I want to give a fair review, so I’m going to write exactly what my experience has been and try not to let my frustration blow the situation out of proportion. I’ve placed online orders with this company multiple times. I’ve only had a problem once and technically it wasn’t Teavana’s fault even though I believe they could have handled the situation better. Every other time I’ve placed an order it was shipped within 3 days of placement and I received my package the day after it was shipped (In NJ), or two days after shipment (when I was in Syracuse, NY). I wouldn’t advise ordering tins from them because mine always came dented; they don’t package their items well (there’s usually just one long piece of paper in the WHOLE box to ‘cushion’ the items). In short the packaging is scant, don’t get anything remotely fragile. BUT overall I have had a POSITIVE experience.
Now, onto the trouble. I placed two orders on 12/26/11 (normally I wouldn’t do this but they were having a sale) and my packages shipped on 12/29. One was delivered to the correct address and the other was mis-delivered by UPS to the wrong city. All of the information on the package was correct so it wasn’t really Teavana’s fault, nonetheless I had to deal with the merchant, not the courier. I called Teavana customer service the next day 12/30 and after waiting on hold for a little under 3 hours (my cell phone records the time, I jotted it down) I finally spoke to a representative who seemed as confused about the mishap as I. He then proceeded to call UPS to put a ‘tracer’ on the package. He called me back about an hour later and informed me it would take 3 business days before any info came back on the package and that Teavana would be in contact with me. A half an hour later I got a call from UPS verifying the contents of the package and my address. Since it was near a holiday I waited until January 10th before attempting to contact Teavana again since I hadn’t heard anything back. I waited on hold for 32 min before deciding to try again the next day at an earlier time. On Jan 11th I called at 8:57 am EST and waited on hold for 262 minutes and 35 seconds before giving up. I should note that the first time I called (on 12/30) I was given the queue number 108 so I knew it would be a long wait. The second time I wasn’t given a queue number, so I assumed I wouldn’t be on hold a long time…haha. Also, each time I was given the option to ‘request a callback’.
Realizing it wasn’t likely I’d be able to speak to someone I sent them an e-mail and got an automated reply stating I would receive a reply in 24-48 hours. After a week with no reply (fairly about 3 business days since I don’t know if they consider MLK day to be a holiday or not) I e-mailed them again on Jan 18th, this time the automated message didn’t state a time frame in which I would receive a reply it just said ‘as soon as possible’.
After waiting 3 weeks and not receiving a response, on Feb 7th I called customer service again, this time I was put on hold for less than 15 mins before speaking with a representative. I inquired about the lost package and the agent told me she could not give me a refund or take any action until UPS sent the package back to Teavana (which they had found, according to the UPS website), she then told me she would call UPS to see what was taking the ‘found’ package so long to get back to them. She called me back within 10 minutes and told me that UPS confirmed they had indeed lost my package (it was never found I suppose). The agent then told me she was issuing a refund for my purchase.
You can decide for yourself if you want to do business with Teavana. UPS has lost a package of mine before, from Amazon, but Amazon immediately resent the package (with Overnight shipping). I don’t think I should have had to wait and be penalized because of UPS’ mistake. I didn’t even really mind that I had to wait so long on the phone(it was the holiday season after all) but I think Teavana should have either resent the package or simply refunded my money. Why did I have to inquire about the status of my package after being lost for a month? Shouldn’t they have already refunded me or contacted me or something? I may be over-reacting but I think this was just poor customer care. I would understand the need to have the package in hand for a refund if Teavana were a small company, because the lost product would obviously have a much bigger impact. But Teavana is far from a small business. If you never need to deal with their customer service you will likely be a satisfied customer, as I previously was. I will still buy from them occasionally, but I don’t really trust them.
Customer service and proper packaging are important to me (especially if you pay full price for their tins, heaven forbid), I’d give them 2 and 1/2 stars, but since I can’t I’ll put down 3.
You haven't written a review for this place yet. Write One
PurpleMushie hasn't written a review for this place yet.
I placed an order on 12/28 and my order shipped the next day. The website was extremely easy to navigate and I love that they offer multiple shipping options (FedEx, USPS) and multiple ways to pay (i.e Paypal, credit card); few companies offer such options. Each parcel also comes with tracking and you collect ‘loyalty points’ for each order. Plus you get a 15% off coupon for subscribing to their newsletter and they were offering free shipping.
My teas arrived in a timely manner and were very well packaged. Actually, they have the best packaging I’ve seen from a tea company thus far, each tin was wrapped in a large sheet of paper (and twisted on the ends like a tootsie roll) and there was lots of shredded paper so that the tins didn’t move in the box and dent. The teas were great, I wouldn’t hesitate to order from them again.
