Scoreboard:
Number of Phone Calls Made (to us): 1
Number of E-Mails Written (to us): 1
Feedback Received: Neutral
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A customer had won an air compressor from us off of eBay. Not a big one, just a normal, portable one that's used for small air tools.
He received it and gave us a phone call on a Saturday (about two weeks ago) saying that it had looked like it was ran over. My co-worker, who takes care of the complaints and shipping, etc. doesn't work on weekends, so I got the task of handling the call.
The call wasn't bad.
In fact, the guy was really nice.
I believe I did the standard apology (I can't remember if I did, but I usually do in situations). We communicated for a few minutes and he told me of his problem -- all he wanted was the auction total so he could file the claim (for insurance).
....
Uh, wait a minute....
You want to file the claim?? Despite the fact the he could have easily found out the total on his own.
I mentioned that if he could wait until Monday, my co-worker would be more than happy to file the claim for him ... considering that she knows what to do and that's how we always do it. She's very meticulous in writing down information, printing emails and having everything ready when she makes the call. She keeps track of everything.
But he insisted ... he wanted to make the claim that day and all he wanted was the total ... Ooooo.k. I gave him the total, but not before mentioning that if he had any questions that he could contact us, either through phone or e-mail. I even got his phone number just in case my co-worker had any questions or concerns.
We thought all was done and good.
-
Until about a week later....
When we got a neutral feedback ...
The neutral basically stated that the packing was done poorly and we were of no help to him.
It got a serious from both of us.
My co-worker is very careful when packing things, even though it was an air compressor she still packed it with packing materials. (He mentioned that the package was in pieces). So, we left him a neutral, basically stating that he never contacted us and we thought all was well.
We thought all was done and good.
-
Until about a week later (which would have been yesterday - if you're keeping track).
My co-worker is currently now on vacation. I get an e-mail from him stating that the neutral he wrote is justified and that he also needed us to fax a letterhead to the shipping company saying that we'll release the insurance settlement from him. No detailed information was even included in the e-mail. His main concern was that he wanted an air compressor and now his money is tied up in this whole thing. Plus, I don't even think we have a letterhead ... but I digress ...
But now I'm beginning to think somethings amiss here ...
No pictures were sent to us, no detailed explanation about the package's condition upon arrival (it went from the "package being ran over by the shipper's truck" to "I don't know what happened to it" - he mentioned that it arrived in pieces) and he seems pretty hush-hush when it came to giving us information. Plus, he seemed pretty eager to file a claim with the shipping company. Again, we assumed he was able to take care of it ... so we didn't press for details (because, you know, this is the first time one of our customers has attempted to file their own claim).
If he would have waited a couple of days and allowed us to start the claim process (as well as answered any questions, took any pictures, had all of our ducks in a row), we probably would have given him a refund before the claim is even settled (which can take months).
I'll help him in any way I can, but I'm certainly not going to bend over backwards for him either. We can't help you if you won't help us ... So, after typing a response -- then erasing that and typing a real response - I simply and politely asked for the information I needed (without doing the whole "I told you so," or the "shoulda, woulda, coulda" routines).
I guess I'll update you next week...
Number of Phone Calls Made (to us): 1
Number of E-Mails Written (to us): 1
Feedback Received: Neutral
---
A customer had won an air compressor from us off of eBay. Not a big one, just a normal, portable one that's used for small air tools.
He received it and gave us a phone call on a Saturday (about two weeks ago) saying that it had looked like it was ran over. My co-worker, who takes care of the complaints and shipping, etc. doesn't work on weekends, so I got the task of handling the call.
The call wasn't bad.
In fact, the guy was really nice.
I believe I did the standard apology (I can't remember if I did, but I usually do in situations). We communicated for a few minutes and he told me of his problem -- all he wanted was the auction total so he could file the claim (for insurance).
....
Uh, wait a minute....
You want to file the claim?? Despite the fact the he could have easily found out the total on his own.
I mentioned that if he could wait until Monday, my co-worker would be more than happy to file the claim for him ... considering that she knows what to do and that's how we always do it. She's very meticulous in writing down information, printing emails and having everything ready when she makes the call. She keeps track of everything.
But he insisted ... he wanted to make the claim that day and all he wanted was the total ... Ooooo.k. I gave him the total, but not before mentioning that if he had any questions that he could contact us, either through phone or e-mail. I even got his phone number just in case my co-worker had any questions or concerns.
We thought all was done and good.
-
Until about a week later....
When we got a neutral feedback ...
The neutral basically stated that the packing was done poorly and we were of no help to him.
It got a serious from both of us.
My co-worker is very careful when packing things, even though it was an air compressor she still packed it with packing materials. (He mentioned that the package was in pieces). So, we left him a neutral, basically stating that he never contacted us and we thought all was well.
We thought all was done and good.
-
Until about a week later (which would have been yesterday - if you're keeping track).
My co-worker is currently now on vacation. I get an e-mail from him stating that the neutral he wrote is justified and that he also needed us to fax a letterhead to the shipping company saying that we'll release the insurance settlement from him. No detailed information was even included in the e-mail. His main concern was that he wanted an air compressor and now his money is tied up in this whole thing. Plus, I don't even think we have a letterhead ... but I digress ...
But now I'm beginning to think somethings amiss here ...
No pictures were sent to us, no detailed explanation about the package's condition upon arrival (it went from the "package being ran over by the shipper's truck" to "I don't know what happened to it" - he mentioned that it arrived in pieces) and he seems pretty hush-hush when it came to giving us information. Plus, he seemed pretty eager to file a claim with the shipping company. Again, we assumed he was able to take care of it ... so we didn't press for details (because, you know, this is the first time one of our customers has attempted to file their own claim).
If he would have waited a couple of days and allowed us to start the claim process (as well as answered any questions, took any pictures, had all of our ducks in a row), we probably would have given him a refund before the claim is even settled (which can take months).
I'll help him in any way I can, but I'm certainly not going to bend over backwards for him either. We can't help you if you won't help us ... So, after typing a response -- then erasing that and typing a real response - I simply and politely asked for the information I needed (without doing the whole "I told you so," or the "shoulda, woulda, coulda" routines).
I guess I'll update you next week...
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