Horrible Exchange with Internet Knife Center

have dealt with knifecenter for years always satisfied with service have also visited them in person cannot say enough good things about this dealer
 
Dear Knife Outlet,

Thank you for the insider's perspective. This makes perfect sense. If someone there had been as reasonable as you in explaining the situation--as opposed to ignoring much of my first message, giving no real explanation of policy, and then implying that I had to send them extra $$ for their mistake--I would have reacted much differently.

Yours,

John
 
In 20 years of customer and technical service management in two different non-knife related industries the best comment on "the customer is always right" mentality I ever heard came from a former employer who said, after being dragged over the coals by an egregiously demanding client, "Sometimes you have to cut your losses and fire the customer!"
 
Gronk,

That sounds like potentially very good advice. The only questions are when and why? Would you do it as quickly as after the second email exchange? Would you do it over a mistake that your company had made? And would you do it over $13?

I posted this precisely because I wanted to get other people's input, to insure some measure of objectivity.

In this regard, Knife Outlet's post really stuck with me. I am grateful for his providing some insider information about the business and the slim profit margins on which it often operates. That said, if I were running a business in which $13 was a live-or-die sum of money, I would concentrate on making sure MY OWN employees did not screw up orders that cost me more than $13, rather than potentially losing customers over the $13 once MY OWN employees had already screwed up. The invoice that was sent to me has the correct item on it. The item that was shipped to me has a completely different shape/look/tag, and any semi-competent employee who knew anything about the business would not have shipped it to me. My point is this, train your employees not to provide bad service in the first place; do not pass this burden on to your customers, particularly if your rationale is going to be how these little mistakes cost you so much and are really unbearable considering the conditions under which you operate.

IMHO,

John
 
John,

IMHO firing a customer should only be considered when it becomes obvious that further attempts to ameliorate the situation are not going to ever creat a satisfied customer.
 
In my little business, I have a sign on the wall that says this...

If we don't serve the customer...... Somebody else will ....

Any employee I have understands this.... otherwise, they are very short lived as an employee.

We will "bend over backwards" to do what we can to please our customers.

Do we let our customers run over us ? No, but we treat them fairly and try to give them MORE than they expected.

I do not think John Frankl is being unreasonable at all at this point.

IF Knifecenter.com had to loose a little bit of $$$ on this deal to have a satisfied customer..... WOULD it not have been better for them than all this crap.

Word of mouth advertising can be a powerful thing..... good or bad.

There does however IMO, come a time to impliment what Gronk posted....
....................... "Sometimes you have to cut your losses and fire the customer!"

Cause let's face it, the customer is not "always" right...
......there are a very few ......that are real 100% "a$$ holes"..... they thrive on it and there is nothing you can do to please them. It is like trying to ride a dead horse.
You are wasting your time and it would be better for all involved to send them on their way.

This, IMO.... is the rare exception... not the rule.. .. But it does happen.
 
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