insane customers!

[Guest]

what's the worst you've encountered so far?

 

here's a few i've run into:

 

- requests a catalog via email, i reply and state we do not have them, but our inventory is online.

- they reply and state they need a catalog because they do not have internet access (keep in mind: their initial email was sent from the site!)

 

 

- customer purchases a PAPER sticker (so it's made out of paper with a sticky side, not the glossy type paper most stickers are made of.)

- customer places sticker on bumper of car / window where it was exposed to rain or snow, proceeded to tell me how poor our products are because it got water damage :lol:

 

 

 

- customer emails ranting and raving about crappy service, undelivered mail, no email support, etc. i request their order info... they give me an order number that is definately NOT one of ours! (they purchased somewhere else, yet we ended up with the unhappy customer!)

 

 

 

- customer sends an email asking when their order was shipped (at this point, it would have been two or so days ago because they had only purchased earlier that week)

- does a chargeback NEXT DAY because the item wasn't received. (at this time, we did NOT offer express shipping, so they knew it was going via basic air mail)

 

 

 

- received a return from a customer with no invoice, order info, etc... just a note stating "refund to my american express) ..... at this point in time we only took paypal.

- look it up in the database... the name / address don't exist as a customer. it's a common item so it's virtually impossible to narrow it down to a specific customer (it was shipped from a city we mail hundreds of packages to on a regular basis)

 

 

 

 

- customer places an order via money order/cash. a month later they email asking to add some items. okay, whatever... added the items.

they respond and say "i referred my friend to sign up to your site, can i have $5 off" (fyi: the promotion was their friend had to BUY something in order to get $ off...)

- their friend does a money order purchase and asks if they can have it on credit (LOL!)

- first customer creates another order while the first is still pending (unpaid)

- second customer creates another order while their first is unpaid

- second customer creates a NEW order via paypal and uses the first customer's contact info (never bothered to check ip's at this point because they never paid anyway.... but it was the same person!)

- in the paypal note they say "can i pay for half of this now and the rest when i get my check" (it was sent via e-check) so initially i knew something was up.

- e-check was cancelled and never heard back from "either" of them

[Mediajuggle]

wow....eww... I haven't had any of that.... lol

 

But I have had two different customers place orders and then shoot me an email asking me how long will it take to ship their cd. HELLO!!! We're a music download store!!!! :blink:

[Guest]

HELLO!!! We're a music download store!!!! :blink:

that's hilarious!!! :lol:

your post reminded me of this one: some guy used his parent's paypal account to buy some stuff... so he emails after he placed the order (around 10pm at night) asking if his stuff was shipped yet

 

now i'm not big time so i don't pretend to be. if i'm online i will respond to customers at 1am.... but cmon! i responded and explained the situation and he got snippy saying "i want my order now"

kid, you're lucky you even got a response that late! :lol:

[Guest]

i had a customer go nuts this morning because he got a refund! "i didn't say i wanted to cancel the whole order" ....but he only paid for ONE item

 

"i'm going to report you to the BBB" - ohh how i love this threat.

who cares! i'm not a BBB member and never will be. their site is too easy to be used for slanderous abuse. (such in this case!)

 

 

me and mediajuggle can't possibly be the only ones with crazy customers, surely some of you got some stories??

[Mediajuggle]

you've had alot more crazy customers than I've had... lol

but keep em coming.. because I'm enjoying this.... :lol:

[Anne Gaudette]

>_<

 

Okay, I enjoyed this thread.. nice break from the battle to get my new site going.

 

So, here is one for you. I had a customer inquire about ordering a kiddy pool. The selection of pools were all round. She wanted to know the dimensions. I told her the pool she was asking about was 6 ft in diameter. She e-mailed me back in a HUFF because I did not tell her how long it was from top to bottom.. vs.. side to side... I kindly explained that a circle by definition was the same length in ANY direction... She decided to buy her pool else where.. because I just was NOT answering her question! sigh...

:blink:

[Mediajuggle]

I kindly explained that a circle by definition was the same length in ANY direction...

 

 

LMAO :lol:

that's classic....

