Passive agressive email from BRS customer service representative.

[FinsNgills808]

Hello all,

I just want to know how you feel about BRS customer service these days?

I received a passive agressive response from BRS and well, I'm honestly frustrated by it.

I live in Hawaii and must pay for shipping, no free shipping to Hawaii. I pay for shipping, but do expect to get the item delivered as guaranteed by UPS, in this case the next day.

Long story short, my past two orders this month from BRS were delivered late by UPS, not BRS. Both paid were shipped via UPS next day air.

1st late order was received on a Monday instead of Friday. The UPS tracking showed "mechanical delay" and rescheduled the delivery for Monday instead of Friday. After receiving the delivery on Monday, I emailed BRS and requested a refund for the shipping charge. I received a response from BRS the next day apologising for the delay and received a refund for the next day air shipping. about $125.

2nd late order was received yesterday (Monday) insead of Friday. Again, the UPS tracking showed "mechanical delay" and rescheduled the delivery for Monday instead of Friday. After receiving the delivery yesterday (Monday), I emailed BRS and requested a refund for the shipping charge. I received a response from BRS today, but this time I got a passive aggressive response from the CSR.

He said this:
" Hey there, Thank you for reaching out to us.I see this order has a delay and we will get that refunded. I do see you requested it on your previous order and we did refund it, however, that order should have not been. That was ordered on the 9th after cut off and went out on the 10th, a Friday, for Monday delivery. NDA to go out the same day needs to be ordered by 12PM CST."

While I appreciate the refund for the late shipments, I do not understand the reason for the passive agressive response. Especially when what he is saying is NOT true and any effort to research my order and tracking the package would show that he's not giving accurate information. The order he mentions as not valid for the refund was ordered on the 8th at 10:24 pm hawaii standard time, and received by BRS and confirmed via confirmation email as being received on Thursday the 9th at 2:22AM CST, much earlier than their 12PM cut off time. Further if he had tracked the package, their own tracking information show's the package did get shipped out on Thursday the 9th with an expected delivery on the 10th. It also shows a "mechanical delay" in the tracking. NOT as he stated which was it was shipped out on Friday the 10th.

First off If he was going to refund anyway why accuse me of any FAULT, and why make me have to defend my case???

Honestly, I feel I am a good customer to BRS, from January 2023 I have spent a total of $5,580 dollars with them. Why make me feel I am wrong for requesting a refund when I didn't get the service I paid for???? Not only that but it is of no cost to BRS to issue the refund, UPS has a guaranteed delivery on next day air shipments. All they need to do is request a GSR "guaranteed service refund". I know as my company ships with UPS and we request these refunds with no problem from UPS.

I don't know, this BRS CSR seems to have sided with UPS and decided to make me wrong for making what I feel is a fair and equittable refund request.

After this experience, I will not be shopping with BRS whenever possible.

Mahalo for reading!

 

[vtecintegra]

Why is BRS responsible for UPS delays?

 

[FinsNgills808]

Why is BRS responsible for UPS delays?

They are not responsible, UPS is responsible, but because BRS is the shipper they must make the request for refunds due to delayed deliveries. It is explained on the UPS website along with their Guaranteed delivery on next day air shipments.

 

[Benpastw]

Not sure how he made you feel wrong tbh, seems he was just explaining something from his viewpoint and from what you wrote was going to submit the refund to you. Truly not sure what wrong you feel was commuted by his email when it seems they were taking care of your request.

 

[FinsNgills808]

Not sure how he made you feel wrong tbh, seems he was just explaining something from his viewpoint and from what you wrote was going to submit the refund to you. Truly not sure what wrong you feel was commuted by his email when it seems they were taking care of your request.

It was the passive agressive response that I am bothered by, Him saying i was incorrectly refunded on my previous order and that I missed the cut off time of 12pm CST when infact the order was placed at 2 am CST.

 

[Gtinnel]

My view is not going to be the answer you are wanting but I don’t see the email as passive aggressive. His times for your previous shipment may not be correct but possibly that was just an error on his part. Explaining in the email what would qualify an order for next day shipment doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me.

 

[Tired]

I think this was meant as "by the way, that was an abnormality", not as something passive-aggressive.

