A while back I posted a big rant in portuguese about a terrible experience I had in an online shop for contact lenses.
The skinny:

I ordered my regular lenses prescription, they fucked up, I wrote several e-mails to them and they where less than comunicative. After several months they found my package in their warehouse and decided to pay me back by paypal like I sold them something, making me loose money to paypal fees. I didn’t even pay my order though paypal. They just took my e-mail and sent the money without telling me. A horrible, horrible experience. My advice is DO NOT BUY from Optica Iberica!

Meanwhile, yesterday I ordered another set of lenses from lenstore.co.uk and they gave me the following shipping date:

Expected shipping date: Today
Expected delivery date(s): Monday, 23rd April 2012 to Tuesday, 24th April 2012

Today I received this e-mail:

Dear Ms Francisco,

Thank you for your recent order.

I am sorry to report that there has been a slight delay in us receiving your prescription from xxxxx, and we are expecting your lenses to arrive here by Friday 20th April.

Please accept this 10% discount code to use with your next order: XXXXXX (valid to 18/04/2013)

If you are in a rush to get your lenses, I will be happy to upgrade you free of charge to Special Delivery, which is guaranteed to arrive with you by 1 pm the day after dispatch.

Please do let me know if this would be helpful to you.

Kind regards,
xxxx

The verdict is still out on the shop since the order is not yet completed but just for this e-mail I’m betting I’ll be a client for life. I’ll keep you posted.

PS – The problem is not if shit happens. Shit will happen. The problem is how you handle it.

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[Edit – 24-04-2012:] Just got the package from lenstore.co.uk. It was right on time of their first estimate. What a great service!

PS II – Nobody payed me to say any of these things. I know no one in any of these stores. I’m just a regular customer making a review.