Venum Shipping Delays around Sales are Inexcusable
So, you’re probably tempted to buy some of that sweet discounted gear from Venum around Black Friday sales or some other sale. So was I. But don’t do it if you’re expecting a smooth transaction.
Be warned: even though Venum promises they’ll ship within 24 hours, they just don’t ship in a timely manner (or at all) around holidays. I ordered on Nov 28, and as of Dec 11 (two weeks later) I still haven’t even received a shipping notification, nor a response to my emails.
Looking around the internet, I’m not alone. From other people’s experiences, you can reasonably expect one of four outcomes:
- You may receive your items. Some people do.
- Your items will come 4-8 weeks, only after you call them.
- Your items will be delivered but be the wrong ones (wrong size, product, or with a defect), but the returns process will be very difficult to manage.
- Your items will never come and you should cancel it (with your bank).
If you have any concerns about your order, cancel your credit card transaction, and order from a third-party logistics provider. And to penalise them, don’t buy from Venum.
I find this operational ineffectiveness inexcusable. At best, the people in charge are not good at their jobs. At worst, they’re dishonest. I suspect it’s somewhere in the middle, something like they’re incompetent but too lazy to improve, and prefer to pocket the profit while they can.
Any people responsible for sales, logistics, or customer service — and ultimately Venum’s head of operations, CEO, and owners — are culpable of the above. You know who you are. Ultimately, the owner, Franck Dupuis, is responsible. But so are all his executives responsible for sales, marketing, logistics, and customer service.
All these people guilty of the poor operations and customer service at Venum: DO YOUR JOBS BETTER. You’re currently not doing them well.
Here are some examples of how you can do your jobs better.
You should be capable of forecasting that there’ll be increased demand during holiday seasons. Demand at least triples, especially when you run sales. You would know the estimated sales multiple from past promotions, and be able to do your own comparables.
To anticipate the increased demand, you increase staff in order processing, logistics, and customer service.
Sales are going to triple because of a promotion? Triple your staff! Can’t triple your staff? Don’t run promotions.
Or, take the lazy way out and just change the verbiage on the website, saying something like “Stuff takes longer to ship around holiday seasons”. You’re NOT a young company with no experience running a Kickstarter campaign that can expect customers to understand implicitly.
Improve your logistics system to give estimated ship dates. Everyone else does these things.
The worst part is that Venum has been guilty of lazy logistics and customer service for years. A cursory look on Reddit will reveal that people have had this experience for a long time. New buyers, like me, don’t know, which is why I’m making this post.
A look at the reviews on Trustpilot for Venum shows the same thing.
Last few reviews as of Dec 2022 (edited just for clarity without changing words).
Ordered gloves during Black Friday but when the order arrived, they were defective. Several emails later because what I really wanted was a good pair, they made up excuses not to send another one. They offer a refund (if I send them back and pay for the expenses) or a 10% discount and 10 euros in store credit. Either way I’ll end paying much more for the gloves than the original order.
Terrible customer service. Items sent back, tracked delivery’s 3 weeks ago, 7 emails later and still no refund or credit note, just same the generic message.
Customer service from this store sucks, I canceled an order, that’s more than one month ago, I sent them pictures of return confirmation, emails, and still haven’t get my refund money.
They are the BIGGEST rip-off on the internet. No issues taking your payments right away but good luck trying to get your order or even an agent to talk to about it.
Anyway, that’s my review of Venum’s poor performance in shipping and customer service.
I hope someone at Venum takes this to heart and improves the late delivery and absence of customer service situation. There are many qualified e-commerce people out there who could do this job better.
If you want to add your story, contact me.
