I Paid Strangers to Secret Shop My Own Store

Anyone know if there is any update on the LTT Cargo Pants getting Length & Waist sizing?

When are you going to have a Canadian facing LTT store that sells in Canadian dollars to Canadian customers from LTT, a Canadian company?

It is beyond unacceptable that you force Canadians to pay USD and to add insult to injury, import fees and other sundry expenses to get LTT merch.

As someone who works in customer support, while a lot of people understand weekends there are also a lot who don't and will be PISSSSSED to put a ticket late on Friday, and not get a response till Monday morning

@EU shipping - a pop-up warning for when customer selects a European country would solve a lot of confusion and manage expectations.
Long term, if European volumes are high enough - having LTT warehouse in Europe would make everything that much easier and faster. (prolly also increasing sales, as I for sure did not order much because I expected fees and long shipping).
There's also a system where a vendor can pre-pay import fees (which logically LTT could take from already payed tax) and save customer the issue - aliexpress and some smaller non-EU stores use that.

The EU has plans to make the duty regulation much easier. It should be possible for an e-store to promis that what you pay at check-out is the final bill you get. We just have to wait a few years and live in the EU...

This makes me want to run a better help desk and do our own internal secret shopping

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!

I just still dont understand why a Canadian company has only a US warehouse. Like why as canadian that want to buy something from a canadian company i have to pay extra because they manage everything like a US company

I didn’t know you guys would refund the import tax fee.. I lucked out though because my bank treated it as an atm fee and refunded it automatically…

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.

I think what I'm about to say is a fair piece of feedback: exchanging UNDERWEAR? After they've been tried on by the customer??

Don't bother with the AI support in that manner, most of your customers will end up bypassing it to speak to a human

Dont get a bot! bots are so annoying

I was put off ordering by the massive shipping costs

So according to these "impartial" customer service reviews, getting free stuff is automatically a 5/5

ParcelForce is the abesloute worst. I've had nothing but problems with them :(

These are the kinds of test every company should put their staff through to ensure that their customers, the ones who pay the money to keep the company going are getting the quality service they deserve now while not every customer is not gonna be the same, and some may be more unreasonable than others everyone will have their own personal opinion on what is right or wrong, what's important is that the businesses that you buy from uphold the values they promise this way there are less problems, and if there are problems they are seen to be solved when the customer is wronged by the business or manufacturer by what could be a simple mistake by either the Manufacturer, Business, Or Delivery Agency, its important to have patience in these situations and go through all the proper steps with support to get things replaced and have mistakes become fixed and if all else fails, try to get a higher up representative in the company and hope that the chain of command will come through and if that doesn't work unfortunately its probably time to find another company to buy from.

Why do people expect an answer over the weekend? Maybe I am old, but I still expect everything to be closed on the weekend and that I would get an answer on monday

And the fact that you have to make up problems is also a good sign 🤣

I actually had the original water bottle lid strap break and contacted customer service which shipped the new lid design. 5/5 customer service from me.

Idk if it's an option for you, but for the UK, the Royal Mail is a fantastic shipping partner. I use them for my small Etsy shop for shipping out of the UK, and when receiving from them has always been the most reliable over everything, with Amazon and DHL coming in second.

The two items in the LTT store that are tagged under the video are both out of stock and have been for a long time. Not a great look

For some reason this video I can't adjust the video quality but other videos I can, weird right?

I had an issue with an order I tried to place and it was kind of a complicated (i felt like) email that i sent and your AI bot responded immediately with a shockingly helpful answer that resolved my concern minutes after I sent it in and I was able to get the order placed correctly. The bit about being able to still escalate to a human if needed, and including very obviously that the response was auto-generated by AI (coupled with the fact that it was shockingly helpful) made me very glad you had implemented that new bot. Zero complaints from me!

