Did fab.com just hoodwink me? or, they're just that good.

betashop 14 years ago |

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.

dantiberian 14 years ago |

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.

mikhaill 14 years ago | |

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 14 years ago | | |

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

betashop 14 years ago | | |

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 14 years ago | | |

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 14 years ago | | |

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.

goronbjorn 14 years ago | | |

It's nice to know you're making an effort to improve shipping times, and it's also cool to see you poking around on HN.

AngrySkillzz 14 years ago |

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.

mikeash 14 years ago |

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.