
Did fab.com just hoodwink me? or, they're just that good. - stephensikes
http://ssikes.com/post/20936633046/hoodwinked-fabulously
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betashop
Hey, Jason Goldberg, CEO of Fab here. I just looked into this.

This was just our standard process of making sure that every order is
completed properly. A critical part of our long term differentiation is making
sure every customer interaction with Fab is a good one.

We want nothing short of every Fab customer to LOVE Fab. That's a big goal.
People like a lot of websites but not many people LOVE an ecommerce site.
That's our ambition.

Smile, you're designed to. And, keep challenging us to make sure we deliver
fantastic service.

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dantiberian
Isn't it more likely that some contacted Fab about the mix up when they
received the subway shower curtain instead of the iPhone case? Then Fab
realised the mistake that had been made and sent out the email you received.

I don't see why this suggests trickery, I see a business which was quick to
respond to a mistake.

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mikhaill
Just to add one more point, the "offer" to keep the curtain was not done out
of good will. The cost of them offering free shipping back to the consumer,
re-stocking it, etc (do they even own their own inventory or is everything
dropshipped?) would have been a lot higher then the value of the curtain.

Some of the e-commerce retailers who run their return numbers and know the
cost of all processes will let people keep items they want to return because
processing returns will end up more expensive for them.

~~~
goronbjorn
They dropship everything (it's why delivery takes so damn long) so your
explanation sounds like a more likely scenario.

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betashop
Actually, more than 70% of Fab.com's products are not drop shipped, and we've
cut our delivery times in half the past 2 months and are making tons of
progress there.

I'm jason, the ceo. chat me up.

~~~
mikhaill
Jason,

What's the rationale for bringing fulfillment inhouse? The economics and
market trends seem to move the other way, in favor of drop shipping as much as
possible. Catalog data problems? Financial? Branded customer experience?
Partners can't ship properly? Just wondering...

~~~
betashop
When we take inventory we can ensure fast delivery times and a consistently
Fab experience. Also, most drop shoppers are not setup to handle the type of
volume Fab generated. Drop shipping maxes out at a relatively small number of
orders.

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AngrySkillzz
It's likely that the curtain was mislabeled as an iPhone case in their system,
and someone caught it before you received your order. That, or they
telepathically realized they sent you the wrong thing on accident before you
told them about it.

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mikeash
One-in-a-million events happen all the time. Unless there's a pattern of these
guys doing stuff like this, I see no reason to think there's anything subtle
going on. You just got lucky/unlucky.

