Lying to customers?

[Boggles]

A bit of a debate has erupted at work today after I openly lied to a customer.

An old lady was in asking for some particular sweets. We have bought things before that she has asked for but she never buys them and we end up stuck with them. Because of this I have no intention of stocking these swets she wants.

However ather than say that I have just said I will look for her when I go to the wholesalers. If she asks again I can just say they haven't got any.

Now my colleague thinks that was wrong and I should have just come out and told her we won't stock them. I figured that my White lie means we retain a customer rather than upset and lose her.

Which of us would you say as right?

[malmalthekiller]

If it in no way helps your business, and she doesn't buy them, then you're out of money. I would've lied to the old bat, too.

[PepperElf]

well ... .if you tell her you don't stock them will she demand that you do, and force you to stock them... and then never buy any?

I'd say... if you have to tell her the truth, tell her you don't get enough sales to justify stocking them.

if she demands you do, have her fill out an order for them... cash up front. (if you can)

[draftermatt]

I lie to customers all the time, everyone does.

Product not there because someone forgot to order it?

"It was lost in shipment"

or

"There was an error"

My boss has told customers:

"Lighting hit the building and we lost power"
"Pipes froze, can't do any work today"
"The trailer broke breaking the product"
"It's Christmas Eve, and I'm drunk"

That last one may have been true though.

Some people simply don't want to hear the truth. That the weather has caused a delay, or that we actually have more customers than them (and better customers in some cases) and we can't bend over backwards to accomodate everyone at every time.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Now my colleague thinks that was wrong and I should have just come out and told her we won't stock them. I figured that my White lie means we retain a customer rather than upset and lose her.

But if she keeps asking you to order things for her, and never picks them up, is she really worth retaining as a customer?

I dunno. Frankly, I think both methods would convey the same message.

[Anriana]

Lying is necessary for customer service.

[Boggles]

But if she keeps asking you to order things for her, and never picks them up, is she really worth retaining as a customer?

Personally i would say yes because she doesn;t do it to be sucky. She genuinely doesn;t understand that if i order a 5lb jar of sweets, her buying 4oz once a month won't get through the jar before it goes out of date.

Also she does buy other things, puts her lotto on and so on.

And I am a firm believer in the principle that a happy customer tells one other person adn an unhappy customer tells ten other people. We are a small business with just 2 stores. Word of mouth and our reputation is a major factor in things for us.

[PepperElf]

in that case... perhaps ... tell her that you don't sell enough to supply the item (if you want to be honest)
but then tell her where she can find it perhaps. she might appreciate the honesty.


just thinking of my sister, when it came to taking care of my cat, the groomer told her what products were best and where to get them - including what store carried them if theirs didn't.

[Android Kaeli]

It all depends on how the customer acts. If the customer isn't a SC or EW and is generally nice about things, I'll tell them how to find it if we don't carry [ if I can ] or have their items in stock currently. If the customer is a SC or EW then I'll just give them a bunch of BS.

[Muses_nightmare]

I lie to customers all the time. Like when I worked for the gas station on graveyards, we had to serve people through a transaction drawer. We were not allowed to open the door except for authorized deliveries, it would have gotten me in a lot of trouble if I did (especially since it's now a law that the doors have to be locked after 10PM with one person working). With our drawer we couldn't fit the gas cans at all, and like I said, I wasn't allowed to open the door (not to mention, if someone planning a robbery or worse noticed that we opened the door for gas cans it could be bad news), so I would just tell customers that we didn't have any (I did tell them to check up the street at the next station, which was a block up). It was easier than telling them that yes we did have them, but no I couldn't sell it to them.

[SG15Z]

Well "lying" is such a strong word. I prefer "purposely withholding information in a deceptive manner".

Or PWIIADM as I call it. "I wasn't lying, I was pwiiadming!"

And yes I did just make that up.

[cinema guy]

Lying:

"Paul Blart Mall Cop, yeah it's great."
"My Bloody Valentine? Very scary."
"Underworld 3, good sequel."