Can’t Get Mad at Drs. Foster and Smith

Nope, that’s just impossible. Even if I think they made a mistake that I shouldn’t have had to deal with. Even before I realized I was the dummy who read a question wrong on the
Drs. Foster and Smith Website.

For a dumb reason I mistook “How will we receive Rx” as the delivery method for my order as opposed to how they’re going to get prescription confirmation from me. And I’m thinking when I placed the order “of course I want it in the mail. I’m ordering from you guys, why do I want to pick it up at the Vet?”

So I got an e-mail from Drs. Foster and Smith Pharmacy yesterday informing me that I have yet to mail them the prescription for Heartgard Plus, and it can’t be dispensed. Of course I felt inconvenienced because now I’d have to call Drs. Foster and Smith and find out how to get the prescription to them, or even find out why they didn’t just call my vet (since I supplied the info).

Mind you, I got the e-mail before I realized my mistake was in simple reading comprehension. At that time I thought it was with the dropdown menu. Why would I mail Drs. Foster and Smith a prescription when it would be easier for me if they made the call to my vet.

But as annoyed as I was, as soon as I was connected to a call center rep, I melted. Instead of demanding they call my vet, I asked for their fax number… so I could call my vet and have him fax the information.

Maybe it’s because Drs. Foster and Smith recently helped me through the loss of a pet. Maybe I knew deep down inside that their call center reps were going to be sweethearts. Or maybe that’s what happens when you’re a company with a great reputation of always doing the right thing – knee-jerk reactors like me sit and give paw without a needed command.

Lesson learned: No matter how great your e-commerce site is, even the most intelligent customers are bound to make an ordering mistake (and so can I). If you can provide friendly customer service and not point out the customer error in a negative way – and do what you can to correct the error – you’re going to win a lot of lifelong friends.