LONG post...my experience with RM's Sarah/RM's correspondence syst*UPDATE*

viciel

Glendarroch
O.G.
Nov 9, 2006
4,377
1,646
It's a long thread....
MODs - I hope it's OK to start a new thread. I didn't want to steal Stillsearching's thread and it's not exactly a quality issue with RM.

Exactly 1 month ago, on March 6, I emailed Sarah ([email protected]):

Hi Sarah,

I recently bought a MAM through an authorized retailer but returned it for
another bag because one of the studs had problems. Not sure if that
qualifies me to receive a 'pick me up' neon pouch.

Thanks,
(Me)

A few days later, on March 10, I received an email from Sarah:

Hello (Me),

Thanks for your email, you will for sure receive a free neon Minkette
pouch as a pick-me-up from Rebecca. Your pouch will be picked from a
surprise grab-bag of fluorescent orange, yellow, pink, and smooth black
patent, sure to become your new favorite! I will be shipping all 150 at
once so I’m sure no one gets left out.

Can you please provide your shipping address?

Thanks!

Sarah J. Apodaca
Customer Care Manager
[email protected]
212.677.7829


I wrote Sarah back on the same day providing her with my address. Of course, I didn't receive anything, and I almost forgot about it until I saw the thread http://forum.purseblog.com/rebecca-minkoff/thank-you-to-rebecca-all-lovely-ladies-rm-440651.html by stillsearching.

So I wrote Sarah asking if she had sent mine yet, no response. Then I thought, they only have a handful of people at the office(I was assuming), and maybe they're just too busy to reply to all the emails or maybe they haven't even gotten to my email yet, I also remember reading somewhere on the forum that it might be better to just call whenever we had a question/issue. So I called and asked for Sarah. Whoever answered my call said that Sarah's not available and asked me why I was calling her. I told her I was trying to get an update on the pouch, but before I could even finish my sentence, she cut me off and told me to just give her my name and number and Sarah would call me back the same day - the girl sounded rather irritated. So I left my information, and that was a week ago.

At this point, one month later, this is what I have come to realize:

  • There's no such thing as customer service from RM - I've read plenty of good and bad and the ugly on this helpful forum - but now, I can finally see for myself what it's like. I'm just not good enough for them :huh:
  • A free pouch would have been nice - but I can certainly live without one - I thought to myself that maybe they overpromised on their freebie and decided to just cut some people off - but wouldn't it be nice to just let me know? I'm a reasonable person and I would certainly understand, it's just that I'd rather not be told I'd be getting one and then pushed aside so to speak and ignored :hrmm:
  • I thought about contacting RM expressing my disappointment, but then again what's the point? So here I am telling you ladies my story, just my personal experience dealing with RM.
Thank you for 'listening' to me:smile:
 
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Sarah has been slow to respond to emails lately, I don't know what the hold-up is. All I know for sure is that RM and co. need to hire another CS rep that will bear half the load because Sarah is getting swamped with emails. One person just can't handle it, they need another person.

I'm sorry that your experience with CS is bad. RM's CS before Sarah was even more crappy, so everyone is hoping that it'll improve with Sarah from here on out.
 
yes I agree, as extraordinary as Sarah is, she is just 1 person. I'm sure one of the ladies on here would love a CS job with RM. They should hire at least 1 more person to help Sarah.
 
Hmmm, I don't really know what to think about all of this.

I think (and I am basing this off only my own experiences here) that its really weird that you got less than friendly service over the phone. Every time I have called RM's office (and that has been a lot of calls from the past till right up until last week!) I have dealt with friendly and courteous people. Well once, a looooong time ago I had an issue with someone who is no longer with RM. So yeah, perhaps whoever you spoke with was having a bad day? We all know how that goes.

Also, as far as the pouches go: It could have very well been lost in the mail or stolen from the mail. Hell, I'm always surprised when things make it to me. If you had responded to the thread where Sarah offered the free pouches and were one of the first 150 girls then there is no reason why you should not have been on that list and your pouch mailed.

If its something you are interested in receiving than I would recommend following up with Sarah. Sometimes patience is necessary. Poop happens. Sarah is for sure overworked and sadly, it seems like she is doing it all on her own.
 
