Why Is It So Bad To Tell A Customer They May Want To Shop Elsewhere?
25So in the thread about customer service, the upset person pasted in a message from Meh C/S that they felt was totally uncalled for. A couple of people agreed with that assertion. Also, in another much older thread either here or on Mediocre someone was unhappy with the tone of the forums and received a similar response from Meh/Mediocre which they were appalled by. Again, a few people agreed with that assertion.
The response that was pasted most recently was:
Sorry you feel that way. There are tons of internet homes out there and it’s possible that little ole meh may not be the one for you. We wish you the best of luck in finding the one that fits you just right.
Please let us know if your package doesn’t arrive so we can help you track it down.
And a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
-Meh
So my honest question is: Why is this so horrible? Why is it such a bad thing for a company to honestly and up front tell someone that what the company has to offer won't fit in with what the customer wants? It's honest. It saves everyone time and grief. I actually think it's fantastic.
This is not to say that right out of the gate telling a customer to eat a dick and go away is acceptable. It's simply not. But to respond to a customer complaint with courtesy and to say "Hey, we did what we always said we'd do. We'll help how we can but in the end, you may want to shop elsewhere in the future" seems to me to be pretty awesome.
Why do some people feel it's wrong?
- 23 comments, 97 replies
- Comment
The best example of what I'm trying to get at would be (Granted this is extreme but it makes the point)
Imagine a professional raw vegan chef winds up at McDonalds. Person behind the counter hears what the chef wants and suggests about the only thing they have that fits the customers needs is a salad. Chef orders a salad.
It's safe to say that for a pro chef a McD's salad isn't going to be a very good experience (Old plain lettuce that's been sitting around, cheap veggies etc) so the customer complains to the manager that the salad was awful.
So now the manager apologizes, refunds money and gives the customer a card for a free meal saying "Hey, come back again and we'll do better next time". That's a pretty good way to handle a complaint - even though they did nothing wrong they still make it right and do better next time.
However, next time that customer comes back the experience is going to be exactly the same and they are going to leave just as unhappy, if not more so for getting a crappy experience twice now.
Wouldn't it have been better for the manager to save the chef's time by up front saying "Hey, I get you're unhappy but this is what we do. It's going to be just like this every time you shop here so perhaps this isn't the best restaurant for you to eat at. We'll always help however we can but I just don't see you ever getting a meal you're happy with here".
@Bingo-Actually, the McDonald's example is good, but for a different reason. My daughters have recently gotten into animal rights, and they both wrote to McDonalds suggesting a veggie burger. (Initially I was against it because I'm a little paranoid about getting an FBI file as some environmental extremist, but on balance it's a good lesson in civics or something). McDonald's wrote back a very polite letter that said they're really proud of how they're animals are treated. I thought it was a classy move. They didn't promise a veggie burger or to take the beef flavor out of the fries. It was the "tone" that I was impressed with. BTW: if you were vegan or Raw til 4, Wendy's is a better bet. Their fries don't have animal products, they're better about not cooking the fries with chicken, and they're salads can be veggified easier.
@Bingo Great example! Or like when a same-sex couple orders a wedding cake from a evangelical Christian baker. Probably best to take their business elsewhere...
@naropa Those animals are treated real nice -- right up to the moment they are KILLED and then chopped into many small pieces.
@cengland0 Oh sure goat, take the animal's side...
@Bingo Tis the season, and it's relevant..
@naropa A lot of the reason I like Meh is the personality the company maintains. Meh is not McDonals, Wendy's or any other chain out there. Meh is your grumpy uncle that will grill you a burger, as long as you take it the way he wants to cook it. If you want something else, you head down the street and give your money to someone else.
@cengland0 I'm a card carrying member of PETA. People Eating Tasty Animals.
@cengland0 Many small delicious pieces.
"BUT THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!!!"
That prevalent attitude is what gets folks to side one way or another.
