Imagine being banned from shopping at one of your favorite online stores.
That's what happened to Caroline, who ordered a king-size bed last year for her guest room. She needed it quickly because she was about to have a baby and her parents were coming to stay.
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“So I went on to Wayfair to do a rush order, found a bed frame that could get here with two-day shipping and thought, great, this is perfect,” she said.
But when it arrived, the headboard was broken. She says she called customer service, and decided to reorder another bed because that was the fastest option.
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“They said that a replacement headboard would be sent out and it could take up to 15 days to arrive...so I said to the customer service representative, ...can I just reprocess this order here? And she said, you can go ahead and do that,” Caroline told NBC10 Boston. “I had paid with the first order with gift cards and I let the representative know this, saying I'd like to pay for the second order with a credit card. However, I'd like to process the return on the credit card as well...she also expressed that that shouldn't be a problem.”
She loved the new bed, but when she tried to initiate a refund of the first order, she said Wayfair customer service told her they couldn't help her.
“I called Wayfair customer service and they let me know they would no longer be doing business with me...the customer service representative could not provide me any further information,” she said.
“She let me know that I would be hearing from something called the Executive Resolution department at some point in the future, and that was all that she could provide me with.”
Caroline said she finally heard from the Executive Resolution department in a March email that said they were “unable to arrange a return for her” and “any future orders with Wayfair.com and its subsidiaries will be canceled from this point forward”.
The email went on to say, “we have come to the conclusion that your order history indicates it would be best for you to shop at a brick-and-mortar store. Your experience and feedback indicate that we are not the right company to satisfy your shopping needs and standards”.
“So I was thinking what could have possibly gone wrong here,” she said. “My understanding is that the Executive Resolution team handles fraud and that my order was flagged for fraud for one reason or another. “
After failing to get in contact with someone she could talk to about the situation, Caroline said she got a final email from Executive Resolutions in September that said “we are no longer doing business and will not be able to assist you with any further issues.”
“It made no sense to me whatsoever,” she said. “I've been a customer, I think since 2014, have ordered multiple items multiple times, and this felt so confusing.”
She asked that NBC10 Boston Responds reach out to Wayfair on her behalf in an effort to get some answers. We did and Wayfair contacted her the next day, telling her that her account was “incorrectly flagged.”
A Wayfair spokesperson told us:
"Ensuring customer satisfaction is at the core of everything we do, and we take matters like these very seriously. We were genuinely sorry to hear about this unsatisfactory customer experience. I wanted to confirm that we've closely reviewed the details of this situation to gain a comprehensive understanding of what transpired. We've also reached out directly to the customer to guarantee they receive a resolution that leaves them satisfied. "
The company refunded Caroline for the second bed order, reinstated her account and offered her a $100 credit.
“I was extremely happy with the resolution, and I will admit, it was a little bittersweet in that it felt so wild that it took getting to this point to get a resolution,” she said. “I really appreciate you and your team for investigating this. Again, I think it would have been really difficult to get a resolution without this, so I'm very appreciative.”
If you have a consumer problem you need help with, reach out to us at www.nbcboston.com/contactresponds. We will get back to you!
