Half the Service

In the six years since my wife shut down her children's bookstore, we've listed some of the old inventory on Half.com.  Their commissions aren't trivial, but are better than Amazon's, and we've managed a spotless eBay reputation. We've even got a few semi-regular customers.

Yesterday, I got an order from someone, and they ordered with Media Mail, which is relatively unlikely to reach them by Xmas.  I wanted to offer them a chance to change the order... but doesn't appear to be a way to change your order on Half, besides asking for a refund and ordering it again.  I figured, "There's got to be a better way!" and went hunting for a customer service phone or chat.

I found a phone number... but they'll only answer calls regarding mysterious charges on your credit card or IRS forms for sellers.

So I turned to their email support, and have had a sequence of moronic responses parroting the content of their help pages, to
a) help me offer expedited shipping (I already do, they should know)
b) help me order with expedited shipping (no, I'm the seller, not the buyer)
c) reinforce what I'd already figured out in the second paragraph above, from a buyer's perspective.

Each of my messages is clear, concise, and, um, straining at being polite, but letting them know that they're ruining Christmas for some child in Ohio.

I'd sent a note to the buyer telling them they could cancel and reorder, which they didn't do, so I sent it to them via Media Mail. I'm not eating the $5+ difference between Media Mail and Priority.

Merry Xmas to all and to all good customer service. Sheesh.