The reality is that not every store is good for everyone. Imagine walking into a burger joint wanting an organic tofu salad. Or walk into a grocery store wondering why there are no power saws. Notgonnahappen! And the aspect is that a given store's operation may not be right for everyone needs to be considered. If the customer didn't understand that, it's in the best interest to tell them the truth, even if they and other customers feel like it's "wrong".
@narfcake Fun fact: The customer is always right has nothing to do with customer service, and is an expression for marketing properly. If you sell widgets and spoons, and the customer only buy the widgets, you should focus on selling widgets instead of trying to push spoons. You don't care what a customer says, only what they do.
Meh is a bit of a different model. Instead of a traditional online retailer, it's "an experiment in e-commerce." They're trying to prove/disprove various theories, or simply throw a bunch of monkeys on a room and see what happens. Either way, it's loads of fun! People who don't want to participate in the experiment see better off shopping at a traditional retailer.
@DaveInSoCal Sorry, but your analogy doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Spoon Is All You Need.
http://www.eater.com/2014/10/6/6925273/restaurateur-pens-epic-takedown-of-entitled-yelper
@lisaviolet .... I'd like to be their friend...the restaurant folk that is of course.
@lisaviolet Interesting about the lawyer bit in the article. I think the customer in the meh story claimed to be a lawyer too. I wonder if people think they are more entitled if they tell people their profession or something.
@cengland0 I think it's because lawyers are "special" and they want the world to know. The tattoo on the forehead that spells out L A W Y E R can't be seen in writing, so they have to let you know somehow - winky face.
@cengland0 I often tell tech support phone operators that I'm a network engineer for Cisco, not because I feel entitled, but because I don't want them to waste their time and mine, walking me through the steps of making sure I have the ethernet cable plugged in, and rebooting my modem.
@TehMaliron Fizzbin http://www.hanselman.com/blog/FizzBinTheTechnicalSupportSecretHandshake.aspx
@shawn Dear God I hope that caught on and works...
@TehMaliron How does that work out for you? I usually go through rebooting my computer, connecting cables, swapping cables, rebooting the router, cable modem, etc before I call tech support and then they make me go through all that over again even after I tell them I already did it. They seem to have a script and they cannot stray from that script.
@cengland0 Sometimes it works, though most the time I just have to tell them "ok hang on, just did it, it's still broken." Believe it or not, I have to go through that even with Cisco IT support. Imagine telling them the NIC is bad on your laptop, and that you run Linux, so a webex support session is pointless. Took 2 hours to convince them to just send me a new lappy..
@cengland0 Calling tech support is usually the last thing I want to do. Earlier this year I saw an ad for internet speed and wondered if we were getting the same. I did the speedtests and we weren't, so I called my ISP tech support. It turned out my old router wouldn't run that fast, because when I hooked the modem up to the computer, it was like lightning. After hours on the phone with that router's support (no, there are no settings to make it run faster) and the fact that they continually tried to upsell me a different router, giving me great deals (which weren't as good as the deal on Amazon), I got a router at CostCo. Had problems setting it up, called support, was on hold, one of the messages told me how to reset it. Finally got it going, then I screwed something up. I wanted to reset the thing, but didn't remember what the message said so I called them, wanting to listen to the message again. My luck, support answers right away. I ask "how do I reset this router?" and the guy starts asking me all these questions. I've been working on this for hours now and I know what I need to do. I need to reset the router. I ask again "how do I reset the router?" And he starts shooting questions at me. Arrgh! Then I said "look, all I want to do is reset this, if you don't tell me how, I will put it back in the box and return it to the store and get another brand". That did the trick, he told me how to reset it and I was up and running in five minutes. (My download speed is now over 175 Mbps.) When you've done it so many times and you know the routine, it's frustrating when you're treated like someone who just found the power button on the computer.
