Ho Incident Again...rethinking About This Business

[jasonmva]

I really need to vent about this. I had a show in late November that just closed last week (long different story there...let's just say host was slow and one guest held everything up because of a declined cc - I paid to get the show delivered...I have the stuff here waiting for a check). So the show gets delivered to the host's house. Well I get a call from the host tonight asking me for a list of what everybody ordered because there were no individual customer slips with the shipment. I aksed her if she checked the first box like the letter says and she did. NOTHING! and she wants to have the list tonight. Ok no problem I call HO. Finally get a call back after an hour wait and they say there is nothing they can do becasue shipping handles those slips. Excuse me?!? The CSR then tells me she could print a list and fax it to me. That would be nice if I had a fax at home. She says she can fax it to my work...I won't be there until tomorrow morning and the host needs this tonight. Now, I would be a bit more understanding if this was the first time this happened, but it wasn't. Thankfully the first time was with friends of mine so I caould go to there house and help out. This hosts works overnights and sleeps during the day.

So now I have to go through PP and create a list for her. Why can these people not do their job correctly and put in a packing slip? Are these packages reviewed before they get shipped? If not then they should be.

I asked the operator if I could speak to the supervisor. She transferred me to his VOICEMAIL!!!! I left a nice message asking for a call back tonight. So far nothing.

Sorry this is so long but this is really frustrating. I have been questioning whether I want to continue with PC because of so many things going on right now with me personally but then stuff like this happens that is beyond my control and makes me look bad.

 

[cmdtrgd]

Jason,I'm so sorry you have been having problems! I would send an email to HO - maybe even this post - and just get it down that you are frustrated to the point of quitting. Most people at HO are fabulous and there to help.One thing to remember is that during the holidays they work very hard to get orders processed and out to the customers in about half the time (or less) that they normally do. Mistakes happen. This does not excuse what happened to you. I wonder if they could have emailed you the list that they were going to fax to you? Would you be willing to call back and try that?Sometimes I have to call back to get the answer I want. And I try to send emails when a rep has been overly helpful so they get the recognition we all crave.

 

[dcypcar.chef]

Didn't she have copies of the receipts for the customers. Those printouts are only to tell them which boxes things are in. She should have had copies of the reciepts for each person for the warranty.

 

[dannyzmom]

Can't you just give her the host's copy of everyone's receipts?
When I close a show, as soon as I close it, I mail the hostess a Thank You letter (printeable off of PP) along with each guest's original sales receipt.

HO only just started including those packing slips last year and personally I find them unnecessary and a waste of paper. I already have each guests' receipt for the hostess...

 

[pamperedgirl3]

Can't you just give her the host's copy of everyone's receipts?
When I close a show, as soon as I close it, I mail the hostess a Thank You letter (printeable off of PP) along with each guest's original sales receipt.

HO only just started including those packing slips last year and personally I find them unnecessary and a waste of paper. I already have each guests' receipt for the hostess...

I agree. I always send the host copies of everyone's sales receipts. I keep the top two copies of the 3-ply ones & then mail the top copy of those along with computer receipts for outside orders with my thank you letter. If the host had that, he/she wouldn't need the HO ones.

 

[chefjeanine]

Jason,

I'm sorry you've had some bad experiences. In my five+ years with the business, troubles have been VERY few.

Packing guest lists are a relatively new addition to the Pampered Chef process. If you read elsewhere on this site, you'll read where I and others recommend that you not count on them being with the shipment.

Since it appears from your information that you are fairly new, I have a question/suggestion. Did you give your Host a copy of each guest's order? When you use the 3-ply order forms at your show, you can leave one copy with the host before you go home. Or, mail them that copy and a PP receipt for any outside orders. It's up to you to supply your host with this information. When you supply the receipts, you won't have to worry about what paperwork is or is not included in the shippment.

By the way, I think most people understand exactly what you said "stuff like this happens that is beyond my control". They don't think you look bad. You didn't pack the boxes.

Hang in there.

Jeanine

 

[jasonmva]

Didn't she have copies of the receipts for the customers. Those printouts are only to tell them which boxes things are in. She should have had copies of the reciepts for each person for the warranty.

I give my guests their copies and explain to them they need to keep it because it was warranty info on it and return info.

To be honest I never thought of giving the host a copy of the receipt. I just automatically assumed that the order slips would be included with every shipment. Guess I learned my lesson about assuming things.

HO said best they could do would be print and fax. I asked them to email it to me but they weren't able to do that. I went ahead and created a spreadsheet for the host and listed everything.

