peachtree

More on my First Online Grocery Shopping Experience: Hm, no Peachtree Foods grocery delivery yet, and I have to leave the apartment in a few minutes. And now one of the disadvantages of ordering online comes into play...concerned that my groceries weren't delivered when promised, I checked the Peachtree website to find a phone number to contact. But there wasn't one. :-( So now I'm wondering where my groceries have gone, or where they might be, and mentally kicking myself for not getting a phone number for the pleasant-sounding woman who called yesterday. Ah well. At least I didn't lose any money (you don't have to pay until the groceries are delivered). And having to continue doing my grocery shopping in person forces me to get out into the Real World and Interact With Real People, so I suppose this experience is actually a good thing. :-)

Inklings has over 26,000 subscribers, by the way! And I'm pleased to announce that Rand Bellavia is now Assistant Editor. He's going to be helping me answer my (rather voluminous) business email as well as help put issues together. Rand's been helping me out for a while now, so I figured it was time to make it Official. :-)

[5 pm] Peachtree Update: Got home to four (!) messages on my answering machine from Jeanine (sp?), the PSPW (pleasant-sounding Peachtree woman). I called her back and she was very courteous, apologetic. She says the driver claims he tried making the delivery just past 11, but that no one answered when he called up (I'm not sure why this happened, since I was home until 11:30). I also received a lengthy email from Gregory Kalinin at Peachtree. Here's an excerpt:

Hello Ms. Ohi,

I wanted to personally follow up on the order you placed with Food For You.
It has caused quite a commotion here at The Peachtree.

First, I would like to apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused
you.  I would also like to thank you for spending the time to give us
feedback (without it we would not be able to effectively improve our online
grocery shopping system).

I spoke with Food For You in regards to your order.  It seems that the
driver who was to deliver your order arrived at your apartment building
sometime around 11:00 AM but he claims that no one answered.  He then
phoned back to Food For You at approximately 11:06 AM to see if there were
any changes to the delivery instructions.

You brought up a good point: that having a phone number to use for last
minute changes would be useful.  We in fact do have a phone number posted
on the site (it is on the first page of the information section at:
http://www.peachtree.ca/foodforyou/info/index.html ).  I guess you have
demonstrated that the number is not easy enough to find.  We will endeavour
to make that telephone number more prominent on the site.

While we are a small company, we have many happy customers who regularly
enjoy the convenience of our online grocery shopping service.  We are very
concerned when even one person is not satisfied.  Having been in the
Internet business for three years, we understand the power that word of
mouth has to amplify both the positive and negative experiences people
encounter - it serves as a great incentive for us to provide exceptional
service.

Summary: I was quite impressed by the response by Peachtree to my misplaced order and am willing to give them another try. (Yes, just ignore what I said about it being good to get out into the Real World :-) )