Dealing with Business and Personal Challenges: A Pampered Chef Story

[cincychef]

Ok, I am coming here for a little help and a chance to vent as well. I was having a VERY bad day on Friday for a lot of reasons too many to go into right now, but the short version is my husband has been without work for over 5 weeks now and we have 4 kids 7 and under. He is looking at a career change, starting his own business and now traveling for weeks at a time. It has been very stressful and will seriously impact my PC business. So the great news should be hey I have a PC business and I can up my schedule and make more for the past/next few months right? The stress and emotional impact on me have been more than I can handle and as a result my business has slowed down, not gotten busier, which in return has stressed me out more.:grumpy: Ok enough about me.... I got this email from a past host/ recruit lead/ customer Friday, that had me bawling my eyes out in front of the computer. I took the weekend to calm down before responding, but find myself just as upset about it now and at a loss for how to respond. Can anyone help me find the words to say??

I was wondering if you had an ETA on the Cover Baker. I have to tell you that I'm not real happy w/the whole situation. The thing breaks (which was not anyones fault) then I wait a week to get it to you then it doesn't get shipped out b/c you didn't get it till a week later. It's almost a month now & NO COVERED BAKER. When I had the party the items that everyone ordered came so quickly. I would think that Pampered Chef would stand by the products and get the damaged piece back to the customer ASAP. Please let me know. Thanks, C...

Now a little background, she got her baker when she hosted in January, and contacted me in March to let me know the whole thing had cracked around the middle in the microwave and made a huge mess of her dinner:yuck: I got back to her immediately telling her I am so sorry that happened and processed an adjustment right away. Since it was already past 30 days I mentioned that I was having a show with her friend in a week and would be happy to send it back for her(which I NEVER do, but I didn't think she should be stuck with the S/H) The night of the show the hosts husband helps me load up the car and the broken stone gets left behind by accident and it takes me a few days to realize it. So I re arrange my schedule as soon as possible (about a week) to drive all the way out to the hosts house just to pick it up. A 1 1/2 hour round trip!! I let C..... know what happened, say I am sorry and will get it in the mail right away. (which again took a couple of days due to all of the family issues going on) So now Pampered Chef probably got the baker late last week or today and I know it will take them a few days to turn it back around, although I am going to call them and ask them to release it right away. I am just at a loss for words because I have gone above and beyond with customer care here, and kept her in the loop with what was going on so she could understand the delay. Thanks for taking the time to read this if you made it to the end! Any words would be really appreciated.

 

[PCJenni]

Does she know that you have gone above and beyond? Or did you set the expectation too high by not explaining it to her?

 

[pckelly]

You did your job. She just wants to b---h. Don't sweat the small stuff. We all make mistakes and the bottom line is, you did your job and went above/beyond to get this taken care of. Don't let her beat you up or make you beat yourself up. I have personally returned items to LARGE online retailers for replacement and it has taken up to 6 weeks for the replacement to arrive. Did they call me and apologize? Did they worry that I was going to get made b/c my replacement didn't come in 5 days? Nope and neither should you.

Chin up!! You did what you could and she needs to simmer down.
D

 

[baychef]

{{{{{{{{{{{HUGE HUGS}}}}}}}}}}}

I know that this does not help and will not make her feel better but you could tell her that you value her as a customer and in the future you would be happy to reimburse her for the shipping if she would like to return it to The Pampered Chef. Or for inconvinience, offer to get the Deep Covered Baker cookbook for free (order it on your kit enhancement order!)

I used to send back products for people but I ended up ticking them off more by not being able to do it fast enough so I offer to get a reference number for them but usually give them the HO number, letting them know that HO will take great care of them.

Sounds like if you ran out to Chicago yourself and ran right back and gave it to her, she would be p.o'd anyway.

Now, young lady, you stop beating yourself up because you have so very much on your plate. I know how you feel...it hurts me to know that someone feels I have let them down, but you know sometimes our very, very best is never good enough for some people. Go out there and call one of your customers that is a huge fan of yours and chat with them so you will regain the confidence that your busy life and this selfish person have taken from you today!

