Re: Bad experience
Bill Grumbine (Kutztown PA)
>I was going to stay out of this thread too, but then I thought, why not jump in? I have an opinion, and I really don't care if some other people here like my opinion or not, so here goes. To those of you who are my friends, I hope you understand that this is not directed at any of you personally.
From a technical and absolute point of view, the problem is with the Post Office. The package was shipped from the supplier, and apparently lost by someone in the PO. It may not even be lost yet, it may just be taking the scenic route. We have shipped out hundreds upon hundreds of DVDs via the PO, and while only one has gone missing permanently, several have taken weeks to make a journey that should have been days.
From the purchaser's point of view, he is out, and he is the only one out. He paid his money, and for whatever reason, he did not receive his merchandise. The shipper is entirely within his rights to say, "sorry, you should have insured it, you are SOL." But is that good customer service?
I get people writing or calling me on a regular basis telling me that their DVD arrived in pieces. That is not my fault. Each one is checked to make sure that it is secure in its little holder, and then packaged properly and with reasonable care to withstand normal handling. Well guess what? Some of them aren't handled normally, and they are smashed beyond belief. The PO is to blame, not me, but they are not going to do anything about it. So now I have a choice. I can PO my customer (so to speak) or I can take care of him or her at a loss to my profit and loss sheet and gain the goodwill of a person who paid me their money in good faith that I would see their product successfully delivered.
At the very least the shipper should be aware that this is a potential problem for the shipment and then either suggest that the customer pay for insurance, build the insurance into the shipping cost, or if it is big enough, insure it himself to avoid the problem of a large order that goes missing. I made the decision that it is not cost effective to insure every DVD going out the door. It costs less to replace the ones that are damaged. When wholesale orders go out the door, I insure them at my own expense just because I do not want to have to eat the cost of a bunch of DVDs, and I certainly do not want an unhappy customer. When a bowl or other commissioned piece goes out the door, insurance is added in to the cost of shipping.
Finally I have one more thing to say that is somewhat related to this thread, but also goes back to some other threads. I get really annoyed at this attitude that people are not supposed to post about a bad experience. Every single one of us screws up from time to time, except for the liars in the crowd. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of pressure to get the person in question to make right on the deal, and sometimes it just doesn't happen.
If a person needs or wants to post about their bad experience, two things seem to happen. One, several others will write in to say that they have never had a bad experience with the same vendor. That is fine as far as it goes, but often it does not stop there. It is either implied or stated outright that the original person is either wrong, misinformed, or to use Wally's word, a complainer. I cannot type the words I would like to use to respond to that attitude. Two, someone will post to say that we really should not be writing negative comments about a vendor, a store, a person who is not keeping up with their promises, whatever. Then the person who wrote the initial posting is made to feel like a pariah, an outcast who has done something wrong to offend the collective.
Bud posted about a negative experience. We can all read, can't we? Everyone here who has the intelligence to sign onto their computer can read his posting and decide for themselves whether or not they agree with his perception of the situation, and every one should be intelligent enough to determine whether or not he is valid in his perceptions. And, someone else's good experience, or lack of a bad experience DOES NOT INVALIDATE THE BAD EXPERIENCE OF ANY PARTICULAR PERSON. Did everybody get that? Any part anyone doesn't understand that they need explained with smaller words?
I had some negative comments posted about me and my response to DVD orders a while ago. I welcomed the exchange because it brought to my attention a problem of which I was unaware, and I needed to deal with. EVEN IF it had been a problem with me myself, I would not have gotten on and whined about how improper it was for someone to complain about my and my service. But there are those here who seem to think that is proper procedure, and that if someone here expresses an opinon not in keeping with the herd, they need to be "corrected". Again, I cannot type the words I would like to use to respond to that attitude.
Back to Bud. He posted about his problem. He may not be as accurate as he could be in directing his ire, but how many people are going to read his post and say, "Gee, maybe I won't do business with AS because the PO might lose my stuff?" Actually, I think he did all of you AS people a favor, because now you know that your order is going to go out through the PO uninsured and you might be next on the list to lose something. So instead of getting down on the guy, you should be thanking him for exposing a potential problem. This in no way denigrates the AS people other than to call into question their method of shipment. It is they after all, who choose the PO as their shipper. They could go with UPS and spend an extra few bucks, but they have made the conscious choice to use the USPS, and that is a potential problem that neds to be exposed.
Most of the people here know that I am an easy going, happy kind of a guy, but there are a couple of times lately where I could cheerfully smack a few people in the head with a custom turned stick. And if anyone would like to smack me back, I welcome the exchange.
Bill