I have one show booked for January. I think that will be my true test. If something goes wrong with that show due to a HO error, I think I will be hanging up the apron

 

[ShanaSmith]

If you go to PP and print receipt you can select the show and print one page for each guest

 

[nikkijo]

Jason I'm sorry that you are going through this. Remember that no company can be perfect 100% of the time. No company can have 100% quality control, that would be to costly and take to much time. Unfortunately errors do get through. It sounds like HO was doing it's best to work with you. The person offered to you what was available to them, a fax. That didn't work for you (i understand I don't have a fax as well) but you could have had it the next morning. You could have just printed out the receipts on blank paper from pp to give to the host.

When you had all of these boxs at your house did you ever open them? I know when I have them delivered I open them to make sure everything is there and in one piece. I know it can be frustrating at times, I just had a show delivered and one item was missing and the glaze on one of the stones wasn't all there.

I just don't want you to give up on a company because of a couple of bad experiences. During the holidays a lot of companies have more issues than normal. One of my friends had a lia sophia party and it had a three week turnaround (which is not normal). It sounds like you use the carbon copy receipts, I would also give the host a copy of it so they can double check to make sure that everything is ok. Keep your head up, it will get better.

 

[cat]

If you go to PP and print receipt you can select the show and print one page for each guest

I do this all the time now. Jason, this would save you the time and effort of having to create a spreadsheet!

Go to Print, then select the Generate Pampered Partner Reports option.
Click on Sales Receipt.
Then you can pick the show # and the particular customers you want to print receipts for.

It's especially handy for phone/email orders. Instead of writing out receipts, you can just print them off of PP, after you've entered in the information. You just need to have the PP sales receipts paper to print them on (available from supply order) for the receipts to be "official".

Hope your show in January goes well!!

 

[rennea]

HO only just started including those packing slips last year and personally I find them unnecessary and a waste of paper. I already have each guests' receipt for the hostess...

I too find them a waste of paper and normally put them through the shredder.

 

[BethCooks4U]

I love the new packing slips! They give the guest another chance to have my contact information in their hands. They are not an official receipt but they do have all the show information on them. Often now the receipt doesn't need to be sent in to have the warranty used and I would bet that soon they will accept them as proof of purchase which will save us all $$.

I agree, though, that they are redundant with the sales slip. Be patient while they work it all out. It will make our lives easier once they work out the bugs!

I bet it is rare that the slips don't make it in the boxes. The people at HO are human too and (OMG ) they make mistakes too. BUT considering how many boxes go out of that place I think they do an awesome job!

 

[Tara1021]

I give the guest a copy of the order form and just write their total at the bottom b/c i take my laptop to shows. When i get home i go back and add address etc. After the show closes, I print a pp receipt for everyone on "official" paper and mail to hostess w/thank you letter. This way she doesn't have to depend on the packing slips to know what everyone ordered and can just drop the receipt in the bag. I think the computer generated receipts are much nicer than just giving the handwritten order form. Just my opinion.

 

[tlennhoff]

HO said best they could do would be print and fax. I asked them to email it to me but they weren't able to do that. I went ahead and created a spreadsheet for the host and listed everything.

You can get a free fax number from http://www.efax.com/ and essentially they send you the fax in email. I love this service as it lets me get incoming faxes without needing a fax machine, up to 20 pages free a month.

 

[Tara1021]

You can get a free fax number from http://www.efax.com/ and essentially they send you the fax in email. I love this service as it lets me get incoming faxes without needing a fax machine, up to 20 pages free a month.

HOW COOL!!! I didn't know that!!!

 

[PCGINA]

Tasha ~ you are just a wealth of information.....

Jason ~ sorry to hear of your problems with packing slips-- BUT-- remember - they are packing slips - NOT receipts.....

I can only reiterate what we keep telling ourselves "this is our business - treat it as such". You want to make sure the guests get their receipts - the best way to do that is making sure the host has officail copies created by you (or NCR ones) to place in their bags when their order arrives....

I agree with Beth ~ I love having one more thing with my name on it in customers hands...

 

[Shawnna]

I never use those packing slips. I always tell my host to use the receipts. I usually have at least 1 order that is a combined order and the host wouldn't know how to seperate it without receipts. There is always someone sharing shipping cost with a friend...it would be hard if there was a return, but this is what the customer wants. Also, if you have a past host that orders the host special, it shows up on the current hosts packing slip and not the past host. This is confusing to the host when packaging the products.

