An apology from PuddyCards

I'm sorry to hear that you and your son have been ill and I understand that yes priorities change under those circumstances. I hope you are well now

However you are running a business that involves you in one of the most important days of a persons life. It would have been better for you to have gotten a friend or family member to send out an email or even just put a note on your facebook page explaining to people that you are unable to fulfil orders at the present time to give waiting customers the opportunity to source an alternative supplier. Especialy if your illness was as serior as possibly loosing your arm.

Vee Tee is a prime example, she was left waiting until the very last minute and had no choice but to get an alternative guest book as she did not know what was going on, maybe if her order had been made when she ordered it then the situation would never of happened.

A quick google pulls up plenty of N&P for your work but unfortunately also alot of posts criticising your communication

I read the title and can't see the apology. Seems a bit odd!

I do hope you and your family are well now, but I think perhaps this could have been avoided. It's turning into a can of worms now I think...

that's the thing though, I have fulfilled existing orders. Obviously if the outcome was that I was going to lose my arm, then of course I would have let people know and given them a list of alternative stationers that I know or even sourced the product for them myself. what happened to VeeTee was unfortunate, and I cannot apologise enough for the stress I caused her

I'm sorry to hear you've had such a rough time as a family, but I do have to disagree with the above statement. As VeeTee was forced to order - and pay for - an alternative book because hers did not arrive in time (IIRC, it arrived at her workplace the day before her wedding, by which time she had already finished work anyway), I would not consider that order fulfilled according to its original specifications and the delivery time she was promised. Whether or not the postmark corroborates your claim that it was sent on the Wednesday remains to be seen, but I think it would be wise for you to refrain from trying to justify recent events and simply apologise, accept that it has been a bad time on the customer service front and learn from these errors in judgment. Particularly when you are operating as a HIB, prospective customers will rely heavily on the feedback from people familiar with your work and service, so this really does need to be a priority for you. There is an awful lot of competition for stationer HIBs and it would be a shame for your work to be dismissed by future brides because of this.

So you class VT's order as being fulfilled as she received it before her wedding day? I assume she is out of pocket as she had to purchase an alternative aswell as pay for the one you made.

I know I'm talking for Vee Tee here but she ordered from you in october, after numerous emails went missing she sent you payment on March 1st and only received the guest book on April 13th and her wedding was April 14th!

I'm unaware of the specific problem referred to in this thread but given that you are apologising for the standard of service you have provided as a business person, I think its unprofessional to give your personal problems as a way of an apology especially as you said "This is not meant as a 'boo hoo poor me' post" but you never mentioned anything other than your personal issues.

Also speaking as what might have been a potential customer in the future, If I wasn't already deterred but your previous poor service and unprofessional attitude then I certainly would be after finding out that your priorities have changed now.

Whilst this may seem harsh and I do have sympathy for your family difficulties, I'm just saying how I see it

Regards

L

I have to agree that the order hasn't been fulfilled if it was delivered so close to the wedding day.

If that's true then that is completely unacceptable. I would have expected receipt of it before Christmas in all honesty, for an order placed in October.

I am really sorry to hear of your personal issues at the moment but

this quote above really rings true to me; doesnt sound like you are apologising at all just justifying why you have been off the radar.

Sorry to hear of your circumstances, but what Red Baroness says is quite true, I would have expected it at Christmas (also I would say that taking urgent orders when you are unable to fulfill the orders you already have is not fair on your existing customers), and receiving an item 1 day before a wedding is entirely unacceptable (unless pre arranged with the bride) a little communication goes a long way when trying to calm someone in the run up to their wedding.

Completely agree with this.

You say you had other priorities but your customers' priority will be their weddings.

If you are running a business which has a time pressured or date specific element then you need to be professional and have a back up plan in place for when something may prevent you from fulfilling the responsibilities you have taken on.

Sadly, to be honest I think in this case less of a stir would have been caused by simply communicating better at the time, rather than after the event. It really doesn't take that long to send an email or update a webpage with a message.

Unfortunately, Jayne, us Hitchers have been having issues with a lot of the stationary HIB's lately with regards to communication etc and the issue with VT was the tip of the iceberg really. I doubt people are meaning to single you out but your views do seem to reflect that of other HIB's. It's quite frustrating having to constantly chase up suppliers and stress about whether our orders that were placed months in advance will arrive in time for our weddings. I'm sure you can appreciate that final week is stressful enough without having the extra headache of having to worry about things like this too.

I am very sorry to hear of your problems, Jayne, and understand that priorities changed at the very moment that you got taken into hospital (and I'm a doctor so know how fast you can become ill). I can also understand that it must have been very difficult for your OH and the last thing on your or his mind would have been to contact your clients at the time. Was there someone else that could have done that for you?

Obviously, a wedding is not as important in the grand scheme of things as a health problem. And before anyone says anything - we all know in the rational parts of our minds that this is true. But, to a bride who is already stressed and nervous, it's the most important day in her life and anything that goes wrong leading up to the day can be a disaster. Especially if it's a service that has been paid for well in advance. It feels (and is) a huge let down and can cause huge amounts of anxiety, sometimes to the point of becoming ill.

The part of this story that concerns me more, if I'm reading this correctly, is that the book was ordered such a long time in advance but not delivered in enough time. Is there a reason for this? Because, really, the customer service for that is appalling! To have to wait months for a guest book is not usual practice is it? It would suggest to me that your service is not reliable. I do agree with some of the other comments that if you set yourself up as a small business you should be prepared to function as a proper business with reliability and good communication. Have you offered to compensate Vee Tee for her guest book turning up the night before the wedding at her work when it was too late? Gestures like that may at least go some way to stem the torrent of bad comments... And perhaps a personal apology rather than one on a public forum.

I do hope that you are well now and that your business doesn't suffer too much as a consequence of this episode.