Auggy said

Le Palais des Thés Customer Service?

On Aug 1, I placed an order with LPdT. Well, it’s the 12th now and my order still shows as “processing”. I’ve tried to contact them twice via their contact form on their website and twice via email using the email address on their website but I’ve had no response. They did, however, charge my credit card on the 2nd. At this point, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to get my tea but there’s no way to cancel an order online and I feel sure that no one will respond to a cancellation request if they don’t respond to a general order inquiry. Which means I get to open a dispute with my credit card company – yay! What fun! /sarcasm I told them in my last email that I’d wait until the 15th to do that. I question whether anyone is actually reading my emails but still, I’m going to stand by what I said and wait. Until then, I’m just feeling really angry about the whole thing. I hate bad customer service like this!

So here’s my question: anyone here ever ordered from the US site for LPdT? If you have, what was your experience? Any change you think I’ll get my tea?

30 Replies
Angrboda said

Oh no! I’m so sorry you’re having trouble with this. I was looking forward to you trying the toffee. I’ll just have to send you some of mine then. I’m reminded of the Kusmi order that disappeared for me, but at least that was ‘just’ the Danish post service messing up. (It never did show up, though)

Coincidentally, I was attempting to place an order with their European site last month and had to give up because the site was all wonky. I think they changed the design around a bit and forgot to point some of the buttons to their proper destination because most of them just pointed to the front page.

Auggy said

Boo for wonky sites! LPdT has an at-times wonky site, too. Like you can’t find the Toffee listed under their black teas and search turns up NOTHING product-related (results are just where the word is in their articles or something) but Toffee is under their Flavors → Spices. So yeah, that was a bit wonky. But because of that, I totally gave them the benefit of the doubt for not responding to my contact form on their website – maybe it wasn’t going to the right place or something. But two emails, too? Boo!

At least I put it on my American Express and they are super-good about disputes. I keep hoping to get an email saying “Oh my goodness, we totally lost this and we are so sorry because this NEVER happens. We will send you your tea RIGHT NOW and a few little extras in apology!” Honestly, that kind of over-the-top apologetic response is the only way I’ll ever attempt another LPdT order. Or just not try to set them on fire.

Out of curiosity, do you order from their (European) website or do you get their stuff from one of their stores?

Angrboda said

I use the site. I think the nearest physical shop that sells it is in Sweden or Norway or something and I don’t really fancy travelling for it. I’ve shopped there twice though and haven’t had any problems.

Auggy said

Maybe they just have their US site up as a tease and they never intend on actually filling orders from it. :P

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ssajami said

I have not ordered online, but I have a branch of LPdT not far from me (in Israel). They also have pretty good local telephone service. If you like, I could try to call them and inquire if have any information about orders placed on their US site. Not sure if they can help, but maybe it’s worth a try, it is the same company, after all. Let me know if I can help.

Auggy said

That is probably the most awesome offer ever. You are an insanely nice person and thank you for the offer. I think for now though, I’m just going to let it run the course and open the dispute on the 15th. I’ve tried to contact them all reasonable ways (excluding posting on their FB page but only because I don’t have an account) and I kind of feel me jumping through more hoops just to get what I ordered and paid for isn’t right. If that make sense. HUGE thank you for the offer, though!

Scott B said

posting on a FB page can sometimes get a company with lazy customer service to deal with you. It’s one thing to ignore a private email, it’s quite another for them to ignore a public complaint on FB that anyone can see.

Auggy said

That’s true but I think not shipping an order after almost two weeks (especially when their website says they ship the same day if the order comes in before 11am) is beyond being lazy. Part of me does want to create a FB account just so I can post something to them, but at the same time I feel that shouldn’t be necessary to make them ship an order, you know?

Scott B said

I understand where you’re coming from. If you still want the tea, the ad hoc FB account might work. However, if you’re so frustrated in dealing with them that you don’t even want the tea anymore, you do have the previously mentioned option of a billing dispute with your CC company.

Maybe some LPdT customers can offer their first hand experience. I know that I ordered a tea from a company recently (different company) and although they sent me an order received email, they never sent a shipping confirmation. After 3 days, I was about to contact them to ask when they were going to ship and the order arrived at my door the same day.

Auggy said

While I still hold out hope that someone has had a grand customer experience with LPdT and this current issue will get fixed with lots of apologizing, I’m thinking the more realistic outcome is the CC dispute and never ordering from them again.

