I Paid Strangers to Secret Shop My Own Store

[@granthepburn1587]

No excuses...just reasons and explanations. Nick nailed it being both reasonable and articulate. Well done all.

[@RhysWilliams-u3o]

It's a horrible way to do performance reviews. I don't know how much they get payed but it probably not enough to be reviewed in front of millions.

[@leon2952]

@@RhysWilliams-u3o You make it sound like he was forced to do this at gunpoint lol

[@netoisthebest]

@RhysWilliams-u3o nah this should be the norm, no big boss hiding behind a desk and monitor and having others make excuses

[@BorealBlizzard]

@@RhysWilliams-u3o they are just taking what they put out. They do secret shopper for other companies, I would say it would be wrong if they couldn't do it on their own storefront.

[@placate9051]

​@@RhysWilliams-u3oI'm sure Linus' long time friend and business partner had no way of saying he's not comfortable with this. Absolutely none it's impossible 😂

[@r5LgxTbQ]

when your manager does your performance review in front of 16 million people

[@Okamare]

yea i would be fuckin shaking, especially with no notice

[@Slambear]

bros eyes are red. he's been up all night :D

[@AluminumHaste]

@@Slambear He didn't know this was what they were recording until the start of the video. You can see him die on the inside at the start.

[@marveld205]

@@Slambear Think you guys have red glare/bloom on your monitor. On my monitor(s), tab and phone of me and my gf his sclera is white not red... ^_^

[@marveld205]

@@Okamare Shows hes a pro :)

[@JesseArt]

21:38 Nick's explanation here is on point. As a USPS clerk, we handle "last mile" deliveries for pretty much all of the other major curriers in the US. If they are overloaded or if it is not profitable for them to deliver to you way out in the boonies, they will often offload their volumes onto us. We get drop shipments every single day from UPS, DHL, FedEX, Amazon, Newgistics, etc., and very often, it's dropped off from them directly at your local delivery unit. So if something is completely smashed (especially coming from Amazon, their contract drivers almost never secure anything in their trucks), that's how we received it from those currier services. Believe me, our carriers absolutely hate having to deliver damaged parcels on their routes. It doesn't matter where or with whom it might have occurred, we're the face attached to the delivery and, as a result, we inevitably take the brunt of the blame. So...please be kind :) There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that isn't always obvious to the general public.

[@gen157]

Thanks for your efforts. Same sort of thing applies to the actual delivery times. It's guys like me that keep the tires able to roll and it's not always fast or easy to get the deliveries rolling again after a tire blowout or similar.

[@linnoff]

I had an absolutely wild delivery experience recently. I ordered a bluray and after an extra week due to unspecified delays I check my mail to find one of those damaged package bags with my movie and the packing slip. Obviously, I was worried, but after opening it, it seemed to be in perfect condition. About a week later I got another damaged package bag, this time with an empty bubble envelope in it. At this point my best guess is that somehow the envelope opened during shipping and the contents got separated. I find it hilarious that both envelope and contents arrived to me successfully and in new condition, just not together.

[@JesseArt]

@@linnoff This happens quite a bit with Amazon especially. Like many big online retailers (Amazon, Walmart, Kohl's, Target, etc.), they often only secure boxes with a single piece of low quality paper tape on either side, so it doesn't take much for their boxes to come open. With their smaller paper and plastic mailers sharp edges inside can often cut through, like say, plastic packaging that RAM usually comes in, for instance. If we find an item outside packaging at our delivery units, we hold it in the office in case someone calls or comes in to claim it, which does happen on occasion. So it never hurts to check with your local post office in case you do receive an empty package. If we notice it's empty in the morning while scanning in parcels, we'll mark it with a sticker that says "Received Without Contents", which means we also couldn't find any items with the rest of the parcels that might have fallen out of your packaging. As you can imagine, carriers really don't like having to deliver those empty parcels either. It's actually really satisfying when we are able to crack those cases and get things to people despite shipping shenanigans.

[@TheMagicianOfGaming]

to add on to what you said with drivers almost never securing things in their truck, i worked as a parcel sorter. we would get ~4 full trailers in every night, every single one filled to the brim with packages just stuffed in there like a game of tetris with 0 regard for weight or if it was delicate. odds are that your package also got damaged in transit between the central depot and your regional one. 100% be nicer, though also 100% me and the 15 other over worked morons sorting 20k+ packages in 7 hours trying to get them ready to get sent out at 9am the following day may very well have dropped something.

[@Junebug89]

@@JesseArt You guys are the people that make the world go round and it's awesome when you see people taking pride in their work too.

[@Cedar23]

Ngl if I sent a ticket on a Friday I generally wouldn't expect a response untill Monday any ways

[@SanderEvers]

Honestly if I send a ticket on Friday I usually don't expect a response before Tuesday.

[@jessiethedude]

Truthfully if I send a ticket on Friday I normally don’t expect a response before Wednesday

[@PneumaAsh]

To be forthright, If I send a ticket on Friday, I on average do not expect a response before the following Thursday

[@mikerelf]

This is kinda funny for someone who works in a support team for a pretty small app - we have less than 1 hour response time, even on weekends (as we can afford 24/7 coverage), the issue is - people do NOT expect an answer so soon lol, so usually we end up waiting for a customer's reply only after the weekend for any tickets coming on Friday, and not the other way around x)

[@FlyboyHelosim]

To be brutally honest, if I send a support ticket on a Friday, I wouldn't expect a response. Like, at all. LOL

[@kuebby]

I've heard a lot of complaints about KZbinr merch, but I've never seen someone secret shop themselves. Mad props to you guys! You're the Consumer Reports for the 21st century. Just don't strap weights onto a computer to make it flip over.

[@Knowbody42]

Well, some companies do secret shop themselves, but they don't make youtube videos about it.

[@JayseabeeSTL]

@@Knowbody42 most medium to large companies secret shop themselves to some degree.

[@Conqueeftador2110]

I was pretty angry about the zippers on my backpack but didn't want to deal with support and wrote it off as a loss, but when they sent ME an email and said hey fill this out will replace them I was blown away, I have since ordered multiple times and have never had a complaint definitely props where deserved.

[@RFDarter]

How can they send you an email and offer an replacement if they dont know that something is wrong in the first place?

[@EchoLWS]

@@RFDarter a review most likely.

[@CamronSixx22]

@@RFDarter they did know it was a problem after a bunch of reviews and comments, duh. But on a more serious note, hey knew which backpacks were affected so they reached to everyone that was relevant so that they would be the first ones to get the new zippers.

[@RFDarter]

@@CamronSixx22 i see, that makes nense

[@cky2k04]

This actually takes huge balls to publicly address potential flaws in your customer support. Great job on handling the responses! Personally, my experience with LTT has always been fantastic!

[@frostilver]

AliExpress sellers can usually reply customer enquiries within 1 day, and Taobao sellers even do this within a few minutes, even for large brands such as Xiaomi or ASUS.

[@melwinder1]

​@@frostilver "Asus currently has more than 17,000 employees as of 2023" (And their RMA process has had to go through a company overhaul all the way up to the CEO/Owners of the company after getting called out from LTT and other youtubers) "Xiaomi currently has more than 35,000 employees as of 2023" (Also has gotten called out in the past for their horrific customer service) "Linus Tech Tips has about 80 employees as of 2023" (Pays people to secret shop their own company) I don't think you can make the comparison of a 1 man 1 seller (Aliexpress individual sellers), or monopoly-sized brands having tens of thousands of employees, while LTT is somewhere in the middle between "Small" and "Medium" company, doing youtube production videos AND a decently massive online store....

