Indigo going down the drain?

kinwolf wrote: ↑ Hi,

First, there are no Indigo store in my area, so I'm only speaking for the online store. Years ago, I decided to buy my books exclusively from Canadian companies(I buy ALOT of books, and I admit I was filling amazon pockets.) So, I've been ordering online at indigo for years now, shifting all my books purchase from amazon to Indigo for english books, and local libraries for french books, all to keep the money in Canada when possible.

It was all good, but about just before the pandemic, I started noticing a steep decline in service and promos at Indigo, and it only got worse since.
- No more manga sales
- No more "top-off" points for plum(maybe I'm just unlucky, but it's been years since I got one)
- Alot less Plum points bonus promotions, or false promos(a meager 500 points for full price pre-order when you know the book will get a 40% discount when released...)
- Alot, and I mean alot, of shipping errors(wrong book sent)
- Horrible shipping delays on multiples orders(ex: shipping label created on a monday, but shipped 4 to 6 days later when the book is listed as in stock...)
- They removed themself from cashback programs like Greatcanadianrebates and Rakuten.
- The last 2 Plum Plus renewal, I had to call to get my bonus points. They simply never appeared until I called.
- It's been more and more dificult to talk to someone for Customer Service. They axed the email support, replaced it with a chat bot with eventually a human answering(chatting) , but lately the chat bot never pass the puck to a human anymore and creates a "ticket" instead, ticket that stays unanswered f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Not kidding, they never get back to me anymore through that system.
- Calling is the only option that seem to work, but even then, the waiting time is a killer, and most of the time the CS rep is totally clueless how to help. Latest example, orders passed on Dec 15th had no plum plus discount(10%) applied. When I finally reached them today(lost 2 hours waiting for the line)They had no idea why, and they had no idea how to give me the due credit!! They said they could only give me points to compensate, which is not acceptable at all in my mind. So I asked for a refund.
- Their website never evolves and is now severly lagging in functionnalities. You can't even search in your order history, that's a simple database request to code!!! Shops using Spotify have more functionalities....

This has all the signs of a ailing company, struggling to stay afloat. Less promos, cuts in the fidelity rewards, lots of errors, failing systems that goes unoticed(or so they say) until we complain, no more development(website), untrained CS staff, bad CS period...

So, I'm left wondering if Indigo will be there in 24 months... Toughts?

TempletonPeck wrote: ↑ I contacted their support recently during one of their Plum/Plum Plus promotions. While I agree that chat bots in general can be a bit annoying, I got through to someone fairly quickly. They were helpful and even pushed my suggestion to fix the problem in the future higher up the chain. I received an email from someone higher up fairly quickly and they implemented the change for the next sale.

Top notch customer service all around as most places just pretend to take your feedback into account.

Redsanta wrote: ↑ whats indigo?

lpin14 wrote: ↑ I stopped shopping at Indigo years ago when the local Indigo refused to price match with their own online store for a book they had on the shelf. Could not figure out the business sense in asking the customer to go online for the better deal especially when Amazon dominates that space. This was years ago so not sure if that's still their policy.

PointsHubby wrote: ↑ Don’t see this an issue … but clearly you did

Bigboy16 wrote: ↑ I would say less and less promotions and stuff is happening everywhere. Look at these giants like Starbucks (no more Bogo events), McDs getting rid of stickers, Tims (devaluing points even more). And then there are the larger retailers such as Canadian Tire and Superstore that only offer points for gift card purchases and no longer straight discount, or are using points as a sales method instead of real discounts. Retailers are struggling more and inflation has also hit them to some degree. And now wit Indigo, the company has been doing poorly for some time now. I'd kinda say that every retailer in Canada struggles unless its American or a general type Canadian (think Loblaws family, Canadian Tire). Most Canadian retailers are dying or get bought out by Americans (look at Rona). RW-CO (Retmains family overall), Aldo, and stuff are almost bankrupt now. And also given that Starbucks is turning into more fast food type and less luxury and offically is starting to emphasize drive thru instead of walk in meant they closed all Indigo/Chapters locations which lowered rent revenue even more. So i think you will see these cost cutting measures increase unfortunately. But nonetheless, thanks for supporting a Canadian retailer than has funds, white collar jobs, some more local products (like Rocky Mountain Soap products) and basic retail jobs here. I also suggest buying their gift cards to shop since it lowers the price even more.

DaVibe wrote: ↑ They seem fine to me. Huge line ups every time I've visited over the past few weeks.