@shawn Thought that idea sound familiar- it was (as with everything) an XKCD comic:
@lisaviolet For me, it's usually a problem with the service and not anything within my house. I start working at 4am so I am usually the first person to report it and, therefore, there is no outage notice. I know it's the service but they refuse to escalate it until they make me go through all the same crap every time. It's getting annoying. I use business class comcast and one time they didn't believe me that it was out so they came by the house and charged me $100 for the visit even though it was still a problem with their service. You would not believe how angry I was and I sort of feel bad for the CS associate that took the call from me but I know I was in the right that I shouldn't be charged for a problem on their end.
@dashcloud I love XKCD. They have the same dry sick humor that I have.
@cengland0 Did they finally get rid of that charge?
Not wanting to deal with tech support is why my new laptop still won't connect to open networks and has a clickpad that won't work. Best Buy won't touch it, even though it's less than two months old because I didn't promise them my firstborn, and I just do not want to call HP.
@PurplePawprints Overheard at a high-level company meeting: Executive 1: "If we make tech support painful enough, people will stop calling." Executive 2: "Brilliant!"
@lisaviolet "My download speed is now over 175 Mbps" For that statement alone, you deserve goathood. My download speed is 6 Mbps on a good day. And it's going to be at least five years before it gets any faster.
@lisaviolet 175Mbps? Crap, you're going to get ALL the Fukus.
@SSteve No goathood for me. I've got too much to do at home.
@parodymandotcom Speed counts for squat when the servers go down. When the fukus come up, I've usually shut down my system for the night and am on my Touchpad. So, I race back to the office, boot up the computer and hit the wall when I reach for meh because all of that running and booting and spewing expletives takes time.
@lisaviolet two words: Comcast sucks
@TehMaliron BUT "JOHN" FROM PAKISTAN MAKES ME FOLLOW THE SCRIPT ANYWAY! EVERYTIME!
Somewhere along the line, people have forgotten that being a customer is a contract with the business that mandates behavior on both ends. Business offers services or goods, customer buys or does not buy. If there's a dispute, customer service works to provide a mutually equitable agreement. Some businesses bend over backward to keep a customer, and I doubt the numbers would show there is any benefit in it. Reasonable accommodation, correction if there is a mistake (and that too should go both ways, not just for the customer gain), but walk away if there's not a solution. If the business really is horrible, there will be a multitude of unhappy customers and either the business changes, or it goes away. Easy, less rage inducing.
Or, as said elsewhere, smile, nod, and walk away slowly. :)
@Mavyn Yeah, maybe we don't want some customers' business. No...wait, come back! I didn't mean it!
@hart You're all up in everyone's business. We know.
@hart I read a great thing by the owner of Schiit Audio: "I will bend over backwards for a customer but I won't bend over forward."
@SSteve Love it so much I'm getting it tattooed somewhere.
@hart Perhaps on your buttocks?
@hart @MEHcus
@hart Maybe you should get it tattooed on @MEHcus.
@SSteve Or on @MEHcus 's buttocks.
@Mavyn In my experience, the customers that had a normal experience, yet raged about it, and were rewarded for it with discounts or accommodations other customer didn't get, were always expecting us to top it. So, if they raged about the time it took to mount and balance snow tires (about 90 min avg,) and got say, 10% off; next time they wanted 20% and it never stopped. There was never a way to make this particular subset of customers "happy." They were the ones who, after having people bend over for them, would give a 1 on a survey. I really wish we could have told some of them, "if you want Jiffy Lube speed, you go to JL. If you want BMW parts, labor, knowledge, and the free hand wash of your car, you come here and wait the extra hour."
@SSteve Nice to see a shout-out for Schiit here (I own several pieces of their gear)… I think a large part of their success is due to staying very focused on doing what they know they can do well, and doing it in an affordable way (limited configuration, no color choices), and being very upfront about how this means their products simply might not be right for you, and so be it.
