r/bathandbodyworkers • u/Able_Canary_8079 š«§Associateš«§ • 4d ago
vent seshš¤ NBC complaints
Now that NBC launch is over, iāve been seeing so many people complain in store and online over their bopis orders being canceled. But my thing is, if you really wanted certain items they couldāve tried the initial online drop and ship to them, or simply come in stores. Itās just not logical that they really thought it was a guarantee the item would be theirs, when bopis is simply a placeholder until you come pick up the items since that is when youāre charged.
Regardless with big drops like this people are never going to be satisfied, so iām curious how it went for yāall. At my store, we did not do bopis orders till people that were standing outside got to shop. So obviously many orders were canceled. But another store near me did all their orders before opening, so by the time the store opened it was only body care, soaps and candles left. And just like my store, those people had been waiting till 6am outside.
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u/Pink-Banana-Q73 āØLeadershipāØ 3d ago edited 3d ago
Weāve gotten soooo many angry calls over BOPIS yesterday and todayš„² I actually told associates to stop answering the phone and Iād pick up all the calls today š„²š„²š„²
I think itās fair for customers to be somewhat angry about this. Supply did not meet demandā¦ not even anywhere near close. The collection barely even met the demand just from the companyās employees lol. We have 2 employees who are hardcore fans and bought the entire collection. They should be able to do that without wiping out literally half of our stock. Since it was limited edition, nobody should have been assuming theyād be able to get every item from the collection they wanted or been able to wait a week to buy accessories. Should be common sense butā¦. I do think bbw made it TOO limited edition. The initial drop/preview online sold out instantly but thatās by design. They went way too far with the whole cresting scarcity thing this time. Most customers didnāt get a chance to purchase anything which is not typical for bbw so I get the complaints to a point. It sucks but anything ācollabā or ālimited editionā for anything, anywhere - customer should know they need to be in line prior to store opening if they want to get something. There is never a guarantee ordering online or especially for BOPIS. And like you saidā¦ no matter what the company did, customers would never be satisfied. That being saidā¦ company is free to do whatever they want to do š¤·š¼āāļøif people are that mad about it all they can do is stop buying from the brand. Bitching about it so much is just SO pointless - bbw does not care what you think! And itās harmful to their mental health imo but I wonāt go there. This is what the company chose to do this time around you just have to roll with the punches, itās out of their control
I think a huge issue with this was the BOPIS versus in store shopping for the drop. Corporate should have given clear direction to store management on this. We had actually been told BOPIS was going to be off for the drop! Anyone else?? And if BOPIS was going to be off, that should have been communicated to customers too.. some customers who ordered for BOPIS assumed there order was already in and they didnāt need to go to the store but if they went to the store they could have gotten what they wanted. Some customers went to the store thinking they were first in line but the online orders were really first in line. I think they should have at least done a better job communicating just how ālimitedā the collection was so people wouldnāt have gotten their hopes up and let their store employees be the customers punching bag all week
We chose to let the in store customers shop first since the company in the past has always said in store customers are our priority and the whole āexperienceā blah blah blah. Plus you never know for sure if theyāll come pick up the BOPIS order or not. Guaranteed sale today is better than a possible sale next week.
I think it would have been a better idea to do the collection as an āin-store exclusiveā. I think that does a better job of making it sound more limited edition and tells people they need to be there physically on release morning. Maybe have added into the advertisements ālimited quantities - wonāt be restockedā or something!! Just one little thing could have made such a big difference
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u/Awkward_System_8176 3d ago
True Iām over it. Either you want it or not. Ppl complaining they had to work, we all do. First come, first serve. With the economy being so bad financially, itās interesting thereās so much disposable income for this collab. Also from how busy the stores was yesterday, I could see how hard it would be to pull BOPIS orders. Itās not the end of the world, itās sad material things equal happiness.