[@cameronlawrence4516]

@@frostilver It sure is easy to have plenty of manpower when you don't have to pay a living wage!

[@Hipsael]

Same here, now I just need them to release some good Black Friday deals😂

[@adityaanand.]

@@cameronlawrence4516 lmao true that!

[@s12_home_baked_audio88]

Just had my first experience of "Trust Me Bro..." My Precision Screwdriver arrived looking like the courier stamped on it... Cap was bent sideways. 24hours later, new order confirmation received, with an apology. New one on the way, when the next batch comes in. Easy to find where to contact. Easy to attach images to the message. Got a receipt telling me what would happen next....3-5 day wait. Processed in 1 day. Reassuringly genuine from my vantage point.

[@JonManProductions]

Good Customer Support teams are unsung heroes for any company, but also from my personal experience: a place of high stakes, high stress and in some companies, a place of high churn due to a obsession by HR for performance metrics over people's lively hoods. No judgement on LTT's team, clearly they do work when push comes to shove.

[@juliettaylorswift]

good that the contact form allows attaching images as so many don't and you have to wait for a reply to be able to reply with the attachments

[@WillttocSicated]

I bought one of their shirts and the shoulder was slightly folded and sewn together. Sent them photos and they didn’t even have me send it back, they straight up replaced it! Now I have an LTT “work shirt” 🙌🙌

[@liamwelsh5565]

Some companies 100% just ignore import fees which results in the customer getting a bill in the mail. It happened to me when I ordered a keyboard from Cosairs website. I live in Canada, I ordered from Cosairs Canadian site and paid in Canadian dollars with free shipping. A couple weeks after getting my package, I get a bill in the mail from UPS for $70 of import fees. I paid $100 for the keyboard. I called Corsair and they said to call UPS. I call UPS and they said to call the shipper. It was what felt like an endless back and forward for hours on the phone but I eventually got it resolved. I will never order directly from Cosair ever again.

[@MartinBarker]

yours is a different situation to someone is ordering from Canada to a third country knowingly, at that point the correct way is don't charge any Sales Tax and allow the third countries' Customs to do what they are supposed to do. With the UK because we actually have import allowances so we don't pay an Import Duty on item costing up to, between £270 and £390 depending on method of import.

[@Systox25]

And I will never order from Logitech again. I am not waiting over 2 months for a keyboard. They literally refused my request to cancel the order. Just to ship it a week later. Send the Keyboard back to them on their cost across Europe for a full refund. Amazon for the win sadly.

[@liamwelsh5565]

@@Systox25 Yeah it seems a lot of companies don't have a good DTC service. Likley because the majority of their sales is through retailers.

[@dirkvandaele4466]

The EU has plans for a customs policy addressing these issues. Within a couple of years, the price you pay at the e-store will include customs clearance. If you live in the EU.

[@abba2566]

A thought on replacements for items like shirts that have been damaged and then gone out of stock. If it's part of a 'we need to clear all of these' sale - might be worth adding a 'no replacements available on this item' line in both the shop page and order confirmation page if there aren't already. I also used to work in data management for a charity that had a shop and worked closely with the lady responsible for managing all the stock. She basically kept a small amount of every item back from the stock figures (like 10-20 depending on what it was) and kept it to the side. That way, if she needed to send any replacements and the stock was depleted, she still had some to send. After a few days when it went out of stock (almost all the sales were in the UK, which I know might be harder to manage when shipping lots internationally) she would relist whatever stock was set aside with a 'no replacements available' kind of message.

[@joshdenmark6354]

@abba2566 this is a great idea. I'm not sure if their profit margin , but if there's extra after the sale, they could be donated .

[@Miner_Bob]

That’s a great idea!

[@wobblysauce]

Those items shown already had the limited last run of stock.

[@War7123]

I think 100% they should implement this

[@Genesis8934]

Even just a "clearance" label might help convey the meaning that "once these are sold, there are no replacements" lol

[@kavunffs]

If its not already there, to save on support costs, insert a leaflet or some message on packaging with the copy/paste that the TPM is still usable if shape is altered during shipping,

[@dustojnikhummer]

That and pop up with a PDF of the same thing on checkout when buying a PTM

[@julian-sark]

Probably product tested in Canada at winter time, then shipped during the summer ...

[@ngregoirenc]

@@julian-sarkyea I doubt they would have actually done any shipping simulations. Would probably be prohibitively expensive to do climate controlled shipping for the product though.

[@danstenger1]

It isn't usable, that's the thing. It becomes a disaster mess that does not meet its designed specs when it is melted and squished like that. The issue is the paper sleeve they "package" it in, which is allowing it to get squished - combined with the heating, it produces an unusable result. Putting it in a small corrugated cardboard box would both insulate it and prevent it from getting squished. For anyone who had the issue with the previous, defective packaging, it should be a no questions asked replacement. PTM is VERY cheap in the quantities in which LTT purchases it. They have massive margins to work with.

[@zncon]

Yeah it doesn't seem like a problem that can be solved, because it melts at 45c/113f, which going going to happen a lot in the back of a shipping truck depending on where in the world someone lives.

[@McKevittS]

As someone who spent 10 years working at the Ritz Carlton Hotel company. You guys did a good job responding kindly while not giving away the farm. I'll be making a purchase shortly

[@JC559]

Big shout out to Nick on this one! I can't imagine it's easy having something like this thrown at you unexpectedly, and I thought the answers/reasoning he gave was pretty much spot on 😊

[@prathamjohari8301]

maybe a pop-up when you put as eu/uk address saying "if you are asked to pay tax, please ask for a refund from us afterwards"

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Or maybe they just shouldn't charge tax at checkout on orders more than £135. EDIT: I said 'less' when I meant 'more'.

[@dustojnikhummer]

@@FlyboyHelosim Well, the problem is that sometimes it does indeed go through as it should, which makes it a lot cheaper and easier for the buyer. The problem is that Shoppify's implementation isn't 100% there. LMG would really need a EEA distribution warehouse to avoid this.

[@daviddemmers130]

​@@FlyboyHelosimthat's what you'd call international tax fraud

[@cosmichirai]

In Spain, some regions like Canary Islands have different tax laws and as such, when sending something from Mainland Spain, taxes are deducted so our own tax authorities can do their thing on arrival. I think they should do the same - deduct taxes from everything that's not inside Canada (if their law lets them of course).

[@LAndrewsChannel]

@@daviddemmers130 how is that "tax fraud"? If the goods are imported into EU (and I assume UK as well), taxes need to be paid to the importing country. If the seller does not collect the associated tax then customs will collect that from you directly or indirectly via the shipping company. I relatively recently bought something from Japan and I was contacted by the shipping company to pay VAT.

[@gtleshow]

Now this is next-level transparency! Loved seeing real, unfiltered feedback on the store from complete strangers-it’s such a refreshing approach.

[@bcraftr]

The fact that Linus is honest with his store flaws, unlike many many other youtubers, is the reason I love watching this guy

[@Mic_Glow]

I've worked in customer support 3 years, one unhappy customer is equal to 10 happy ones. Closer to 20. When everything works as intended people don't leave a review (rating all purchases takes time if it stacks up). When an issue gets resolved quickly they usually also don't bother. If it didn't get resolved... oh boi, even if it's a 30$ 10 year old past-warranty device it's almost guaranteed they will rate you, the manufacturer and (innocent) seller 1/10 wherever they can.

