Vendor Emptor
I got an IM today from a friend who had had a very bad customer service experience with a fitness products company.
The company was, I agree, unbelievably rude and foolish in its behavior toward this customer. Perhaps it was a bad day for the CSR; perhaps the company hasn't got very good policies regarding returns. In any even, the CSR, and by extension, the company, probably reckoned that not showing good service to one little customer wasn't going to be a big deal.
Ha.
The company evidently hadn't reckoned on the power of social networking and user generated content.
If you doubt the power of the Average Joe (or Josephine) to get a story before the masses, just ask Star Wars Kid, or Jeremiah Wright, if obscure anonymity is a commodity to rely on these days. Or ask Numa Numa Kid, or The Two Chinese Students if it's still that tough to get famous. (By the way, have you ever seen Brian Hardesty? This young actor posted some "acting out" scenes on the Internet, and the next thing you know, he's got a commercial spot! He really is that good.)
Anyway, my disgruntled customer friend tried very hard to go through the regular channels to get satisfaction. It didn't happen. The company was gracious enough to agree not to charge her a restocking fee for what it admitted was its own error!
In the old days, we wrote our Better Business Bureau, and if we were really angry, we wrote a letter to the company president, and sounded off to anyone who'd listen.
Today, we've really learned how to get even!
According to my IM buddy, she notified Consumer Reports, the Better Business Bureau, Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Consumerist. Oh, and the complaint was recorded and posted on YouTube, too! So the point is - now the whole world can learn that one little consumer was badly treated by a company. You wouldn't want that company to be yours!
(We all know Consumer Reports and the Better Business Bureau, and Twitter and Facebook have been discussed in this column. Yelp was a new one on me, but is "the fun and easy way to find and talk about what's great - and not so great - in your area." You sign up, meet up with friends, and then you can post reviews and comments about companies in your area. The Consumerist is more of a professional consumer reportage site - but of course you're free to submit your experiences, good, bad and indifferent. And they do get published!)
So, never mind caveat emptor. In the age of you-post-it consumer complaints, vendor emptor has definitely become the watchword of the day.
The company was, I agree, unbelievably rude and foolish in its behavior toward this customer. Perhaps it was a bad day for the CSR; perhaps the company hasn't got very good policies regarding returns. In any even, the CSR, and by extension, the company, probably reckoned that not showing good service to one little customer wasn't going to be a big deal.
Ha.
The company evidently hadn't reckoned on the power of social networking and user generated content.
If you doubt the power of the Average Joe (or Josephine) to get a story before the masses, just ask Star Wars Kid, or Jeremiah Wright, if obscure anonymity is a commodity to rely on these days. Or ask Numa Numa Kid, or The Two Chinese Students if it's still that tough to get famous. (By the way, have you ever seen Brian Hardesty? This young actor posted some "acting out" scenes on the Internet, and the next thing you know, he's got a commercial spot! He really is that good.)
Anyway, my disgruntled customer friend tried very hard to go through the regular channels to get satisfaction. It didn't happen. The company was gracious enough to agree not to charge her a restocking fee for what it admitted was its own error!
In the old days, we wrote our Better Business Bureau, and if we were really angry, we wrote a letter to the company president, and sounded off to anyone who'd listen.
Today, we've really learned how to get even!
According to my IM buddy, she notified Consumer Reports, the Better Business Bureau, Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, Consumerist. Oh, and the complaint was recorded and posted on YouTube, too! So the point is - now the whole world can learn that one little consumer was badly treated by a company. You wouldn't want that company to be yours!
(We all know Consumer Reports and the Better Business Bureau, and Twitter and Facebook have been discussed in this column. Yelp was a new one on me, but is "the fun and easy way to find and talk about what's great - and not so great - in your area." You sign up, meet up with friends, and then you can post reviews and comments about companies in your area. The Consumerist is more of a professional consumer reportage site - but of course you're free to submit your experiences, good, bad and indifferent. And they do get published!)
So, never mind caveat emptor. In the age of you-post-it consumer complaints, vendor emptor has definitely become the watchword of the day.
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