages, too. Re-post Facebook or re-tweet, won't you? I really do want them to feel some heat on this.

I'll let you know if I ever get an apology -- which I absolutely deserve.