When I first heard about an opportunity to print tiny photos and words on custom-color M&Ms candies, I thought about ordering them as a Christmas gift for my brother.
On December 13th, I fatefully found a coupon in a Sunday circular and placed the order on MyMMs.com, but only after several attempts to complete the order process (the website caused Firefox, Safari, AND Internet Explorer to crash several times before I could checkout). I received an order confirmation that same day, and my shipment was guaranteed to arrive by Christmas.
Since then, I have been telling everyone (except my brother, of course) how excited I was to receive this gift in the mail. My parents liked the idea so much they bought an old-fashioned candy dispenser to complement the candy!
However, yesterday, at 2:17 PM, I received the following automated e-mail:
We wanted to thank you for your interest in personalized Faces MY M&M’S® and we are very excited to assist you in creating the perfect experience.
We want to confirm that we have received your order, however; the image(s) you submitted cannot be used. As a result, we will not be able to meet your expected delivery date and will be canceling your order and removing all costs associated with your order.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and would like to offer you another wonderful option in creating a MY M&M’s® experience. We are offering, especially for you, a 10% off any of our other exciting products: Custom Print, MY TEAMS, Colors Only or Disney products.
I was completely heartbroken and puzzled by the message.
I realize that worse things can happen to a person during the holiday season. However, I was really looking forward to giving my brother this special gift.
I’m still not completely sure why M&Ms rejected my order, though they vaguely mentioned that my photo was not acceptable (I followed their instructions as carefully as possible!). Truth be told, I actually submitted two photos, but the e-mail did not acknowledge this fact.
Immediately after I received their message, I wrote to their customer service department and explained my dilemma. When I clicked “Send your message”, the page refreshed, my message disappeared, and I received no confirmation.
Not only does all of this reek of poor customer service, but it also smells of rotten e-commerce. Off the top of my head, I don’t know any other way to purchase personalized M&Ms except via the Internet. Despite this fact, the company’s online purchasing methods are both unreliable and unprofessional.
Lately, I have been feeling very skeptical about the future of Twitter and the importance of Facebook for brands, but the story I just shared is a case where M&Ms and Mars have failed because they lack an effective and reliable online presence. Neither M&Ms nor Mars has a Twitter account (I did find @msgreen, but I wasn’t sure whether or not this is an official account).
No marketing or PR representatives seem to be monitoring Twitter for good or bad news about M&Ms (and trust me, a lot of people talk about M&Ms on Twitter). No official M&Ms Facebook page exist – the ones that do exist are written in languages that aren’t English.
No one responded to my Twitter complaint about the poor customer service I received. To make matters worse for them, my complaint was retweeted, spreading it to more potential customers.
I’m sure that Mars has already made a fortune by selling personalized M&Ms during this holiday season, and they probably don’t give a rat’s behind about losing my business. However, this kind of behavior is the reason that companies eventually DO lose customers.
Just because M&Ms are M&Ms doesn’t mean they can’t fail. Come on, Mars, your website doesn’t even work. I write for free, and my website works all the time.
I would ask M&M Mars to hire me as their new marketing manager, but I’d be embarrassed to work for a company that’s lagging so far behind the times. Thanks for stressing me out during the holiday season – now, with just three days until Christmas, I have to find my brother another gift!
This cracked me up: “Come on, Mars, your website doesn’t even work. I write for free, and my website works all the time.”
It’s funny because it’s true!
This actually happens to many e-commerce sites during this time of year- they’re unable to handle the volume of requests they receive so instead of offering individualized attention, they cancel orders.
My boyfriend ordered me some kind of techie gift for Christmas and they called him yesterday to tell him they canceled the order- two days before Christmas. Awesome. Not that I immensely care about getting a gift but he was raving and ranting, and SO upset, which I don’t like.
I think before handling click volume or even social media costumer service, they need service- period. One of my clients wants a portal dedicated directly to ethnicities, and they have an enormous customer service issue with the existing American users as it is, but they rejected the idea of a service portal via Facebook.
It’s that whole lipstick on a pig thing. It’s really hard to market or make great promotions on a product that has issues to begin with, candy, gadgets, whatever.
Hi Laryssa, I work for My M&M’s. Sorry that you had a frustrating experience with us. I’ve asked our customer service team to reach out to you. I am out of the office today; otherwise I’d help myself!
We are on Twitter at @mymmscom. @msgreen is also a valid account. And you can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/mms. We do keep an eye on these sites (that’s how I found this article!) but alas we did not see your posting earlier.
Hope you have a nice holiday, and apologies again for the frustration that you have experienced.
I found your blog by doing a customer service search on customized M&M products.
Just wondering, based on Andrew’s reply and seeing nothing posted after he stated he was asking their customer service folks to contact you… did they follow through on the promise, and what was the end result?
The reason I ask, is that either I’ve been fortunate to have obtained excellent customer service, or “the cheque’s in the mail”…
I tried to place an order via the website (images and text) on Sunday, but couldn’t complete the transaction because it wouldn’t take my postal code as being valid… the postal code was correct… the site was buggered up. I tried to call Customer Support on Monday, but I guess that was a US holiday. I spoke to an agent on Tuesday, and they recommended I provide all the info (including photos) in an email. I did, then called them two hours later to confirm receipt. The agent went through the details with me, and noted I would be called later in the day by someone who would manually process the images for me and get it in the system. Two hours later, I got the call, confirmed details, provided charge info, and closed the call. I got an order receipt nofication within minutes, and this morning I have a tracking number from FedEx with a delivery scheduled for this Friday. That’s three days (international shipping included) from time of placing the order.
Now, I still have to see what gets shipped to me, but if FedEx is providing a shipping confirmation number, I’m assuming its in the works.
What has your subsequent experience been with the Mars M&M’s gang? Good or bad, its kind of inappropriate to leave a blog hanging like this as it can either hinder or improve other people’s purchase experience. I’m anxiously awaiting your update…