One of the first stores I fell in love with when I arrived in London as a young model was Fortnum and Mason. I was used to good food, I am French so the shop combined French chic with English tradition, the eggshell blue wrapping adopted also by the NYC jeweller Tiffany and Co spelled elegance for me.
I have been a customer for over 40 years. it doesn’t matter where you are in the world Fortums will get one of their famous hampers to you.
I think it’s important our favourite brands get to find out when things don’t go as well as they’d hope when it comes to customer service and relations.
Luxury Brands like Fortum and Mason spend a fortune on their visual merchandising and e commerce set up so when it back fires on the customer, their cost of acquisition skyrockets
As a loyal customer I had a big shop with Fortums over the holidays and when the last box arrived sitting on the top was a red envelope with a gift inside just for me.
I eagerly opened the invitation to enjoy free delivery on my next order in excess of £75. You don’t know that initially, the “gift from Fortnum” is presented in a much more exciting and intriguing way to get you to scan the QR code on the invitation.
I know spend £75 to save £6 isn’t that much of an incentive but I did fancy trying some of the Blackpool Rock they offer at £2.50 a stick and the tins of sweets something that’s new. I’d also spied musical biscuit tins which sounded really fun for Easter, I love a music box or a snow globe and a tin with musical mechanics inside playing “La Traviata” for £30 did inspire me to shop.
Except when I followed the intricate procedure to save my £6, not just a coupon code to fill in at checkout but a email sent to receive a link to shop from, I guess for security to stop a code being shared amongst friends and neighbours, the bloody thing didn’t work.
It said free delivery applied and then charged me for delivery. What a marketing palaver. I spoke to an AI bot first then had to wait for a human, the first one took so long I gave up in the end.
A little later in the day I tried again as I’d taken the trouble to compile the order, went through the same AI bot to reach a human who then took 10 minutes to read the conversation which was one short message before speaking. This time I was ready with the screenshot showing clearly the free shipping applied message and then the shipping charged. Except she didn’t get it, asking for the order number on an order I was unable to place. MERDE et Sacre Bleu.
It didn’t matter. I ended up giving up completely. It was so much time and effort to save £6. I was frustrated. It made me feel like if I cannot pay for the shipping, what am I doing shopping at one of the most luxurious stores in London?
And a reminder for me why I don’t like coupons and discounts. They are not exclusivity, they are the masses.
If the price is the price then we the customer can decide if we want to buy something or not. I appreciate brands have to come up with clever ways to get customers back on their sites shopping (and expensive shopping charges are a factor) but if they don’t work the story even loyal longterm customers who love you are telling are not the ones you hope for.
The feeling of exclusivity in the red envelope, a special privilege turned into someone, me trying too hard to save £6, which at Fortnums is let’s be honest, less than a packet of biscuits.
Interestingly for me I took to images blown away and feeling really valued as a long and loyal customer for sharing with a friend. I never imagined they’d come in handy to accompany this tale. And just to be clear this marketing mishap won’t stop me shopping with Fortnum and Mason, they sell too many things I love but I will be less eager to jump down the rabbit hole the next time they try to entice me with an offer or shopping incentive. I don’t love wasting time at my age. It’s more precious than money.