"I'm never shopping here again!"

[CrazedClerk]

There is no phrase that gets my blood boiling any more than this one.

And not because it angers me to hear it, but because customers seem to think that it's the gravest and ultimate threat they can make in a last ditch attempt to get us to cave in to some silly demand.

I kept count, I heard this phrase at least FIVE times over the past week, all from customers who got extremely pissed we wouldn't let them do returns on opened video games. Funny how each one seemed to have some brat kid that was just "playing around with it" and took the wrapping off.

A company will not die out due to the loss of one customer and if that one customer tells 20 friends not to shop there, well it probably won't die out either. I can't fathom how people think the loss of their business could be so damaging to the company that they'll cave into a demand just to avoid losing ONE SINGLE CUSTOMER. This is even funnier to me when it happens at big box stores. Who the hell cares if you'll never shop at Wal-Mart again? Either A) You damned sure will because eventually you'll realize how much you miss all the low priced stuff they sell or B) The thousands of other people who shop Wal-Mart daily will now have more space in the store because you won't be there.

I have to wonder how many people actually keep their vows to never shop here again, I bet a year, three years, five, ten later they'll come crawling back.

Oh and how about this variant: "I'm never shopping at THIS store again!"

Sure and these are the people who will wander to our OTHER location at the local mall and shop there. The money all goes to the same place folks.

I wish I could beg every customer who comes into my store not to make that god awful threat, because it's ABSOLUTELY MEANINGLESS in the grand scheme.

Thanks as always for letting me vent.

[South Texan]

I have to wonder how many people actually keep their vows to never shop here again, I bet a year, three years, five, ten later they'll come crawling back.

"I'M NEVER SHOPPING HERE AGAIN!"
translation
"See you next week when I need something again!"

[Lace Neil Singer]

I couldn't agree more. I always want to put on a mock happy face and go "Please mean it this time! Don't just get my hopes up then dash them!"

[Ljt09863]

my fiancee is like that with a restruant. he doesn't tell the employees that though. the food used to be awesome, but over the past year, seems to have taken a nosedive. it always messes with our stomachs.

we always say we aren't going to eat there anymore. we say it to each other, not the employees. i stick to it. fiancee keeps wanting to go back. ill let him, and again...at the end of the meal.."we aren't coming back here..." i personally don't want to eat at a place that messes with my stomach.

[wildcatgrrl]

I actually said this once, after a sales associate out-and-out LIED to me about the return policy. Long story short, I needed to exchange an unworn clothing item for a different size, tags were damaged. Associate said they'd have to make handwritten tags, and they couldn't sell anything with handwritten tags. I was going to accept this, until I went to buy the item I needed and found one on the shelf...for sale...with handwritten tags. Got them to do the exchange finally, and they said snottily "Remember *starts w/D, rhymes w/Willard's* return policy in the future". Then I said I was never shopping there again, so no need to.

And I didn't. That was 7 years ago, and the only time I've set foot in any of their stores was to cut through to go into the mall.

[nick1091]

I swear, there must be some corollary wherein the more in the wrong the client is, the greater their feeling they've been somehow wronged.

My favorite moment of this was last year, when I informed a client whom we'd shut off for non-payment that I wouldn't turn his service back on until payment was actually received, not just sent.

"Well, I guess I'll go somewhere else if this is how you treat a good, loyal customer." was his response.

Though I didn't say anything, I instantly smirked at the delicious irony.

[AFpheonix]

I don't really care if they tell me that. Hell, if they're saying that, then chances are they're going away and leaving me alone at least for a little while. Too bad I'm not allowed to "encourage" them to go elsewhere....in any case, I couldn't stoop to doing that anyways.

There is one set of phrases that I despise, though. Usually said by a troll on their cellphone to someone else who may or may not care, when they've either got new insurance and they don't know it, or they've tried to hand me their health card not rx card, or they don't have refills, and that would be something like, "She doesn't know what she's doing/ she's not letting me do such and such".

I don't know what I'm doing? You're right. I DON'T process hundreds of claims per day. I've been doing this for 3 years, and I'm still as clueless as the first day they handed me a smock. Hell, I have no idea which hole I'm supposed to stick my leg through when I put my underwear on in the morning.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

"I'm never coming here again!"

