Peapod

I have been a Peapod customer since September and have been extremely satisfied with the entire experience. I have even recommended it to my friends, one of the most important forms of loyalty measured by companies. The website is great, allowing you to make lists, save orders, select delievery times, make changes, etc. The drivers have always been on time and really nice guys. It's been like magic - order online whenever you feel like it, select a delivery time and presto! you have groceries!

Unfortunately, Peapod has disappointed me tremendously over the last couple of weeks. It all started with a delivery I was supposed to receive on a Wednesday night between 6-8. I received a phone call from Peapod to let me know the driver was running about an hour late. When I inquired about what to do if I was not going to be available, my question was met with silence. The Peapod person on the phone told me I could call the customer service line and reschedule my delivery, not something she could do for me at that point. (confusing to me, because wasn't she supposed to be customer service?) She gave me the number and I told her I might call customer service depending on if I could rearrange my plans in order to be home at the new delivery time.

Around 9:45pm, there was still no sign of my groceries. I was hungry, and probably pretty cranky, I'll admit. I called the customer service number, and was informed that the "lovely" woman I had spoken to previously, the one that told me she couldn't make any changes to my delivery, had in fact CANCELLED MY DELIVERY! I was slightly irritated, to put it mildly. I asked the (much nicer) woman how we could resolve this and what they would do to make it up to me. She said they were unable to offer free delivery per se, which to me just doesn't make any sense, but she would email me a coupon. I said fine, assuming the coupon would be for $9.95 (the delivery fee) or more, given the situation. To my surprise, when I opened my email the next morning, the coupon was only for $6.95! Seriously...

I selected a new delivery time and upon checking out discovered that I had to choose between using my new coupon (which stated it MUST be used on my next order) and the coupon I had just received for referring a friend to Peapod (which was for $10). I used the $6.95 coupon, assuming I will place another order in the future and eventually get to use both, but I was NOT happy about it. My delivery finally arrived (late, of course - I scheduled a 7-9am delivery for today and it arrived at 9:15) and while I'm not hungry any more, I'm definitely still upset.

Is this any way to treat your customers? Especially those who order regularly and refer their friends to your company?