A high one over the center field wall...... (at bit long and drawn out)

[Racket_Man]

and its outta here.

This story happend over the last 2 days. This started out as a legit complaint involving yours truly then quickly devolved into a total EW money grab and a complaint taken way too far

I am dispatched on an order. as per procedure I check to make sure the order has all of the items the customer ordered. I notice 2 items missing so I call back to the kitchen for said items as they should have been already prepared and ready. since we are kind of busy, it takes a moment to get said items. I bag them up and head out the door not doing any further checking of said order (important in a moment) for missing items

I arrive at the customers house and get to the door. the customer (whom I have delivered to more than a few times before and has previously been a pleasent and nice person) is waiting and wants to sign the CC slip as I present it. He signs the slip and I had him his pizzas, sodas and side items. I proceed back to the store.

as I arrive back at the store the Manager is on the phone with a complaining customer. by the way the conversation is going I can tell the customer is the one I just delivered to. I gather there were 2 order of bread sticks missing from the delivery. AHHHHH CRAP I think. I did not check the order well enough. OK I guess I will have to suck up my mistake and deliver, on my own dime, a couple of orders of sticks.

As I listen further to the conversation, the manager says something about getting them the breadsticks delivered ASAP (meaning get them in about 10 minutes) OR they can take a credit for their next order.

Now here is where things veer wayyyyy off course and I am now a bystander in this whole situation.

The customer is now demanding the WHOLE order be voided off their CC. Now this is a $50 order. essentially they now want the WHOLE order for free. The manager is quite insistant that they can not do this. the best that can be done is refunding the CC for the price of the breadsticks or they get the missing items delivered ASAP or they can refund the price of the breadsticks

NO the customer DEMANDS a total refund.. the manager again says they are not authorized to do this at their level. customer demands to speak with the area manager. the manager is not very happy at this moment. they are not really mad at me but at the situation the customer had now created.

later the area manager speaks with the customer, bargins with them and offers them a $20 credit. NOPE not acceptable to the customer. Meanwhile the customer get on Twitter AND FaceBook (their own account and <pizza place> and just blasts the manager and area manager "claiming" they were very rude, inconsiderate and few other nasty things.

Finally the top manager in my franchise is drawn into this. he talks to the customer and customer revels the Tweets and FaceBook blast posting and (I think) somewhat apologises for the nasty posts. the top manager's answer to the situation is........

and this is all too familiar to us here on CS.......

JUST REFUND the CC for the order amount. manager is none too happy about this from the word go. they are literally shaking from anger.

all of this drama (yes "started" by yours truly) over a couple of orders of missing breadsticks.

[Arcus]

I wish people like that would realize that the moment they make this big a deal over something, they are not likely to get great service in the future. Word gets out that they are trouble and soon they can't get anyone to deliver to their house.

[bhskittykatt]

You see, after they pushed it that far, I would have given them a refund, with an added addendum. "Because we unfortunately cannot seem to satisfy your needs, we can no longer serve you in the future, and ask that you seek business elsewhere." Then put them on a ban list.

[Moosenogger]

I completely agree with the above. Ban their asses. If they complain, then fuck em - the business has the right to refuse service to anyone, especially asshole EWs.

[emax4]

Look at the bright side. They are now on the "DO NOT DELIVER" list.

[earl colby pottinger]

Agree to a ban. The most I would have given them was a refund on the bread-sticks and an order of bread-sticks delivered to them for free. After-all the store did make that mistake.

Once I found out they posted complaints that are (1) lies about being rude and (2) not even waiting to an agreement was made first I would banned them too.

[Merriweather]

Why is it that companies bend over backwards to keep this type of customer?

They will continute to complain over each and every little thing, getting free food, so you never make a profit off them.

If their methods get them free food, they'll tell all their friends so their friends can get free food.

They will bad mouth your company at the drop of a hat, nothing you do will ever get a good review from them.

All they can ever give you is lost revenue, bad PR, and frustration to staff. I repeat, why would you not want to permantly ban them and send them off to have a go at the competition?

[Pixilated]

I wish people like that would realize that the moment they make this big a deal over something, they are not likely to get great service in the future. Word gets out that they are trouble and soon they can't get anyone to deliver to their house.

They won't realize it until it happens, and then they'll bitch and scream about that. Until they hit that point, they'll figure they've got it made: anything wrong with their order, no matter how small, and they can get the whole thing for free.

You see, after they pushed it that far, I would have given them a refund, with an added addendum. "Because we unfortunately cannot seem to satisfy your needs, we can no longer serve you in the future, and ask that you seek business elsewhere." Then put them on a ban list.

Would that the company would back them up on that!

[Desk clerk knows all]

I've found that no matter how nice you are, if you are not giving some customers what they want then they take that as being rude.

[EricKei]

Why is it that companies bend over backwards to keep this type of customer?

I've never understood this, either -- while this customer was usually rational (see OP), he quickly placed himself into the "bottom 5% of customers that incur 90% of wasted money" bracket that you really need to fire.

Corporations seem to LOVE keeping this sort of cursetomer satisfied, even though it means LOSING money x.x I just can't wrap my head around that. It has been my experience, tho, that Corp puts it down to the individual STORE losing money, thus, adding one more bit to the paper trail if they ever wanna get rid of that SM/franchisee...

As for the store being rude? Of course they were rude ... They didn't open the "negotiation" by offering double the customer's money back PLUS an immediate remake and delivery of the entire order for free, breadsticks included! I mean, that is what people mean by "rude" these days, right?

[blas]

Why do people not realize the moment they start with the idle threats and gimme gimme demands, they go instantly from "decent customer we'll go out of our way to delivery to quicker than estimated" to "bam, bottom of priority list, guaranteed stiff and pain in the ass".

[Rainman]

I also can never understand why customers like that will just blow up over simple human error. I don't think they understand you can get just as much if you treat the employees like human beings. I had an instance just yesterday where I placed a pizza order for pickup, and ended up waiting over half an hour at the store for my food. I didn't bitch, I didnt whine, I didnt even ask what was taking so long, and a mere 15 minutes into my wait I was given a credit for the entire amount by the MOD. He thanked me for my patience and said he felt the credit was well warranted. SEE SC'S!! you can get hooked up for being cool instead of being hated forever by being an ass

[Teysa]

The SC should have double checked too. It doesn't take that long to make sure everything is there. Then again, that would have been too easy.

[raudf]

Racket, I get the feeling that with this sucktomer, you could have delivered a perfect order and they'd have called to say something was missing or that SOMETHING was wrong with the order? The reason I think this is because they wouldn't settle for anything less than a full refund. Most people would be happy with either a redelivery of the missing items or the refund of them.

I do hope the manager banned them. Such behavior is beyond sucky!

[infinitemonkies]

Whenever I'm shopping, and see something like this happening, I politely tell the manager "If you break your clearly posted policies to keep this person's business, you will lose mine; And between the two of us, I'm here to spend money."

If the manager still caves to the EW, I set down my purchases and walk out. And I encourage all of you to do the same.