[@dealloc]

Yes this is true. We absolute hate it; but actively ask our users if they could please rate and write a review for us. It's the only thing that keeps the "bad reviews" at bay. Though we also go out of our way, if possible, to reconcile bad experience, unless would require us to send "marketing" emails, or if there's no context. It's difficult to not make yourself look desperate, but it's unfortunately the only way that works. I always try to rate and review good experiences I have had with customer supports on other products.

[@calebpurvis6195]

@@Mic_Glow Maybe you have seen this but I have always felt that an issue is an opportunity. You get a chance to directly interact with your customer, and if you can do a stellar job and really WOW them with a support interaction. (Or even just make it painless) You can gain a loyal and vocal proponent for your product. They will tell others "Buy this, if you have issues they will take care of you".

[@PureRushXevus]

Yeah reviews are unfortunately very useless in a lot of cases because of this. 20-30% of people at most will leave positive feedback just because they were happy with something, but basically 80-90% will leave negative feedback for the tiniest little thing..

[@bigfin20]

such is human nature :/

[@Decepticons2]

I left a tip one day as much as my order, it was just so good. That didn't excite waitress but when I told her I did the QR code rating she was so happy.

[@maxrburgess]

22:45 it'd probably be fine to just include a note in the confirmation to countries that aren't Canada or the US saying something like "if your country charges extra import fees they may be refunded if you reach out to support"

[@BeCreativePictures]

Or even a printed note in the package. As you would open up the package within an hour of paying these fees, while you probably have forgotten about a confirmation mail.

[@maxrburgess]

@BeCreativePictures I imagine this'd be a bit harder than putting some text in a dynamic email but it'd probably be more noticeable. Maybe they could send an email upon delivery.

[@FeelsGouda]

That is not really a valid or good idea because, as they mentioned, it is literally different from country to country. Additionally, this would probably just create more unnecessary work because people would reach out without having an actual issue. This is a lot of extra work and cost for something that is easily solved by the customer just reading up on it themselves and reaching out. Just slap it in the FAQ and let people read up on it, especially given the tax issue is not on LTT but on the countries/carriers, and they can't really do much about it, apart from refund it when it happens.

[@maxstuffnet]

@@FeelsGouda The problem with it only being in the FAQ is that a lot of customers will assume that they are supposed to be taxed twice.

[@gmoss101]

Bought the screwdriver on Amazon, it came the next day. After a few months, the bit storage was sticking out and wouldn't close properly even though it hadn't been dropped. LTT Store Support got me a new driver and it arrived during the derecho that happened in Houston. No complaints from me.

[@D88Jaxon]

Literally the same thing but the day after when I had no power, but I had working bit storage!

[@callumery119]

Amazon?

[@atcen]

@@callumery119 yes they stock some items on amazon. (Only a few)

[@trueheart1372]

​@@callumery119they have a Amazon store with less items for Amazon fanboys

[@sevenofzach]

It is available on Amazon and they mentioned that at one point when it was released but I'm not sure why/how ​@@callumery119

[@MarioNotBros]

I've dealt with the LTT Store support multiple times and I have to say, they're some of the most accommodating, pleasing support teams I've ever interacted with. Keep up the good work!

[@richardstephens3327]

As someone that does mystery shopping as a job this is by far some of the best customer service I have seen this year and perhaps in the top 5 since 2020.

[@knightsljx]

The PTM thermal pads needs better packaging, if not insulating then something that prevents pressure from pressing on the product itself

[@richard-davies]

Usually these from other places get shipped in a tiny but sturdy cardboard box, and they always arrive to me in flawless condition. For an item like this which is sensitive to heat, cold and pressure, it really needs far better packaging.

[@jabbahut755]

I think a lot of their packaging leaves something to be desired. I'll often received damaged product boxes, but have had no issue with the product itself. I think it's an unfortunate side effect of them wanting to stay environmentally friendly with how they package things.

[@SF7PAKISTAN]

I think the pad needs a carboard box and a cocaine bag, that way even if it phase changes you can pop it in the fridge without losing some

[@Xorthis]

I've seen PTM often and it's usually contained in a ziplock plastic bag. I don't know why LTTstore thinks some open cardboard packaging is enough for something that goes liquid at the slightest mention of heat above 30c...

[@lifdrazor]

maybe treating it like food product so it goes in a cargo with refrigeration?

[@buffaloxp]

I cannot emphasize enough how much I appreciate your effort to make this as unbiased as you can. Obviously, bias is not something you can avoid 100%, but the amount of effort you guys put into genuinely looking for flaws in the support and ways to improve is astounding. Thank you for making this video.

[@Fourthof7sons]

I always appreciate when store list items as "final inventory" or similar to let you know it can't be replaced.

[@pixel_vengeur391]

I can also personally vouch for support. I got double charged taxes twice out of 4 orders and, while it's annoying to have to pay it twice (plus the overhead that customs add onto it, though it might be Belgium specific), the issue was sorted out in a matter of days. All I can say is, if you contact any form of support, give any all all relevant information from the get go. Order #, client ID, receipts, customs declarations, etc. It speeds up the process massively on both ends.

[@ThomasBudde]

that is an eu issue for orders over 150 euro. had the same issue. but got the taxes back after just one email

[@lpt2606]

How much extra did you pay after shipping and taxes to belgium? Alvast bedankt or deja merci ?😅

[@NTDang]

@@lpt2606 ik wil het ook weten :P

[@pixel_vengeur391]

@@ThomasBudde That's the weird thing, not all my 150€+ orders were double charged. I have never ordered under, so I couldn't report on that.

[@pixel_vengeur391]

@@lpt2606 I got charged ~70 USD (~63 €) at checkout. When the package arrived at the border I got charged 112 € by bpost. So basically double.

[@alfredenglund]

Being charged extra VAT is common in the EU, it's not LTT's or any other store's fault as long as they have put the necessary information on the package. Sometimes the customs agency miss these numbers, what you need to do is pay the taxes instantly, and then contact your tax agency and show them your receipt that you already payed VAT and they will refund the VAT to you. The store should NOT refund the VAT.

[@mpz_prod]

Tell me more. I'm from germany and that's why i didnt bought yet at LTT

[@lockislit]

Honestly most of the criticisms from the "leader" secret shopper felt pretty unfounded, like you said they have no control over tax law.

[@Guy-Zero]

But the VAT they paid was for Canada right? Or did they pay EU VAT on their side but still get charged once importing? Genuine question, I have no idea about that stuff. Does LTT store have Euro prices and if so does that inclusion of Euro prices for other shops also mean taxes have already been paid?

[@iskierka8399]

@@Guy-Zero very few, if any, countries can charge VAT on international orders. The VAT is meant to apply to the buyer as a resident of the country, and putting it as point of sale is a buyer convenience thing. They were charged twice by the receiving country, not canada plus receiving country.

[@OstenTV_DK]

Yeah the Danish customs refuse to do that. Trust me, I have tried. It especially sucks because the customer just ends up paying an extra $20 for the "handling fee". So they are the ones laughing all the way to the bank.

[@vanillabiscotti]

I have a shout-out to the team that I can't really post a review for. Thanks so much to whoever got me a refund on the support team for tickets to LTX. I was dealing with an urgent family emergency at the time and it was taken care of in like 1-2 emails. I was nervous emailing about it because I didn't really have the time, plus I was certain that a no-refund policy existed. (Probably not true, might be thinking of PAX East) I was super happy that I didn't have to deal with a bunch of nonsense with support since it was a pretty difficult time for myself. Thanks guys

[@monk12314]

Just throwing in an additional actual customer who had a small issue with my Arch set. I reached out to support as it was not shipped for over a month. Support was incredible helpful, quick, and actually shipped out my order rushed and I had it within 5 days of the emailing. Wanted to give the team a 5/5 - Well done!