I just want to chime in here and say that I'm sorry that you had this bad experience with RM's CS, and secondly, I have always had very good dealings with Sarah. I know I am usually the gloomy gus on here, but Sarah has always been very nice to me, answered my emails promptly, and tried her best to get me all of the information/answers that I need, even if they aren't the ones I want to hear.

I don't know why she hasn't gotten back to you, and all I can say is that you should try calling again. Sarah is very nice and I can't imagine that she would be giving you the "brush off." Don't feel like you are not "good enough" ...because you are!!! If she said you would get a pouch, then you deserve to get one...so you should call!
 
Aww, I'm so sorry this happened to you & the person on the phone didn't really seem to care. Having dealt with Sarah personally on pretty much the same issue....I bet it just got lost in translation. I would email her again & explain the sitch. I emailed her about the pouch a little over a week ago & she emailed me back the next day & I received the pouch 2 days later. She had apparently never gotten my first email that I had forwarded her & she was very sweet & apologetic. I wish you luck, I'm sure it will all work out. :flowers:
 
To be honest, Sarah does seem to be very hit and miss with her consistency in replying to emails, and the waiting time involved. I've had to wait days or even a full week for responses from her, sometimes even after sending multiple emails. I know others have experienced the same as well, yet there are some who've also had very prompt responses from her. :shrugs: If it's a more complicated issue or whatever, I guess you could still excuse the lack of responses if you wanted to, but yours seems like a pretty simple one, so who knows what's going on there. RM definitely needs more people working on CS, though!

I've never tried calling RM before (I live overseas so international calling can get pricey), so I'm afraid I can't comment there. That's not acceptable that the person you spoke to was so short with you, though. I find it's always useful to ask for the person's name so you at least know who you're speaking to! (And if it deters them from being rude or whatever... :P)
 
Just to want clarify that I never spoke with Sarah on the phone and I've only had that one email from her asking for my address since she never responded to my emails after March 10th. The person I spoke with over the phone - I didn't ask for her name and she was very friendly when greeting me in the beginning - she didn't start cutting me off and sounding irritated 'til I tried to answer her question why I was trying to speak with Sarah. I even asked if I should expect Sarah would call me within a few days - it was the person answering the phone who told me Sarah would call me back by the end of the day.

I understand Sarah might be busy - my job sometimes lands me 60-80 time-sensitive emails a day that require some research/homework before responding, so I can imagine her being just as busy - probably MORE busy than I am, but I can't imagine she's so busy that she's 3 weeks behind on her emails. I don't think my email could have landed in her Spam box either because she got my first email and wrote me back. Many things could have happened and I'm not trying to say that RM's got terrible staff. All I'm saying is that I personally have not had that stellar of an experience. I'm not going to call or email them anymore, at this point, getting or not getting the pouch is not important anymore, if I did talk to them, it'd be letting them know of my experience, but like I said before....what good would that do?

I know lots of PFers have excellent experience working with RM staff and I'm not trying to take that away.
 
I'm sorry to hear about this experience with RM, but I'm sure it's a misunderstanding. I agree that Sarah is overworked, and I know how easy it is to get sidetracked. I don't do the same job as Sarah, but I too am overworked, and instead of having 3 people do my job its just me. I have also contacted Sarah and Codi, and sometimes don't get an answer for days or even a week, sometimes longer. I understand why your frustrated, but I think you should email her back, and Codi to see the status of your pouch. I certainly don't think its a matter of you not being good enough, there's no reason for them to think that.
 
Sarah has A LOT of email to response to.. I don't think she just ignore any emails. it may just take her some time (because other things going on too) to response. I remember sending her an email, she responded about a week later. Or Perhaps it didn't go through. It doesn't hurt to send another one or two to follow up. This happens ALL THE TIME.. some emails just get lost in space.
 
^OMG! I called one time and this Kim person picked up, she sounded just like who you spoke to when you called. She was the rudest person! I was so peeved! She asked why I called, but didn't want to hear it and cut me off. I thought about telling Sarah, but when I talked to her (she called back) the conversation was so quick, I couldn't really get it in, or was too perplexed by the speed of the conversation to get it in anyway. (not in a bad way)