The Earplugs Files – News from Snorestore

We’ve nothing further to say to this person. This kind of correspondence is self-defeating. She’s never going to be happy, she’s already threatened us, we’ve nothing to lose. However, we are always polite, if firm, so this is what we sent her this morning:

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Dear xxxxx

The cancellation of your order is standard procedure in cases of suspected fraud. It had nothing to do with your feedback.

Yours sincerely etc etc ”

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Charlotte, who processes our orders, discovers that this particular customer’s payment card as been flagged as a fraud risk by the HSBC payment system. So we don’t need to cancel the order at all. That happens automatically.

Then, whoa! Bam! The following slams into our inbox overnight. Note the threats towards the end and be warned, it’s very long – I mean, who has the time to write this sort of stuff in the early hours of the morning?

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” I have read your two emails and subsequent automated cancellation e-mail. It would seem to me that you have taken my customer feedback very personally to yourself. I must admit to being slightly flabbergast that you as a business owner are choosing to cancel my order as you do not like my feedback. I thought that feedback was something you would yourself welcome- even if it is negative as it may give even the tiniest insight into the frustrations of your customers.

At no point did I say I did not wish to proceed with my order; in fact my e-mail shows a I intended to go ahead with it as I required these items and thus ordered an extra bag of plugs to feel the courier fee was justified.

I simply felt at the end of my order I would note my key points to you in an e-mail, I did not want my order cancelled at all. In trying to think myself in to your shoes; I can imagine the frustrations that post issues bring to your business. However I am sure you will receive a number of complaints or feedback queries from people as this is an option on your web page.

As your emails to me were all in quick succession – at 230 and 231 etc, I can perhaps ascertain that you have had a bar of such complaints and are yourself frustrated with the postal issues. However I myself am not the person to take this out on. I would like to put aside this mis communications and proceed with my order- which I am sure you will agree is pretty much the best course of action?

I would not like to think Snore Store are not open to feedback. Are sarcastic to customers upon response (e.g. do LoveFilm sell earplugs). I would not like to think they will send me an email advising me ‘ps I will get my staff to cancel your order’ and then advise me that in actual fact my card had an issue which is obviously not what happened. Most of all I guess that in the current economic climate it would not be beneficial for a company to be widely known to turn customers away as they chose to leave what I would reason to be some pretty mild feedback and just choose to cancel their order.

If you do reinstate my order (no problem to cancel me if you need any card details reiterated) then I will simply follow up with dropping you a mail to thank you for your assistance. However if you choose to follow through on your current course of action in cancelling my order as I chose to send some feedback via your web page expressing my opinions then I will not follow up with yourself directly but will undoubtedly reconsider my next options and steps as a consumer very carefully.

Best Regards etc etc ”

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All comments welcome, apart from those which say “the customer is always right”.  Because they patently are not.

We’ve written before about how some people love to hand it out but can’t take it from others.

Well we’re thrilled to have received today another missive from, quite possibly, the rudest person on the planet.

Two weeks ago, this person complained in no uncertain terms that their order hadn’t arrived and since we were clearly incompetent morons, the order should be cancelled immediately and a full refund given.

Except we’re not incompetent morons. The “customer” had never paid for the “order” and as we pointed out, we are not in the habit of sending out orders as gifts.

Well that really put the cat among the pigeons.

A real Harry Potter howler of an email whistled straight back, neatly swerving round our spam and anger filter and landing slap bang in the middle of our inbox.

We can’t divulge the contents – we suggest you use your imagination – suffice to say that particular individual has been well and truly crossed off our Christmas card list.

We have noticed a worrying trend over the last year or so (and it’s not just us – other web and mail order retailers report similar experiences) for some people to behave like spoilt kids when things go wrong.

Take the man who threatened to report us (who to we wonder?) for failing to send him emails confirming his order and payment status. When we pointed out that he has to put his own – correct – email address on the order form for this to happen, he went a bit quiet and eventually, conceded that the error was his.

Or the woman who ordered earplugs and chose Next Working Day delivery at 4pm on a Friday afternoon. Then complained that they didn’t arrive the next day. Which was a Saturday. And not, therefore, a working day. She hadn’t read the shipping information, or the terms and conditions, and then she proceeded to claim that her order had never arrived at all. Except we know it did as we have a her signature from Royal Mail to prove it. She threatened to report us too.

Then there was the woman who emailed us asking for a free sample. We get these requests very frequently and sometimes we do send samples out, particularly if we detect that the caller is in genuine need. This woman, however, wanted a full set of earplugs, no beating about the bush. When we asked why she should get something for nothing when everyone else has to pay, well boy did she go off on one.

Oh and then there’s the woman who phones up after using her earplugs for five weeks, claiming they don’t work. Er, how come you didn’t phone right away love? She wants her money back. Except, it turns out that she didn’t pay for the order, someone else did. No matter, she wants the money. We refuse. Instead we’ll send the earplugs back to the manufacturer to see if they can find a fault with them. They won’t, believe me.

What all these people have in common is their belief that we are stupid. We are not. The biggest lesson we’ve learned in the last five years is, the customer is not always right.