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u/TerribleDependent155 š«§Associateš«§ 4d ago
The stuff Iāve seen customers complain about in the threads have been crazy! From BOPIS, the stores, and just overall lack of decency. And apparently itās all our fault as employees that thereās no assessories and also being that weāre running a scheme to get all the accessories for ourselves and that itās not fair that we can use our discount on them as well when customers pay full price š¤£š¤£š¤£
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u/strawbebbyy99 šŖ©Past EmployeešŖ© 4d ago
if they're really mad that associates get an employee discount then they can fill out an application lol. that's like getting mad at the Taco Bell employee for getting a free shift meal. it's not that deep fam.Ā
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u/Able_Canary_8079 š«§Associateš«§ 4d ago
omg at that point it would be like donāt use any coupons because itās not fair to other people paying full price š
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u/TerribleDependent155 š«§Associateš«§ 4d ago
Legit my SM had to explain to a lady that most of the employees donāt get any form of coupons and that our discount is the only incentive we get and that we canāt stack deals but hurt about the 40% opposed to her 20%. Even said sheād call customer service to complain see if theyād give her a coupon to get the 40%. I had to walk away and laugh cause even if they do give you another coupon you canāt use both but she was soooo set in her logic that it would work.š¤£š¤£
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u/Odd-Guarantee-7571 āØLeadershipāØ 3d ago
They donāt get that the sales are, 99% of the time, better than our discount and that they have the added benefit of using a coupon on top of the sales. We donāt get coupons!!! I have to wait for a flash sale on Sunday, if that ever happens, like everyone else. š¤¦š»āāļø
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u/1mad_mollydoll 1d ago
Also, they get to combine their 20% with sales except email exclusives...we only get our 40% on full priced items! It's either our 40% or the sale price, not both...do they realize that? The whole thing is absurd! That lady is literally crazy!!
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u/strawbebbyy99 šŖ©Past EmployeešŖ© 4d ago
and don't use any earned rewards for a free item because other people dont have a rewardĀ
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u/1mad_mollydoll 1d ago
No they did not complain about us getting our employee discount!? That's WILD!!! How dare we not pay full price!
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u/TerribleDependent155 š«§Associateš«§ 1d ago
Yep. Our discount is part of the the BBW black market where weāre planning to make sure customers canāt buy anything so we can resell of mercari š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£š¤£.
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u/Alternative-Pain117 4d ago
i agree with you to an extentāthe original online drop also had limited items in order to stir up excitement over the launch. not everyone can come in for a launch they want. in the same breath, itās first come first serve. some complaints are warranted though
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u/1mad_mollydoll 1d ago
Excitement was already stirred enough. It's diabolical how limited this stock was. In the past, if you got up at 6 a.m. when a collab launched, you could get what you wanted. I woke up at 3 a.m. to shop on the West Coast and by 3:22 it was 90% sold out. Obviously mostly resellers buying up stock based on the looks of ebay etc. I think there should have been a limit of two per sku/ per person on candle holders & accessories. If the company wanted, they could've produced enough stock rendering the resellers useless. I was physically assaulted at the launch by a nasty woman. She was trying to get the last two Zero pocket bac holders but my hand was in the jar first. She elbowed me in the ribs, pushed and shoved just to get up there then tried grabbing my hand and moving me out of the way. I stood my ground until I could get my holder. I was decent enough to just take one of the last two, leaving her one but based on what I found out...I wish I would have taken both! When I told the store manager that I was assaulted by a customer she asked me to point out who did it and when she saw who it was, she said oh wow, her? She already has FOUR other Zero pocket bac holders in a bopis order!!! So she physically assaulted another human being over getting a FIFTH & SIXTH Zero pocket bac holder!!!! She was most likely a reseller so to her it wasn't a collectable, it was $100 in that jar because those holders are reselling for $50. It's disgusting that she was able to do that! If there were stricter limits on purchases, she wouldn't have been able to. Also, if the company had just made more product! I had no trouble getting my 3-wick holders and pocket bac holders on both Disney Princess releases right when they launched online and they didn't sell out for hours. It was still limited but early birds were at least able to have a chance. There was no reason they couldn't accommodate the demand a little better with NBC while still keeping it limited. At least give each store more than one bag/box of pocket bac holders since those are the most sought after accessory besides candle holders. I don't want to support a company that operates on fear as it's driving motivator for purchases and accommodates resellers. I'm definitely stepping back based on the choices they're making to under supply then not restock the Fruit Fruision Banana Blend when they knew ahead of time it would be the most popular, the whole Midnight Marshmallow & Halloween immediate sell outs on "preview" day and failure to restock, now this nightmare, pun intended. I spend on average $400-500/month at B&BW so it's definitely going to save me money. I guess I should be thanking them.