 

[FinsNgills808]

My view is not going to be the answer you are wanting but I don’t see the email as passive aggressive. His times for your previous shipment may not be correct but possibly that was just an error on his part. Explaining in the email what would qualify an order for next day shipment doesn’t seem like a bad thing to me.

Here's what he says:
" I do see you requested it on your previous order and we did refund it, however, that order should have not been. That was ordered on the 9th after cut off and went out on the 10th, a Friday, for Monday delivery"


OK, but why did he mention that the order shouldn't have been refunded, when infact it was totally within their policy and should have been refunded and then support the reason I was incorrectly refunded with wrong information. Why say anything about the previous order all? the only reason I can think of is that he's attempting to make me wrong for asking?

 

[FinsNgills808]

I think this was meant as "by the way, that was an abnormality", not as something passive-aggressive.

I don't know, do you see where he says I ordered it after the cut off when infact I ordered it a good 10 hours before the cut off? and then says it was shipped out the next day (10th), when infact it was shipped out on the 9th?

 

[ninjamyst]

Wow. Props to BRS for giving you the refunds. That's unheard of ... Usually most vendors just say sorry not our problem, good luck with UPS on your own.

 

[FinsNgills808]

Wow. Props to BRS for giving you the refunds. That's unheard of ... Usually most vendors just say sorry not our problem, good luck with UPS on your own.

That's absolutely, not true. Us here in Hawaii pay for shipping for almost everything. Nobody offers free shipping to Hawaii. Whenever I pay a premium for shipping and they are not delivered as promised I request a refund and always receive it. The only time I don't request a refund is when shipping is free. It's no cost to the shipper, it's guaranteed by the shipping company and if it is not delivered then the shipping company will issue a refund for any delayed package caused by them. only time they do not is if is not a guaranteed service or delays caused by things outside of their control, weather etc.

 

[Gtinnel]

Here's what he says:
" I do see you requested it on your previous order and we did refund it, however, that order should have not been. That was ordered on the 9th after cut off and went out on the 10th, a Friday, for Monday delivery"


OK, but why did he mention that the order shouldn't have been refunded, when infact it was totally within their policy and should have been refunded and then support the reason I was incorrectly refunded with wrong information. Why say anything about the previous order all? the only reason I can think of is that he's attempting to make me wrong for asking?

My assumption would be that he got the times of your previous order wrong and wanted to make you aware of the cutoff times for next day delivery. I think he was just being informational.

I do agree that even mentioning the last refund isn’t necessary, but I still don’t take it as him trying to accuse you of any wrong doing.

 

[Gtinnel]

If it really bothers you that much you could reply to his email explaining that the times he quoted from your previous order are wrong and it did qualify for Friday delivery.
I suspect replying to a customer service rep, who likely doesn’t care anyway, is probably pointless, but it may make you feel better about the exchange.

 

[FinsNgills808]

My assumption would be that he got the times of your previous order wrong and wanted to make you aware of the cutoff times for next day delivery. I think he was just being informational.

I do agree that even mentioning the last refund isn’t necessary, but I still don’t take it as him trying to accuse you of any wrong doing.

"order should not have been refunded" ??? then saying i missed the cut off time? when I didn't miss it? One would think about researching the details fully before ruling that I was not owed a refund, as if hes doing me a favor? then goes on to explain why I was wrongfully refunded and how my order was delivered on time? all the while using bad information to support how I was "not due a refund" his response.

 

[FinsNgills808]

If it really bothers you that much you could reply to his email explaining that the times he quoted from your previous order are wrong and it did qualify for Friday delivery.
I suspect replying to a customer service rep, who likely doesn’t care anyway, is probably pointless, but it may make you feel better about the exchange.

Thank you, and yes you are probably right won't do me any good. I have responded to BRS and let them know about his misunderstanding of the details of the shipment he says was not supposed to be refunded.

I do feel better about it, but mostly won't be shopping with BRS whenever possible. I'll let my wallet do the talking.

 

[Gtinnel]

I do feel better about it, but mostly won't be shopping with BRS whenever possible. I'll let my wallet do the talking.

Kind of off topic, but with that kind of charge for shipping is there not a lfs that you can get stuff from for an equivalent or cheaper price?