@brhfl Jason Stoddard, one of Schiit's founders has been writing a series of articles about the company's history and philosophy. It's a great read. I think @snapster would like it. I imagine they have a lot in common. It makes me want to buy some Schiit, but I had just bought a headphone amp before I started reading the articles. http://www.head-fi.org/t/701900/schiit-happened-the-story-of-the-worlds-most-improbable-start-up
@SSteve Yes, good call! Stoddard is also a science fiction writer (is that right?) or some such that means his writing skills are quite well-honed — I've read through a lot of that, and it's very easy, enjoyable reading on the history and inner workings of a somewhat 'rogue' American company. I do more listening with desktop speakers nowadays and have largely moved to an integrated solution from Red Wine Audio (and, soon, RWA's 'new' brand, Vinnie Rossi), but I don't think I'll ever (ahem) flush my Schiit.
@Thumperchick I work for Porsche, I feel exactly the same way. Also, aftermarket oil filters have a tendency to collapse.......JL speed.....20k engine!
@SSteve There are now two more items on my Amazon wish list because of your post.
@givemeyoursoul yeah, there are sone machines that you don't trust to a/m parts. I count most euro imports as being in that category. The extra $20 per LOF will save you thousands later.
@parodymandotcom You're welcome!
Firing a customer is sometimes completely justified. My wife is a veterinarian and we own a vet clinic. Occasionally we've had a client who is so irrational and abusive to our employees that we've told them they need to find another practice.
SSteve Too good! However I'll not be inscribing it on my skin. I will use that line for ever more! Every chance I can.
Stolen from some facebook feed:
Meh didn't get it backwards.
Haven't you ever seen pretty woman?
@Peanut_Buddha I use this in everyday life, way too much:
It's not.
The purpose of customer service is to address a customer's complaints. Telling a customer "We're sorry you feel that way, please consider shopping elsehwere" is the opposite of addressing a complaint. It's dismissive, condescending, and quite frankly a polite way to be very rude. It's also one of Meh's first lines of defense against an angry customer.
Quality customer service isn't hard. Most of the time the irate customer doesn't even need anything other than to be heard. And despite how stingy everyone is here with nice words, they don't cost any more than politely telling the customer to fuck off. Which response sounds more appropriate to you?
"I'm sorry you feel that way. Please understand that there are other places to spend your money that might be more what you are looking for."
"Hey I'm real sorry you had a bad experience with the shipping, but once the package leaves our facility its completely out of our hands (both figuratively and literally). It looks like your particular package was affected by the storm-delays, and with Thursday being a federal holiday, that pushes the expected delivery out to Dec 2. I did check with Fed-Ex, and the package is too far along for us to change the delivery location to where you'll be on that date. I'm sorry, but I did everything I could. If you could think of something else I should try, please let me know."
Which one would cost more to send? Which one do you think is better? I know I would much rather hear "There is nothing else I can do" than "go spend your money elsewhere". But this is Meh. Their goal is not to make money, but to have fun. And its real fun to tell annoying customers to go spend their money somewhere else. So that is what they do.
@neuromancer You keep mis-representing or ignoring meh's original customer response, which was like your second version (if less wordy). Then customer continued insults and threats, at which time meh's 2nd or 3rd (or 4th?) response to customer was to invite them elsewhere. You keep saying that's their first response, which is bs.
@mehjohnson Well said. A refresher from the other thread from JonT. On the 26th Lisa sent in 3 customer support requests less than 30 minutes apart, the first two were short and to the point but were just asking about tracking and the third jumped to threats of spreading how terrible our customer support is on all social media, after not receiving a response in less than 30 minutes. Marcus responded with the following: "Hey there TwistedLisa, I saw that you wrote in a few times but am just going to reply to this message. I took a look at your account and found the tracking number for you (--------------- with FedEx) which shows that the package is currently en route to you and should arrive on the 2nd. Hope that helps and let us know if you have any questions."
@mehjohnson @lisaviolet Right. He provided her the tracking number (which was missing or incorrect from her orders page). From this she found out the delivery would take much longer than she expected. So long,in fact, that she would no longer be at the destination she had it shipped to. Rather than address this new complaint, the response was essentially "bugger off".
