That's bait and switch! (plus other fun stuff)

[Kalani]

Background: I work for a company who sells all sorts of men's and women's clothing, as well as tools and other stuff, name associated with a city usually linked to Superior. I work both sales (putting in orders out of our catalogs/off our website) as well as Customer Service (trying to fix the inevitable screwups and what have you.)

So one of our responsibilities in CS is answering customer e-mails. Usually feedback or questions, the semi-frequent request to take them off a mail/e-mail list. And then sometimes we have issues when clearance sales of certain items happen. The most recent one a few months ago was for a couple of our pairs of pants. Customers had been complaining about our jeans and special material work pants because the zipper wasn't coming down far enough. (Ouch.)

Finally, QC did a check and verified that yep, the flies weren't coming down far enough. So instead of discarding all that stock, we slashed the prices, and sent a promo e-mail out on Thursday indicating the pretty much half-off pricing on the items, and that quantities were limited. This e-mail goes out on the 12th.[/background]

Fast forward to the 15th. Checking e-mails, and one is marked 'BAIT AND SWITCH!' Knowing this is going to be fun, I start reading it. Customer complains that he got an e-mail stating that a pair of the denim jeans with the short zipper that he wanted were available when he placed the order online, but the e-mail was saying that they were cancelled off his order. At first, I'm ready to go and apologize to him.

Then he indicates that we bait and switched him, because he was now stuck with these two other items that he'd ordered. He didn't have to get $xx in order to get the sale price or anything. And because those jeans were cancelled off the order, he wound up paying reduced shipping charges. But noooooo, we totally bait and switched that guy!

Given the date of the e-mail, I checked his order. Sure enough, the pants are cancelled off. But the date and time of his order processing in our system says it all. Order processed on the 14th, in the early am hours, on a sale clearly marked 'limited quantities'.

So, because of his ignorance and eagerness to blame US for his being slow, I laid into him in the e-mail response.

"Blah blah blah sorry that you didn't get the item you wanted, it happens...

But you can't accuse us of 'bait-and-switch' on items that were CLEARLY marked 'limited quantities' when you waited over 24 hours after that e-mail went out to place your order. I apologize that you got those items that you weren't forced to get and will be paying a reduced shipping charge due to the cancelled item. If you're dissatisfied, I will be more than happy to send you a complimentary return label so that you can return those wanted items at no additional charge to you!

Sincerely,
Kalani"

(None of the original text was bolded or the like, just done to point out the fail.)

I think this is long enough for a 'first suck experience'. Later, I'll post about the lady who got so offended by a recent catalog cover, she was certain we were pandering to our 'homo pedophile crowd' and that we were going to start selling 'sex toys in future catalogs' (all quotes directly from the customer!).

[Kalani]

Now, for the other one from more recently.

[background]Our catalog covers sometimes go for edgy humor, though nothing outright perverse. We had some outrage earlier in the year because we had the first Biblical couple in the garden, except Adam was wearing our underwear.[/background]

More recently, we had an image of a guy doing the splits and grinning, as a means of showing just how flexible these new jeans of ours were due to adding a single percent of spandex.

This one lady somehow finds this perverted, and proceeds to bitch us out by e-mail.

It disgusted her, and the guy with the 'creepy' smile looked like a 'homo pedophile rapist'. Soon, we'd be selling 'sex toys' in our catalogs, and that we didn't need perverted stuff to sell products, before asking to be removed from our mailing list.

I proceeded to honor her request, but then took her to task for having her mind in the gutter, questioning all those terms she used. I noted that it was meant to be a fun take on, 'look how flexible these are!', not anywhere near perverted. Not near as epic as the first, but still nice to give it to the customers when they're that far off the deep end.

[ShootMePlease]

The most amusing thing is that 99.9 % of the people who say that's bait and switch have no fucking clue what it geniunely means.

I have had numerous people scream we do that to them, not knowing that I have directed them to a similar item of equal or lesser value.

Had we not had an advertised item that was priced at $200 and I tried to sell them a $500 item, that's bait and switch.

Bunch of maroons.

[Mr Hero]

Quoth Kalani

Order processed on the 14th, in the early am hours, on a sale clearly marked 'limited quantities'.

Who orders pants at the wee hours of the morning?

[XCashier]

Quoth ShootMePlease

The most amusing thing is that 99.9 % of the people who say that's bait and switch have no fucking clue what it geniunely means.

QFT. They heard the phrase once and think that tossing that term around makes them sound knowledgeable about the law. With that logic, I'd guess going around saying "E=MC²" at every opportunity makes you a brilliant physicist.

Quoth Mr Hero

Who orders pants at the wee hours of the morning?

Read Gravekeeper's posts; pretty much the entire population of Nunavut orders pants at the wee hours of the morning!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Quoth Kalani

X
More recently, we had an image of a guy doing the splits and grinning, as a means of showing just how flexible these new jeans of ours were due to adding a single percent of spandex.

This one lady somehow finds this perverted, and proceeds to bitch us out by e-mail.

It disgusted her, and the guy with the 'creepy' smile looked like a 'homo pedophile rapist'. Soon, we'd be selling 'sex toys' in our catalogs, and that we didn't need perverted stuff to sell products, before asking to be removed from our mailing list.

She's got a lifetime to get over it, IMO. If there's a catalog that offers sex toys, I'd be more inclined to buy from that company, FWIW.

Speaking of which, those Healthy Living catalogs carry 'em . . . even though they're sometimes advertised as "personal massagers."

[fma_fanatic]

Quoth Mr Hero

Who orders pants at the wee hours of the morning?

XCashier beat me to it. I was going to say if you haven't read any of his posts, then it's high time you got started. Some of them are real gems. He's the reason I keep coming back here. Well, him and the amusing folk that other people post about, but GK's a huge draw.

[Mr Hero]

Quoth fma_fanatic

XCashier beat me to it. I was going to say if you haven't read any of his posts, then it's high time you got started. Some of them are real gems. He's the reason I keep coming back here. Well, him and the amusing folk that other people post about, but GK's a huge draw.

That was a bit tongue in cheek. Of course I've read his posts, and even comment on many of them.

[Sapphire Silk]

Quoth Mr Hero

Who orders pants at the wee hours of the morning?

You can't get purple camo pants from this company (I know, I order from them all the time).

[skeptic53]

Oh man, I love your company's stuff, and it's catalogs! I don't work in the trades but the stuff you guys sell is good quality, very durable and fairly priced. The sales deals are really good. I have a canvas tote bag that sadly has been discontinued, it was listed as intended for carrying firewood or coal or something but it's the most awesome re-usable grocery bag/general tote. I get lots of questions and compliments about it. Wish I could buy another.