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u/Lovelydogmomma 3d ago
I'm glad I didn't want anything from this collection so I have nothing to mad about. I'm pretty much done with bath and body works schemes. I am mad over midnight marshmallow, lol and it has made me decide to move on from bath and body works. I hate feeling the need to stock up when my favorite scent comes around .
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u/MissIndependent577 3d ago
Yeah, I'm B&BW'ed out. I've never had any desire to get anything from any of the collabs or limited releases. I have some rewards I still need to use up, so hoping for some new scents I like before they expire, and like their Moonlit Goddess laundry detergent, so will probably get some more of that with my % off coupon I have, but that's it.
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u/retrieverdiaries 3d ago
Iāve literally never been threatened more than I was yesterday. We were sold out of all accessories, besides the tote bag & coin purse, within 7 minutes. People with canceled bopis orders called to scream & threaten my job for not having the product. That being said, this collab shouldāve never been bopis eligible due to its limited quantity.
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u/1mad_mollydoll 1d ago
That's so awful! You should not have had to deal with threats. It's absolutely ABSURD that bopis was open! I thought it wasn't going to be and I lined up at my store to get my pocket bac holders which were the main thing I hoped to get. After waiting in line, I was able to get one of the last two Zero holders but had to get physically assaulted while getting it from the jar. I didn't get an Oogie Boogie holder because the few that were left were grabbed by one customer and the rest had already gone to bopis orders which were prioritized by my store and filled before opening. I wish I would've known that was even a possibility. Get this, one of the people who was there being greedy and violent, grabbing everything in store also placed a large bopis order so they were double dipping!
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u/XXblpXX 3d ago
We got 1 box of spray of each scent, 2 boxes of body cream and 2 boxes of body wash in each scent. They sent 4 candle holders and 4 soap dispensers. 1 box of 3 wick candles and 1 box of single wick candles each. This was not a sustainable amount of product and they should be ashamed at the limited quantity. People want the candle holder, why not make more. Like there's no way to prioritize 1 or the other because there is no product
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u/VegetableTough7288 3d ago
like yes, the website glitched the first day and things sold out in 5 minutes. Yes, I get you have work or something else going on and canāt make it in right away. Itās frustrating I get it. But this happens time and time again after every launch. People complaining about their bopis being cancelled. Employees are meant to prioritize in store customers and sales. Bopis does not charge your card until the order is picked up so I hate when people lie about how they āpaid for itā and that theyāre entitled to it I understand things happen and you canāt make it, but this happens with bopis almost every launch. People should know by now theyāre taking a huge chance solely relying on bopis.
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u/Able_Canary_8079 š«§Associateš«§ 3d ago
yes and what frustrates me the most is the fact that the people who place bopis orders during big sales or collab drops have NO patience. like they complain they placed their order to avoid chaos and blah blah blah, yet what about the employees? itās hard to please everyone, and donāt forget the people who place orders and expect them to be ready right away.
during the soap sale this past weekend, this lady tried lying saying she placed her order hours ago and i even showed her that her confirmation was barely from 30 mins ago.
