A Tale of Two OLGS

In the last couple of years I've been buying games from on-line games stores. I've had very different experiences with customer service. Here's the first place I ordered from. I'm in purple, OLGS1 in blue.

However there's something weird going on. If I put in this order, it works OK and I can get a price for international surface post. .... If I add a copy of ---, it tells me the shipping method I chose is not available. Huh? Am I crossing some weight threshold or something?

you probably did go over some weight limit. try separate order for ...

But won't that make the shipping calculation wrong (and hence more expensive for me)?

it may. we watch the international shipping. the website is set up to charge get the cost from the post office website and add 50% to that postage cost to help cover the other cost. when the order is packed and ready to go if you were charged more than that then we refund the difference by coupon.

...

I apologize for this inconvenience. Our inventory was off by one for the game ---. We are currently out of stock. We may be able to get the game in soon. Would you like to have us wait 10 bussiness days before shipping your order, to see if we can get more of this game in now; OR Would you prefer to be given a refund of the amount of the game with the coupon that we will be sending you for some of the shipping cost, and us to ship the order to you now?

So in the end the stuff-up on their web-site was caused by the addition of a game that they didn't even have. And the extra shipping cost was because of some web site problem that they didn't really seem interested in. Nevertheless, they had my money and they weren't giving it back and I didn't really have anything else I wanted to order from them. Eventually the order turned up and the packaging was bad even though I'd ordered a VERY expensive game. I resolved not to deal with OLGS1 again, but I had to to redeem my coupon. I ended up ordering a game I sort of wanted, and paying full international shipping on a single game, which is very expensive.

Later on I ordered from OLGS2 and had another problem with their web site. OLGS2 is in green.

When I'm trying to make my order I get this error message:

1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1

John, sorry for the cryptic messages...it's an area of the site I haven't yet had time to work on.

I believe this message comes up when our FedEx server is down. It looks like it finally worked for you?

Let me know if you still need help!

... and in a later transaction ...

Here are the comments for your order:

CP922504407US

Is this a tracking number? With which service? Thanks,

John, we use FedEx. There should be a tracking link if you log into My Account and view the order.

I can't see a link (see attached snapshot of where I'm looking) and the FedEx site doesn't like the code. I'm sure the parcel will arrive eventually but I'd like to know everything's working as it's supposed to. I appreciate your help on a Sunday night!

John, sorry, I was distracted by the Superbowl

OLGS2 has never screwed up my order or charged me wrongly on shipping. OLGS2 has answered my questions politely and quickly even when the Superbowl is on. I don't even THINK about where I order from any more, I just go to OLGS2.

What have we learned from this?

1. an OLGS is allowed to screw up
2. as long as it doesn't cost me money
3. and especially if you're nice about it.

That's the difference between alienating me forever and winning a loyal customer. Now just say there was a feud on BGG between these two stores, which side would I be on?