S/he doesn't have a name yet! I am not naming her/him until s/he is actually at my house!! Then I will believe it is true....that s/he is mine!!!

I've been saving up for a tri-bike for the past six months. I'd get a few extra dollars and put the money in an envelop. My guy would win some cash on a lottery scratcher and give it to me and I'd stick that money in the envelop. I'd take a little money from my paycheck (substitute teacher for Riverside Unified School District) and put that in the envelop, along with some payments from clients (certified personal fitness trainer/Train-n-Tri). My little stack of money was adding up. Adding up enough that when CyberMonday hit, I was ready.

TriSports had a fabulous deal on a Quintana Roo Dulce xs (a woman's specific tri-bike). The $2,299 bike was marked down to $1,150. I had my guy look over the specs on the components and he said they were good.

I pushed the buy button, entered my credit card information and pushed "Confirm Purchase."

Within minutes I received an order confirmation.

"This email is to confirm the receipt of your recent order from TriSports.com. As your order is processed, you will receive updates regarding any status changes. Please make sure to review future correspondence regarding your order to track its progress. Once your order ships, you will receive a ship confirmation email with your tracking number.

Please note that, contrary to what is stated below, we do not currently have online order status viewing available. For any additional info, please email service@trisports.com or call 888-293-3934.

You can always find out the current status of your order by going to - (there was a lot of stuff here and I had to delete it because it was all personal information).

Then I received another email within minutes:

Your Purchase is Guaranteed

As a thank-you for buying, TriSports.com has purchased you a buySAFE 3-in-1 Guarantee. You are receiving this email as a receipt of the benefits provided and described below.
This is not a subscription service and there is no charge, now or ever, for the benefits that have been provided.

buySAFE Certificate of Guarantee

09GRT 006712-00095247

Purchase Date:	11/27/2012 3:05:38 AM GMT
Store:	TriSports.com
Order ID:	trisports-415218

This is your official buySAFE Certificate of Guarantee
that is provided to you and paid for by TriSports.com.

Your Guarantee Benefits

$10,000 Identity Theft Protection.

Receive comprehensive assistance and financial coverage if your identity is stolen anywhere online or offline. See terms »

$1,000 Purchase Guarantee.

All terms (returns, refunds, shipping, etc) are independently guaranteed by buySAFE up to $1,000. See terms »

$100 Lowest Price Guarantee.

If the published store price drops, buySAFE will pay you the difference, up to $100. See terms »

If you have any issues that cannot be resolved with the merchant, you may contact buySAFE for assistance. Visit buySAFE.com to make a benefit claim within 30 days of your purchase. This guarantee expires 30 days from the date of purchase.

Let TriSports.com know that you appreciate the 3-in-1 Guarantee at no cost.

Say thank you!

What is this Guarantee?

There is no cost to you for these benefits.
It is not a subscription, there's nothing to cancel.
The benefits expire 30 days from the date of purchase.
Terms and conditions

What is buySAFE?

buySAFE, Inc. enables online merchants to provide their valued customers, like you, an independently guaranteed shopping experience at no cost to you.

What others are saying

"It's a great addition to the shopping experience, and it's free! This is a big confidence booster!"
--Megan W.
"Thank you ...it really is nice to have additional piece of mind"
--Tom J.
"This is a great idea and great benefits and I will continue to buy from you"
--Debby D.
"I appreciate the customer care and buySAFE guarantee and I would lke to thank you so very much"
--Tien S.

I was so excited...I had just bought a women's specific tri-bike and at a great price. WOOT-WOOT!!!!!

So I facebooked my status:

It's mine.

Quintana Roo Dulce Triathlon Bike

www.trisports.com

Quintana Roo Dulce Triathlon Bike - The Quintana Roo Dulce Women's Triathlon Bike is back for another year of making women faster, more confident and more comfortable in the saddle. The Dulce Carbon ...

Lots of my friends "liked" and commented: "Congrats!" "You will love it!" "Congrats on the new ride!!!"

The email from TriSports said shipping via ground 3-5 days.

By Thursday I was so excited, but no bike showed up.

By Friday, I could not contain myself and called the number and asked when my bike had been shipped and when I could expect it.

This is where the story takes a turn for the worse.

I am writing in RED because I was Pissed Off when the TriSports customer service representative told me (paraphrasing) "sorry, they oversold the bike and could not fulfill all the orders so I would NOT be getting a bike."

I was in shock!!