[@nixplayer_05]

They've gone from secret shopping third party's, to secret shopping their sponsors, then secret shopping their boss's investment, and now secret shopping themselves. Props to them

[@RealGrouchy]

Next they're going to secret shop their secret shoppers!

[@ZacharyFleck]

When I pre-ordered my screw driver, I originally ordered one with the black shaft. After thinking about it and realizing I didn't want a scratched shaft, or wait the extra time to get that model, I sent a request to have it changed. You guys responded quickly and kept my spot in the queue even after changing my order. that was pretty great! Also want to share my appreciation being proactive with the backpack as well. It's rare a store reaches out to customers that purchased a product and says "hey, this thing we made isn't perfect, and we can do better, so we'll send you these things to make it better" I really appreciated that!

[@Ksportin]

16:27 I'm in the UK and had no problems with any of my 13 orders in the last 2 years. Every single order has passed through customs without being charged more than was taken at checkout, they've all gone straight through customs within a couple of hours and I've never been sent a bill. Edit: I'd also like to add to what Nick said later on about some shippers not bothering with taxes/import costs at all and that has been my overwhelming experience with things imported from other North American companies. I do appreciate that LTT are trying to get the taxes right on their end because (whether I've just been lucky or not) all my LTT orders have sailed through customs with no additional charges being needed, whereas when I have bought things from other NA companies, the orders tend to get caught up whilst the bill gets sent on to me or the courier settles it and then holds onto the package until I have repaid them the fee + their own handling charge added on. Speaking of additional handling charge, Parcelforces does seem to be if not the highest then one of the highest.

[@D3ntNL]

Same thing applies to the Netherlands. Yet, the weird thing is, it is me who is responsible here for declaring anything bought outside of the EU. I ought to contact customs. Yet, with everything that is ordered outside the EU, it needs to pass customs. Which is weird, because it is not how the law works, at all. So for LTT actively doing the tax for me, is a huge plus to them. That is A LOT of extra work they do not have to do, at all. When they remark that others do not bother with it, the others are actually right.

[@winniethewhor]

You guys absolutely need different, rigid packaging for the thermal pads. A rigid recessed piece of plastic or something. If it had more formed packaging, it would save you customer service time and pay for itself. You certainly need to be time-stamping your tickets and flagging them once they're over a certain age, and a big large red flag informing customers about the potential hazards around international shipping.

[@samuelo5052]

I think they try to use no plastic in their packaging, I’ve ordered multiple things from them and everything comes in either cardboard or biodegradable packaging. While a rigid cardboard recession could help it might add more cost than it is worth

[@generic13372]

The main problem with the thermal pads is that it gets to hot during shipping and changes shape, that happens in every container.

[@christophergilmer8267]

i was thinking sandwiched between 2 pieces of corrugated cardboard and just enough tape to hold it tight. could help with temperature changes, as well

[@AluminumHaste]

Wouldn't help. A lot of these letter packages are sat vertically in delivery vans with no air conditioning in hot weather. As that's exactly how mine arrived, all bunched up on one side. Used a hair dryer on a flat surface to let it melt back and it kinda worked. Good enough.

[@dougle03]

Or just stop selling that product line... Sure people like them, but if the liability is bigger than the profit then expect to see it disappear soon...

[@Nason599]

Did I just watch this poor man's public performance review? lol, huge props to him keeping it together like a champ, most wouldn't be able too. I really respect you guys creating this video, acknowledging faults and correcting them properly is a huge deal.

[@greenbubbleboy5673]

I wirk for a pretty large online retailer. You guys do a much better job than we do when it comes to replacements. Although our products are far more expensive than what ltt sells. And for put international shipments we dont do anything for the customer when it comes to taxes. They are on the hook for all of it.

[@HoJSimpson]

I had a Problem with the first backpack run. Contacted support, and they offered me a free replacement backpack, and allowed me to keep the faulty one( I live in europe and shipping it back would have been pretty inconvenient for both parties lol), which I currently use as a Tool Bag, while the replacement is my current daily driver for over 1,5 years now. Support was super fast and I honestly have nothing to complain.

[@GeekIWG]

A while back one of my orders for some screwdriver bits had one with a defect that prevented it from fitting in the driver, requiring me to contact your support team. I was very impressed with the support provided. I received a solution quickly, the same day if I remember right, with a whole new bit set being sent to me at no additional cost. The support agent also explained that the system didn't allow for just sending one bit. (I may have asked about just having the defective bit replaced.) I was also told I could keep the first set. That's a 5/5 rating from me!

[@mannymakesmusic891]

Great job with the mole 😂

[@zachg8289]

@@mannymakesmusic891 when he swayed out of the blur I died laughing

[@AuthenticGadzooks]

Not even The Intercept could have done a worse job 😂

[@samparkkkk]

😂😂😂

[@TheJakeblake]

I vaguely remember hearing those words from someone, who was the persons that said them? Do you guys remember?

[@theindianneek7225]

The comedic timing was just too good😂

[@masteraura]

Glad they mentioned the ltt bottle cap snapping, I have to replace 2 now because of this being from the UK but I would mention that they offered this replacement both times no questions asked and upgraded me to the V2 cap

[@abeeson86]

I ordered the screwdriver and a desk pad from the LTT Store ~a year ago or so, the comms were really clear, and when the desk pad turned out to not be in stock i was refunded the whole shipping price so i could reorder it again later, which was really nice to see, especially considering it was international shipping. The screwdriver is amazing, super happy with the ordering process and would definitely order again. Glad to see you improving anyway as this is how you get (and stay) good

[@Freegrem]

that 3 star review is rating based on how they want the place run not the customer support...

[@smokemyjohnson6755]

@@Freegrem yeah lol

[@Bruke53]

I felt their review was completely unreasonable. They handled everything professionally and to the best of their ability. There's not a lot you can do about the courier causing problems nor the government doing dumb tax things. Sure there could be some sort of documentation about how to handle the tax thing (ie. asking for a refund), but as Nick explained, that is going to be an issue for basically every international order and it will vary by country. Largely this is an issue with the home country of the purchaser and is surely an issue they would be aware of for any international purchases they have made in the past.

[@asinineintentions7773]

@@Bruke53 Yeah you could see that both Linus and Nick disagreed with the rating and reasonings for it on that last one, but obviously can't sit there and just flatly disagree with someone's rating.

[@weebleking70]

@@Bruke53 They're the perfect unreasonable customer to act as a secret shopper. Unfortunately it applies to the review too.

[@VaraNiN]

1:01 Why is the intro joke line thingy missing :((

[@Lemon10.5]

Ikr!

[@thomasbryant7888]

I was just thinking that

[@davidcozziii]

_secret_

[@Seacle14]

Hopefully it's because they will finally get rid of the cringy intro soon.

[@Hussainberg.]

@@Seacle14the irony of anime pfp calling something cringe lol

[@tastethedoom9967]

That look at 11:35 was gold

[@alsocool1]

Nene's review is interesting because they mention that "the eventual resolution was practical....instead of blindly replacing the product", but it kinda seems like that would have resulted in a better review considering how they still wanted it replaced after multiple support messages. Shouldn't the extra effort in creating a practical resoultion and actually solving the problem instead of "blindly replacing the item" result in a better review score in that case? Plus they were happy that the t-shirt was replaced with no questions either.

