This month has not been my month for dealing with customers! Does anyone else feel like they are being bullied and pushed around?
Two incidents in the last month have made me very upset. The first one was a show that I did 2 weeks ago for a host...(during the Feb special of the stones), this customer, in the middle of my demo, interrupts me to tell me that she has 2 stones that she brought for me "to look at"...as I am taking her order, she brings me a bag w/ 2 broken stones, one of them a bar pan and another a rectangle stone (the flat one) that is clearly broken in half. I asked how old they were. The bar pan looked very used and she said she'd had it for a while...the other stone she said she had for a while, but never used it often and it cracked while in the oven. I told her that the bar pan looked to be out of warranty and she was fine w/ that, ordered a new one off this party at the 20% off, but the rectangle stone she wanted me to check for her...she had no receipt, didn't know who she bought it from, how long ago, etc. She even gave me 2 names to have HO check for her (hers and a friend) to see if they combined orders, etc and it may be on this. So, I call HO the next day, tell them the situation, and I am put on hold for almost 20 minutes while they are checking for this. The rep comes back and tells me that this stone was bought in 2000!!! I called the customer back to let her know that this cannot be replaced "for free" since it's out of warranty and she reads me the riot act! She told me that it is not right, she "couldn't possibly have had that stone for that long" and that she hardly uses it, it shouldn't matter if she's had it for 10 yrs, 10 months, etc. She also gave the host (her sister) $200 in orders toward her party that she threatened to withdraw from the show, told me to hold off on putting the orders in until she could see if "she could find someone else who could fenagle getting her a free stone if she gave them these orders". I told her that I was sorry there was nothing "I" could do but if she's that unhappy she should call PC and talk to them about it. Turns out, the host was so upset over her actions, and the possiblility of losing the outside orders that she went ahead and paid for the stone herself to make her happy.
Second incident that happened, I had a lady call me in Jan for a catalog show for Feb. I sent the catalogs and emailed the specials for her and the outside order form. So, the first week of Feb she gives me a few orders and it turns out that I mistakenly gave her the order form for Jan that had the free bar board/colander on it. 2 people got free items, one got the bar board, one got the colander. I felt bad that I did this, and I went ahead and told her I would honor the free items for her guests. I put in a personal order about 4 weeks ago for these items to be shipped to my host that I paid for so they would be happy. I just received an email from my host this morning telling me she received the bar board but has not received the colander yet and her friend is very upset and will not order from her again. I checked the shipping status on it and it just says "shipped" but does not have a tracking number or any info yet. I will call them in a little bit to see what's up.
I guess I'm just feeling like I do things to try to provide good customer service and I get walked all over. A customer isn't going to order again over not receiving a "free" item yet? Another customer is going to pull $200 in orders because they won't replace a piece that's 12 yrs old? I mean, come on! In both those instances, I could have just told the first lady to call HO herself to find out about getting it replaced, and the other one I could have said "yes it was my goof, but we are only going off of the Feb guest special"
and be done with it. I feel like every time I try to right a wong I end up being the bad guy and getting dumped on.
Not looking for a solution, just venting. 2 cases in a few weeks really has me bummed.
Two incidents in the last month have made me very upset. The first one was a show that I did 2 weeks ago for a host...(during the Feb special of the stones), this customer, in the middle of my demo, interrupts me to tell me that she has 2 stones that she brought for me "to look at"...as I am taking her order, she brings me a bag w/ 2 broken stones, one of them a bar pan and another a rectangle stone (the flat one) that is clearly broken in half. I asked how old they were. The bar pan looked very used and she said she'd had it for a while...the other stone she said she had for a while, but never used it often and it cracked while in the oven. I told her that the bar pan looked to be out of warranty and she was fine w/ that, ordered a new one off this party at the 20% off, but the rectangle stone she wanted me to check for her...she had no receipt, didn't know who she bought it from, how long ago, etc. She even gave me 2 names to have HO check for her (hers and a friend) to see if they combined orders, etc and it may be on this. So, I call HO the next day, tell them the situation, and I am put on hold for almost 20 minutes while they are checking for this. The rep comes back and tells me that this stone was bought in 2000!!! I called the customer back to let her know that this cannot be replaced "for free" since it's out of warranty and she reads me the riot act! She told me that it is not right, she "couldn't possibly have had that stone for that long" and that she hardly uses it, it shouldn't matter if she's had it for 10 yrs, 10 months, etc. She also gave the host (her sister) $200 in orders toward her party that she threatened to withdraw from the show, told me to hold off on putting the orders in until she could see if "she could find someone else who could fenagle getting her a free stone if she gave them these orders". I told her that I was sorry there was nothing "I" could do but if she's that unhappy she should call PC and talk to them about it. Turns out, the host was so upset over her actions, and the possiblility of losing the outside orders that she went ahead and paid for the stone herself to make her happy.
Second incident that happened, I had a lady call me in Jan for a catalog show for Feb. I sent the catalogs and emailed the specials for her and the outside order form. So, the first week of Feb she gives me a few orders and it turns out that I mistakenly gave her the order form for Jan that had the free bar board/colander on it. 2 people got free items, one got the bar board, one got the colander. I felt bad that I did this, and I went ahead and told her I would honor the free items for her guests. I put in a personal order about 4 weeks ago for these items to be shipped to my host that I paid for so they would be happy. I just received an email from my host this morning telling me she received the bar board but has not received the colander yet and her friend is very upset and will not order from her again. I checked the shipping status on it and it just says "shipped" but does not have a tracking number or any info yet. I will call them in a little bit to see what's up.
I guess I'm just feeling like I do things to try to provide good customer service and I get walked all over. A customer isn't going to order again over not receiving a "free" item yet? Another customer is going to pull $200 in orders because they won't replace a piece that's 12 yrs old? I mean, come on! In both those instances, I could have just told the first lady to call HO herself to find out about getting it replaced, and the other one I could have said "yes it was my goof, but we are only going off of the Feb guest special"
and be done with it. I feel like every time I try to right a wong I end up being the bad guy and getting dumped on.
Not looking for a solution, just venting. 2 cases in a few weeks really has me bummed.