[Guest]

:lol: it never ceases to amaze me how many stupid people there are in this world.

they get upset so easily! why can't they just say "i was asking about ____ as well"

 

 

ohh i forgot about this one. the granddaddy of all insane customers!

guy orders via money order (twice!).. then via paypal moments later. i mark his order was 'pending restock, will be restocked on wednesday after 12pm' ... (the date of his order was tuesday, mind you... so he only had to wait 24 hrs for a restock)

 

i get back from picking up my merch, i have TWO emails from this guy.

first one: "when will my order be shipped" (duhh)

second (sent 3 hrs apart from the first one): "why aren't you responding to me? what horrible customer service! yak yak yak..."

 

anyway.

i respond and explain that "after you sent your contact, a page showed up telling you our response time can take UP TO 48 hrs, not three"

 

never hear back from him.

ship his order via expedited WITH tracking (which he did not pay for. he paid for ground, but he has already showed himself to be an ass so i thought it would be a good idea to have a tracking #)

 

two weeks later he asks why the tracking # isn't updated.

which is odd, i check it and surely enough it says it's still sitting at the post office.

 

i tell him we'll file a complaint with canada post and get back to him once we receive a response. (which usually happens within the week)

well, we never heard back from them so we filed again.

 

customer emails "what's going on with this? where's my stuff? i paid for it 3 weeks ago and it's still not here! i want a refund! yak yak" ..basically being a rude prick. (why can't people just talk civilized? why must they insult?)

 

now normally... i will reship items to a customer and eat the cost if this happens. because canada post NEVER reimburses me for lost or insanely delayed shipments... but he was quite rude, so i basically told him we're waiting on CP.

(once a customer gets as rude as this guy, they will NEVER be a return customer. so screw it. not worth the lost $ on sending reships)

 

he emails back RANTING AND RAVING about how he DEMANDS his money back. bla bla.

 

my response back to him is basically 'speak how you want to be spoken to. please don't talk down to us when we're helping you'

 

he emails back telling me to f**k off, ***hole, this and that... how i'm rude

 

so i simply put him on block and ignore it. one thing i do not have to put up with is that level of abuse, for a measly $50 (he just went on and on, i didn't think it was possible for that many cuss words to come out of one person in a single sentence)

 

two weeks later he reported us to the BBB about how he got ripped off... and left out the tiny little fact that he had a TRACKING NUMBER! and didn't mention how childish he's been from the start

 

then i do a search for my url and see he's reporting slanderous things about us on review sites like reseller ratings and what not.

 

of course, he never mentions how rude he was or that he had a tracking number. this guy just won't disappear!

[Anne Gaudette]

Yes.... the one with a bad attitude and WAY TOO much time on their hands are the worst!

 

I only except Visa and Master Card. On occasion, customer call wanting to use American Express number. I tell them that we only accept V and MC. They tell me they will call back with one of those options, but NEVER do. I have learned to keep the orders because about 30 % of these people call me about 2 weeks later demanding to know where the products they never paid for are at!

 

I guess they simple forget about needing to pay!

 

Annie

[Mediajuggle]

Well I'm going to go off topic here a little... and not speak on an insane customer but speak on something that's really irking me...

 

maybe it's the nature of the download business..... i don't know....

 

but on my site we offer a ton of free downloads, but instead of adding all the downloads that the customers want in the cart at one time and going through checkout....

 

they will find a song, go through the whole checkout process, find another song and go through the whole checkout process again and again....

 

So I might see 15 emails coming in letting me know that I have an order at my store and it will be the same customer who went throught the whole checkout process 15 times to get 15 songs. I kid you not!

 

I even put this up on the shopping cart page when you add a song to

Musica360 Tip: Did you know you can add all the songs you want to your shopping cart and THEN CHECKOUT instead of doing it one song at a time?

it:

 

 

and there are STILL people doing it one song at a time......

 

:'(

[Anne Gaudette]

Well I'm going to go off topic here a little... and not speak on an insane customer but speak on something that's really irking me...

 

maybe it's the nature of the download business..... i don't know....

 

but on my site we offer a ton of free downloads, but instead of adding all the downloads that the customers want in the cart at one time and going through checkout....

 

they will find a song, go through the whole checkout process, find another song and go through the whole checkout process again and again....