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inguna said

I have ordered from LPdT a couple of times and had no problems with delivery and I was satisfied with the quality of their tea. I love their rose tea.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience.

Auggy said

Were they good with updating shipping information and such? Also, did you ever have to contact them directly and if so, were they responsive? Oh, and how fast did it take them to ship it out to you, if you can recall?

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inguna said

Shipping was pretty fast 2-3 days. I’m in NYC. My packages arrived promptly so I had no reason to contact them directly. To be honest I don’t recall if I got any notification or not.

Auggy said

Well, I suppose with that fast of a ship time, 2 weeks is probably not a case of it being sent but the info online not being updates. Dang it!

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I’m based in Paris – I’ve never purchased anything from them but if you need anyone to talk to them in person, please feel free to use me and I’d be more than happy to help if I can. I’m sorry you’re going through this hugs

Auggy said

Thank you – you are so sweet to offer! :)

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Auggy said

How interesting! So I still haven’t received a response from anyone at LPdT but I checked my order status just now (I check it a few times a day, just in case) and it showed as complete. So I tracked the package and – it was on my front porch!

So I’m torn – I have yummy tea and that makes me happy! But dude, not exactly responsive with the customer service, you know? Though maybe I’ll lose the bad customer-service taste in my mouth by the time I’m at the bottom of my teas! :)

Thanks to those who chimed in with info, ideas and offers. Steepsterites are awesome!

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I suspect that the order processed like normal but someone forgot to change the status to shipped so you never got the word that it went out. However, they received notification that the order was delivered status that time was changed this giving you the “complete”. However, still no excuse not to communicate with you via your inquires. Glad you got your order though. :)

Auggy said

Agreed on both counts – that sounds likely what happened but shame on them for being non-responsive! Though I will say, the package didn’t ship out until the 8th, so their “same day” shipping out turned out to take a week. I have to wonder if one of my contact attempts made them realize it hadn’t gone out so they just quietly shipped it out.

Very possible. What would have worked better for me is honesty. It isn’t like that’s something that can be hidden. Perhaps they will rethink their approach to the situation differently if it were to happen again.

Angrboda said

And even if they simply didn’t answer because they didn’t know what was going on, they could still have said something like ‘there seems to be a problem with the status page. We’ll look into it.’ Just anything. Doesn’t really matter what the reply is so long as it shows someone was looking in the first place.

I’m glad you got your package. :)

Auggy said

I agree. A concerned-sounding (even if it is faked) “our apologies, we’ll look into it” would make all the difference in the world!

But when it comes down to it, I’m glad I got my package too! :)

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Auggy said

Just as an update to those why might be interested, last night I got an email from LPdT customer service that said:

“We deeply apologize for coming back to you with such delay as we experienced a conjunction of redirection problems that impacted your order and emails. We are very sorry for the inconvenience you went through.”

Which, along with making me giggle just a bit, is basically what I was hoping for as far as apology (if I understand the meaning correctly). Plus they gave me a credit on my account for the amount of shipping for the order.

So not only was the tea received, a nice customer service resolution (eventually) occurred.

A (very slow) thumbs up to LPdT.

Babble said

“A (very slow) thumbs up to LPdT.”

Hahahaha. I’m sorry you had to go through that but I’m glad you finally got your tea! Was the credit a gift credit or an actual refund?

Auggy said

A gift credit, not a refund. The husband made a bit of a face at that saying, “You mean they are apologizing for your bad experience by making you buy more tea from them?” But honestly, I will be buying more tea from them at this point (I’m weirdly addicted to The Marin) so I think it all works out!

Babble said

Oook. I’m kinda with your husband on this one, but if you’re content, that’s all that matters. :)

Sil select said

I’m glad it worked out Auggy

Auggy said

Rachel, I totally see your (and his) point but I’m just going be content about it since I had written any response off. Low expectations are they key! :)
Sil, thanks, me, too!

Babble said

Let’s not forget the most important part here … you actually GOT your tea. I’ve had some online transactions go sour, and the worst part is, I never get what I ordered. Even getting it really really late is better than not at all :)

Auggy said

So true! And I actually got the tea in a relatively timely manner – it was just that their website made it look unshipped and then they never responded to my inquiries to the status. So since I had gotten it, I wasn’t going to complain too much, you know? Because you are right, it’s not uncommon for an online order to go sour. Even established vendors can prove untrustworthy!

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