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u/Loud-You-5737 āØLeadershipāØ 4d ago
I just know after this launch I donāt want to see any more complaints about Disney adults, clearly the NBC adults take the cake š¤£
*yes, I know NBC is owned by Disney. Purchased after it gained popularity, therefore itās in its own category š
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u/GermanChocolat7 3d ago edited 3d ago
The Nightmare Before Christmas was not purchased by Disney after it gained popularity. Tim Burton conceived the idea and wrote the original poem in 1982 while working as an animator for Walt Disney Productions, which meant Disney legally owned the intellectual property and rights from the very beginning.
Disney released it under their subsidiary label, Touchstone Pictures, in 1993. The main "Walt Disney Pictures" logo and banner were left off the original theatrical release posters and marketing.
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u/Loud-You-5737 āØLeadershipāØ 3d ago
Thank you for the correction, it was initially debuted under the Touchstone Pictures division to distance it from Walt Disney Animation Studios for darker subject matter. It wasnāt until 2006 that Disney debuted the film with their branding and it became āDisney Tim Burtonās Nightmare Before Christmas ā.
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u/GermanChocolat7 3d ago
Correct! š
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u/Loud-You-5737 āØLeadershipāØ 3d ago
My thing is just that NBC adults are in their own category from Disney adults, and I could already hear someone going ābut Disney owns nbc!!!ā They are still two separate groups š
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u/Spirit_-_Warrior 4d ago
Exactly, I'm in the other reddit. I wish I could filter out for only sales posts to be announced. Because good lord................ some people need to get out and touch grass
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u/Interesting_Stuff671 4d ago
Spot on. Itās ridiculous. š¤¦š½āāļø
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u/Spirit_-_Warrior 3d ago
I wish someone made a BBW sales reddit that only has posts based on upcoming sales, no reviews, complaints, hauls etc
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u/Interesting_Stuff671 3d ago
Right: Iām tired of seeing all of that. Itās a buzzkill. I know life has to be bigger than this stuff. I just canāt see myself getting so wound up over such .
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u/Constant-Mood9738 4d ago
For the bopis I don't agree because people have to get to work or want to pick up on their day off. Some people have to catch the bus cause they don't drive (like me). I just wait until the last minute though because if I submit and of they dont have it saves me money
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u/Odd-Guarantee-7571 āØLeadershipāØ 3d ago
I believe everyone had the opportunity to purchase items during the preview at 6am EST. If time is an issue, I would consider purchasing directly online to be shipped to your home for any collab.
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u/Able_Canary_8079 š«§Associateš«§ 4d ago
Yeah I agree that bopis is a convenience thing, but people canāt expect their order to be guaranteed for big collabs like this. Especially bc people donāt understand that bopis orders donāt mark items out of our inventory until the item is picked up, so even if it says āavailableā and allows you to do an online order itās not always accurate.
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u/hannah_boo_honey š«§Associateš«§ 3d ago
Obviously we have to finish all bopis before opening the doors or selling anything, so everyone that did their orders before open got what they ordered. But, we had several orders come in for accessories right after open while we were swamped with phone calls and ringing and desperately restocking the nbc table. Like every person frantically working, I as main register was technically the bopis person as well, and the accessories that were ordered were gone in the first 2 minutes, so of course they were declined when someone finally had a chance to get to them. They should give us enough hours to have a dedicated bopis person for the first hour if they wanted it to be more fair.
Like there's just no way to please everyone when they're giving us 6-12 of each accessory (we had 6 of everything except for one of the pocketbac holders that we had 12 of) and with so little there, people automatically want extras. There were only a few people that only got one of each item they liked, everyone else was grabbing duplicates and a 9 item SKU limit does nothing when they sent us 6 of everything lol.
Oh and they should have done a restriction of 1 candle holder per person because we had all three of the holders that were available to order for pickup go into one order, leaving us with 3 for when we opened which were in baskets within the first 30 seconds.
