Rant about customers
September 17th, 2009 by KenricRemember that if you think that you are average intelligence that means that 50% of the people in the world are dumber than you. So if you think that you are smarter than 90% of the people in the world. 9 out of every 10 people you meet are dumber than you. This leads me to my stupid customer rant.
Shipping Times
Customers truly do not understand how the shipping world works. It’s like they’ve never sent anything in the mail. If you drop an envelope in the mail box at 7am and pickup time is at 5pm. Where do you think your envelope is at 4pm? No, it didn’t get a 9 hour headstart to its destination.
Customer 1: Asked how fast a package would get to his location, I told him 2 days. To me, that means an order on Friday, ships on Monday and arrives on Wednesday. To the customer, it means if he orders it on Friday at 7am it would show up on Saturday. He called Saturday looking for his package. His quote, “but I placed the order really early before you opened.”
Customer 2: Placed order on Friday, was told it would take 5 days. To the customer it meant, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and would arrive on Tuesday. I had to tell her Fedex doesn’t count weekends.
Customer 3: Called because it was 5 days and she didn’t get her package. Wanted to know where it was. I asked her if she put the tracking number into Fedex.com, she said she didn’t have time to enter a tracking number into a website. I told her I can do that for her and tell her. She said I don’t need you to tell me it will be here tomorrow.
Customer 4: Upset that it took 5 days for her package to arrive. She said, I paid $8.99 for shipping, it should be here sooner. I told her that $8.99 is really cheap for shipping.
Needy Customers
I hate to say this, but at some point during the phone call I wish I could fake a disconnect and just hang up. You start to find out that this will be a needy customer. In my experience, any customer who calls and wants a discount because they will tell all their friends or are ordering multiple products will be huge headaches. You do not want them.
First, they spend forever on the phone and can’t make a decision like Brett Farve. Second, they tell you how many friends or people they will tell (which never happens). Third, will complain after receiving the product and will want to exchange it and not pay for shipping because they are cheap.
Now I always tell them that we don’t give discounts at all. I don’t care if I lose the orders from their whole hunting club. If this is the guy that’s going to be heading up the orders I’d rather have my competitors deal with him.
Then there are customers that complain about your site and then want to place an order. I had one today ask why we don’t ship to Puerto Rico. Then he proceeded to say “Please get informed and add it. Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the United States of America, we are born with an American passport and we have sons dying every day in the military and seems unfair to be ignored. I will appreciate your attention to this matter.” Like I’m really going to even want to accept an order from him now.
BTW, we do ship to Puerto Rico, it’s clearly list on the countries list. But I’m not going to tell him that.
Ok end of rant.
Posted in General, Making Money Online | 7 Comments »
Stumble it!
You should be thankful all you get is a phone call.
If one of my customers has a gripe, they don’t even bother to contact me first. They go into iTunes, rate the product 1 star, and then proceeds to write what a POS my application is. Not only does everyone see it afterwards who may be interested in the product but I don’t even get a chance to try and make it right.
But at least I don’t worry about shipping. :) I think Amazon has got the process dialed in with their “Order this today and get it by the 25th”. Removes all confusion. But with your drop-shipping model, you don’t control that. Do you get these complaints often?
By Clifford on Sep 18, 2009
“I promise to have pictures on the next update.”
Just thought I would harass you about it on your day of rants. :) Have a good one.
By Bilgefisher on Sep 18, 2009
I don’t get many of these calls at all. These were a few that I recalled from memory. Customer #2 was from yesterday.
Bilge, I will have pictures! Problem is that I’m too lazy to finish the rock landscaping until it gets cooler.
By Kenric on Sep 18, 2009
At least you don’t have a job in customer service for someone else’s business. It’s your business and your customers. How you treat them (and keep them buying from your store) is up to you.
By Another Investor on Sep 18, 2009
All in a day’s work! Another Investor is right. It is your business and you call the shots. Nice pond by the way. Will visit your site often to check on its progress.
http://www.mywellofwealth.com/” rel=”nofollow”>My Well Of wealth
By Peter Luke on Sep 20, 2009
I get nutty customers too, but they aren’t nearly as nutty as the customers I’ve gotten when I worked for other people.
Most of the complaints I get are over the cost of shipping. I charge what the post office charges me so I can’t do a whole lot about it. I rarely ship Fedex and I refuse to ship UPS (I don’t care what UPS charges, I just hate them).
By ubu50 on Sep 22, 2009
I like the amazon idea and along those lines would it be worth adding (maybe you already do) a “Where is my package? FAQ” next to your customer service number.
By Sean on Sep 24, 2009