I asked the customer service rep. what she was going to do to make up for their mistake. She said I could go online and look at the other sales they had. At this point I am pretty sure I screamed into the phone about what horrible customer service they had.

And then I started my facebook campaign. I wrote on my wall. I wrote on their wall. I sent them an email. They sent me an "automatic reply" email. I wrote on my facebook wall and on TriSports' wall again.. And other people were chiming in.

Finally, I got TriSports' attention and I did get this email:

Dear Kandi

I am the customer service manager and saw your FB post regarding your recent experience with us. I am not actually in the office today but please feel free to contact me at the below cell number. I will give you a call Monday when I am in the office and see what we can do in this situation.

I do want to apologize for your negative experience with us, and want you to know that we will do our best to ensure that this is resolved to your satisfaction. I know that Debbie, one of our owners said that she would contact you also. I have copied her with this email so that she is aware of our correspondence.

We want you to know that we do appreciate your business, and as I said previously, will do our best to ensure a positive experience for you.

(It was signed by Pam Kallio, Customer Service Manager for TriSports).

I emailed Pam back: "Thanks. I need a women's specific tri-bike xs."

Shortly after, I received this email.

Kandi,

I want to express my sincere apologies for any inconvenience and upset your transaction caused. As Pam mentioned, we will need to be in the office to check everything, so we will be able to address this best on Monday. As I wrote on Facebook, we built this business on exceptional customer service, and I will do whatever I can to ensure your satisfaction. We have seen quite a few hiccups lately with our new system, and that has challenged our ability to provide such service, but we are working diligently to correct the issues. Thank you for your patience, and we'll be in touch Monday.

Regards,

Debbie

(as in Debbie Claggett, VP TriSports)

Okay, I was feeling a little less PO'd. I decided to just let it go for the rest of the weekend and enjoy my Saturday swim and run and my Sunday 21-mile bike ride around Diamond Valley Lake. (It was a gorgeous ride, but that's for another blog.)

Monday morning I felt as if it was all going to work out and I put the bike issue to the back burner. I had a family issue to attend to and didn't have anymore energy to spend on MY bike.

Thankfully, mid-morning I received this email from TriSports:

Dear Kandi,

First, let me once again apologize for any inconvenience and upset this situation has caused and for the error in how our website handled our Doorbuster sale items. I have contacted the QR factory and have ordered an xs Dulce for you. We should receive it by the end of the week and should be able to ship it to you early next week, if you would still like the bike. As you are probably aware, Doorbusters are always limited quantity - first come sale items. This was the first year that our company tried a "doorbuster" initiative. We did it with the understanding that our website would decrement sales when purchased, and once an item was sold out completely that it would show as no longer available. In the case of your bike, we only had 2 in stock, and in the case of your friend’s wetsuit, that had a very low limited quantity, also. Unfortunately, the website did not perform as expected and as it did in our tests, resulting in overselling of some of our Doorbuster items.

I can assure you that this was not a "bait and switch" issue, it was an issue of our website not working the way that we had expected. We are in the midst of changing our software and changing to an entirely different website that will alleviate this kind of issue from happening in the future. Our business was built on customer service and we understand how upset our customers can become as it is extremely upsetting for us, also, when we can’t fulfill a promise made.

We advertised our Doorbusters and the rest of the sale based on what we had in our inventory, and it in no way relates to what other online retailers may or may not have had available.

In the case of your bike, we were fortunate in that the QR factory had an xs in stock that they are shipping to us, and we will be able to honor the sale price for you. Sales this time of year are normally based on the on-hand inventory, and because the new 2013 stock is available or soon to be available, even the manufacturers are often out of product.

In every case that this has happened with our customers, we have done our best to rectify the situation. When our customer service rep spoke with you on Friday afternoon, she asked that you look to see if you could find any other bikes that we had on sale that you might have liked. If you had found one we would have then worked with you on that bike, so even before knowing whether we could get another from QR, we were attempting to make the situation right for you. I’m sorry if there was any misunderstanding or miscommunication about our intent to work a better deal on whatever bike may have been of interest.

Again, we appreciate your business and truly apologize for the error and issues caused by this sale. Please let me know how you want to proceed and if you would still like the bike.

I quickly emailed back "I WANT THE BIKE!!!!"

Thank you TriSports for standing by your claim that you have excellent customer service. This was not a good situation for either one of us. Thank you for making sure my "purchase" went through.

I have since gone back on facebook and "liked" TriSports again!

You should, too!!

Now about the name for my bike? Uhm.

Suggestions?