Little Boo-Teek

TL;DR: Store messes up a Christmas gift order, never replies or answers their phone, gives inaccurate time frames and then instead of looking into what they’ve done and genuinely apologising, they refund money with no further thought or explanation. Total time for order to be completed/resolved: 2 months and 26 days. I started my order with Little Boo-Teek on 17/11/2019. I accidentally broke a friend’s stemless wine glass and decided to replace it - and get her a few little knick knacks as an apology/Christmas gift. Two weeks passed and I heard nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve worked for Australia post - I’ve seen the chaos that comes with the Christmas season - so I was prepared to wait, but usually stores at least send a tracking number. That didn’t happen so I emailed the store (01/12/2019) (as per instructions on the order confirmation email) to ask for more information - an email that never received a response, even after waiting the requested 2 business days. So I did a quick online search (something I should’ve done before ordering & something I will always do after this experience) and found their abysmal star rating (at the time of writing this, 321 reviews, 2.2 stars) - I also found them on Facebook so I decided to message them (04/12/2019). Despite messaging outside of business hours, I was surprised to get a quick response, within 3 hours. Maybe things were turning around? The store messaged back that they would express post out my order the following day (05/12/2019) with a quick apology to which I responded an hour later asking if I’d be receiving a tracking number when that happens - no reply. Okay, no reply at an 11pm message? Totally normal, people need sleep, I’m sure they’ll reply tomorrow. Nope. Again, I waited the requisite number of business days and messaged again. I kept it polite but requested a tracking number and asked why, if it was an express post, it didn’t arrive within the time frame (09/12/2019) (again out of office hours). I got a reply 3 hours later saying the shipping confirmation was re-sent with a tracking number and link - I can’t go back that far in my emails to check that, I do think the email was received but I didn’t think to screenshot it and it’s not showing up in my emails anymore. So the parcel arrived on the morning of 11/12/2019 - containing 2 of the 3 items I ordered. The 1 item I specifically went there for (a replacement for the stemless wine glass with a mermaid on it) was not in the box. So yet again, I messaged asking for an update, explaining that the item was clearly in stock when I ordered it and yet again I got no response. I sent similar messages on the 13/12/2019 and the 17/12/2019 and called them on 18/12/2019 (twice - no answer, both times, within their listed work hours) before I finally got a response on the 18/12/2019. The response said the item was out of stock but they could refund me or send me out a different item if I wanted. I asked for different items (2 mugs that added up to less than the price of the glass) and was told it would be sent the following day, express. By 29/12/2019 the item still hadn’t arrived, so I messaged asking for a tracking number. Again, I understand it’s holiday season (and a Sunday) but this person clearly received these messages on a personal device if they’re consistently replying at 10pm. No reply. Fine, it’s the holidays, that’s fair. I decided to wait. To be clear, there is an automated “seen” message that comes in response to a message - this message didn’t get updated to advise of Christmas hours, nor did their facebook page or their voicemail. I also know that the Facebook page was active, they were creating posts all through the holidays which makes the lack of responses all the more frustrating. By 14/01/2020, I still had no reply and no parcel so I messaged again asking for an update and got a response saying they’d get back to me shortly. “Shortly” never came. So I messaged again on 18/01/2020, 28/01/2020 and 31/01/2020. By the time I sent the message on the 31st, I was pretty much done, at this point I was 2 months and 15 days into an incomplete order. So, as civilly as I could, I advised that if I didn’t receive a response within a week detailing where my item was, I would be taking it to the ACCC. Cue the quickest reply I’ve ever received from them (3 minutes after my message). There was an apology, a blame placed on the warehouse, assurance that the item should’ve arrived and a promise to chase it up on Monday (03/02/2020) - now I don’t know about anyone else but to me, “chase it up on Monday” means “I’ll sort this and get back to you on Monday”. Monday came and went with no reply - but in my ACCC threat, I gave her until Friday (07/02/2020) so I could wait until then. On Thursday (06/02/2020) I messaged again to follow up in case they forgot, no response. Due to personal issues, I forgot about the store over the weekend but on Monday (10/02/2020), I was frustrated again and I wanted to be clear what my intentions were in what I hoped was my last message- but does anyone really want to have to call the ACCC to handle something, knowing there’s a chance nothing will come of it? This time I was less polite, more clear with how frustrated I was - no swearing or name calling, just detailing the lengths I was having to go to to get a *Christmas gift* 2 months after the fact. I got a response 5 minutes later with another “I am so sorry!!” offering instead to just refund me. But wait, didn’t they say the item was sent? So, I said that I’d prefer to get the tracking number, chase it up with AusPost and if they can confirm it was lost (or hell, even sent), I’d ask for a refund. No response. Tuesday, 11/02/2020, I go for my most basic message yet, a simple “Hello?”. 6 hours after that message, I get told the tracking number wasn’t found and a refund was organised. I get that a refund was an appropriate way to end this. Except this whole ordeal last 2 months and 26 days. There were multiple periods of radio silence and cut off conversations. Sending “I’m so sorry” every time they can finally be bothered to reply doesn’t negate the time wasted, the frustration caused. I don’t believe that the second order was ever sent, what I *do* believe is that when they realised it wasn’t sent (despite their promise that it would be), they decided it was safer to just cut their losses than admit their wrongdoings, properly apologise and rectify the situation. Aside from their Facebook messages, I never received a response via email, despite that being the channel suggested in their order confirmation. I called the number listed as their contact multiple times and it was never answered. I don’t know if this absolute failure of a situation was the result of ineptitude or understaffing but something needs to change. Stay away from Little Boo-Teek.