I got away with this response once.

"And this is supposed to be a threat to me? We were making $20,000 in sales per week before you ever even thought of coming in here. You have just proven that you aren't going to be an "A" level customer and if you are going to haggle over the price of a $5.00 USB Cable, then you'll haggle about everything we have in the store. You just told me that you bought a brand new Alienware computer so you're not going to buy anything major from us for at least 2 years. You threatening to never come back means that we'll not make $20,005 this week. Darn, I guess I'll have to have a few slices of pizza today instead of my usual Calzone, Salad and Breadsticks I usually order."

The person just left without saying another word

[MadMike]

Like most things, there is a time and place for that particular phrase, but if you throw it out everytime the wind blows, it loses all meaning.

Most of the time, if I decide not to do business with a company anymore, I do it silently. I can only think of two times I ever actually said it. One time, it helped; the other time, it did not.

The one time was when Staples tried to screw me out of a rebate. Tried to say I didn't send in the UPC symbol, and that I needed to send it in to get my rebate. Well, I couldn't very well send it in, if I no longer had it, because I already did send it in! I sent them a somewhat angry letter thru PFB, which included a statement that I didn't intend to do business again. I was simply venting, and didn't think it would actually do any good, but I got a response back saying they would send me my rebate check after all. The check did come a few days later, and I wrote another letter thanking them.

The other time was thru AT&T. I've had them for a long distance company for many years, and never had any trouble with them up until this instance. First, they started sending out their own bills, instead of being included in my regular phone bill. I'm not blaming them for this, it's quite possible that this was Verizon's doing.

I rarely made calls that would even be billed by AT&T, and as such, rarely got a bill from them. Imagine my surprise when I received a bill from them for $40+, when I was sure I hadn't made any calls thru them. A closer look at the bill revealed that no, there were no calls. Then why were they billing me? I tried to call them, and got lost in their stupid voicemail maze, and found no way whatsoever to reach a live person. I finally emailed them.

According to the response, they had switched everyone over to a plan that included a certain amount of calling, but charged some flat fee for it. If I made a lot of calls, it would make sense, but as I said before, I rarely did, so this was costing me more money. How nice of them. When I complained about it, they claimed that they had sent something out notifying people of this, and gave them the chance to opt out of the change. I don't remember getting anything. When I told them this, they basically said "Too bad, we're not removing the charge." So I told them I'd pay it, but I still don't think it's fair. I also told them that to ensure it didn't happen again, I was switching to another company.

Funny thing, a couple months later, they sent me one of those checks that you can cash, and they'll switch you back. The check was for about $40, the amount I wasted on them in the first place. It went right in the trash. They had their chance to make things right, and they chose not to. Too little, too late.

[tharglet]

I remember one customer wouldn't accept store vouchers.... she said she shopped there every week but wouldn't anymore if she wasn't given cash.
(She wasn't given the cash, but I don't know if she ever accepted the store credit - I had to wander back to my department after collecting returns)
My bf lost a reciept once and sold me the store credit (he doesn't shop in the same store usually), which I used on my weekly shopping... Why can't other customers do the same, instead of whining, and claiming they'll never come back? Most do, a week or few later. Might as well get the store credit and spend it there anyways.

[Jack7957]

My wife and I have two places we won't do business with ever, and we'll tell people our experience if they ask.

One is a furniture store, that I refer to as "store that we'll never do business with again". Not sure how big a chain they are, but think type of wood and what the Ex in FedEx stands for. Anyways, we bought a diningroom table and bed frame from them for our new house. First of all, neither were in stock so it was going to take two weeks to arrive, no problem, we were in the process of moving anyways, so it was one less thing to worry about. Anyways, the table showed up, but not the bed. It took them two months to finally get on in, but it was still missing the frame rails. Kinda hard to set up without rails for the mattress. So they ended up giving us a better rail system than we would have gotten. So why are they bad? For those two months we waited, we had to keep calling and they kept promising, "oh, it'll be in this week". Nope!

