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It's one of these days. A warranty case of my old company came haunting me.
To make a long story short, a customer bought a pair of chairs + ottomans over two years ago. Pretty normal stuff, 1 year warranty for materials and workmanship, and within warranty period sent me an email that a seam had failed. No problem, I asked him to provide additional information like photos or bring the chair back for inspection.
He never did. Until march this year, 2y+ from the date of original purchase. I offered to take a look at the seam and went as far as driving to his house and taking a bunch of photos.
The whole case looked a bit suspicious, it wasn't only one seam but five that had failed. These chairs are pretty robust, I've sold a number of them to public places like hotels and bars and there had never been a single problem with them. I'd say they're pretty much bombproof, they can take years of abuse in a harsh bar environment.
I sent photos to the manufacturer and they confirmed my suspicion, such failures at the seams can only be caused by sharp objects or excessive force; one or two seams might just be a quality control issue but five in one chair, at home, not a chance.
Fast forward to today. The customer called. I explained him the situation and that there's nothing I can do for him - as a matter of fact there never was, because it's apparent that the seam failure has been caused by customer's own actions, not a manufacturing fault.
Can you say "instant SC"? Good, I knew you could. He started demanding 500€ as a compensation. After explaining politely that this is not possible (the company has been out of business for several months now, I take care of obvious warranty issues on my own time and this case was definitely not covered by warranty), he went ballistic.
After hearing a couple of sentences about someone "kicking my ass for this" I hung up. Damn, this guy might fall somewhere between a particularly enthusiastic SC and an entitlement whore. I can't even describe how happy I am that I'm out of that particular business, in addition to being the owner/manager of (now defunct) company. Being able to say "no" in obvious cases without asking anyone's permission is priceless.
The "best" part? This guy called my personal, non-listed cell phone. Positively the last time I'll ever give it to anyone, it seems that some nice, even good customers can turn to complete SC:s at the drop of the hat when they don't get what they want.
To make a long story short, a customer bought a pair of chairs + ottomans over two years ago. Pretty normal stuff, 1 year warranty for materials and workmanship, and within warranty period sent me an email that a seam had failed. No problem, I asked him to provide additional information like photos or bring the chair back for inspection.
He never did. Until march this year, 2y+ from the date of original purchase. I offered to take a look at the seam and went as far as driving to his house and taking a bunch of photos.
The whole case looked a bit suspicious, it wasn't only one seam but five that had failed. These chairs are pretty robust, I've sold a number of them to public places like hotels and bars and there had never been a single problem with them. I'd say they're pretty much bombproof, they can take years of abuse in a harsh bar environment.
I sent photos to the manufacturer and they confirmed my suspicion, such failures at the seams can only be caused by sharp objects or excessive force; one or two seams might just be a quality control issue but five in one chair, at home, not a chance.
Fast forward to today. The customer called. I explained him the situation and that there's nothing I can do for him - as a matter of fact there never was, because it's apparent that the seam failure has been caused by customer's own actions, not a manufacturing fault.
Can you say "instant SC"? Good, I knew you could. He started demanding 500€ as a compensation. After explaining politely that this is not possible (the company has been out of business for several months now, I take care of obvious warranty issues on my own time and this case was definitely not covered by warranty), he went ballistic.
After hearing a couple of sentences about someone "kicking my ass for this" I hung up. Damn, this guy might fall somewhere between a particularly enthusiastic SC and an entitlement whore. I can't even describe how happy I am that I'm out of that particular business, in addition to being the owner/manager of (now defunct) company. Being able to say "no" in obvious cases without asking anyone's permission is priceless.
The "best" part? This guy called my personal, non-listed cell phone. Positively the last time I'll ever give it to anyone, it seems that some nice, even good customers can turn to complete SC:s at the drop of the hat when they don't get what they want.
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