It's ONLY been 5 months, after all...

[unperson]

Finally have a good one to post here, though it might be shorter than some of the others out there

I was included on an email thread this morning, where a customer was complaining that we'd turned off the services we provide to them after they'd failed to pay us for FIVE MONTHS - AND failed to contact us in the past two weeks, after we'd told them that they needed to pay up or else.

Well, once the 'or else' part came into play, it became a HUGE bitchfest from them, talking about being a multinational corp, and that this was going to be a big deal, because after all, they're speshul snowflakes who shouldn't have to pay on time like everyone else.

We ended up enabling the service for them before payment , but they promised that they'd really really pay us.. eventually.

When we bend over for customers that don't friggin pay us, they're just going to continue the cycle! I just don't get where customer satisfaction comes into play when the people you're dealing with haven't paid, and aren't therefore customers!

[Krandor]

After 5 months of non-payment you turned it back on? Did they at least pay something before it got turned back on?

[chainedbarista]

i have to state the obvious: your company is STUPID. sorry that you're stuck working for them.

[kwdy]

Companies need to realize something. That when you have customers that refuse to pay for services at all/on time are at best bad customers. This "multinational company" was not a customer at this point they were a liability. Three months to me is bad enough but letting this go for five months with no payment before stopping services. Wow must have been nice.

I'm pretty sure they promised to pay with their fingers crossed and figured they'd get another 5 months of free service.

Sometimes I wonder what it takes for a company to finally say enough and drop someone.

[Kelshir]

We ended up enabling the service for them before payment , but they promised that they'd really really pay us.. eventually.

Service enabled BEFORE any payment? I have serious doubts that you will ever get any payment from them.

[Josh]

Most large corporations have an escalation structure when it comes to customer complaints. associate-area manager-store manager-district-region-nation per se.

Anyone above store manager will NOT allow (by choice) an issue to escalate above them. Hence, the store manager will fold like a paper towel when push comes to shove. Escalation is a 'failure' to ensure an excellent customer service environment and will reflect poorly (regardless of 'fault'). Taking care of idiotic complaints, as foolish as it seems, is part of the cost of doing business (like shoplifting) and expected to be resolved at store or district level.

Escalation above the district level almost always guarantees that the customer will get their gripe resolved to their favor and that your customer and skillsets get questioned. Too many issues get escalated; you're gone

dont take managements 'lack of spine' personally. Its business (expected cost). smile and move on.

[Hanzoku]

You'd think phrases like "Breach of Contract" and "Theft of services" would be used in this situation.

Either way, I'd have turned off the service until they paid up.

[ravevolution]

I would have turned the switch off.

So the company looses a customer, but they loose a dead beat of a customer.

One would think with the revenue being lost cause of this guy and many others who aren't paying their bill they would be more strict. It's cause of people like this that the people who do pay and on time, will later on have to pay more in rate increases cause the company has to make up for lost profits cause they were giving away service/products for free.