Strange Customer Service Scenario. Am I an A-hole?

Fair wrote: Replying to this guy's thread - looking for sympathy and/or help in bashing my company - was a mistake, especially on this forum. There's no way to win in this situation. I think I better just cut my losses and kindly say farewell.

I'd certainly argue that- there was quite clearly a way to 'win' in this situation- it's just that you've pretty much done the exact opposite of it from the get-go.

I think most people would have been sympathetic or at least understanding if you'd explained the issues without name-calling, but approaching it the way you did was obviously going to not only convince those that were already against you that they were justified in that view as well as offending more who may have been on the fence. Insulting or ranting at would-be customers rarely ends well.

As for the 'My wife found out' guy? Seriously, why don't you have a cancellation/restocking fee if it's that much of a problem?

They probably didn't want to do with you anymore and figured out the easiest way to get rid of you is just to ban you.

Well. That was fun. There are plenty of suppliers who aren't on the verge of a nervous breakdown that are happy to take my money. I believe I can safely delete the url for that one from my bookmarks.

92dxman wrote: They probably didn't want to do with you anymore and figured out the easiest way to get rid of you is just to ban you.

I think they got rid of him and all of the GRM boards. I'm no personality expert but I'm pretty sure condemning the entire forum puts them in sort of a bad light regardless of who was right and wrong.

All I can say is this is heading the way of the Wayne besanko/powerchip fiasco...

Probably a good thing Mr fair decided to walk away... These things have a habit of turning nasty quickly otherwise.

Get a decent return/cancellation policy and a lot of these situations can be avoided. Just remember mate, vorshlag is nothing without customers, word of mouth is powerful and like it or not, flakes are a fact of life.

Better yet, require a non-refundable deposit for custom or specialty work.

And that, folks, is how NOT to handle things when a PR issue spirals out in the age of digital communication.

I'd like to take a moment to recognize Keith Tanner, not only is he running a thriving small business, I've seen him take some nasty internet snark, turn the other cheek, and reply professionally. I'm sure part of that is him channeling his inner Canadian, but I've always been impressed by his deft maneuvering across several message boards.

Seriously, no one posted this yet?

They are obviously good at what they do; it appears to be a successful business. Perhaps over the counter/internet sales should be left to others since one retracted order throws off his whole day. I'll make sure to not bother them.

Stefan (Not Bruce) wrote: Response did not disappoint! Now I need more popcorn.

pretty much what we expected ... just took longer than expected

joey48442 wrote:

Fair wrote:

Dr. Hess wrote: They probably have some sort of auto-drop-ship ap running. You order and they auto-order from their supplier who then drop ships to you. You ordering and cancelling probably screwed up their whole system. They don't want your business. Fine, spend your money elsewhere.

Thank you. We've had a rash of high dollar orders followed by random cancellations lately. Who makes a $2500 suspension order "on accident"??? Seriously, it screws up our whole system - cash flow, purchase orders, shipping, etc. We come in every morning, look at orders, place PO's, etc. Then see an email that says "oops"... so we have to un-do a lot of work. I've still got a small business here and seeing orders vanish for no reason is painful. Another example: We had one guy last week call in a panic, order an entire LS1 kit but he needed it in 2-3 days. We were out of stock of some of the fabricated parts, so I pulled both of our fabricators off paying customer jobs (@ $105/hour), they made his parts over the course of a few hours that day, and I was about to rush them to the powder coater the next morning... when he cancelled. "My wife found out", sheesh. Its beginning to piss me off. So I told my crew here that the whiny guy posting about his random accidental shock order here - his money is no good at Vorshlag. "But I'll order them AGAIN when I make up my mind and the wind blows the right direction!" Nope, don't call us again. He got miffed, sent me a snarky email about how terrible our customer service is, and I told him to never contact us again. And included a Picard Facepalm. Your flippant order cancellation screwed up my whole day, pal. But likewise, I won't come to your work, take a big steaming dump on your desk, then get pissy when you complain about it. All of you that want to burn Vorshlag to the ground because I told a total flake of a customer to not call us again, go right ahead. Feel free to create your own business, hire employees, pay overhead and taxes, stock parts, manufacture parts, and see how "easy" this is. Ha. With Amazon, fleaBay and all of the big online wholesellers (all of whom violate MAP pricing policies left and right) we don't make *any* money selling parts anymore. Its a giant mess. I'm switching to decaf... Cheers,

This guy has got to be being hacked. There is no way this is for real! But if it is its awesome.

oh ... it's real ... you can bet on that

The_Jed wrote: So, I guess you feel like you were treated...unFairly...

Quoted for posterity.

Love him or hate him, that's Fair. He's a personality. He helps get a lot of people on track and preps a lot of cars down here.
I started giggling as soon as I saw he posted.

