Order Bungle, and Support Ineptitude
 

I placed an order with Telltale on April 2nd, Order Number 600058760741084. O this order I had two items:

• Flaming Max Hat (Green)
• Max & Crossbones T-Shirt - Extra Large

I was provided with tracking URL as follows:


I have since logged support requests with Telltale enquiring into the delivery status of said order.

12 April - Email To Support

Hi there,

I am confused as to the current status of my order from April 2nd. When clicking on the track link, I've only been seeing this for the past 8 days:

Label/Receipt Number: LJ57 2538 053U S
Class: Priority Mail International Parcels
Service(s): International Letter
Status: Electronic Shipping Info Received

The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on April 2, 2010 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date. Delivery status information will be provided if / when available. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.

Please could you give me an indication of the current status.

Thanks,
Jonathan.

12 April - Response from Support

Hi Jonathan,
Normally, International shipments take between 4-6 weeks.

Cheers,
bonnie

29 April (1 month after purchase) - Email to Support

Hi there,

Regarding my original query, I indicated I was concerned that I hadn't been able to use the USPS site to track my package, and now that we are around 4 weeks since my order was placed I STILL don't see anything happening on the USPS site:
http://trkcnfrm1.smi.usps.com/PTSInt...=LJ572538053US

I understand that international orders take longer, but without any sort of valid tracking information I fear that the package has made it's way into through to the Penal Zone I destroyed in the latest Sam and Max episode.

Please could you confirm the status of my order.

Thanks,
Jonathan.

3 May - Response from Support

Tracking information is LJ572538053US from USPS Priority International. It shipped on April 2nd, so any day now...

Cheers,
bonnie



29 May - Today

It is not 29 May, and the following is noted:

• I have not received my delivery
• It is far more than the six weeks indicated for international delivery
• The USPS page has still not been updated to show anything else except the words "electronic shipping info received" (the goods are hardly electronic, so tell me exactly how that means that you did in fact ship it?)

Where is my order?

First of all, I'm not sure why your thread has "Support Ineptitude" (or "Order Bungle", by the way) in the title, since you got a same day reply to your first request and a reply four days later (but two of those were on a weekend, so it's more like two days) to your second request.
Secondly, "electronic shipping info received" does not mean that the goods are electronic, but that the shipping information and postage was processed online (here), generating an address label with postage and a barcode.
Thirdly, I have had such packages (with online printed address label and postage) sent to me plenty of times in the past and when it's through USPS, it pretty much always says "Electronic Shipping Info Received" until I receive it. It's more of a delivery confirmation than a tracking number.
Where Telltale support is (I believe) wrong, however, it's in their estimates for the delivery of the package.
Whereas the international services they used in the past would often take 4 to 6 weeks, Priority Mail International is only supposed to take 6 to 10 business days to anywhere in the world.
Your best option, rather than post in the forum would be to e-mail them one more time (don't forget it's the weekend, though) and let them know you still have not received the package.
Since it's been two months, I'm sure they will look into it and do what is right (Telltale is like that ;)).

This email was intended for Telltale, but I will answer your post; any degeneration into a flame war and I'll ignore further replies.

My original mails were quite explicit, I had already visited the tracking site and that I had seen no change. In both cases my question was not answered, giving the implicit indication no-one had investigated my questions at all. Hence, I did not feel that Support were truly responding to my query at all. A simple explanation of the statuses on the page, as you have done now, would have gone a long way in assisting me to understand what was actually going on.

Since I felt that the Support emails were not providing me with decent information I came here.

9 weeks is hardly fair, so I'm sure you can understand my building frustration.

This wasn't an email. An answer from a forum member is not a flame. I hope you don't mean explicit, perhaps detailed? Bonnie clearly investigated it to tell you it shipped on the 2nd. My orders sometimes take up to 2 months+. Support did respond, maybe the first one was not detailed enough I agree. Telltale are an awesome company and they do try their best, but they can get backlogged. I recommend you relax and imagine how cool it will be when your merchandise arrives. I hope you don't see this as an insult, I'm just trying to explain stuff. If it hasn't arrived in a few weeks (2 to 4) I recommend coming back here.

29 May

Posted on Telltale's forum

3 June - today

No reply as of yet.

Yeah, don't complain about that. Right now their support people are back logged. I had put in a support ticket about a week and a half ago and just got an answer. They're back logged due to their ToTMI bundle they did and the new Sam and Max bundle. I ordered the sam and max seasons 1 and 2 DVD's and they've still not shipped (a week ago today). Ofcourse I'm not going to complain because I know right now they're swamped with support tickets and massive ammounts of complaints due to the ToTMI DVDs, and I'm going to assume the new Sam and Max Complete is havinbg a bunch of orders for the Sam and Max DVDs.

According to this blog post, they have just finished up making copies of the Imp Max T-Shirt and are going to be shipped soon. Apparently they had a long creation process this time. You should get it soon. Do not worry. They have just been distracted.

20 June - today

STILL no reply to my thread. Oh well, I'm giving up now, $50 down the drain.

there are tons of replies to your thread. This is one of them btw.
Please contact support again. Tell them it's Xweeks now. They will look into where you package landed now.

The assumption was that I would receive a response from a Telltale representative. Whilst I appreciate other users responding, it won't help my cause, hence why I was saying there isn't a reply [by Telltale].

I have emailed them again, this will be the third ticket I've opened with them.

AFAIK, they only have Bonnie full time on their support team, and they've had an overwhelmingly huge amount of tickets in recent months.

Some of the other staff will sometimes pop in and help out with support if they get a chance, but they are really, really backed up at the moment.

They really need to add that to here.

Vie,
Please check your pm's. I have reshipped your order. Please let us know when it arrives.

Thanks,
bonnie