 

So I might see 15 emails coming in letting me know that I have an order at my store and it will be the same customer who went throught the whole checkout process 15 times to get 15 songs. I kid you not!

 

I even put this up on the shopping cart page when you add a song to it:

and there are STILL people doing it one song at a time......

 

:'(

 

It is the people with too much time on their hands syndrome!! >_<

 

How about adding a little bit more... PLEASE add all the songs you want BEFORE you check out!

 

Yours is subtle..... most people don't do subtle to well.

Maybe even add a little semi-veiled threat... We sure would hate to have to start charging!! :-"

[khalid191]

Oh man don't get me started on those customers :-"

 

I have tons from this kind , the latest incident is today , when I woke up I checked my e-mail , I found 5 messages from the same guy all in 2 hours time , the first one is the complaint , the rest is an angry messages about the bad service and why we didn't answer him , I mean you wouldn't believe this guy , he think I'm awake 24 hours a day sticking my face to the screen waiting for e-mails !? this is only the half of the problem , the other half is the crazy part , you wouldn't believe what the complaint was about :blink:

 

the man bought LOST the first season , it contains 7 CDs , 6 with the episodes , and the 7th is the extras , when the man finished the last episode from the first season , he inserted the 7th CD , and went nuts when he didn't find the end of the story , the big boy think that LOST like any other film or mini series , where you see the end of the story in the end , the man think I lied to him , and didn't give him the whole thing , and when I explained the idea for him , and explained how some shows last for years before ending the story , he start telling me how bad is that , and this a waste of time to watch a show for 10 years or so :rolleyes:

 

I got other stories , I'll be back for sure :D

[Guest]

mediajuggle, i don't sell downloads but i get those types of people too! i love them :) because they pay extra shipping charges :) :)

 

khalid191 - that's just nonsensical :lol: does he want you to go direct the series or something?

 

 

 

ok, here's another i remembered.....

woman buys a sweatshirt in october

item is shipped, never hear back from her (which is usually a good thing... the best customers are the ones you never hear from)

 

now it's the end of december, i get an email asking for a refund for a poor product. i ask her when she received the item, "october" .... oook... i explain our policy (and just about every other shop!) is 30 days from the date of reciept and she goes nuts saying "my son wore this product a few times and we put it in the wash and it came out with rips all over"

 

firstly: if it were worn a few times, clearly it wasn't a bad product!

secondly: why the heck should a vendor be held responsible for customer negligence (i have to assume there was something sharp in the pocket, because i have this very sweatshirt sitting in my own closet!!)

 

she went off and called the manufacturer of the product, they wouldn't reimburse her either :lol:

[Guest]

just got this one:

 

some guy ordered $50 worth of items via MONEY ORDER and put this in the order notes:

"get it here as fast as you possibly can" (exact wording)

 

sure buddy, i'll get right on it :lol:

[Guest]

here is an interesting article i found that's relative to this subject:

'Hit the Road, Jack!' Giving Difficult Customers THE BOOT! ? 2000, by Harmony Major

 

Have you ever heard the adage, "the customer is always right?" Yes? Well, it doesn't apply to home business owners and entrepreneurs. No, I haven't lost my marbles. It's true. This CAN NOT apply for home-based businesses, and you'd better believe I'm going to tell you why.

NOTE: Before you go and get "boot happy," realize that this article is NOT to be followed as standard customer service procedure. It should be used with care, VERY rarely, and hardly at all. Knowing how to deal with difficult customers is imperative for quality customer service.

 

A small business owner simply can not afford to treat all of his or her prospective customers with the same level of service. Why? It's simple. Home business owners need to be selective, to a degree, in order to keep business running smoothly, and to satisfy the prospects that DESERVE satisfaction. You have to become the type of business owner that would rather kick a few of the "bums" to the curb and give other customers excellent service, than to try to please everybody all of the time ... which just isn't going to happen. By adopting a rule of "the customer is always right," home business owners are setting themselves up for financial suicide ... and here's why A home business is usually very small, and is ordinarily run by only ONE very dedicated person. And, no matter how much they'd like to think so, this one person can't be all things to ALL people. For this simple reason, entrepreneurs run a very high risk of spreading themselves too thin and, when this happens, business is sure to suffer. "So, how do I avoid this," you ask? It's simple, really.

