Nike Air Jordan Comfort Vis 11: Sexy

I’d have thought that Finish Line would welcome the Aussie dollar with open arms, but not so Dear Reader…

You all know of my unnatural affection for sneakers.  When I saw the Air Jordan Comfort Vis 11s on Uncrate I knew I’d have to get a pair one day.  Jordan on top, classic Air Max below.  What’s not to love? And with the exchange rate floating around at $AU1 = US$1.05 why not sooner rather than later?

I figured that they’d sell out pretty quick and the challenge would be finding them as it was with the Jordan VIIs. I didn’t figure that they’d be so easy to find and then get stuffed around:

So I order at FinishLine.com.  They won’t ship outside of the US, so I set up an account at Borderlinx to store & forward.  Order’s accepted.

A few days later:

from customerservice@finishline.com
to deanlk@gmail.com
date Sun, May 22, 2011 at 12:05 PM
subject Finish Line Order Cancellation Notice

5/21/2011

Dear Dean,

Thank you for your recent order, number xyz, from Finish Line. We regret to inform you that we cannot process your order because we do not have the item(s) in stock. We attempted to find the merchandise at one of our stores, but it was not available in the color and size that you ordered.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you and you will not be charged for any of these items on your order.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding your order. Our Customer Service associates are available by phone Mon-Fri, 8:00am – 11:00pm EST; Sat, 8am-8pm EST; Sun, 10am-6pm EST at 888-777-3949 or by email at customerservice@finishline.com. Thank you for your order and visit us again soon at http://www.finishline.com/

Regards ,

Finish Line Customer Service
BE HEARD

Hmm…

Dean K to customerservice

Hi,

If these shoes are not in stock, why does your website allow me to order them?

Do you have a wishlist service that will notify me when items matching my order become available?

Maybe I can put my name down on a waiting list…

Finish_Line_Customer_Service%Exchange@finishline.com to me

Dear Dean,

In reply to your question on order xyz, the items that you ordered
might still be available to be ordered; however, we were unable to complete
your order because we do not accept billing, shipping, or I.P. addresses
from outside the United States. In addition, we do not use credit cards
issued outside of the United States. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

If you have any further concerns, please contact us again.
Thank you for choosing The Finish Line,
Jessica

Jessica
Customer Service Representative
The Finish Line, Inc.
3308 N. Mitthoeffer Rd
Indianapolis, IN 46235
1-888-777-3949

Ohhh

from Dean K deanlk@gmail.com
to “Finish_Line_Customer_Service%Exchange@finishline.com” ,
“ir@finishline.com” ,
“ceo@finishline.com” ,
“board@finishline.com”
date Fri, May 27, 2011 at 6:30 AM
subject Re: Finish Line Order Cancellation Notice
mailed-by gmail.com

hide details 6:30 AM (5 hours ago)

Hi Jessica,

That’s all well & good, but why doesn’t your site say any of that
*before* a potential customer initiates an order? A little courtesy
message when the site detects the visitor isn’t in the US would be
better than being messed around like this. Or go all the way and just
geoblock any visitor outside the US; if you don’t want to do business
with us, don’t waste our time letting us browse your wares.

And to top it all off, you guys don’t respect a potential customer
enough to tell the truth when you summarily cancel the order. “Out of
stock” you say.

No, no, don’t offer an opportunity to adjust the order details to let
it proceed. Tell ‘em you’re out of stock; they’ll never suspect you
don’t actually want their business. They’ll come back again & again!
Trying and failing! And we shall watch and laugh maniacally from afar!
Mwahahaha!

No, no, I apologise. You’re not evil. Evil wouldn’t explain itself.
Finish Line just couldn’t be bothered configuring its site to reflect
how it does business. You’re not malicious, just lazy.

And down one potentially lucrative customer.

Business must be good if you guys can turn customers away; for that I
congratulate you.

Dean