@neuromancer So, you're saying that it's okay to abuse a CSR because you're unhappy. I know that once something is en route, it's out of the company I purchased it from's control. But then, I'm not a lawyer.
@neuromancer And a week which has a Federal holiday in it, is not out of line.
"From this she found out the delivery would take much longer than she expected. [...] She then proceeded to spew invective and sling mud in the very public forums. Seeing the customer was unhappy, the Meh guys refunded her shipping fee and suggested that Meh would not be able to meet her stated need to ship using something other than SurePost or SmartPost." There, fixed that for you.
@neuromancer seems like her fault for ordering something not knowing how long it would take to ship. Sometimes Chinese sites take a month to ship. Pro tip: if you're moving soon, do not ship something you that address.
@lisaviolet I am saying that customer-service could have provided actual customer service and maybe turned an irate customer into repeat business. I'm saying that customer service could have taken the complaint under consideration and maybe used the feedback to make the site and service better. But mostly I'm saying that their response does not inspire confidence in what kind of support I will get if the next irate customer is me. What if that 100$ blender I bought arrives DOA, or the 90$ monitors I'm waiting for show up with a bunch of dead pixels, or lost in shipping hell? Is Marcus going to listen to my probelm and help me get it resolved, or am I going to be just another person in the forums told "thems the breaks, kid. If you don't like it, take your money elsewhere.". I'm not sure I want to find out.
@lisaviolet "But then, I'm not a lawyer." I almost spit water at my screen.
@neuromancer I think the difference is that most of us think customer support DID provide her with good service. I don't know how we'll come to an agreement here, when it comes down to the fact that we think they did their job well, and you think they utterly failed. It's unfortunate.
@neuromancer But that's not what happened. If there was a reasonable complaint, it would be handled reasonably (which is what happened when I couldn't register the iPad mini I got in my Kickstarter Fuku and some other questions I've had). The operative word here is "reasonable". CS has worked with me to resolve my issues.
@neuromancer He provided correct tracking # and checked Fedex's status for her. He addressed her completely incorrect expectations politely. She was pissed that SHE had it sent it to an alternate address, based on completely unrealistic expectations of shipping times, which meh fully discloses.
@neuromancer Doesn't the customer also have a burden of behaving reasonably?
@Thumperchick I completely agree with what you just said. The good news is that "there are tons of internet homes out there and it’s possible that little ole meh may not be the one for me.". I'm going to sleep on it, but I'll probably just cancel my VMP at the end of the month. Interesting experience but not a good fit.
@neuromancer I'm a little curious as to what you feel Meh should have done in response.
@neuromancer Hopefully you've had the chance to think a bit more deeply about the entire situation. It seems most of us see it as you having ignored the actual steps in the process that JonT outlined and you're only looking at the end result. They tried, that's all you can ask and there's only so much that can be done to appease an irrational person. I've mentioned before, I used to be a Customer Service Supervisor for an e-commerce company. I spent my days dealing with the most irate of customers, the ones that my CS Reps were not able to assist or appease and were therefore escalated to me. I took a lot of pride in ending each of those phone calls and emails with the end result being a happy customer while not having given away the house to do so. But... there were always the few that you simply couldn't make happy. The twistedlisas of the world. So, you did what you could until you could do no more and tried to remember that for every customer you may have lost there were thousands of others who were entirely pleased with their experience. The greatest irony for us was we would typically get that customer who swore they would never shop with us again but touted their phenomenal experience with another website, delcaring they would only shop with them in the future. They had no idea that we also ran every single aspect of that 'compeititor' website. Personally, you have to look at your own experience at meh. From what you've said, it's generally been a very positive experience. Go with that! Until you have a problem that you feel the gang here has mishandled to the point of no return, sit back and enjoy the fun.
@medz Meh needs to have clear directions for situations like this. It may have been a misunderstanding of what a tracking number was also.
@neuromancer Don't be irate. Problem solved.
@mc I really hope I am reading your comment wrong but if someone can't figure out that the shipping address is where the item is being shipped to, then they might not want to be shopping online at all.