 

1. Target your advertising to attract the RIGHT kinds of customers. The "good" kind. ;-) Avoid using hype and never, ever, under ANY circumstances, advertise your business or service to be better than it actually is. If you advertise to people that are looking for hyped-up offers and unrealistic excitement, you're ASKING for trouble.

2. Work only with customers that are willing to work with YOU. Sure, the customer is usually right in most cases, but no one is right ALL of the time. And, reasonable people are the ones that realize this. They're also the ones you want to work with. Have you ever had a customer that, no matter what you said, or what you proposed, they were STILL dissatisfied? Even if you agreed to do EXACTLY what they requested of you, AND MORE?? This is the kind of disgruntled, trouble-maker that's just looking for trouble, and you happened to be the gullible target.

3. Don't stand to be treated rudely or disrespectfully. If you're a successful and professional business owner, that means that you're always willing to make amends to please your customer, and to correct any situation in which you were at fault. And, since you're the type of business owner that respects their customers, you should also receive the very same respect. If you don't and you've tried all you could to make them happy, kick that customer to the curb! They'll literally be more trouble than they're worth later on down the line.

4. Focus 99.5% of your energy and attention on your "good" customers, and you'll always be successful. Don't fall for the old "they just want to be heard" garbage. If someone wants attention, they should act like adults and speak up! Being obnoxious to get attention is for three year olds.

 

If you remember and follow those four simple guidelines in your day-to-day business routine, you're sure to be one step ahead of the game. A difficult, troublesome customer can take TWENTY TIMES as much work and effort to attend to than a customer that's willing to be reasonable. And, if you're like me, you get a hundred or more emails a day. What's twenty times one hundred?? Let's just say a LOT more time than I have to spend babying rude and unprofessional customers. What about you? For anyone that challenges this way of thinking, remember that you don't have to answer to them. Let THEM have the headache of dealing with irate customers, and save yourself the trouble.

 

interesting, but i would like to see more in-depth into these types of people. what makes them tick? why do they swear, threaten, slander and be just downright rude/dumb with businesses? :lol:

[cannuck1964]

My Rules:

 

1) Rude people get kicked to the curb.

2) Return customers with long standing relationships get always get quailty and prompt service, and I try to go the extra bit to help them.

3) New people whao are just looking for the cheapest or free get moved onto others to deal with, just no time for free loaders.

4) Try to be helpful and afford people quality service based on what they pay for.

 

I have had rude customers, told them be nice or go away, no time for that.

 

I have had customers purchase an item, have the download link sent for the item purchased, not read the email, email me back a month later asking when they will recieve the download, I tell them I have sent the info, did you not recieve it? they reply back yes, sorry, did not bother to read the email :)

 

Customers are the life blood of businesses, but given that they are, you also have to look out for customers which will create a blood disease in the business....best drop them right away, and feel happy about it...

 

cheers,

Peter M

[bobg7]

LOL - Had a customer this morning who ordered an item but forgot to select what color they wanted me to ship them. This has happened before and I have a canned message I send to them asking them to let me know what color thay want and I can get there order processed and shipped.

 

About 20 minutes later I get a reply from the customer wanting to know why I am bothering them with such a stupid question on a Saturday morning and to just send them what ever color I have and if they don't like it they will just send it back for a refund. >_<

 

I sent them another email saying "Thank you for your business, however without knowing exactly what your needs are, we will not be able to process your order and will process a refund by check on Monday morning and drop it in the mail" (although they paid with PayPal). :-"

 

An hour later I get an email back from them with one word - Charcoal - :lol:

[Guest]

here's one from today:

 

- get an email from an anxious buyer last night asking for his tracking number and complaining because he can't login to his account to get his shipping info himself.

i search his name & email address provided, neither exist.