[@Steamrick]

There's a noticeable trend of them blindly replacing just about anything except the PTM. I guess there's enough heat related shipping issues that if they just replaced it every time, they'd have to charge a lot more or outright stop selling it.

[@burglburglprolol]

This review is the one that's sticking in my mind. Really like this video and liked hearing all the different experiences, but the first one struck me as odd. They had an incredibly satisfying result about the t-shirt (immediate replacement, no questions asked), and a fair and reasonable response for the thermal pad (clear explanation that, while unfortunate, the packaging issue doesn't effect the use of the pad). Then the buyer mention for the first time (as far as the video implies) that they are unable to use the slightly deformed thermal pad due to a disability. No response for a few days, then support agrees to replace the thermal pad and throw in an extra in case there are any hiccups in the future. The responses (that were shown) are all pleasant and polite, constantly working to appease the customer and offer solutions. Maybe I'm missing something, but that sounds pretty much as good as you could possibly expect. Unless there's a thought that support should've known about their disability or that the policy should be to just replace the (completely usable) thermal pad without question. And keep in mind, the thermal pad is currently the most sold-out product in LTT store history (allegedly). Ignoring the shirt entirely and just considering the thermal pad, this was a 5/5 support case. 4/5 if we factor in the 4 day delay. 2.5/5 seems WILDLY negative for the quality of the support and I don't know what the buyer could've wanted them to do better, outside maybe respond quicker. But a 50% is a huge failing grade IMO and it should take more than a few days delay on a response to dock 50% off of a review. But maybe I'm just missing something. Idk, just something about support doing 100% exactly what the customer requested, and getting a 2.5/5 for it feels really off.

[@BigT87]

@@burglburglprolol I agree on this. She even expresses concern with how quickly they replaced the shirt to be taken advantage of but then is frustrated when they don't do that for the pad? Even then they said she was using threadripper but that sheet still looked plenty big enough to cover multiple threadrippers.

[@JumpFly211]

​@@burglburglprolol They could make better packaging for the ptm so it wouldn't melt in the first place

[@burglburglprolol]

@@JumpFly211 Oh absolutely. And they mentioned they're working on getting firmer packaging in the future to prevent exactly this. But that's clearly outside the scope of a customer support request lol. A fair complaint, not a fair critique on the customer support IMO.

[@sbennettable]

Last Lime Day I purchase about $130 worth of items ranging from Hoodies, Water Bottles and the Woman's Sweatpants. I live in the UK and the shipping did take a long time. Sadly I was hit with over $120 of Custom & Duty fees. Honestly the quality of the merchandise is second to none, and I would consider purchasing much more. But until shipping can be simplified to reduce the cost of Custom & Duty Fees I feel I need to pause any future purchases as essentially the costs are being doubled which sadly does not really benefit LTT in anyway.

[@spicy_mint]

Conversely I've had similar experiences buying products from the U.K shipping to Canada, $60 product and charged $40 in duties/fees.

[@JCel]

​@@spicy_mintI've heard that shipment to Canada has this issue a lot. Idk about UK, but it's not EU anymore so the old EU trade agreements would be a bit difficult for them I'd assume.

[@Appoxo]

Reason why I wont impulse shop at any time at LTT without having a bigger wishlist in advance. Last order was 400€ but I bought nothing for +6months (I love the t-shirts and hoodies. Waffle shirt is also very cool)

[@imitt12]

I definitely understand where you're coming from, but unfortunately that cost is going to end up somewhere. Even if Creator Warehouse were to set up a shipping location in Europe, they would still have to get the items to that warehouse and would likely still end up paying import duties somewhere. And no matter whether the item comes from Canada or Spain, there are still import duties and VAT to be paid. Either CW pays it themselves and raises the cost of the item to compensate, or they add it at checkout and the customer pays. It's the unfortunate reality of buying things produced outside of your country.

[@pdoge]

For me it's with the backpack. I might see myself buy a quality 250$ backpack. I don't see myself buying the same backpack at 386€ after shipping and taxes.

[@trimonmusic]

The stock issue is such a good point from an international perspective. When you're ordering from abroad (UK in my case), shipping and taxes quickly add up, making each order a big deal to consider. It's highly preferable to make as few orders as possible. This means that if 1 of 4 items I want is not available, I would usually delay purchasing altogether, because making 2 separate orders significantly increases the total price. It's also why refunding is good, but not perfect, as the proportional tax and shipping costs per-item increases as the number of items you finally keep decreases. The only remedy to this is local distribution centres, but I completely understand that this kind of scale is beyond LTTstore as of now.

[@LetsKetchup]

German guy here: I ordered the northern lights pad alongside other things in a pretty small size due to my setup beeing pretty crowded already. Got a way bigger size, that simply wouldn't fit. reached out to support and got the shipping confirmation of the right size within like 2h and I'm happy to keep the bigger one ("to give it to a friend or keep for the future" answer from support). I offered to send it back but it probably costs more to ship that one back to canada than to send another one out. The bigger one has its home on a different setup where I didn't intend to use one but hey, if its there why not make the setup look pretty best experience imaginable

[@ElvenSpellmaker]

UK Shipping has always been a nightmare. Parcelforce charge a flat fee for opening the package (something like £13) plus VAT, and sometimes it can make a cheap product double the cost.

[@atl91-t6x]

@@ElvenSpellmaker Isn't that with most stuff you buy from the US ? (and EU especially now post brexit...)

[@gta4haterhq]

@@ElvenSpellmaker same in Germany

[@SanderEvers]

International shipping is just terrible. Sue you need to pay taxes (logically) but there are often also other costs (handling, etc). For cheaper products you'll easily pay more than the price of the product. Especially if you include shipping itself. It can go 3-4x even. For example I bought a cd from the US -> the Netherlands. Shipping was 120% of the price of the CD. Got additional tax cost (2 euro) and handling cost (8 euro). So the price of the CD was 4x the original price. Yeah, I'm not doing that again.

[@izzieb]

@@ElvenSpellmaker On the plus side, at least it's not Hermes (or Evri as they now want to he known) or Yodel 😅. They are truly diabolical.

[@Woodie-xq1ew]

@@SanderEvershonestly the taxes don’t bother me because you don’t pay them on the other side. But the “handling fees” are a joke. I have to pay extra money to drive down to the depot and get my package myself. I’m paying money to do part of the delivery job myself

[@amey_pathak]

This is really good that you are putting yourselves to the same standard that you are holding other companies accountable for. Big props to the LTT team

[@Ncaron531]

23:43 I like the honesty of not putting the shirt you receive in a plastic bag, in the other one, it's a low bar but not many companies clear it

[@wingus-h-christ]

Appreciate the transparency!! I have only ever had good experiences on the rare occasion I've needed to contact support, which is why I remain a customer!

[@imnotdavidxnsx]

1. Damn, she made an EXCELLENT point about the thermal pad still being at issue despite the fact it could technically be reshaped. That argument was chef's kiss logical. 2. Instead of saying 24-48 hours, you should say 1-2 business days. That makes the "but it was the weekend" or "but there was a holiday" thing unnecessary to address. That's the same reason I tell clients I'll call them back within 2 business days now, instead of within 48 hours. Oh...I then hit play on the video and...you solved it yourself. Have a good day, lol.