Common problem. Just because someone likes (whatever, cars, cameras, etc) doesn't mean they are prepped to run a business. I would love to offer encouragement and support - like get data driven and see how many cancelled orders you get, and how long after being placed they come in. Know your business and then you can set policy that makes sense. One person posted here a terrifically elegant solution if the data fits - just delay drop ship orders by 24 hours if there is a spat of quick cancels. You can even offer "speedy" processing at the cost of payment plus acknowledgement of a stringent cancel policy if someone decides that the 24hr delay will impact them. It's a shame Mr. Fair doesn't seem to want to open his mind and improve his business. We all choose how to run our businesses. If he can stay busy while maintaining that attitude and firing customers, good for him.

This ain't the first time I've gotten to watch this. Didn't the first one happen in the Sandbox? That was fun.

dculberson wrote: I do know that nine times out of ten the credit card company would side with the consumer and refund that cancellation fee. And ten times out of ten, PayPal would do the same.

You would be surprised, I have had the CC's and Paypal be in my corner as it was specifically spelled out in the terms of payment.

That being said, I feel like I am a day late to the actual party. A business owner has his choice of how to run his business, right or not. There are some customers that you are better off not having. This is at least a new and interesting way to do the weeding.

Im a little puzzled by one thing. The parts were ordered at 10pm. Was there someone working then to pull parts? Was any inconvenience caused? Or was it just a buzz kill.

Paul_VR6 wrote:

dculberson wrote: I do know that nine times out of ten the credit card company would side with the consumer and refund that cancellation fee. And ten times out of ten, PayPal would do the same.

You would be surprised, I have had the CC's and Paypal be in my corner as it was specifically spelled out in the terms of payment. That being said, I feel like I am a day late to the actual party. A business owner has his choice of how to run his business, right or not. There are some customers that you are better off not having. This is at least a new and interesting way to do the weeding.

I've had SIGNED receipts of delivery that Paypal still took the money back and gave to the customer. Seriously. Customer orderd a $500 cat, recieved it then claimed he never recieved it. Delivered to his address with a signature/ID request (did htat with all high $$ orders). From a business perspective, PP can kiss my ass. From a cust perspective, they are fine.

Bobzilla wrote: This ain't the first time I've gotten to watch this. Didn't the first one happen in the Sandbox? That was fun.

maybe not the first ... but for sure it happened there ... plus it's happened here before too

Fair wrote: Replying to this guy's thread - looking for sympathy and/or help in bashing my company - was a mistake, especially on this forum.....

Uhm... you mean one of your prime customer demographics!?!?

Oy!!

(I am sure GRM can supply you will a list of the demo you just sh#t on)

I have a friend of mine that runs an automotive buisiness with a similar mentality. It's a niche though, and he's great at what he does, so he is always busy and now looking to expand. However if he doesn't like you, or the way you handle things, you are out of there period and he could care less what it cost him. Personally I like the guy and have been dealing with him for almost two decades, but I'll bet he's had a few threads started about him.

I started typing two different replies, but they seemed inadequate, mostly because I was giggling so hard after reading through the entire thread.

I can understand how a high dollar order being cancelled could hurt a small business, and I don't think that the customer is always right. However, unless you're literally the only game in town (and the town has gotten pretty big with the internet), it's best to treat them that way most of the time. Otherwise, it can come back to bite you. Things like this tend to remain resident in memory for longer then you might think- Hennessy Honda of Woodstock comes to mind.

Just...wow

Go figure. Bimmer people

smh

calteg wrote: And that, folks, is how NOT to handle things when a PR issue spirals out in the age of digital communication. I'd like to take a moment to recognize Keith Tanner, not only is he running a thriving small business, I've seen him take some nasty internet snark, turn the other cheek, and reply professionally. I'm sure part of that is him channeling his inner Canadian, but I've always been impressed by his deft maneuvering across several message boards.

From the GRM memes thread (that's rigjt, his goodness is so prevalent, there is a meme for it...)

After spending over a decade in the aftermarket parts business, one thing I learned is that your product is not unique. If you sell something that people want, other people will make them too. Customer loyalty goes as far as the next tab open in their browser as they cross shop. All it takes is one product sample sent overseas with the request "make these" and you can be in the same business. It isn't the small startup guy you have to worry about, it is the huge wholesaler who needs a new product line for their retailers that will bury you. If this is how they treat customers (both current and potential) it only takes one company willing to step up to the plate and deliver quality service. Seems like there is an opportunity brewing here.

I'm sure the owner isn't a completely bad guy, but I'm not inclined to point any of my contacts to them for parts because if they throw a hissy fit again, I'm the one who looks bad for recommending them.