Anthony Fantano is a Jack of all trades it would appear

Great excercise. I honestly never expect any responses over a weekend. But if I do it blows me away. Starlink do that and I love them for it. The returns policy.. I am concerned at the no questions asked approach. Its noble but some folks are a*holes. Personally I have no problem sending a photo when its relevant. I am contrasting this with experiences I had with EKWB in the past where the problem I had were totally outrageous and yet an enormous amount of time and effort was expended on trying to avoid a fair solution. Contrast that with the LTT approach of actively looking for ways to improve like this.

From My Expreience Shipping was Alwys Great, Shipping to Germany Always Worked fine, Prices are Fair, And the Quality has Always Been Good.

Solution for taxes. Stock items within country of order through 3rd party. 🤷🏻

I know this comment will probably get lost in the ether, but how are Amazon orders of your driver in the UK handled? Are there any extra tax/customs charges to worry about ?

Cheers

Holy shit, this dude job must be very stressing.

The last guys issues were a bit overvlown IMO. Every retailer is supposed to explain your countries tax and customs laws to you and pick your preferred shipper? Silly.

Thanks to the last guy I now realized im fairly sure I paid taxes twice on my ltt waterbottle when I got one like 2 years ago. never knew I could ask for a refund :D maybe a good idea to add some disclaimer when purchasing. not sure if it would be abused more tho

Video meta includes "Linux Tech Tips tagged products below" with 2 shirts that are... out of stock. Hilarity ensues!

I think Regional Pricing on LTT Store. Would make it affordable/reachable for people in countries where USD to Local currency conversion is really high. Especially Asia, Where LTT Backpack in India Cost around 25K Which is really not affordable.

I can see why Linus Media Group has grown so much, it is difficult to honestly self-assess your business, but it really makes a big difference. Linus is a great leader for his company.

I have seen this in the top tier of performance jobs. Weekends seam to be disregarded as menial work and ignored. All work that gets ignored on weekends is not due to staffing but because staff feels like weekends are lax. You are probably staffing weekends correctly but not compensating for for what weekends are now worth correctly. Pay structures evolve and old school accounting does not know or teach what is expected from new generations. We are millennials and the Z generation will not think twice about quiet quitting. treat weekend workers for what they are worth and you will see your company thrive no matter what traditional business sense has taught you. Be the pioneer in tech. I and your viewers will trust that you will make a difference

You should do a better job of setting expectations up front regarding the PTM. You indicate it's a common enough issue that you have a canned reply ready for it.

If a customer has to reach out, at all, then you're already starting from a position of failure and have to claw your way back to a win by changing their mind about a perceived issue, even if it's not actually a real issue.

So some information in the product description or checkout process, educating the purchaser and making them aware, is the better solution, compared to a canned reply after the customer already thinks there is a problem.

I'd also suggest reworking your packaging. A bit of hard plastic case to prevent squeeze out due to pressure. Maybe a bit of foam on either side, to help insulate against heat?

I watched the whole video but my main takeaway is that I am VERY glad they don't sell comically large, useless models of their screwdrivers. I'd go broke decorating.

Remember, if you email me on a Friday at 5pm and I reply on Monday at 9am the reply took one hour, not three days.

Long shipping time was a big one for me like monthSSSS... Took For-EVER, i had to reach out to make sure there wasn't an issue.

Realistically how much would it cost LTT to sort out the double-shipping thing for the top 5 countries with issues? £1,000 per country?

Just an idea that might work or not but meh... whatever. I guess you have a DB for your tickets, which means an autoincrement ID for each one. So as you mention the criteria is FIFO you may add some feature like "there are X ammount of tickets until we work on yours".

Your guys customer service is excellent! My only complaint is the price.

What I got from this is that Nick is someone you want on your team!

Shipping in EU or to UK would be easier with a distributor in EU. Have contacted you about this and are open for it in Norway. And can ship easier from here, and at a low cost.

Did not know about the tax refund at all. Did just pay and are happy with my products. :D

Think I'm going to have to order that water bottle

Glad Linus found the budget to pay the employee for the video