[@Geerice]

I once saw "72 business hours" somewhere, which is complete nonsense. They meant "3 business days" but what they wrote would end up being 9 business days.

[@skysight1553]

​@@Geericetechnically if they have 24 hour support a 72 work hours is 3 days.

[@Geerice]

@@skysight1553 They do not, it was the waiting time for a medical referral to be processed, which is 3 days for this particular organization.

[@clintmash245]

I once got a letter from a bank that told me they'd respond within "15 business days" - and it was mid November in USA. I think I was expecting that reply to be in January.

[@why_tho_]

Great job with completely concealing the mole!

[@kihgu]

@@why_tho_ Who is it?

[@UrFriend05]

@@kihgu I think Nolan

[@kihgu]

@@UrFriend05 saw the molan thing ltrly 2 sec after

[@MeisterMitBart]

the criticism from leader feels a bit harsh. i think you should inform yourself on taxes, if you want something shipped internationally. not a strong dissaggree, but giving half of for having country specific tax problems feels heavy.

[@Teddytheviking]

I get what you mean, but I do not completely agree. It can be, and is, very unclear to a lot of people that they are paying for taxes twice, and that they don't need to (I had no idea). And while it is not LLTs responsibility to "solve this problem", it would be very easy to at least inform foreign customers of this, and advice them to look up instructions specific to their country on how to get a refund on import fee's. Although I agree that giving 2,5 out of 5 for something like that is indeed harsh.

[@danman367]

​@@Teddythevikingbut LTT refunded their tax payment didn't they? Why would they be asking for an additional refund for the taxes if LTT reimbursed the fees?

[@gve-tp1kd]

@@MeisterMitBart definitely not a company’s problem if your countries import taxes are straight trash. You need to vote not complain to a company

[@Junebug89]

Yeah, maybe LTT store needs to communicate the need to do the taxes thing better but I don't think it warranted such a harsh penalty.

[@TheDamnhook]

Holy fuck no. They are many countries, where tax is always included in displayed prices, they are even several court cases from a variety of countries where it is illegal to show prices without taxes included. Import Tax also is pretty easy to display as part of shipping cost, so that’s totally a legal issue

[@Zackp90]

I love that you guys are truly honest with who you are. You admit your shortcomings fairly but your wins you take humbly as well and that is why i still watch this channel. I may not like every piece of content but it is usually fun and informative content regardless.

[@floggerrush5]

Honestly, I feel like those were fairly representative of the experiences I had when I've reached out to customer service with the LTT store. I've always felt like customer service has been as good if not better than any other online shop that I've dealt with. I think you guys are on the right track and you've shown that you do care about making sure that you don't lose out of that. So keep up the good work

[@Nixtorm]

As someone who ran a (much) small(er) business for a time, I think you guys have the right idea with your customer support. So, kudos to you, and I hope to see this attitude more and more with others.

[@JeffSlover]

I ordered one of the LTT screw drivers when they first launched, and the bit retention clip had a couple of breaks. Support was fast to offer a replacement, after requesting a picture of the issue. They advance shipped a replacement, with a return label, and handled it pretty well. I don't recall the timeline but it felt acceptable. I didn't have to go back to poke the ticket for it.

[@yerachmielb1]

14:24 If you do have a bot or AI, can you also make it easy and clear to reach an actual human? There are some companies out there that claim they switched you to a human agent, but throughout the chat you discover there's no way it's not another AI/bot.

[@sorsun46]

i agree, but take into consideration most support platforms allow for templates that human agents can use to move faster on the conversation, and only actually write when needed, which might not be necessary at all (the criteria of whether it is or not, tells the quality of the person for sure)

[@philgoodinc2]

I do customer service chats (along with emails and phone calls), and there so many times people think I am still a chatbot. Partly because we used canned responses to save us time and effort, but also partly becuase we HAVE to use correct spelling and punctuation, which people think is a sign of a chatbot. Dont forget, people are also stupid/ignorant/miss reading an important line like "connecting to you live agent". If I really wanted to, I could mess with customers and make them think I was chatbot. Most of the time, the customers will come across an error message at checkout like "No delivery slots currently available, pllease try again at a later time" and contact to get confirmation on what that means. With those types of chats, I can do the whole thing without typing anything.

[@yerachmielb1]

@@philgoodinc2 I'm not arguing with you (or anyone else in the thread). This all makes sense. My complaint is simply that there are times that even after it "connected to a live agent" the canned responses are so generic that they actually completely ignore the question (e.g. the question is how to extend battery life and maintain battery health on a brand new device, but the answer is 'go talk to this department to repace the battery').

[@franz0901fw]

Before watching the video: I live in Germany and never had any problems with the support at LTTShop, they answered fast, directly had ideas how to fix my problem and once even replaced a product free of charge, which probably means they didn't even make profit of of that purchase because of shipping and taxes to Germany. I love the quality of the products and wear them nearly everyday. 10/10 will buy again. Edit 1: after watching Nene's conclussion, I had the same thought about how someone could try to rip off the creator warehouse, really hope that's not happening.. Edit 2: Linus and/or whoever reads this, if you ever open another distribution center in Europe, message me, I would love to work there :)

[@XYLOBELL_]

I'm glad to watch this video. I had a bad experience the first and only time I ever purchased from ltt back a few years ago. I had ordered the special taped over "tech linked" shirt when tech linked started and had an issue i was really not happy with the result. Thank you for constantly working on yourselves!

[@Rick-vm8bl]

UK here, personally I'm happy you use parcelforce (royal mail) as the other options such as Yodel and Evri suck massively. The only decent one (although still area dependant) is DPD, but overally Parcelforce is probably the best all around option even if its not perfect. That being said UPS is also very good here but not as widely used.

[@falconfotographic]

@@Rick-vm8bl indeed, far from perfect but they provide a universal service unlike The others. Yodel ask for an extra working week to deliver to Scottish Highlands & Islands and channel Islands + 6 days to Scilly Isles.

[@barnett25]

I had a great experience with support for the scribe driver. The o-ring got damaged which didn't really hurt functionality, but I was curious if I could buy a pack online later if I decided it bothered me. I reached out to support and to my surprise they were able to provide the exact specifications for the o-ring (0.4mm cross section x 3mm inner diameter for anyone else who wants to know) on the same day. They also offered to do more if I felt that the issue caused any problems. All in all great service, and also kudos for getting the tech specs for a specific part when asked.

[@RetroOnSpeedDial]

That waterbottle advertisement was rock solid. Linus was fully committed and had no fear of spilling that on the keyboard or mousepad. I'm convinced

[@DanielRoverato]

Linus watching strangers rate his own store is like a gamer watching their parents attempt a speedrun… they’ll get there eventually, but it’s going to be painful to watch

[@-allarr-]

Great video. I'm a leader for a help desk myself, and I appreciate and understand all the things that *weren't* said. It's amazing to me that LTT managed to make an entertaining video out of something that for me would be just another Thursday meeting.

[@wbeaurowe]

god the transparency on linus' team is amazing. thanks for doing vids like this!

[@MGL83]

As someone who once waited almost 6 months for my order, I'll say it's good too see that you are aware of some issues, and not pretending they are not there. Overall win for the video.

[@mrdabeetle1]

As someone who makes handmade items and ships internationally, it would totally make sense for me to never ship international because of the shipping subcontracting that goes on. I had a package go through seven different shipping companies within the same destination country. That's when I stopped offering free shipping. Vendors like Amazon who have the billions to offer such fast shipping all over the world through global distribution centers and priority shipping agreements with hundreds of shipping companies truly make the small businesses look incompetent and inefficient when it comes to shipping. I feel your pain.

