…it’s to rant, but it’s still a blog post.
I’m a Quarterly subscriber, and yesterday I received this email. Wow, what a terrible email. Here are my problems with it:
- Shipping to the US is still free. But now they’re pretty much doubling the cost of shipping to Canada. Not cool.
- There is no explanation of why they’re increasing shipping. Only that “it’s a bummer”. Sure is, but more for me than it is for you!
It’s so dismissive. The tone of it bugs me so much because of that. When you’re telling your customers bad news, don’t just call it a bummer – explain what happened. There isn’t even an apology, it’s just written like “hey, so we’re going to start charging you more. Enjoy!” I’m a rational person, if there’s a real reason for this (we just received word from our international carrier that they’re doubling our costs – we’re going to look for a new carrier, but in the meantime we have to do this).
Other US companies are doing things right – another subscription I have announced that they’re lowering their shipping rates because they’ve found a cheaper way to send things. Not the case here apparently.
I replied to the message and got an auto-reply that my email has been received. Guess for now I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.