 

[FinsNgills808]

Kind of off topic, but with that kind of charge for shipping is there not a lfs that you can get stuff from for an equivalent or cheaper price?

any other online retailer really, amazon does offer free shipping to Hawaii. Any of BRS's competitors, even petco can be cheaper. I really prefer to shop with Marc (melev'sreef) for things, he's actually proactively refunded me for shipping if it was cheaper than what his website calculated.

But I don't get me wrong, I fully am prepared to pay for shipping, even paying for next day air (such as in this instance) when there are cheaper shipping options. It really is not a cost thing, I don't mind and accept having to pay higher prices to get things. It's about the service and how a company/owner values and treats their customers. I'm the type that would pay for quality service. I don't even really shop sales on BRS, I'm in business and know the cost of doing business these days. How you treat your customers says more to me than the the cost of things.

For example, I would rather leave a big tip to a great resturant server, than have to grab the food myself or receive bad service. I've honestly been loyal to BRS before this because I really felt they valued me, especially after how the CSR responded to my first request for shipping refund. But this second request, was the opposite, and undid any good feelings made by the 1st CSR. Disappointed by this more than anything.

 

[rtparty]

The response is definitely odd IMO. Passive aggressive? Not to me but could be for you and we’re both in the right to have those feelings. But it is definitely odd and I don’t see any reason why it was said to begin with.

Could the CSR have gotten some dates and times wrong? Absolutely. Mistakes happen. Could they have had an off day? Yes, we all do. Tone is impossible to convey in text and we all know large fights have started over text because no tone was present except the tone we read in our own head.

Has BRS responded to your complaint about the second interaction? If not, I don’t see any reason to put them on blast that you’ll never shop with them again. Let them respond and then choose. If their response is nonchalant and they don’t care, blast away!

My dealings with BRS customer service over the last 15+ years have been overwhelmingly positive. I personally know a dozen or more people at BRS. They are genuinely good people who try to do right even when it means the company loses money. Good people have bad days. Give them a chance to respond and even see this thread. Which they will tomorrow during business hours

 

[FinsNgills808]

The response is definitely odd IMO. Passive aggressive? Not to me but could be for you and we’re both in the right to have those feelings. But it is definitely odd and I don’t see any reason why it was said to begin with.

Could the CSR have gotten some dates and times wrong? Absolutely. Mistakes happen. Could they have had an off day? Yes, we all do. Tone is impossible to convey in text and we all know large fights have started over text because no tone was present except the tone we read in our own head.

Has BRS responded to your complaint about the second interaction? If not, I don’t see any reason to put them on blast that you’ll never shop with them again. Let them respond and then choose. If their response is nonchalant and they don’t care, blast away!

My dealings with BRS customer service over the last 15+ years have been overwhelmingly positive. I personally know a dozen or more people at BRS. They are genuinely good people who try to do right even when it means the company loses money. Good people have bad days. Give them a chance to respond and even see this thread. Which they will tomorrow during business hours

Thank you! will do. I'm know i'm in a tizzy about this, the part I have a hard time with is why this CSR would go out of their way to make me wrong, using wrong information. He obviously decided to research my previous correspondance with BRS and then decided to tell me how I was wrongfully refunded the 1st time. I was dumbfounded by this, because the 2nd request which is nearly identical to the first request was ok and he issued the refund, but then tells me my 1st request was wrongfully refunded???? just gobsmacked by this.

I will give BRS the benefit of the doubt, but I do feel this CSR really has it out for me and I don't know why???

 

[rtparty]

Thank you! will do. I'm know i'm in a tizzy about this, the part I have a hard time with is why this CSR would go out of their way to make me wrong, using wrong information. He obviously decided to research my previous correspondance with BRS and then decided to tell me how I was wrongfully refunded the 1st time. I was dumbfounded by this, because the 2nd request which is nearly identical to the first request was ok and he issued the refund, but then tells me my 1st request was wrongfully refunded???? just gobsmacked by this.

I will give BRS the benefit of the doubt, but I do feel this CSR really has it out for me and I don't know why???

I doubt they are on a personal vengeance to get you but if they are, it’s good for BRS to know and look into it.

My own opinion FWIW is to enjoy the night and let it go. Let BRS see everything tomorrow and deal with it.