Cliff Stamp said:
From a business perspective, because it makes no sense to aggravate a customer of high end knives over a trivial cost, and it would make a huge step in promotion. People tend to be very vocal when you are extreme in either direction, and gaining a customer for life or losing one makes a lot more difference than one time shipping costs. Plus you also consider the effect of others reading the interaction, and all the people that that customer will talk to.
Bill Martino went out of his way for his customers, he did things so beyond the call that most people would not even believe he did them. He routinely sent out knives to people and told them to simply pay later when they could. He built a level of respect and loyalty that no ads in a magazine or website can match. Just consider the long term. Bill has passed but the cantina is still going strong and shows no sign of slowing down.
From just a "right thing" perspective, you sold someone a faulty product, why should they eat the shipping costs. Now you might want to argue that you didn't think it was defective, or you thought it was clear it was defective and it was "buyer beware" but obviously the customer didn't think so, and reading this thread there are others who feel similar. So from their perspective paying to return it seems unreasonable.
Simply ask yourself if you were in their situation what actions would you appreciate and act accordingly.
-Cliff
Cliff,
You may know some things from University, but you do not seem to know a lot about business.
1. Robert owns his own business. When you go into business for yourself, you get to decide how you do business. That is one of the reasons that people decide to go into business for themselves, it is one of the joys of the whole thing. The customer is your boss, but you get to decide what kind of customers you have. As Mick Strider said, "there is an ass for every seat".
I had my own knife shop in Seattle, called High Hat Knives. We carried all kinds of knives, specializing in custom knives. We were not heavy into kitchen cutlery. If you want kitchen cutlery, there is a shop 12 blocks down the street called Seattle Cutlery. That is where I directed customers who wanted that sort of thing, unless I knew and liked them, then I would special order it for them. We did not try to please all customers, all the time. The business closed, due to the fact that I moved, and we lost the space when the building got sold, not because we were unsuccessful. We were, by any definition of success.
2. Some customers cannot be pleased by the way you run your business. They can break your rules, and that is not good. One of the other busineses that I had was a tattoo shop. The rule is "no drunks". The coach of the pro basketball team in Seattle at the time came in and wanted a tattoo. He was drunk and loud, and was, thusly, asked to leave. He did not want to. He was not given a choice. Break the rules of a business, and you are NOT WANTED as a customer. The rules are there for a reason, not subject to customer interpretation. At either of my shops, failure to obey MY rules could result in physically unpleasant consequences. I am not a large fellow, but I can implement pain and suffering in a variety of different ways, with an escalation of force,should my wishes not be followed. In other words, the customer is always right, until they are wrong, and then they must leave, voluntarily or otherwise.
3. This is not some experiment or hypothesis. People create and operate small businesses because generally, they don't wish to follow someone else's rules. There are obviously rules imposed by local, state and national governmental bodies, which dictate certain conditions. This is why we had no employees, just myself and my two partners. Everything was decided by committee. The customer speaks with money, and a successful business owner listens. I am still in business, just to a much larger degree, and unpleasant customers get pushed off to junior salespeople, who may or may not be able to maintain a level of service that a customer expects. "Difficult" customers are free to go down the road to a competitor, sometimes even encouraged to do so.
You may wish to have the Golden Rule employed by a small business owner, but you cannot demand it, and you really cannot expect it. What you can do is find the business that you like working with.
I liked Bill Martino a great deal. I am loathe to say bad things about him, but you presented him as an ideal. Bill would do things such as send you a khukuri before payment or exchange something without a fuss. These were all great.
Bill would not however, suffer fools silently. When you spoke with Bill on the telephone, keep it short and sweet, he was not a meandering conversationalist. Bill was very "general" about what was in stock. I had requested a YCS from Bill for 4 years, and am just getting one from another Forumite. I asked and asked, but unless you were on top of the HI Forums, what you wanted might just always be out of reach. A "real" businessman would have kept a constantly updated database, listing a customers needs and wants, notifying them when said item was available. That was not Bill. A "real" businessman would not have had specials run like open seating at a rock concert, but would have done it more "civilized". I thought that Bill was an excellent person, but I did not care for the way he did business sometimes. I had to work harder to get "non catalog" items that I wanted, and frequently got them when they came up for sale on the Forums through private party. That is how I got my Kothimoda. A dedicated customer will find a way to get what they want.
Do you now or have you ever run your own successful, profit making business Cliff? Unless or until you do, you are simply expressing your wishes, however realistic or unrealistic, on how you would like to see a business run.
I assure you, how you want it to run, and how it runs can be two different animals.
Best Regards,
STeven Garsson