[@ApfelJohannisbeere]

For being that transparent you are 1000/5 Stars and thanks for bringing it to our attention!

[@_BlackSpectrum]

1:55 What the heck! 😂

[@italianbasegard]

Definitely caught me guard 😂 nice work LTT. The fact that the audio is even unfiltered when he leans out of the blurred region is 👌 (1:50)

[@StuartBreland]

I nearly spit out my drink on my deskpad...

[@_BlackSpectrum]

​@@italianbasegardyeah 😂

[@chillaman35]

@@italianbasegard the name also changes too lol

[@BobSentell]

The first time I’ve had to stop a video to laugh in a while.

[@Blackfatrat]

You should do this semi-regularly. I found it interresting, it's a pretty good ad for LTT store tbh, and I believe it will be a good way to review your own policies.

[@Jalmaan]

To add to the carrier issue, in Europe any mail that gets sent from outside the continent gets put on an auction for who will deliver it, the person who can give the lowest bid will be the one to deliver it, which in the Netherlands is 9 out of 10 times DHL, and 9 out of a 100 times PostNL, just 1% is other carriers.

[@MuhammadKharismawan]

I bought a bomber jacket on Medium got sent an XL size Shorsircuit Hoodie instead, contacted CS, got offered a couple options, picked a replacement from store as the bomber jacket is out of stock. Got Noctua ver Driver after adding my saved gift card. The driver arrived, it looks and feels good, just for some reason the precision of the ratchet is different when I change from tighten to reverse, one side is soo smooth I can feel each click of the ratchet, but the reverse is way less smooth, skipping gears Constantly.

[@commenter19393]

I recently bought an LTT Scribedriver and Pajama Pants, but for some reason I got sent a XXL Cargo Pants instead (44 inch waist. I would have loved to wear it or give it away, but I literally don’t know anyone who would be able to wear that). I sent a support email with a few pictures and in 4 days received a very gracious response, telling me that they sent a new pair of Pajama Pants and that I wouldn’t have to return the cargo pants. Absolutely amazing customer service, and although I was initially a little upset, LTT did the best thing they could to right their wrong. Amazing job guys! And also - the scribedriver is such a fun pen.

[@wobblysauce]

You can make the pants much smaller in the waste with a few stitches. A general rule of thumb I follow is if pants need to be taken in 2” or less, it can all be removed from the back center seam. If the pants need to be taken in more than 2”, distribute the amount through the back center seam and the two side seams and optionally any darts and pleats.

[@commenter19393]

Really? I would love to be able to wear these pants - they’re the right length, the waist is just too big. What do you mean by stitching it?

[@KR-ys1io]

homie, im six foot nine and dying for those pants lol ill buy them off you!

[@cadenchurchill4296]

Makes me happy that so far (haven’t quite finished the video as of writing) none of these experiences are nearly as bad as my recent one with Walmart. They seemed quite irritated when I asked them to repeat themselves and they didn’t listen when I told them the issue wasn’t solved. Then they just ended the call. Ended up cancelling that order to place it elsewhere. My experiences with LTT Store (in Canada) so far have been very positive though! Keep up the good work! 🧡

[@odypodi2521]

It takes a lot of courage to risk your brand's image for content, but I respect the honesty.

[@Drazil100]

And a lot of courage to admit how no questions asked it is to get replacements. REALLY hope this doesn’t turn into a “this is why we can’t have nice things”

[@prabhatgoyal9938]

11:34 dude was offended to the core

[@satl3161]

Unnecessary outrage.

[@svampebob007]

"I love my job, I love my job, I love my job, I love my job, I love my job, I love my job" 😀 haha very funny boss man.

[@ZexMaxwell]

I viewed it as a comady bit

[@RENO_K]

​@@satl3161Oh please, so what 😂 ppl can't be mad nowadays??

[@andrsfch]

😢

[@name1453]

I have actually had personal experience with your support and I felt very happy talking with them and their time to respond. And like most companies, you dont work weekends or holidays! If I was working with this on my team I would suggest a different response for weekends and holidays. No reason to tell your customers 24-48 hours when its a friday at 3pm.

[@erik365365365]

I worked in cold chain logistics for a few years. There are “gel packs” for keeping products at ambient temps. They help to sink additional heat away from it. In the summer this might be worth it for the phase change stuff lol

[@richardcrossley5581]

Delivery times to East Asia are around two weeks, do they still work unrefrigerated over that timescale?

[@erik365365365]

@@richardcrossley5581 I doubt it lol

[@clintmash245]

I have to admit, you make a fair point - the gel might simply buffer the heat. That is, it might cool enough "at night" to survive "the day" - certainly better if the most extreme heat is during final mile delivery. That said, weight is an issue for shipping, so I don't expect it'll happen.

[@ChrisIsidori]

I'll give LTT CS team a big thumbs up this week. I had a defective LTT backpack with the zipper teeth that effectively killed the bag's use entirely. They replied back to my inquiry within the wait times posted in initial email and offered two options that I was happily satisfied with. Replacement shipment is currently inbound. Thanks

[@b-b-halo3]

I love how you make these videos for transparency, not only for your sponsors, but to your own store, keep it up!

[@alexanderherd2973]

0:50 linus..... the sun is a star....😅

[@eltimetoe]

@@alexanderherd2973 he's just mad that he forgot that the sun is a star

[@BigT87]

True but at the same point they specifically referenced "sunshine" what I would normally picture an image of the sun with many points. The 5 point star I think would be more commonly associated with night time stars.

[@thechartech]

Came here to say exactly this

[@KyleBiz]

That's technically correct, the best kind of correct!

[@SanityThroughMusic]

My husband and I had 2 interactions with support over the last 2-3 years and it's been incredible each time. Easy to get a quick resolution even when stock is out of that item. Honestly, I would rate this as one of the best support team interactions I've had.

[@_Makanko_]

Unsung heroes in support teams! Its underrated how nice it is to get a speedy and kind response.

[@CoalitionGaming]

Oh cool its Nick! Nick meanwhile... *oh no*

[@Shablagoooo]

I’ve had an excellent experience with lttstore customer service in the past. The stitching on the right pocket of my RGB hoodie was coming undone and all I did was email some pictures and they sent me a new one. It was amazing

[@coreyrobinson9010]

Incredible customer service. I have never received this from any KZbin channel other than yours.

[@yasine00]

I feel so bad he seems stressed out

[@svampebob007]

it looks like he's about to lose his hair over this this vi... never mind that man has nothing to lose.

[@yannick7230]

Aliexpress ships it's product to a warehouse in Europe where they declare it to customs and then send it to the customer from there. That way the customer gets the package really quickly, and never has to pay extra fees because it gets treated as a local package by the courrier. Maybe you could look into partnering with a European logistics company to provide a similar service.

[@imitt12]

That would work for products shipped to continental Europe, but anything going to the UK would still be treated as an international package and be subject to import duties and VAT.

[@yannick7230]

@@imitt12 same principle for the UK, but with a different partner company.

[@TheBadBone23]

​@@imitt12 well...benefits of Brexit :)

[@alj25195]

22:11 he already explained in the video that they don't have the volume to do that rn

[@toetie2019]

I’ve had to pay import taxes on AliExpress orders multiple times sadly

[@dgourley8922]

I'm really impressed that you included the positive and negative experiences. So many websites sweep negative reviews under the carpet. The only thing that I would point out is the percentage of problems in relation to the number of secret shoppers is quite high. I live in the EU myself, and the issue with for example taxes, etc., would actually stop me from ordering from you until you have found a solution that is feasible.

