Snapfish: an awesome customer service experience

I hear all the time about people having bad customer service experiences with different companies.  Yep, it's happened to me too!  But sometimes a company goes out of their way to give good customer service, and I think it's really important to share those good experiences as well.  Yesterday I was blessed with some exceptional customer service from Snapfish, and I wanted to share.  :)

I had ordered our family photo cards last week.  I was so proud of myself that I actually got these ordered well ahead of Christmas, and I was able to get them when they were 60% off so it saved us some money.  We've used Snapfish many times in the past for cards, calendars, prints, etc. so I know they do a good job.  I was so excited when our cards arrived yesterday.  Then, I opened the box . . . the cards looked great, but where it should have said our family name, instead I saw "The Williamson Family."  Ummmm . . . what?  Our last name is not Williamson!!

At first I thought, Wow, Snapfish really goofed on this one!  Then I thought I'd better check and make sure it wasn't ME that had goofed.  You see, they put a generic last name on the cards, which you have to edit when you're creating your own card.  I was switching back and forth between a couple of different options when I was making them, and . . . do you see where this is going?  Yes, it was MY fault.  I had not reviewed the cards carefully before making the purchase, and I left the generic name on there.  So then I did what any sensible woman would do . . . I cried.  I had ruined our Christmas cards through my own rush and carelessness!!  I was mortified and very upset.

Jim and the kids got me calmed down.  He told me we could put some kind of sticker over the wrong name and it would all work out . . . and I tried to relax and remember that this was a pretty small issue in the grand scheme of life. :)  But I was still upset with myself.

I decided to contact Snapfish customer service anyway, being completely upfront about what happened and that it was my fault.  I know they guarantee customer satisfaction, and obviously the reason I wasn't satisfied was because of my own mistake, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to email them.  Maybe they would offer me a discount on another set of cards or something; I figured I'm surely not the only person out there who has done something so brainless.  And I wouldn't have been surprised if they said "Sorry, there's nothing we can do in such cases!"  That wouldn't be bad customer service, just good business sense.

But instead I got a kind email back from one of their reps, who said they were refunding the full price of my order "as a gesture of good will" so that I could fix the mistake and place another order.  Folks, that is some over-the-top generous customer service!!!  Even though I wasn't able to get quite as good of a deal as the first time I ordered, it was only a few dollars more, and I was able to go through a cashback site as well, so we will get a few dollars back, making it all even out.

I thought about using this for my thankful post today, but I decided it was going to be so long that it deserved its own regular post. :)  But YES, I am very thankful for the blessing of being able to reorder the cards (and yes, I triple-checked them this time to make sure I put the right name on them :)).

So, if you're in need of any cards, prints, or photo gifts this Christmas, I highly recommend Snapfish.  I'm not being compensated in any way for writing this post, I'm just a very satisfied customer right now. :)  Three cheers for companies who go above and beyond to make their customers happy!