 

i ask if he used his parents' name or email and he replies and goes on about how he's tired of waiting, etc. etc. "oh, and my old email address was: [blank]"

 

- i look that email up and low and behold, it's there... under his dads name or brother's (defiantely NOT his, but same last name... which is a VERY common last name. i have several different customers with that name so it would have taken me hours to go through all their histories)

 

so i give him his tracking number and copy the information from UPS's site (because i know he's gonna ask for it anyway)

 

- so he continues to go on "i paid $20 for shipping and it's gonna take over a week?" well wtf do you want? when you order 6 different large items you'd pay at least $60 for overnight!! (btw i did not say that to the customer, that's just what i was thinking as i read his mail :lol: )

...he then proceeds to ask for a discount on his order or on the shipping because of all the trouble.

 

firstly, the trouble was because HE changed his email address and was trying to login with his new one!

he never email us to say he changed his email..

 

 

i proceed to explain to him how shipping with ups works. even if he ordered 1 of his items instead of 6, it would have been a minimum of $16, so essentially he got some sort of discount in that sense.

 

he replies:

"well thank you very much for all your help but it dosent state how long it will take so its gonna take 20 for it to ship in over a week? and i didnt get a reply about the discount"

 

aaaaahhhh!!! look at the tracking number sent several emails ago! (mind you, i also pasted this info INTO THE EMAIL!)

 

and i ignored the bits about the discount by EXPLAINING to him in graphic detail how there has been no trouble with his order to-date, because HE changed HIS email address without telling us!

[radnam]

I got a call once, "my paypal account is hacked and is been used to buy services from you". i located the acount terminated and when tried to trace the culprit with the info that i had it turned out to be bogus. The person called again and insisted that i give him the name of the on which the account was, inspite of me repeatedly telling him that the info was bogus he said that he will file a complaint against that person. His money was refunded and the account was safe still.................

 

sometimes i done understand these guys.

[Guest]

one from today:

 

- i don't publish my phone # on my site (anymore) because i run my shop from my house. when i posted my # i would have people from all over the world calling me at odd times of the night, speaking broken english or none at all, so i scrapped it

 

- a customer CALLED paypal and somehow got my # from them (isn't that a violation of their privacy policy?)

 

- when said customer called and i wasn't there. they proceeded to demand a refund. i was phoned and requested their name.. did a search on my shop & paypal - didn't exist. she then proceeded to say it may be in her kid's name, but wouldn't offer his name or email address

 

- claimed she emailed 3 weeks ago was told items were in the mail

 

- would not give her email address

 

 

how do these people expect a refund or information about their order if they can't give up their order name or email address?

 

 

because she refused information to us, i am led to believe she didn't even have to prove to paypal she was a customer. sounds to me as if she simply called them and requested our phone number.

odd..

[Jamez]

Customers, dont we just love them!

 

We sell specialised plastic bags (well thats the simplified version) in 3 different sizes.

We dont use attributes because choosing an option is difficult for people even if you use javascript to force them to choose something so we created sepearate products for each product.

 

-The item descrition is minimised to bullet points after we found that 3-4 sentences are difficult for customers to understand.

-The top bull is the size in inches/ and cms in bold red text.

-Theres a full size photo showing the size (theyre only a few inches in size usually) next to a ruler with both inches and cms AND theres a diagram showing the size.

-Theres also a few lines of text on the pics sayings theyre about the same size as a pack of cards for example.

-AND theres a small video clip showing the bags in use.

 

We regularly get people ordering the smallest ones cos they are cheapest only to complain theyre smaller than they thought.

How they can think this after seeing a fixed size in cms/inches, a full size photo, a text decription AND a video is small Ive no idea.

 

Of course we always offer to exchange them for bigger ones at no extra cost.

They often reply saying we should make it clearer :rolleyes:

We of course politely reply asking for their suggestions politely pointing out the above.... we have never had a reply to this polite email.

 

Similar to the above, if someones online and a customer emails they will get a reply within a few minutes usually.

 

We had an order on Friday 4am, saying they needed it to be in thursdays post because they want them by saturday.

We politely pointed out that its 4am friday and their order would be in the first post (about 8am) but its impossible for them to be received the same day and they will be most likely delivered sat morning.

 

We then get a reply saying no one is answering the phone (4.11am)!

We politely email reminding the customer its 4.11am and unfortunately not even the biggest international company in our field has 24/7 opening times.

 

The reply we get is when are they going to be sent.....

