My Harbor Freight buffer buying story - teaching proper customer service!

I'm with the opposing view here. People (big company people included) make mistakes. In my opinion, your first email was reasonable. After that I would have moved on and been done with it. You weren't charged before the email, so no harm, no foul.

Your "Otherwise, I see no other choice than to go to the next step and contact Harbor Freight's corporate office myself and explain the issue. If satisfaction is not met there, I will contact the Better Business Bureau and whomever else I need to resolve this." was bullying in my opinion to take advantage of an admitted screw up on their part.

Obviously they should keep their stuff as accurate as possible, but stuff happens. I'd personally feel like a douche if I thought I'd purposely or inadvertently bullied my way into free stuff.

I've given away free stuff to customers when I screwed up as a way to make it up to them as best I could, but I would never do it for someone making wild baseless threats.

Personally, I would think the least you could do is donate the gift card to a local non-profit that needs tools. Spread it around and all.
 
I can't recall the exact prices as it was a few years ago , but I saw an ad in HF flyer for an air compressor on sale , I head to the store to get one , I get there and they didn't have any in stock , but they did have one that was bigger and a bit more $$$. Not wanting to waste the trip and needing a compressor , I called someone over to get me one from the back.
Guy tells me something is wrong , that compressor should be $749 and not $499 , seems someone screwed up. He calls the manager over and the manager says " our mistake , if you want it at that price I will honor it today , I am having that price fixed. ( it was an in store manager sale ). I then asked if I could use my 20% off coupon.....his reply " yer killing me here kid , but yes you can ". :)

I did buy the extended warranty to make up for it.

The only other time was when I was buying a car , I had went to the lot and looked at this car ( used ) 3 times that week , figured I would think on it over the weekend and go back Monday and decide. Sunday paper comes out , dealer has what looks like the same car I was interested in marked down $3000 !! I go in Monday , tell the salesman I will take it , he starts to run the #'s and tells me " good deal , that is on sale to for $4999 , good thing you waited. "... I then said , " no its on sale for $3499 ".

He double checks , then realizes what happened. Somehow the advertising dept doubled the $1500 this group of 20 cars was to be reduced. He said " If you have the ad we will honor it , otherwise we are reprinting a retraction and corrected prices ".

Unzip jacket pocket , pull out ad :) * only reason I brought it was to verify the stock # was the same as the one I was looking at early. Car purchased for advertised price.

In neither case , did I feel they "owed" me anything , or HAD to honor their price. Had either said " No , sorry , that price was a mistake " , that is where I would have left it.

People make honest mistakes , I don't feel I need to make them pay for them.

But I wouldn't say there was anything immoral about holding them to it either...comes down to personal opinion.
 
Shaughnessy said:
My question is, can you return it now for $79.99 ? :p
Click to expand...

LOL! Glad to see I'm not the only one with a keen eye for opportunity! :D

I respect everyone's opinions on what was done and no hard feelings are held.

John Wylie- Things that happen like your experiences and how they were handled by the other party is what should be expected. You'll make that person happy by honoring your mistake and there-by gain their business in the future, as well as other people they go and tell about the wonderful experience they had with a mistake the store made.

I should not have had to ask to get the buffer for the advertised price, they should have manned up to the mistake and ate the loss in the interest of a happy customer.

But anyway, we've had plenty of views and lots of opposing opinions from all sides. If any of the mods are watching, you can lock this up if you feel like it. I think it's about run it's course.
 
hehehehe :D

Hey Larry, I'll finally be able to start on that knife again. I've been waiting forever for a set of mosaic pins to come in that I ordered from eBay....they came in yesterday! YAY!
 
Are you all still beating this dead horse to death?

HE!! YES he was right. The customer is always right even when they are wrong! That is the way I was brought up and that is the way I built my construction business over the years (back when I was able to do it) and only had one customer I swore I would never work for again in 20 years but, at least when we parted company he was a satisfied customer! I was just too busy when called after that to be able to get too him!
When I was a young kid I asked my Dad one time why he did not advertise his construction bussiness? He told me he didn't have to. He said, "if I do a good job my name gets around fast enough, if I do a bad job my name will beat from one job to another"! It took me a lot of years to fully understand what he meant in this statement but it is probably one of the most true things he ever told me!

That is what is wrong with stores and business out there nowdays. They have forgotten that the customer is always right! When you step up and do what is right to remedy a problem you have more than likely made a lifetime customer. When you try your best to avoid the problem you have made an unhappy customer that will more than likely never do business with you again and one who will tell anyone who will listen how sorry you and your company are. Now like Mama use to say, "ENOUGH SAID"! :D
 
I don't buy into " the customer is always right , even when they are wrong " idea.

Nobody is always right , and there are a lot of scam artists ( both on the selling side and the customer side ) , while one should always do the best they can to please the customer , to go as far as saying the customer is always right is a bit much.
 
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