I know I haven't been around much lately. We've been busy and work's been kicking my ass to the point where I don't even want to think about it when I'm not there.
Not that being busy is a bad thing...
Anyway there's this one newish reseller in Europe who pulled enough annoying stunts that he's earned a thread.
Holding a Customer Hostage and Blaming Us
The first stunt was when he trying to help a customer activate who was behind a fire wall and couldn't activate by internet. Our communications were all by email.
He insisted on acting as go-between because it's "good" customer service. That's not normally a problem. But...
1. I'd ask for information I needed and send detailed instructions to get that information from the customer.
2. I wouldn't hear from him for weeks. And instead of supplying the required information I'd requested he giving me grief that it was taking so long and the customer was very upset.
3. Repeat 1. and 2.
It ended up taking three months to get a task accomplished that could have been done in less than an hour if he'd actually cared to help his customer follow directions.
I don't know if he thought I could magically do something without that information (I couldn't) if he made enough fuss or if he was trying to impress the customer by acting tough.
Passing the Buck Attempted...And Failed
The next time he was somewhat hostile right out of the gate and stated that he hoped we'd be more helpful than the last time.
Oh, hell no.
My response to that was a little more blunt:
"We have dozens of dealers and thousands of customers who activate by email due to fire walls or lack of an internet connection. The usual turnaround time is less than one business day, often less. How seamless the process is depends on following my directions and responding with the correct [information] in a timely manner. The time frame in which you do that is completely up to you."
To my surprise he sent the information right away and I generated a code from it and sent it back within an hour.
Unfortunately he'd sent the WRONG INFORMATION and the code I generated from it didn't work. I didn't hear of this for four weeks when he again sent a nasty gram blaming us for the problem. And it took another two cycles where he kept sending the exact same wrong information and demanding I send back a working code RIGHT NOAW!
Which just isn't possible. Period.
I got through to him again by pushing back:
"You have sent me that same incorrect and expired [information] on [date], [date], and [date]. As I have explained to you repeatedly I need the new, correct [information] in order to generate a code that will work.
But, since you insist I send you a code today, I will. The code, which is 100% guaranteed not to work, is:
[same code I'd already sent him the first time]
When you have tried it and found it not to work, please do come back to me with the new, correct [information] and I'll be happy to generate a code from it that should work."
I did clear it with Mark before sending. He laughed and said to go ahead. Apparently he'd been butting heads with this same dealer on the sales front and was fed up with them.
That message got through. He tried the code. Found it didn't work as promised and finally sent me the correct information. He was an asshole about it, but the customer was finally up and running.
I couldn't figure out his motive. Why would he choose to be obstructive and lie to his customers? He doesn't make himself look very good by recommending our product to them, taking their money, and then trashing our product and us like that. He just ends up looking foolish and making his customers upset.
Not that being busy is a bad thing...
Anyway there's this one newish reseller in Europe who pulled enough annoying stunts that he's earned a thread.
Holding a Customer Hostage and Blaming Us
The first stunt was when he trying to help a customer activate who was behind a fire wall and couldn't activate by internet. Our communications were all by email.
He insisted on acting as go-between because it's "good" customer service. That's not normally a problem. But...
1. I'd ask for information I needed and send detailed instructions to get that information from the customer.
2. I wouldn't hear from him for weeks. And instead of supplying the required information I'd requested he giving me grief that it was taking so long and the customer was very upset.
3. Repeat 1. and 2.
It ended up taking three months to get a task accomplished that could have been done in less than an hour if he'd actually cared to help his customer follow directions.
I don't know if he thought I could magically do something without that information (I couldn't) if he made enough fuss or if he was trying to impress the customer by acting tough.
Passing the Buck Attempted...And Failed
The next time he was somewhat hostile right out of the gate and stated that he hoped we'd be more helpful than the last time.
Oh, hell no.
My response to that was a little more blunt:
"We have dozens of dealers and thousands of customers who activate by email due to fire walls or lack of an internet connection. The usual turnaround time is less than one business day, often less. How seamless the process is depends on following my directions and responding with the correct [information] in a timely manner. The time frame in which you do that is completely up to you."
To my surprise he sent the information right away and I generated a code from it and sent it back within an hour.
Unfortunately he'd sent the WRONG INFORMATION and the code I generated from it didn't work. I didn't hear of this for four weeks when he again sent a nasty gram blaming us for the problem. And it took another two cycles where he kept sending the exact same wrong information and demanding I send back a working code RIGHT NOAW!
Which just isn't possible. Period.
I got through to him again by pushing back:
"You have sent me that same incorrect and expired [information] on [date], [date], and [date]. As I have explained to you repeatedly I need the new, correct [information] in order to generate a code that will work.
But, since you insist I send you a code today, I will. The code, which is 100% guaranteed not to work, is:
[same code I'd already sent him the first time]
When you have tried it and found it not to work, please do come back to me with the new, correct [information] and I'll be happy to generate a code from it that should work."
I did clear it with Mark before sending. He laughed and said to go ahead. Apparently he'd been butting heads with this same dealer on the sales front and was fed up with them.
That message got through. He tried the code. Found it didn't work as promised and finally sent me the correct information. He was an asshole about it, but the customer was finally up and running.
I couldn't figure out his motive. Why would he choose to be obstructive and lie to his customers? He doesn't make himself look very good by recommending our product to them, taking their money, and then trashing our product and us like that. He just ends up looking foolish and making his customers upset.
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