@wisenekt I agree! Just being a bit sarcastic.
Yes.
@shawn I think I'd rather not wait until I have a problem to find out if I'll be another one of the customers told that I'll be happier spending my money elsewhere. Given the frivolity and company support with which the last customer was chased away, I don't think one more will make a difference. In the words of one of your Kickstarter fans "just one less click to compete with". Cheers.
@neuromancer The bar doesn't seem that unreasonably high here. Are you expecting support responses within 10 minutes? If so, then Meh probably isn't for you. Are you expecting 2-day shipping? If so, then Meh probably isn't for you. If you don't like the answer support gives you, is your first reaction to rant in the forums with mildly implied threats of lawsuits and invective about how horrible of a company Meh is while also being rather condescending to some of the regular joes and joans trying to offer assistance? If so, then Meh probably isn't for you. Do you expect support to give you preferential treatment after you've made it very clear that you'll never be happy with their chosen method of shipping and will therefore never be a happy customer? If so, then Meh is probably not for you.
@neuromancer Boy, I'd sure like to try and change your mind. Sounds like you've bought at least few things from us, you've got a VMP badge next to your username, and you participate constructively on our forums. I'm sure I speak for all of Mediocre Laboratories and a lot of the community here in saying we don't want to see you go.
@shawn @neuromancer yeah it would make me sad
@neuromancer I guess they could have apologized and refunded the shipping cost (maybe even given her VMP for the month). Then explain how they operate and what to expect. If she's still pissed off and carrying on, then tell her to shop elsewhere. Could have shown a bit more empathy, but it's tough when you have a crazy lady on your day off.
@Kevin They did refund the shipping and she was still pissed, hence the resulting suggestion. On another note, did anyone catch the part about how she gets "FREE" shipping from Amazon Prime? Must be some funny math, because last I checked, $99 isn't free.
@narfcake I thought they refunded shipping and told her to shop elsewhere in the same email. I'm probably wrong.
@Kevin I think they did refund her shipping and then told her Meh might not be the community for her in the same email, yes. But this was after she had waged a scorched earth campaign in the forums and then pointed Customer Service to it rather than trying to work it out with them directly.
@mikey I must not be a dick because Meh is the place for me.
I agree with @Bingo on the McDonalds analogy. There are different levels of experience in the real world and online. Saks 5th Avenue is not the same shopping experience as Walmart. This is an extreme, sure, but goes in line with the professional vegan chef and Mcdonalds. The professional chef will likely never be satisfied with their $2.99 value meal salad and I am a fan of the honest manager that says "What we serve here isn't catered toward you. We have a demographic we market to and designed products around and you, mr professional vegan chef, are not in that demographic."
Online is the same thing. Zappos.com and Meh.com are different shopping experiences. Zappos and Amazon are even different shopping experiences - I had Amazon Customer Service chew me out for returning a pair of shoes too many times, trying to get the correct fit.
You cannot please every customer in a reasonable way. Can you bend over backwards and spend time and money to keep a customer happy? Yes. But this does not make economic sense for every business, particularly a low margin one like Meh or Walmart. Sometimes, you have to fire the customer.
Southwest has been very upfront in their policy of firing customers. They explicitly reject the "customer is always right" philosophy.
@SIMBM And Southwest Airlines stock is doing amazing.
@naropa Yes, looks great.
Serve any time in any customer service role, and you'll quickly learn: The customer is frequently expecting miracles pulled out of your khakis. He addressed her initial problem, she was unhappy with the result because of a problem he has no influence over, he suggests if she needs that (more expensive) shipping service she may be better served elsewhere. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.
I find the CS here perfectly great. They sent me a wrong item and instead of being like "It's on you to return them to us, maybe with a shipping label or something," like most companies would do, they just went, "Welp, the shipping guy's an idiot, we'll eat the cost, right ones are on their way as fast as we can for ya, no probs!". Which earned them a lot of points. I didn't have to do anything, it just resolved entirely on their end, with status updates and a heads up when they discovered the problem. For things they HAVE control over, they fix.