[@RaptorGoesRAWR]

Ah, with the exception of Nene's PTM squish and Leader's issue with taxes, which were genuine problems, LTT had the secret shoppers invent problems so they could test LTT's customer service experience. Things like the sharpie mark and the broken lid and the ripped seam, the secret shoppers did those on purpose (because they were asked to do so). Otherwise they wouldn't have needed to contact support ;D

[@dial-upking]

The water bottle lid breaking at the hinge happened to me, but luckily I accidentally ordered a extra lid not realizing the bottle came with one (don't ask why I thought that). The second lid has lasted me for several years now.

[@RhysWilliams-u3o]

Same with me, and I was in the UK so I dealt with loads of transit issues. Didn't complain though... I considered it my own fault(kinda, my 3yr old knocked it over... ) but I didn't complain because I was very empathetic with the staff... this vid just proves my point. Public performance reviews are just mean.

[@oppressorofthewindmills2911]

Same here, but it broke after like a year so i just bought one, after all I dropped it. I don’t expect that much durability anyway so the fact they improved it is awesome

[@yvan2563]

Small note for American companies trying to sell in Canada. I avoid UPS and FedEx like the plague when ordering things from the USA because of their insane brokerage fees which are added on top of the usual customs/duty fees. I once ordered a 10 dollars part, had to paid nearly 20 dollars for shipping, a bit over 10 dollars for duty fees and an insane 35 dollars in brokerage fees. Convert the USD to CAD and that meant 100$CAD for a 10$USD part.

[@CyberDragon10K]

_Hate_ FedEx and UPS for this reason alone. Brokerage fees are legal grifting. Such garbage.

[@supergaloecb]

Something not well known is that you can clear the item shipped yourself if you live near a CBSA office and I think some you can do it by phone and avoid the brokerage fees, when UPS send you the email saying that you have these brokerage fees, you call them to request the paperwork and by law they have to provide it, then you go to the CBSA office, pay your tax/duty fees and send the documents to UPS, the quicker you do it, you wont have interruptions in your delivery, if they come at the door you just tell them that you will clear it yourself and they will keep the item in a warehouse for some time until you clear it, dont give anything to these scammy procedures.

[@Unknown_Genius]

I avoid UPS specifically if possible (in germany), simply because I never received a package that wasn't heavily damaged - never had to pay extra fees for them tho, and apparently a lot of others do as well as I haven't even seen the option to get a delivery from them in the past like 3 years.

[@TheTekknician]

Having worked in logistics for near 17 years and having had my share of shipping (b2b) and shipping problems with customs (hand over info prior to shipping, which one should do), I find Nick to be VERY insightful and knowledgeable. Purely based on the video alone, I can tell the is worth gold. I do wonder how they do when shipping to certain countries in the south of America and some countries in Asia. Those can be literal customs-nightmares.

[@Respacious]

Biggest issues I've had is not being able to cancel or edit and order without sending an email. Would be a great feature for when you accidentally put the wrong address or fat finger the wrong thing and notice it right after you placed the order. Aside from that I love the products I've ordered!

[@DerKruemel]

That’s such a logistic nightmare to introduce such a feature, that’s why many shops don’t do that

[@blinddarm8478]

Ngl, if you, as a custom, are unable to check what you are buying in the "is everything correct" screen - it's kinda not their job to let you fix it after you confirmed everything is correct. Also it would basicaly lead to: every order is only placed 60 minutes after it was actualy placed. That might result in a +1 day or +3 day later shipment if you decide to order friday evening (what seems to be the case alot, linus said).

[@dougle03]

@@DerKruemel All it needs is a default delay period before the order is actually processed... Say 6 hours after order placed it continues the process... Adding in order edit is something Amazon eventually put in place to reduce post-order support calls...

[@dotholo]

@@dougle03 Comparing Amazons store to LTT is laughable at best.

[@forrest225]

@@dougle03 A 6 hour delay could easily turn into a day or more delay if it pushed the processing time to after hours.

[@mickleman52]

11:58 if the PTM melting/seepage is something that comes up fairly regularly, it might be worth while to add a blurb about this to the product page/an additional email automated email to anyone who purchases it. 17:03 Tax issues really grind my gears because software packages that handle money (accounting, pos, online sales, etc.) should be able to handle taxes... hard stop. IDC if it's a weird tax issue in the UK, if the software lets you ship/sell internationally they need to do it correctly. I had a similar issue in the US, where an online retailer charged me tax on a nontaxable item and I had multiple back and forths trying to explain how not all items are taxable. Eventually they just refunded me the tax, which felt more like a 'omg shut up idc' move, but the whole experience left me not wanting to ever use their online store again.

[@BillyLavoie]

Id also suggest maybe some kind of modifications to the PTM packaging to make sure it travels better?

[@zybch]

Anyone purchasing the PTM should know about the potential issues and install procedure. Nobody buying it instead of regular paste is a 'regular' person with the belief that its a normal product.

[@mickleman52]

@@zybch dude, take a breath. The comment you just made is classic "why are you dumb" gate keeping. People don't know something until they know it and to your own point, it's a niche product.

[@adamperez8303]

I just want to say that I love the camera that they use because it takes up all of my screen except for where the cameras are. It makes me happy

[@starspire703]

I've been laid up in the hospital for a few weeks now, and your videos have been such a bright spot for me during this time. They've kept me entertained, lifted my spirits, and honestly have been like a soap series I just can't stop watching. I've learned so much along the way, and it's been great to see the channel back in top form with content I genuinely enjoy. Thank you for being a part of my day-to-day hospital entertainment, especially through some of the cloudier moments. I've subscribed and looking forward to each new upload!

[@matt.stevick]

this is so nice to read and probably relatable to most. get well soon! ❤️

[@starspire703]

@@matt.stevick thank you

[@privacyvalued4134]

20:52 Yup. Email is completely unreliable. It's not just getting flagged as spam is a problem but rather general delivery of email. Email is fundamentally broken because Google and Microsoft have ruined it, not spammers. Spammers contributed to the problem, sure, but Google and Microsoft are the sole culprits these days for undelivered email AND they also happen to be two of the biggest origination points of spam as well.

[@wiebowesterhof]

The question at the end of whether this was a win or not - it is a win. Because this feedback will allow for improvements to be targeted further, allow conversations with logistics partners, improved documentation of process on the site, and just a simple thing like 24-48 hours changing to 1-2 business days, explicitly calling out Business Days exclude the weekend and whatever the holidays are, helps. It is nearly impossible to have perfect customer service, but the attitude to try to get it as close as possible to that goal, combined with the team's willingness to achieve something slightly better every time, is key. Fair feedback from customers and the LTT store team.

[@SkywereProductions]

Looking forward to EU office for LTTstore, then I will very likely put in my first ever order. Regarding the chat bot, if it's implemented as a help tool and not the only way to access support that should be good, but if its the only way... not a fan.

[@Deja117]

A common strategy that I hope LTT adopts for the bot is firstly: log messages with chatbots for later review if needed. secondly: There's often a hidden prompt, like on Amazon for instance, where you can say "I want to talk to a human about this". Since LTT is a smallish company (staff wise) for the sales they get, I'd recommend they put a message like "this may take up to 3 business days" when you ask for this. They can also set up flags in conversations to search for things such as "this doesn't solve my issue".