Lookfantastic.com Customer Service - Unjustifiably Terrible

This story begins on November 4th, when I ordered a present for a good friend, to be delivered to her at work. I paid with PayPal, and thought that quite rightly, that was that. Job done. When I received the order confirmation a moment later though, I was worried - the delivery address had changed from her work address to mine - despite the PayPal confirmation showing her address.

I immediately shot off an email with "URGENT" in the title and went off on my belated honeymoon shortly afterwards. And when I returned to work on November 17th.... my friend hadn't received her present, and I had a package. Great.

When I emailed customer services to complain, I was told that they didn't receive my email, that PayPal had given them my work address (not what my receipt said), and that they couldn't re-deliver the package as my friend's work address was a PO Box, which their courier couldn't deliver to. Fair enough, said I. Return my delivery charge, and I will lug the (rather large and heavy) box to her myself. I was promised a refund within five working days via PayPal.

Four days later, when I took the gift out of the delivery packaging so I could take it to my friend, I found that it hadn't been gift wrapped as I'd asked. A small piece of paper said I would be automatically refunded for the gift wrap. Which I hadn't. Bear in mind that the box had been sat at work for well over a week, and that I'd opened it four days later. So this "automatic" refund was long overdue. On November 23rd, I emailed customer services, and again, was told that the whole lot would be refunded within five working days, via PayPal.

Fast forward to today, 1st December, five working days later, and no refund in sight. One very angry email later, and I've been told that they can't refund via PayPal at the moment, and can only send me a cheque in the post. So, I have to wait for a cheque to be issued, for it to turn up, and then I have to deposit it.

All this, and the best apology I've had is the standard "sorry for any inconvenience caused". I've repeatedly expressed my annoyance, and repeatedly told them that they've lost a loyal customer, and yet, the customer service agents don't care. I doubt somehow I'd get fobbed off in person like this - but when buying over the web, you are a faceless customer, and sometimes get treated as such.

Needless to say, I won't be purchasing from, linking to, or recommending LookFantastic.com in future.

UPDATE: Wednesday 2nd December

I've now had two separate PayPal refunds out of the blue. I emailed to ask what was going on (as they arrived about an hour apart) and was told that their technical teams were working flat out to send PayPal refunds, and so my cheque refund was now cancelled. Nice to have the money back (finally).

I've also had a sincere apology via email from an online marketing person from LookFantastic, and a promise that my comments will be passed on so this doesn't happen again. I will also be receiving a small gift by way of apology. While I'm certainly glad that this issue is now resolved, I do find it interesting that the resolution has come so speedily after I began publicly shouting about it. I hope that in future all customers will receive sincere and polite treatment, before they feel the need to vent in a public fashion!