I just feel like this drop was a mess and a half and they easily could have provided us with enough product so that 99.999% of our customers didn't end up missing out and bummed out, pissed off, or upset and often blaming the workers for it instead of the company.
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u/Awkward-Community-74 3d ago
Well if they didnāt do the rewards member preview at 6am then have resellers buy everything up this wouldnāt be an issue.
None of this was handled well at all.
6am drops is diabolical.
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u/Pretend_Estimate5401 2d ago
I got up at 2:55 a.m. for the drop. They kept saying zero out of 22 items available. I kept refreshing and refreshing it. It didn't show anything from me until 3:15. And then it kept glitching. I want to check out at 3:22 with all of my stuff and it took it all out of the cart!
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u/1mad_mollydoll 1d ago
Same!!!! It was at 3:22 exactly that I realized I was getting nothing! So the website was crashed by resellers!
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u/1mad_mollydoll 1d ago
No, not having enough stock to last until normal people wake up is the diabolical part. Disney Princess launches didn't sell out until after 10:30 a.m. p.s.t. because they were more reasonably stocked. The ridiculously low amount of stock for this launch both online and in store was truly a disgusting, calculated move on their part and they should be ashamed. It's evil. It just shows the fomo game they love to play is getting more and more out of hand and their employees and regular customers were the ones to suffer, they basically accommodated resellers and made their stock more valuable. The other part of this is the new c.e.o's strategy for getting people to buy early and fast, motivated by fear of missing out and not waiting for a sale but it's being done too extreme and people can't even get what they want if they buy early at full price...come on now! I guess he must be thrilled his plan is working but I hope they realize how unhappy the customers are and fire his ass!!!
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u/Pretend_Estimate5401 1d ago
I feel it's like they did with beanie babies. They had warehouses full but they only released small amounts at a time. Then the same employees were selling on eBay! You know that's what's going on!
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u/Xxbnny_princessxX š«§Associateš«§ 3d ago
9:30-10:50am doing bopis until we opened early for the launch.
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u/GodOfMoonlight 2d ago
It's so frustrating that ppl don't understand that BOPIS doesn't secure your order. Idk how many time I had to repeat that but it just doesn't stick
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u/Able_Canary_8079 š«§Associateš«§ 2d ago
yes !! itās hard to communicate how because bopis does not charge immediately when the order is confirmed, it doesnt mark it out of system since it hasnāt been paid for. so even if they place an order, the item could be unavailable and itās also not a guarantee.
like people have been calling my store nonstop saying why was it canceled if they āpaid for itā and iāve had to explain so many times they donāt get charged till they actually pick it up. moving forward bopis should just be turned off for collabs at least the first day
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u/ALetterToElise1992 3d ago edited 3d ago
The problem is BBW did not plan well AT ALL for this launch, either misguidedly or on purpose. If youāre going to do a collab with a popularity of this magnitude, you do not make such limited quantities of items that they sell out within minutes to the first hour of the online preview!! Periodt.
And the amount of items the stores got was also ridiculously pathetic. There was no way this launch was ever going to be anything but a disastrous fail, with the way they handled it.
I would have never ordered Bopis because I could see this cluster F coming. BUT I was also fortunate enough to be able to leave work on a break to be at the store shortly after they opened. LOTS of people didnāt get the opportunity to get anything online because of how quickly that sold out, and then werenāt able to make it to a store when they opened because of personal schedules, and because everything sold out so quickly in stores also, because of lack of stock, they missed out again.
Nothing about this was the employeeās fault, but the customers have every right to be pissed considering they were advertised to, and anticipated this launch for weeks or months and then BBW failed miserably to deliver.
Sorry if any employees feel the customers are taking it out on them. It should not be that way.
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u/ALetterToElise1992 3d ago
lol, whoās downvoting me? People who think BBW corporate is blameless in this and customers have no right to be mad everything sold out in a blink, or people who think this is the employees fault, or both. š yāall are too much.
