...Take the case of one "Murrie Kinney", of Dayton, Texas. Murrie placed an order with us in July of 2003. The shipping cost of his order was shown clearly BEFORE he completed the transaction. In fact other shipping options were available to Murrie, but he chose the $4 option. He received his product and left us a "Good" rating as follows:
7-10-03
Order/578 > > Rating: Good > Comments: > SHIPPING PRICES HIGH CONSIDERING SIZE AND WEIGHT OF ITEM ORDERED.
Murrie Kinney, Dayton, Texas
No problem, right?
Wrong.
We were concerned that Mr. Kinney had rated us "Good" instead of "Excellent", which is what we're usually rated, and which is what we strive for in every single transaction. So we wrote back to Mr. Kinney, hoping to appease him---or at least explain the shipping cost to him, so that he'd feel better about doing business with us next time. Here's our email to appease Mr. Kinney:
Dear Mr. Kinney: We're sorry you were disappointed in our shipping prices. If you will look at the actual stamps on the packaging, you will note that we charge only what USPS charges us, with some twenty cents left over for handling. USPS charges the same rate for Priority Mail regardless of weight or size (up to a point). We used to send small items like this via regular mail---then, of course, customers complained because it took too long to arrive. We're sorry USPS doesn't offer better and cheaper service, but we're pretty well stuck with the minimum charges as designated by the shipping companies or agencies. If you know of a less expensive method, we'd certainly like to hear about it. Thanks, TrixiePixGraphics.
Mr. Kinney responded to the above with the following:
7-22-03
Order/578 > > Rating: Bad Comments: postage should have been 37 cents, but over $4. don't make sense, so will shop somewhere else.
Murrie Kinney, Dayton, Texas
Huh? Did we miss something here? Nothing about the transaction has changed, yet Mr. Kinney has entered a second feedback report for us, and this time it's "BAD"! Obviously we had a problem-case on our hands. We wrote back as follows:
Mr. Kinney: We have received your "bad" rating through Yahoo! Stores. If you would care to actually look at the postage that was used on your order, you will note that the ACTUAL COST was over $4. We make little or NOTHING on the shipping cost, unlike virtually every other Yahoo store. Second, you were told upfront what the shipping cost would be---it's posted in at least two dozen places throughout our site, and you are shown the shipping amount during the ordering process. You could have chosen not to order, or you could have chosen to abandon the order at any point. You did not do so. In the old days, years ago, we did send our orders using regular postage. But about 20% of them never arrived, and another 40% took ten days or two weeks to arrive---both scenarios made our customers (and us) mad as hell. So we switched to a more reliable (and consequently more expensive) mode of shipping. You state that you would never buy from us again due to our shipping cost. We state the following: You will never buy from us again because no order from you will be honored in the future. There really are bad businesses on the Internet. We're not one of them. And there really are customers on the Internet with whom it is not worth the trouble of doing business. You ARE one of them. We didn't deserve a "bad" rating as a business---but you do, as a customer. TrixiePixGraphics.
In response to the above, we received a harassing or threatening email from this individual about every two hours. It was mostly adolescent non-sense ("you suck", "I'm gonna git you", "GO TO HELL", etc. etc. ad nauseam). He was been advised four times to cease and desist contacting us but he persisted. We were forced to file a criminal complaint with the Dayton, Texas police department, and we lodged complaints with Yahoo Stores and this person's ISP (Earthlink) for using their email servers for criminal purposes.
One would think Mr. Kinney had done his deed and, satisfied, would have stumbled off somewhere to pester someone else. Not so. On 7-27-03 Mr. Murrie Kinney entered a THIRD derogatory rating for the same transaction! His childish and harassing emails continued. He sent us single-line emails with one word in a huge font (like a six year old might use a crayon) that said, "YIPPEE!!!!" ---nothing else; just that one word.
Mr. Kinney eventually went away---perhaps the police convinced him it wasn't in his bests interests to continue. But the Mr. Murrie Kinneys of the world are indirectly accountable for the vast majority of poor customer service good customers suffer. After awhile, after a thousand encounters with Mr. Murrie Kinney, even the best of businesses just stop trying.
So, next time a customer needs us to go the extra mile---or five---to make sure their product arrives on time, is correctly printed, and is of the highest quality we can provide, will we still give 100%?
Of course.
We'll pretty much always "turn the other cheek".
But we only have two cheeks.
If you mistreat us, that order will be your last.
We blacklist one or two customers per year.
Some people can NEVER be pleased.
Who needs the heartburn.