 

[Sheila]

She's either a "gimme" personality or she just doesn't realize that you were going the extra mile to make her happy. Either way, she needs to know! I'd probably send something like:

C,First of all, let me apologize for the delay. It's not our normal policy for the consultant to actually get involved in the shipping process when sending back a return. I was trying to help by offering to pay the shipping costs for you since the item was so heavy and since it was past the 30 day time frame where Pampered Chef will send a return label. In my haste of leaving _____'s show and having help loading the car I didn't realize that it had been left and did make arrangements to do the 1.5 hour round trip back to her house to retrieve the the broken Deep Covered Baker. I can now see that by trying to help, I only slowed down the return process. I never intended for it delay you getting your replacement Deep Covered Baker. It has been sent back to Pampered Chef & should have been received by them. This is not a super busy time of the month for them like month-end would be, so hopefully they will be able to process the adjustment quickly and have the replacement in the mail to you as soon as possible.I'll make a mental note to myself to either not offer that service again to my hosts/customers or remember to alert them that it's not something that we normally do & that being the "middle man" in the return process means that it might slow down the process a bit. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or e-mail. I really do hope that you are happy with the replacement baker and that it performs well for you!

 

[baychef]

Once again, Sheila...you said it so eloquently!! Love the wording you used.

 

[Sheila]

Thanks Ann.

 

[Sheila]

Should I put what I was really thinking?

C,First of all [you whiney B*%^&], let me apologize for the delay. It's not our normal policy for the consultant to actually get involved in the shipping process when sending back a return. I was trying to help [your high maintenance A$$] by offering to pay the shipping costs for you since the item was so heavy and since it was past the 30 day time frame where Pampered Chef will send a return label. In my haste of leaving _____'s show and having help loading the car I didn't realize that it had been left and did make arrangements to do the 1.5 hour round trip back to her house to retrieve the the broken Deep Covered Baker. I can now see that [nothing I do will satisfy you and that] by trying to help, I only slowed down the return process. [I don't know what the h@!! I was thinking when I made the decision to try and help.] I never intended for it delay you getting your [stupid] replacement Deep Covered Baker. It has been sent back to Pampered Chef & should have been received by them. This is not a super busy time of the month for them like month-end would be, so hopefully they will be able to process the adjustment quickly and have the replacement in the mail to you[r grumpy a$$] as soon as possible.I'll make a mental note to myself to either not [go out of my way to] offer that service again to my hosts/customers or remember to alert them that it's not something that we normally do & that being the "middle man" in the return process means that it might slow down the process a bit [and they can't b#$%^ about it taking longer if they don't want the hassle and the expense of sending it back themselves]. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or e-mail. [If you have more complaints, you can shove them where the sun doesn't shine.] I really do hope that you are happy with the replacement baker[, that I don't have to listen to another complaint from you] and that it performs well for you!

Yes, it's PMS time for me. What can I say? LOL

 

[pamperedlinda]

Should I put what I was really thinking?



Yes, it's PMS time for me. What can I say? LOL

Sheila, you are hilarious! Yes, that is absolutely what we'd like to say to some customers!!

 

[cincychef]

Thanks so much you guys! You made me feel much better. I think she did know that I was doing an extra for her to make it right because I didn't think she should have to pay S/H when there was obviously something defective with it. I told her that I re-arranged my schedule as quickly as possible to get back out there etc etc.
Sheila your words were perfect and exactly what I was looking for. THank you So much!!
and thank you for the laugh on the 2nd version. LOVE IT

 

[Sheila]

You're welcome girl. Hopefully she'll suck it up & quit complaining.

 

[dannyzmom]

Sheila, I love you!!!
You write the BEST emails -- and then your "what I was really thinking" post had me ROLLING on the floor! YOU ROCK!

 

[Sheila]

The funny thing is, that was what I was actually thinking when I wrote the first one. http://unforgettableimages.ca/oct07moms/images/smilies/roflmao2.gifI just left out all the extra thoughts that were not needed. PMS really gets me going.

 

[baychef]

Should I put what I was really thinking?

Now...that is what comes to mind and getting my head away from these words can be difficult at times! LOVE IT!!!!!:devil:

 

[Sheila]

LOL Yes, sometimes I wish I could say that kind of stuff to my hosts & not pay the consequence.