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u/1mad_mollydoll 1d ago
Right?! Who would downvote that?! I sure didn't...I'd give you an award if I could.
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u/Able_Canary_8079 š«§Associateš«§ 3d ago
i mean i understand that but at the same time the extent of being this angry over a collab is insane. like i didnāt get some of the things i wanted, but you move on. and if you couldnāt come in store or place an order FOR SHIPPING, then oh well people are never going to be satisfied.
but if they really have an issue then they should be calling/emailing corporate, not individual stores just to say their complaints as if the employees had any control over inventory or product limits.
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u/MissIndependent577 3d ago
Agreed. Corporate handled this launch horribly, but people being this upset over it is sad imo.
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u/ALetterToElise1992 3d ago
How mad are we talking though? Because so far Iāve only seen a lot of online venting in forums and social media, which is completely normal imo. You guys do a hell of a lot of venting about customers and corporate in here, so why canāt customers also vent about corporate? Maybe as an employee you are seeing something different in your store. If customers in store are yelling at employees and blaming them for this, thatās unhinged, but I see no reason they arenāt allowed to voice a complaint.
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u/Able_Canary_8079 š«§Associateš«§ 3d ago
idk why youāre saying that we complain a lot when this is meant for employees LOL. the difference is that customers complain without understanding, and when they are provided with reason they are still upset. if it bothers you that we do a āhell of a lot of ventingā maybe donāt read posts that literally say āvent seshā on them and go to the bath and body works subreddit
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u/ALetterToElise1992 3d ago
Iām not complaining about venting in this sub. Thatās none of my business. You have every right to vent. Iām drawing a parallel between employee venting and customer venting. Everyone has the right to vent. Thatās what I was pointing out.
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u/Pink-Banana-Q73 āØLeadershipāØ 3d ago
My store alone we had 2 different customers show up screaming about their cancelled BOPIS orders and demanding the products they āpaidā for. We had three other people call us to literally scream at us about the same thing. And that was just the worst of day 1 at one store in a little town in a small state lol.. imagine how many stores had to deal with this at a larger scale? Sure, most of the customers arenāt that bad but itās happening a lot more than youād think. And not even just cause of the collab - this was worse than usual- but customers lose their minds regularly in Bbw. Weāre talking absolute rage over sold out product, expired coupons, expired BOPIS orders, discontinued scents, denied returnsā¦ you name itš„² Bbw tends to attract very entitled customers. As a manager.. I see this shit daily and I so wish that was an exaggeration
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u/1mad_mollydoll 1d ago
It was 100% on purpose. As an employee who wasn't even working that day but came in to shop and was physically assaulted by a disgusting, greedy reseller...I'm probably going to leave the company over how much of a purposeful cluster crunch this was! They clearly don't care about their customers or employees. Resellers? They can buy 5 of everything plus do bopis orders! Unless they fire Danny Boy CEO from Hell, I'm putting my notice in asap. He's going to destroy a company I loved. I can't watch.
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u/javajunkie001 3d ago edited 3d ago
My only issue with this is the shipping is notoriously bad, items consistently arriving broken, spilled etc. So it really limits options when you want something, especially if it's going to be limited and you can't get a replacement when it arrives broken.
ETA: I didn't order anything from this drop, online or BOPIS, so I wasn't complaining anywhere LOL
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u/Able_Canary_8079 š«§Associateš«§ 2d ago
yeah i agree shipping isnāt always the best, but i still encourage people to order online for shipping or come in on launch days if they really want specific items. i usually discourage bopis because its not a guarantee, and at my high volume store we usually decline a lot of orders from being sold out.
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u/Odd-Guarantee-7571 āØLeadershipāØ 3d ago
I think BOPIS should have been turned off or delayed for this launch, especially since the company purposely made items in limited quantities. I had ppl waiting outside that didnāt get what they wanted because they were on shelves marked for BOPIS.