If you want miracles derived from khaki derrieres, go elsewhere. One less person going for that Fuku and then complaining when it has a pile of fake poo in it.
I'm of the opinion that the "controversial" response was rather restrained, given how irrationally the problem customer was behaving. She clearly didn't bother to read any information about how/when things are shipped before she ordered. Add to that the repeated support requests, the ranting/threatening on the forum, the nasty and condescending responses...I wouldn't want her as a customer either. I think they bid her goodbye much more politely than I would have.
@Groovymarlin It's fascinating, right? They shipped it next day, they helped her with the tracking information when it presumably glitched out, the only 'real' issue is that SmartPost sucks. Which, I thought everyone knew by now, and if you bother to read the shipping information… Really can't imagine what more meh could've done…
I may be getting a little political, but this whole issue with customer service reminds me of a story of a gay couple suing a bakery because the bakery refused to bake them a wedding cake because the bakery owners didn't believe in gay marriage. I think there was a similar story where a gay couple sued a banquet hall because the banquet hall owners didn't agree with gay marriage.
These are businesses that basically told their potential customers "I'm sorry, you may be better off purchasing from somewhere else."
At what point can businesses deny service? Should every customer deserve to buy from any business they so choose? Do businesses have the right to pick and choose their clientele?
@BillLehecka
@BillLehecka "In cases in which the patron is not a member of a federally protected class, the question generally turns on whether the business's refusal of service was arbitrary, or whether the business had a specific interest in refusing service." https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/the-right-to-refuse-service-can-a-business-refuse-service-to-someone-because-of-appearance
@parodymandotcom Lawyers aren't protected under law?
@lisaviolet Law: written by lawyers, for lawyers.
@BillLehecka There's also a difference between a business refusing service for an arbitrary reason, and a business saying "We don't offer what you are looking for, and you won't be happy with what we offer. Why not shop somewhere else?"
@BillLehecka Agree with the above. There is a HUGE difference between saying 'I have something you'd like to buy but refuse to sell it to you because you are _' and 'Your behavior is rude and I don't have to tolerate it'. If a gay couple comes in and is rude to the owner, they can be denied service for being rude--but not for their sexual preference. If a gay continually hits on waitstaff and harasses them, they can be kicked out of the restaurant for that behavior, but NOT for their sexual preference. Businesses are well within their rights to define customer behavior requirements, but those definitions must apply equally to everyone and not be in violation of federal definitions. "Don't be a jerk" is pretty non-discriminatory.
I work in customer service at a larger car insurance company in California. We are a low-risk company, so if you get points on your record, or need to cover a persona business, we cancel your policy or refuse to add your business vehicle. People honestly try to lie and say that they bought a Ford F450 Box truck "Just to go grocery shopping" and have us insure it, when we openly tell them we will not cover any commercial use.
All the time we say, "You need to find an insurance carrier than can insure your business / driving record. We don't have a license for that risk. We would love to keep you, however our company isn't licensed for that risk."
Yet every time that comes across our lips, the customer literally loses his sh*t.
I've gotten used to it, but I'm more receptive when I hear it from a vendor offering services as I know how it feels.
-Meh.
@sleepyjoey I know some families here in SoCal that could definitely use a Ford F450 Box truck for grocery shopping at CostCo. That's a brilliant idea.
@Collin1000 If I had to buy that much food each week, I would get all hansel and gretel status with the kids and send them out to the woods. At least the cannibalistic witches out there would feed them more than I could! lol
@Collin1000 Yeah, and probably hard to convince an insurance company why one of those versus an extended length van.
Several years back, I was an an auction and an extended family was looking at mini-buses; overhearing them, they needed room for 17. So there are folks who indeed are using such large vehicles for personal use, but very very very few.
@narfcake Grinning, here. My family was one of those. We had a 15 passenger van that fit most of us. Interesting to note that it was not driven often since usually everyone was not going in the same direction at the same time.