Don't give up on PC because of this. I have dealt with a lot of companies and they all have this kind of problem.

 

[MicheleC]

Tasha,

That's awesome info! I'm going to set up an account today as there are times not just for Pampered Chef but for personal reasons that it would be nice to have a fax.

Jason,

Don't give up yet. I don't know when you started but you've already had at least on great show. The first few months of anything can be tough as you learn the ins and outs and this is a more frustrating time than usually because of the Christmas season.

Michele

 

[jenniferknapp]

You can get a free fax number from http://www.efax.com/ and essentially they send you the fax in email. I love this service as it lets me get incoming faxes without needing a fax machine, up to 20 pages free a month.

I don't see this free service, I only see 16.95 a month? I would love to sign up for this... Thanks in advance.

 

[ChefAggi]

I give my guests their copies and explain to them they need to keep it because it was warranty info on it and return info.

To be honest I never thought of giving the host a copy of the receipt. I just automatically assumed that the order slips would be included with every shipment. Guess I learned my lesson about assuming things.

I have always given a copy of the sales receipts to my hosts. That way they get an idea what their guests ordered if a decrepency should come up.

 

[pamperedbecky]

I have always given a copy of the sales receipts to my hosts. That way they get an idea what their guests ordered if a decrepency should come up.

Yep, this is exactly what we did before they had those packing slips. I strongly recommend it! I always tell hosts that the packing slips are so helpful in figuring out which box things are in (especially for a big show!), but if there are discrepancies, to go by what the receipt says. I also mail the host a packet with the receipts and a thank you letter from PP. They always love to see how much they saved by hosting! I love that feature of the thank you letter.

 

[DebbieSAChef]

Don't make a hasty decision

Don't make any hasty decisions while you are angry. True HO and the shipping department haven't been doing a great job, I have had some problems myself, but the fact is the receipts are our responsibility. The packing slips are helpful, but they are something new and nothing I would count on or assume will always be in the package for my host to look through. Just make sure each host has a copy of reciepts in hand whenever a shipment is due to arrive and this will help him or her to sort through the items with ease.

Debbie

 

[chefmelody]

I never rely on the packing slips... I always send my host a thank-you letter with all the PP-generated receipts from the show. It also helps if people are combining orders... I print off the receipt of what the people actually ordered, then combine them before I submit the show. It makes sorting a lot easier.On the show where I signed up, the box didn't have the packing slips. Things happen... you shouldn't be so eager to quit because a piece of paper was missing!

 

[tlennhoff]

I don't see this free service, I only see 16.95 a month? I would love to sign up for this... Thanks in advance.

On the main page is an option on the right "personal/home office" and you'll see 3 options pro, plus, free and what you get with each option. Just make sure when you sign up that you go for free and do NOT request a local number as that is a for pay option. You can chat with a sales person when you go to sign up so if it looks like they are going to charge you, click on chat & find out how to sign up for the free service. I've had an efax number for years and only paid when I went over the number of free pages which was once.

 

[jenniferknapp]

will do right now...thanks!!

 

[RachelNguyen]

When I first started, I got a little frustrated when things went wrong, too. Now, though, I take it in stride. Someone once advised me to not take my business hostage. In other words, don't let minor problems get in the way of building a successful business. Boy am I glad I listened to that advice! After a little rash of shipping problems when I first started, it has been smooth sailing since and now I am heading to leadership and am planning to promote to director before July.

 

[PCGINA]

GREAT advise Rachel!!

 

[pampered1224]

Right RachelThe other way to look at is the opposite. Don't let your business take you hostage. If you let HO and your business run your business and you let them and it make the decisions for you, you'll end up running from it!
Think about every way that you can make sure all goes well. The one thing I was always told was that if you want something done right, do it yourself. Never depend on anyone else to do it for you. Right from the get go I noticed probelms with those packing slips. They were not always there as Jason found out. With the way HO was shipping though, the boxes and these got to the hosts before the "real" receipts did. It helped a lot when they did show up. But I simply explained that if the receipts were there, they could send out the products but, they would need to then make sure to get the "warranty forms" to their customers later. Anyway, what I did do was not tell them about the slips anymore. This way they had to call me when the boxes arrived. If I could, I would let them know to hang on until the forms came. Some of the figured out the slips though and I know their guests never got the warranties. So what do you do?
You makle sure to pick up the phone if a customer has no warranty and they have a problem. Makes you do customer care calls too! Helps all the way around then.
Don't make it a problem Jason, make it a tool to make more contact with your hosts and customers.