Banana Republic - Horrible Customer Service Experience

[Shomas]

It depends on the place. On my block, there's no way any delivery service would leave a package out, but in some suburban neighborhoods, they'll do it.

[pratyk]

Wow, in the states if youre not there they just leave the package on your doorstep!?!? That would have me paranoid as hell. Here, if youre not there to receive it, they leave a notice, and deliver it to the nearest post office or distribution centre. You can then arrange to have them send it to you on another day or just go pick it up from there yourself (mine is a convenient 4 or so blocks from my house ). Even worse at an apartment. If they just put it by the entrance, tons of people walk past that and the chances of one dick helping themselves to it are pretty high.

Usually, they do not. I've noticed that the non-Smartpost type of packages require a signature or a signed copy of the delivery notice for them to leave the package behind. Fortunately, my UPS guy delivers after 5 pm 2-3 days out of 5 so I'm usually home to receive the package.

Only if they had some sort of a check to look at the amount of stuff being shipped before deciding the mode of shipping, etc.

[mcadamsandwich]

Sidenote: Putting in a claim with UPS, etc. has to be one of the most futile customer service experiences one can endure. My buddy put in a claim about a package that was damaged in transit and I don't think he ever got any money for it.

At my office, we use nothing but UPS to ship packages. From a business POV, their claim system is fairly simple. Could be different on the consumer end though.

[Vicious49]

I've been lucky that I've never had a package stolen. They leave packages on my doorstep all the time. Im home on most days but even the days I'm not, no one touches the packages.

[Fred G. Unn]

It depends on the place. On my block, there's no way any delivery service would leave a package out, but in some suburban neighborhoods, they'll do it.

Yep. I never had a doorman building while I was still in the city. In one apartment the super would sign for stuff, but if he wasn't around you were just out of luck. Now in NJ the UPS guy leaves stuff literally every day since my wife and I both do almost all our shopping online.

[Ragu]

Backstory: A little over a year ago, I had ordered a Trench Coat from Banana Republic's Online site. UPS marked the status as "Delivered" but the package was never delivered to me. I contacted the customer Service and they issued me a refund.

Fast Forward to the present:
I ordered a bunch of items from BR.com with the recent 35% off coupon, including the winter coat. The total for the merchandise was about 225-250$. The estimated delivery date was last week and I kept on waiting for the order to arrive. I forgot about it for a few days and I remembered to check the shipment status yesterday since i recollect their 4-7 day free shipping being slow at times. The package was shipped via UPS Smartpost (where UPS hands over the package to USPS for local delivery).
.

Hello Dappered,

I must also complain about a shipping problem I had with Banana Republic. I ordered about $225-$250 worth of merchandise that never arrived on my doorstep. Luckily I found it in Boston, MA and figured out where the error was -- they put the wrong shipping label on the box! As BR is so incompetent at shipping (plus they got the sizing wrong) I am now giving away all of this BR swag for free, including a winter coat. Please let me know what items you would like.

Best Regards,

Ragu, a Nigerian Prince


4SRS though OP, be sure you put in an notice with the credit card company ASAP to protect yourself. I had a similar issue ordering from the Gap once, and they arrived 10 days after their scheduled delivery. I also contacted my local post office and a postal inspector got back to may saying they were looking into it. I never found out what caused the delay, but once the items arrived, I told the CC company that the charges were now legitimate and to drop the report. So just know that there is recourse, you aren't the first one to experience it, and you might get lucky in another week or so.