It takes away their leverage. When someone is being unreasonable, the only thing to make them happy is to bend over backwards.
I guess it pisses off people when they expect you to bend over and you don't. I wouldn't want those people as my customers.
Years ago, I worked at a locally owned and operated record store (It was actually CDs) and we had to deal with a lot of shitty customers face-to-face.
The owner of the store was great at dealing with people, but there were a few times he told someone to leave and never come back. You can only do so much to help before you realize you simply can't make them happy, no matter how much you try. Some people just like to be insufferable dickwads.
Oddly enough, most of the customers were quite happy with the service. It wasn't often that we had any complaints. The patrons that would witness him handling said customers would commend him on his attitude. It never turned anyone else away.
@capguncowboy Been there, done that. And I'll bet the customers who witnessed these events almost always said, "I wouldn't have had that much patience if they were MY customer."
@Cinoclav there was at least one occasion that someone mentioned that, and I'm sure there were more, but it's been so long ago I can't recall.
Well I just had an "interesting" customer service experience. One good thing and one 'what were you thinking?' thing LOL. My meh bag was missing from the fuku.
So today I received from Meh a huge box that weighed next to nothing. I had been thinking they would be sending the red meh bag in an envelope. Nope. It was in the box with a broken stadium chair (I am presuming they didn't mean to send me a broken one - I guess we have stadium chairs in our future here - it looks to be pretty nice actually presuming the hinges aren't snapped off and gone which was the case here) and a ton of TX air.
THANKS! @hart for sending me the bag. You could have saved the postage on the broken stadium chair though. Guess it is the thought that counts (grin). Now I get to throw it out instead of you. LOL Can't complain as I got the bag, and got it far faster than my fuku. Oh yeah and there was even a note in there.
Actually my experiences have been pretty good with meh customer service. And they have been far better than with my student loan processor, my health insurance company, and billing at a certain shall not be named medical center when there have been screw-ups… It may take Meh a few days to answer, but they have solved any problem I have had (well except giving me back my kidnapped meh faces LOL). Hmm @hart - if you remember last fuku I had posted my Sony Dream machine had arrived DOA - so my question is - is that the luck of the draw with fuku's or is there actually some kind of implied "warranty" in the stuff that is sent us? I was sort of presuming my tough luck but maybe not??
@Kidsandliz It's not called a Lucky Bag for nothin'.
@hart Huh? As in Lucky to get anything bag?…Or……?
@Kidsandliz and they are about a bizzillon times better than [shudder] Comcast
@Foxborn Oh yeah - I forgot about AT&T - I am in the middle of something with them for over a month now...
Agree that politely telling the customer that they may find something better elsewhere is great.
As a business, sometimes you just want to focus on a particular profile of clientele to ensure the quality of your service or product. When you try to make everyone happy and, especially, take into account edges cases, you're going to find that you have a lot higher cost for a potentially inferior product.
There are very few things more satisfying than telling a problem customer to go elsewhere. In some cases, it's better business to cast off toxic customers- they drain the resources of your customer service department, and can cause the CSR who just finished dealing with the putz to be less-than-helpful with the next customer, costing the company more.
Telling a problem client to go elsewhere is great policy- it shows that the company has standards for both it's employees and customers, and reinforces the concept that the company cares for more than just a profit margin.
On a personal note- I had an issue with something I bought here, and contacted meh's customer service.
They were AWESOME.
Bottom line here- if there's a need to cut a bad client loose, do it quick and move on. The feeling of satisfaction will raise morale at a minimal cost and ensure better performance by the CSR's in the future.
@alacrity This post needs more stars than I can give it.
Looks perfect to me.
1)Sorry you don't like it, lots of other places to shop.
2)We will find your package (non arrival I assume being the problem).
3)Relevant holiday greeting.
Maybe a giant retailer like amazon might have done something different, sent another of the item, who knows.
1)Meh doesn't have any more, they sold them all. One day one deal.
2)Meh is not a giant retailer.