5am we take a photo of his packed order.... next to a clock saying its 5am with the date displayed politely reminding the customer its been sent in less than 3 hours and would be sent now but the post office is shut.

He replies saying some post offices are open 24/7.

We reply saying the nearest one is over 120km away.

:rolleyes:

 

The ones I love most are the ones that email you saying "why havent you delivered our products" forgetting that we dont actually delivery anything ourselves and rely on postal services like everyone else in the world.

 

I often wonder how some people manage to turn their pc on in the morning! :D

[tkeats]

>_<

 

Okay, I enjoyed this thread.. nice break from the battle to get my new site going.

 

So, here is one for you. I had a customer inquire about ordering a kiddy pool. The selection of pools were all round. She wanted to know the dimensions. I told her the pool she was asking about was 6 ft in diameter. She e-mailed me back in a HUFF because I did not tell her how long it was from top to bottom.. vs.. side to side... I kindly explained that a circle by definition was the same length in ANY direction... She decided to buy her pool else where.. because I just was NOT answering her question! sigh...

:blink:

 

I woulda told her..

 

"Lady, its 6 foot by 6 foot without the corners."

 

If she asked why she woudnt get the corners...

 

I'd say

 

"Ma'am, on a round swimming pool, the corners are extra!"

 

:D

:blink:

 

:grinz:

 

I've worked for one of those charity lotteries for the last 2 years (going into a third). I love the work, but some of the requests...

 

The phone centre supports multiple charities, so you would get someone calling for a cancer ticket, and getting heart and stroke, or visa versa. Or worse yet, get them right the first time, and call customer service, looking at the WRONG ticket, to update their info.

 

ie: call heart and stroke and try to fix cancer ticket reg info

call cancer and try to fix heart and stroke ticket reg info.

 

Oh, wait, I'm sorry, your right, this is a heart/cancer ticket, I'll call back later.

 

LOL

 

Thomas Keats

 

P.S. Not to mention the ones that wanna know why they can't prepay for their tickets over the phone with the money order...

 

;)

[Guest]

I think I have been really lucky because of the industry I am in. Selling climbing equipment, I know this probably sounds weird but so far it seems like my customers are unusually honest and friendly. Any complaints we have had have been totally our fault and we have done our best to make up for them.

[Guest]

blech. not so much an insane customer but an annoying one.

 

i ship large packages via ups, to have the reliable tracking number. (and they're cheaper than the actual postal service!)...

 

 

they have a field for your phone #. i enter my home phone, in the event that there's something wrong with the package or address, so UPS can contact me and tell me.

 

i did not know they posted this address on the customer printout label!!

 

i had somebody call me AT HOME while i was sitting in my pajamas inform me they ordered 10 things and 2 things were wrong. they were not hostile at all, but more or less just wanted to inform.

 

WHY COULDN'T THEY EMAIL ME?! :blink:

[bobg7]

Your gonna like this one.

 

Had a customer place an order at 10:45 pm on Thurday requesting FedEx 2 day, I processed the order for FedEx pickup on Friday and FedEx picked it up on there regular pickup at 3:30 pm on Friday.

 

The customer got the FedEx shipping conforamtion from FedEx at about 4:50 pm on Friday with a delivery date of the next Tuesday.

 

I get an email from the customer demanding to know why they won't be getting there items till Tuesday since they wanted 2 day delivery and it's going to take 4 days to get it. I replied that FedEx does not process shipments on weekends and holidays and they will in fact be getting there order in 2 shipping days.

 

They replied back that since they made the order on Thursday that makes it day one and Friday is day two and they expected the package on Friday and since I have not been able to get there package delivered on time they are going to have PayPal refund there payment.

 

About 20 minutes later I get the payment reversal email from PayPal, little did they know all I needed to do was call FedEx and have them return the package to me (for an extra 5 dollars).

 

I then sent them a very nice email thanking them for there business and I was sorry I was not able to meet there unreasonable expectations and that I have notified FedEx to not deliver the package but to return it to me.

 

There last email was a series of threats about reporting me as a scam and a fraud and was going to start legal actions if they don't get there items and a few choice words I won't repeat here.

 

Needless to say I never heard from them again. :lol: