Let’s start with the story. On the 30th of May Hawkers was doing a 72 hours sale which put some sunglasses at 19€ and also offered free shipping. Being a fan of Hawkers I jumped in and bought two pairs. Then the problems started. I chose, as method of payment, Multibanco. What ususally happens with Multibanco is that you get some payment reference (a number) and you use it to pay.
Unfortunately I never got that reference (and yes, I checked the spam folder).
After this I sent an email to their customer service saying that I never got any way of paying for my order and if there was anything wrong with my order.
First reply
Rough translation
Hawkers:
We checked our systems and the payment didn’t go through Multibanco.
If you pay, can you send us proof of payment?
Greeting and thank you!
Pedro:
I didn’t pay because I couldn’t find instructions on how to pay.
I was expecting a reference or somehting like that.
Can you send me one?
Second reply
Their reply after this was where things started going bad
Translation
Hawkers:
We’re sorry but we don’t have access to that information since who sends it is Multibanco.
Pedro:
But I didn’t get anything about the payment. Where was I supposed to get the references?
I ordered the glasses because of your sale. Is there any other way I can pay for this?
Third reply
Translation
Hawkers:
We’re sorry, we can’t help you.
Pedro (starting to get salty now):
Can’t you offer me a solution for this problem?
What if I cancel the order? Can you do the same sale again?
Your customer service is very lacking. Either your partner failed (Multibanco) or your system failed, but I’m the one that lost the sales prices.
Fourth reply
Translation
Hawkers:
We’re sorry, but it’s impossible for us to help you, since only Multibanco has access to that information.
After this I didn’t reply. This seems like they just don’t care at all. I’m bringing all this up because I had a similar interaction with them in 2017.
Look at how it went:
This is how good customer service should work. I’m not even saying that they have to offer me anything, the least I expect is to have someone on the other side that tries to solve my problem. If they said that they tried their best but they can’t do anything I would be ok. But these messages are either automatic or written by someone who shouldn’t be doing customer service.