The other is a local resturant, about the same time as the story above. We'd been moving that day and were tired/hungry and didn't feel like cooking, so we grabbed a coupon and headed out to what is considered one of the nicer places in town. During dinner, the wife noticed that every time we ordered a refill on our sodas, the waiter seemed to be keeping track of it. Sure enough, get the bill, and we had 7 sodas listed. No free refills. What sucked about it was they cost $1.25 each, for an 8oz glass! If we had known they were that expensive, and it wasn't going to ge free refills, we'd stuck with the water. Spoke with management, and they didn't care, spoke with the owner the next day, and he didn't care either.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

People who say this are idiots. They never stop to realize that the employee will be overjoyed at this news. Why would an employee be upset at not having to deal with a jerk anymore? It doesn't affect his paycheck.

I've actually said "I won't currently be spending money with your business unless changes are made"....in very polite letters to corporate offices. I have personally had it with seeing anorexic, dying women used as models in catalogs. I buy a lot stuff online or out of catalogs, and I have decided to vote with my dollar against that ugly practice. I let their corporate bigwigs know why I am taking my business elsewhere, politely and professionally.

But huffing it at clerks as if you expect them to give a rat's fuzzy ass is just stupid.

[HYHYBT]

I wish I could beg every customer who comes into my store not to make that god awful threat, because it's ABSOLUTELY MEANINGLESS in the grand scheme.

I just wish I could shout "hallelujah!" and get the promise signed and notarized

(I haven't heard this often, and only once when it was a reasonable action to take and said calmly and rationally)

my fiancee is like that with a restruant. he doesn't tell the employees that though. the food used to be awesome, but over the past year, seems to have taken a nosedive. it always messes with our stomachs.

You should tell them, nicely, about their food going downhill. Maybe it's something they can fix, maybe whoever is in charge thinks no one has noticed... or maybe they'll tell you it's permanent and you'll know it really is time not to return.

I actually said this once, after a sales associate out-and-out LIED to me about the return policy. Long story short, I needed to exchange an unworn clothing item for a different size, tags were damaged. Associate said they'd have to make handwritten tags, and they couldn't sell anything with handwritten tags. I was going to accept this, until I went to buy the item I needed and found one on the shelf...for sale...with handwritten tags. Got them to do the exchange finally, and they said snottily "Remember *starts w/D, rhymes w/Willard's* return policy in the future". Then I said I was never shopping there again, so no need to.

Seen from the other way, how many times has someone posted right here on CS about having to have a BS story ready for customers who won't accept policy? I just read one a few threads ago, about needing phone numbers they'll never use for photos. There also have been posts about telling a customer about a policy, only to have a coworker break it (in this case, I can easily imagine having a policy against handwritten signs and someone making one anyway, especially if they used to allow them). Assuming they were completely wrong in denying the return, that would be *one* bad experience caused by *one individual employee* of a large chain. Meaning a different location, or even another CSR in that one, would likely have handled it to your liking. Why avoid the company entirely over something like that, and if you do, how have you managed to have any stores left that you *will* shop in?

Of course, there may be more to it, or it may have been a "last straw" situation... what do I know, I've never even set foot in a Dillard's, simply because I don't generally go to the mall.

[Jester]

I have had two times where I said I wouldn't do business with a company again, but I didn't say it to the company--just to my friends.

The first was UPS for a major screwup on their part. I would like to say I haven't used UPS since that time, but sadly, that embargo did not last very long.

The second one was for a local restaurant after they totally dicked my friend over by refuing to give him his last paycheck, to the tune of him being out $400. That one I DID stick to my guns on, and said restaurant went out of business after Hurricane Wilma. I cried no tears.

[Anakah]

Another little fun gem of a phrase that they say following this is usually:
"But (insert competitors name) let's me do this!"

I had a customer complain that there's only one cage in my casino and that ____ casino is more convinent for him because he can cash out his change on the floor. I'm assuming they have some sort of jetsort on the floor. Now, knowing this WHY would he come to my window and tell me this? Am I going to magically pull a money changing machine out of my ass and put it on the floor?

I made the point of saying:

"Well, sir, our casino no longer has any machines that accept coin thus making it pretty pointless for us to have those sorts of machines out there."

His response?

"But ____ Casino still does..."



Then stop complaining and go THERE!