We're truly sorry to hear you had an experience like that. As said before, we're happy to be open about where we could have done better and share the situation and how we're trying to do better.
PROBLEM 1:
What happened was that we had one last piece of stock at one of our branches for the item you were looking for, and it so happened that the item that was listed in stock was our very last piece. The maximum amount of time that goes between our site being updated is 24 hours and the last piece happened to be sold at our Star Vista branch right before you made payment.
We have two different teams at Swee Lee Online when processing orders - one that checks accounts and payment success, and one that processes logistics and delivery. At this point of time logistics and delivery only engage after payment has been validated and confirmed.
As the order was placed after our cutoff time, it was processed first thing the next morning and our accounts team reached out to confirm that payment had been received. As soon as our logistics and delivery team started processing the order, we discovered the discrepancy and immediately reached out to apologise, let you know about the situation and find out whether you would like to choose an alternative product or receive a refund.
PROBLEM 2:
The speed of the refund was too long. Although we try and let our customers know (it is stated in our
ordering and payments page that refunds take between 10-14 days) we understand it's not ideal. For security reasons we work with Telemoney via DBS for processing card payments online and they have their own terms and conditions which we have to adhere to. We inform customers of a slightly longer time than average because we really don't want to overpromise and disappoint. I just checked in with accounts and understand that we already expedited your refund with our provider due to the special circumstances and the refund has already been processed. It may take a day to appear on your credit card statement.
Nevertheless this all could have gone better. We're working on the solution to this and here are some of the things we're doing:
NEXT STEPS 1:
We're already in the process of trying to update our website in real time, this isn't easy when we have over 12000 products online, dynamic retail stores and multiple locations around the region - but it's already in progress and we hope to roll it out in the near future.
NEXT STEPS 2:
In case we can't push real time updates fast enough, we're making other updates to our site and are looking to see how we can have a Low Stock warning when numbers are below a certain level (like 1 or 2!) to avoid situations like this in the future.
NEXT STEPS 3:
We're speaking with our payments provider to see if there is any way to speed up refunds, as well as whether we can change the payments system to only take payments from cards as the product is shipping. This will avoid charges happening ahead of time and ensure you're not waiting for a refund on a product that wasn't available.
We totally accept the fact that you felt frustrated and wanted to rant about it. We'll really try to do better next time and hope we'll get another chance to make it up to you.