Hanes Continues to Fail

This is a follow up to my post of 2/23/15 titled, "Hanes Not Your Way."

The March 9 projected ship date has come and gone. I called the order line. They said they are still backordered and the new projected date is April 6. (This is the third projected date that has come and gone.)

I then went online and started to place an order to the item I have been waiting for since Jan. 22. If I purchase today, the website is projecting a ship date of March 23. That means anyone ordering today is being told their item will ship a week before someone who ordered on Jan. 22. I have duplicated these same same steps THREE times since I ordered in Jan., each time with the same outcome.

Earlier today, I called customer support and spoke with a manager. I am no longer asking when my order will be shipped, because three projected dates have come and gone.  It's like hearing, "The check is in the mail."

The question I posed was, "How can Hanes legally continue to sell a product it has not had in stock for a month and a half and CONSISTANTLY project earlier delivery dates to people ordering today, than to folks who ordered on Jan. 22, and are still waiting for their orders?"

I went on to state that at the very best, this is horrible internal communications and processes. At the worst, it is possibly deceptive advertising and consumer fraud. It could impact thousands of items on backorder.

If that is the case, it is not an individual customer service issue, but a practice that could involve state or federal consumer law.

To date, Hanes has had not acceptable explanations and the only thing customer support has done is tell me I could continue to wait or to cancel my order.  The manager said she would look into the issue and let know what she found out.

At this point, it is not about my order, I will not cancel and will continue to document and report on the progress of this issue until it is resolved one way or another.

Update 3/12/15

The Hanes customer support manager never called back.  Today, I called in again and spoke with another manager.  This time, I informed her that I was recording the conversation for customer satisfaction.  In short I told her that I had given up on trying to get an answer to when my backordered items would arrive.  All that was happening is was the promised date would pass and I would be given another date.

I told her that at best, they had horrible internal communication and web site updating, and at worst they were engaged in deceptive advertizing.  If it was happening to me, it was happening to hundreds, if not thousands of other customers.  I now just wanted an answer to my question of how Hanes could continue to sell an item they do not have, do not know when they will have, and are projecting a ship date to current customers, earlier than they project for me, someone who ordered on Jan. 22.

I think she realized that I was no going away or giving up and that I would peruse the matter until it was resolved.  She promised to call back within an hour with an answer, which she did.

She thanked me for bringing the matter to their attention and assured me they would continue to look into the communications and web aspect of my issue.  They do not have the backordered items in their warehouse, but she located one of them in an outlet store and offered a substitute in an slightly different style, both of which are being sent gratis for my troubles.

At this point I will pursue the matter no further with customer support.  However, I will continue to make weekly checks on the status of the one item still on backorder. and if you are having a similar problem, this blog is here for your reference and use. My next update will be after March 23, that latest projected ship date. 

I will close as is opened, with a statement that I am a fan of Hanes' products.  All businesses go through rough times with supply chain problems, but sometime you have to acknowledge those problems and make things right with the customers even if it costs you money.  It pays off in the long run.  It's sad that Hanes failed to do that in a timely fashion and took so long to do what should have been done long ago.