Omaha Steaks - Oh the Frustration!

So, as many others have done, I participated in the offer to get a free $25 gift card through Geico Privileges and then ordered some steak burgers at Omaha Steaks. During my check out, the system automatically added 12 free steak burgers to my order. I received an order confirmation via e-mail and assumed all was well. Then, a couple of days later, I received an e-mail notifying me that my order was going to be modified to no longer include the free steak burgers.

I called customer service and spoke with Nick. Nick explained that two promotions could not be used together. I indicated that I used a gift card in conjunction with a promo. He also advised that the system had since been corrected so that the free steak burgers would not be applied with another promotion. This sounds to me like they had, and know they had, a system glitch that was allowing the free product to be added to orders.

I feel like I am being penalized retroactively for an error in their system. I just feel this is an example of poor customer service - punishing your customer for your mistake. If the free burgers didn't show up in the first place, I would have been happy and content with my deal, but to have their system give them to me and the to have someone manually remove them, is frustrating. Perhaps I would be a little bit less put out if the offer that I got from Geico Privileges was not called a gift card, but a coupon code. Otherwise, this policy would suggest that if I sent someone a gift card, that they couldn't take advantage of promos on the site. Perhaps I would be a little less put out if instead of just yanking them from every order, they had said they made an error and as a means of meeting us half way, here is a discount on your next order. Perhaps, I would feel better if they had just allowed already placed orders to process and worried about making the orders moving forward correct. I am further frustrated by the fact that in removing the free steak burgers, they delayed my order to next week - a 4 day delay.

This is not the way to win over new customers. I read a number of blogs and have seen a number of angry comments and disappointed comments being posted. Yes, I understand, I still got a good deal on what I got, but the fact is it was their system's error, not something that I did that caused the problem in the first place. So, why is it my responsibility to to shoulder the error and have my confirmed order modified? Why not chalk it up to an error and send an e-mail saying we will honor your order, but understand this was an error and that in the future you will be unable to combine two promotions like this. Or, meet us half way. Offer a discount on a future order in exchange for the removal of the items from everyone's order. The cost would have been less and the impact to thier image much better.

There is so much negative buzz on-line right now and a number of people have indicated they are planning to contact the BBB to file a complaint on Omaha Steaks for this poor customer service they are displaying. This can't be good for keeping the many new customers that tried them out during this promo nor for keeping those of us that have ordered in the past.