UPDATED: Shopping online at Well.ca goes well, not so well.

Scroll down for the update

Being a self-proclaimed frugalite, I try to limit how much and how often I shop – in real life and online.  Just because I’m in my jammies and snuggled up at home, does not necessarily mean that I am saving money and shopping online is spending the same money that I try so hard to save out in the real world.  But every now and then, I’ll shop online, either because a deal comes along that I just cannot pass up ( read: I rationalize it and justify it until it is more of a life saving measure than just another purchase) or it is something that I just cannot purchase locally.  The former is more often the case than the latter, but either way, I end up shopping online sometimes.

I had been hearing the hype about Well.ca on various “frugal” websites for a while and never bothered to check it out.  Because I’m looking for ways to spend LESS money, not ways to spend MORE money and the less I know about a new place to spend money, the less money I’ll spend there.  See?  I’m all kinds of logical.  But then, last October, Well.ca had some kind of sale on and I gave in, clicked the link and started shopping.  They had some hand cream that, while kind of smelly, really did help my hands, so I bought that.  And they had a lip balm from the same company that I thought would be good for the kids with chapped lips season quickly approaching.  So I ordered that as well.  A few other small things and I paid for the order (using a coupon code and the free shipping offer) and waited.

But not long.  The order came quickly via Canada Post and was well packaged.  The enclosed packing slip had a jaunty ‘Thank you! :)’  in blue pen ink to give the whole “Well.ca” experience a more personal touch, or so I thought.  The products were as described and at the end of the day, a fair price.  I opened one of the two lip balms (I wanted to try it before putting it on the kids), when I squeezed the tube gently, the end of the tube exploded and the product oozed out.  Um, yeah.  So totally not happy about that.  But, the upside was that I bought from a ‘reputable’ company, right?  Reputable companies stand behind their products and make things right when things go wrong, right?  That is what I thought too, but nope, not in this case.  I emailed Well.ca and explained what happened right after the lip balm blew up and this was their perky reply:

“Hi Allison!

My name is Angela and I am a part of the Customer Care Team at Well.ca. Thank you for your email! I’m so sorry to hear you had a poor experience with Zim’s Crack Creme Lip Formula. Unfortunately we are unable to accept returns on opened products. I’m very sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. If you would like to contact the manufacturer they might be able to compensate in some way because you didn’t enjoy their product. I have included the manufacturer’s information; their phone number is 1-800-319-2225 OR info@crackcreme.com.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please do let me know and I’d be glad to help in any way that I can.

Have a great day!
Angela

Well.ca — Customer Care
customer-care@well.ca
Toll Free: 1-866-640-3800”

Yes, well, um, sure, I see.  But Angela, I did not purchase the possessed lip balm from Zim’s.  I purchased it from Well.ca and as such, it would seem to me that Well.ca should make it right for me, as their paying customer, and then they should deal directly with Zim’s about the defective product.  If I buy a television or a back scratcher, or a pot holder or a mascara from Sears  or The Bay, or Amazon online, and it goes horribly wrong, none of these other online retailers give me the number of the manufacturer and tell me to “have a great day!”  No, they take the product back, refund my money or exchange it for another product that is not ass-backwards and then tell me to have a great day.  And you know what?  I will then have a great day.  Because the company that I ORDERED from, and PAID, made things right for me and will deal with the headaches with the manufacturer INSTEAD of making ME do it.  And I appreciate that.  And I will spend money at those stores again.  And again.  And (sadly, yet very likely) again.

Does

=

on steroids?

This experience leaves me with the opinion that Well.ca takes nearly as much responsibility as Dollarama does when they sell you a defective or sub-par product.  That’s right.  None.  Except that you know exactly what you’re getting when you shop at Dollarama and you roll the dice and take your chances.  Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose your dollar store-loving shirt.  But that one difference, of Dollarama making sure that you know UP FRONT that if the s.h.t.f. with your purchase that you are on your own, makes it somehow much more palatable.  So, I continue to spend money at Dollarama, when necessary.  Well.ca?  Meh.  Not so much.  Despite the fact that their “Opps! Sucks to be you!” email reply was upbeat, cheerful and perkily peppered with cute and fuzzy exclamation points (!!).

As for Zim’s (the manufacturer of aforementioned lip balm)?  Well, right now, the jury is still out, but I think that I will be receiving a replacement product in the very near future.  If it happens, I will update this post because it would make them one company TO absolutely deal with in the future.  What about you?  Where have you shopped and been pleasantly surprised or woefully disappointed?  What did you do about it?  Have you gone back since?

Honour.  Integrity.  Value.  Accountability. And Free Shipping. Oh, and Online Coupon Codes.  These are just a few of my favourite things.  But free shipping and coupon codes ain’t worth much if I’m stuck with broken down crap (and chapped lips) at the end of the day.

UPDATE:  Zim’s totally came through and sent me TWO replacement lip balms.  And you know what?  I LOVE the product and I LOVE knowing that they are a company that stands behind their products.  Woooo Hoooo!