I DEMAND FREE SHIPPING!!

[CurlyLocks]

This happened yesterday. The guy is being quite nice so I had no idea he was going to go all SC on me. I get through the order and tell him "Your total, with shipping and tax, is $xx.xx". He complains about it being so high so I give him the breakdown, including $9.81 for shipping. I remind him that it's going from Pennsylvania to Toronto. (Actually, our U.S. shipping rates have gone up so much that sometimes people are paying less to have their order shipped to Canada than in the U.S., but I digress)

SC: "Why don't you give me free shipping on this since I'm a long-time customer?"
Me: (yeah, you and just about everyone else I talk to) "I'm sorry, but we don't currently have a free shipping offer available."
SC: "Well I'll just wait until there is free shipping and then I'll order this."
Me: "Sir, I don't know if and when there will be free shipping offered. Usually in November we have a free shipping offer if you purchase a certain amount, but we have no advance knowledge of when free shipping will be offered."
SC: "Well, you can just call me when the free shipping is available."
Me: "Sir, as I said we don't get any advance notice of free shipping. The only way I know if it's available is when a customer gives me a keycode and the computer brings up the offer."
SC: "Let me speak to your supervisor - he'll give it to me!"
Me: "I can let you speak to a supervisor but I don't think they'll be able to tell you anything different. May I put you on hold while I get one for you?"
SC: "Why don't you just have him call me back? I'm in a hurry and I can't really wait."
Me: "No, it would be better if you could speak to one now."

SC agrees and I put him on hold while I call the Sup line. As I'm waiting for a Sup to pick up, I see a note in his file (my bad, I should have checked this sooner) that last year he was given free shipping as a ONE-TIME courtesy to a long-time customer. We are empowered to do this and I'll do it occasionally if someone is really nice, but there was no way this bozo was getting anything from me. When a Sup picked up I filled him in on the SC's demands and attitude and he assured me he'd take care of it.

Later on when I spoke to that Sup he told me the SC not only wanted free shipping this time, he also wanted the 15% bonus certificate his keycode would have entitled him to, and, get this - he wanted to put on a mailing list so that he would always receive free shipping offers whenever they're available! My Sup told him that was absolutely not possible and reminded him that last year he was given free shipping & told it was a one-time courtesy. The guy argued a bit more and finally the Sup told him "At this point I think it might be better for you if you would purchase this in a local office supply store instead" and that ended it.

I have to say, our Supervisors rock!

[greensinestro]

Ah, the "one time courtesy" issue. I have dealt with that so many times it's not funny. I remember in operator services at Bellsouth, I spoke to a guy who had no money and no other way to bill his call, so we gave him a "one time courtesy" of billing his call to his home number without securing verbal acceptance. And, right before I placed him through, he assured me he would get himself a calling card to avoid this later on. The very next day, he called again for another call, again telling me he was broke down and had no other way to bill his call. It turned into a sup call, to which, of course, they gave it to him after they told him again, this was a one time courtesy only. Excuse me, but I think we've probably done a one-thousand time courtesy being it's an every day thing here. What bothered me more on this call was I had to put it through when the supervisor told me to, and this guy said, "Well, looks like I did it again!" to his friend because he thought I had left the line.

[wagegoth]

Recently, due to 9/11, shipping between the U.S. and Canada has become a much more involved procedure.

I mentioned it before, but I went round and round with someone in Canada over an eBay sale and the shipping cost. She kept bugging me about the shipping rate. I explained that it's what the USPO charges, I'm not charging for the shipping supplies, and I'm not charging for the time involved in filling out the five-part Customs form (now required for all airmail). She still kept asking why the charges were so high.

Customers like that are the reason I so seldom sell things on eBay.