We Mess Up. A Lot. (And Yet, Somehow, We're Still Here)
I have a confession: We mess up all the time at ReadMatter.
I know, I know. This is not the kind of thing a business should admit in public. But if you’ve been with us for a while, you probably already know that we value honesty over perfection. And the truth is, running a used bookstore is like herding caffeinated cats—things go sideways more often than I’d like to admit.
The real miracle? We still have a 5-star rating.
It’s not because we never make mistakes. It’s because we care enough to fix them. So, in the spirit of full transparency (and hopefully a little entertainment), let’s talk about some of the things that go wrong at ReadMatter on a depressingly regular basis—and what we do about it.
1. The “Sorry, That Book’s Actually Not Here” Disaster
Sometimes a book appears on our website like a ghost from another realm. It was supposed to be on our shelves, but when we go to fetch it… poof. Gone. Vanished. Did it grow legs? Was it eaten by the bookmobile? Did a staff member borrow it and forget to tell us? No one knows.
💡 How We Fix It:
We offer a full refund immediately (none of that ‘store credit’ nonsense unless you want it). And if we can source the book elsewhere, we’ll let you know. Oh, and we double snd triple check our shelves in case it’s just playing hide and seek.
We’ve even gone to Reader’s Warehouse to see if we can buy a brand new copy for the customer. Other times, we’ve dashed around town, scouring every bookshop on this side of Gauteng, trying to find an identical copy in as good or better condition. We don’t have a one-size-fits-all approach. We handle each case individually and ask the customer how they would like us to resolve it. At the end of the day, our goal is simple: if we’ve let you down, we’ll do whatever it takes to make it right.
(And just for some perspective—we have about 8,000 books listed online, and we aim for a 99% inventory accuracy rate. That still means, at any given stage, about 80 books might be incorrectly listed. To us, even one is too many, because that’s one disappointed customer. We do stock takes, regularly. But books come in and out so fast that keeping tabs on them all is like trying to keep confetti in a wind tunnel.)
2. The “Courier Gremlins Stole Your Package” Debacle
You place an order. We pack it with love. The courier collects it. And then? Silence. Your tracking number insists it’s on a “journey,” which makes it sound like the book is off discovering itself in Bali instead of arriving at your doorstep.
💡 How We Fix It:
We track the order like bloodhounds, harass the courier until they tell us something useful, and if it’s truly lost or got damaged en route, we take the loss and sort you out immediately. Sometimes we can claim it back from the courier—six weeks of red tape later—but that’s our problem, not yours. We chose the courier companies we use, so if they mess up, it’s on us and our bad life choices.
That being said—courier issues don’t happen as often as you’d think. Over the years, we’ve chopped and changed our courier providers until we found ones that meet ReadMatter’s high standards. In the last 1000 shipments, we have had 4 go wrong, one of which was our mistake. Here’s what happened:
- Two were lost (by two different couriers).
- One got water-damaged when the driver dropped it into a puddle. (Since then, we’ve started wrapping every package in waterproof plastic sleeves if there’s even the remotest chance of rain.)
- One was waybilled incorrectly and went to the wrong address.
💡 How We Fixed It:
Within 24 hours of the issue arising, we had either replaced the order and gotten the correct books to the customer’s doorstep or issued a full refund.
3. The “Wrong Book, Right Spirit” Mishap
This never happened to us until this week. There's a first time for everything I guess. The storyline goes soemthing like this - You ordered The Night Circus and received Night Train to Lisbon. Both have ‘Night’ in the title. Both are books. But they are not the same book. This happens when our tired eyes play tricks on us or when a book is misfiled (again, herding caffeinated cats).
💡 How We Fix It:
You keep the book (free book! Yay!) and we send the right one at no extra charge—because if we mess up, you shouldn’t be the one paying for it.
4. The “Oops, We Oversold That” Crisis
Bobshop, Shopify, WhatsApp, in-person sales—sometimes a book gets sold twice before we can update the system. This is what happens when you run an omni-channel online store with inventory that changes faster than a toddler’s mood.
💡 How We Fix It:
We offer alternatives, a refund, or the option to wait while we try and source another copy. And we apologize. A lot.
5. The “Why Is My Order Taking So Long?” Mystery
We actually haven't had this one in months, but it goes like this: We promise fast delivery. We usually deliver fast. But occasionally, life happens. A book is misplaced, a courier delays, or we just get swamped with orders and just can't get them all out the door as fast as usual.
💡 How We Fix It:
We let you know the second we realize there’s a delay. We also throw in a discount or a freebie where we can, because waiting for books is painful and we don’t want to add to your suffering.
So, Why Do People Still Love Us?
Because our customer's are a truly fantastic and understanding bunch of good people, and because we care. We really, really care. And we don’t just say that—we show it.
When things go wrong, we don’t make you jump through hoops to get a resolution. We fix it, we apologize, and we try our best to make it up to you. That’s why ReadMatter still has an unblemished 5-star Google business rating, and 100% Bobshop seller rating, despite the chaos.
And here’s the key: With every mistake, we’ve implemented a process to try and fix that problem for the future. We believe in continuous improvement.
Kaizen. Small fixes that make a big difference.
I don’t want you to think from everything I’ve just said that these mistakes happen daily. They don’t. But for us, even one book a month that we can’t supply is a big deal. That’s one disappointed customer—and that’s one too many.
So we keep refining. We keep adjusting. We keep learning. And that’s why, despite all the chaos, ReadMatter just keeps getting better.