Was the customer right to complain? What would you have done?

vyle

Last week, I sold a television to a customer. They were going to have the television on the wall, so I sold them a wall mounted installation and asked them if they needed a wall bracket.

them: We already have a bracket that the old tv was on.

me: what size/type of tv was it?

them: A flat one.

me: If your old tv was a different size, or didn't use VESA mounting holes, it may not be suitable.

them: We'll measure it when we get home and see.

So I left it at that.

Today, I find out that the customer rang up complaining that they couldn't have the TV installed because their existing bracket wasn't right and apparently that's my fault, so they've been given a wall bracket for their trouble.

Although my manager doesn't think I did anything wrong, she's advised me to essentially refuse to sell an installation without a bracket to avoid similar problems in the future, even if the customer says they have a wall bracket.

If you were in my position, what would you have done when they said they had a bracket? Would you have pushed the situation anyway, or take the customer at their word?

If you were the customer, would you have complained?

If you were the store, would you have given away freebies?

The customer even admitted that i'd asked them about a bracket....yet continued to shout incoherently when pressed on why they hadn't checked their bracket.

It's stuff like this that ruins my job. It seems I have to spoonfeed people who one would assume could do some research or think for themselves

midnightraven3

I would have done what you did

if you "force" something on a customer, word of mouth would soon put people off coming to the "pushy" salesman/store

i can see why you feel they way you do
but dont let it bug you
thats the fickle public for you

kitschkitty

Can't you sell them the bracket with a return policy/option if it's not needed at installation and is returned unused????

Pollycat

I think your manager has moved the goalposts (from your point of view) if she only told you to refuse to sell an installation without a bracket AFTER this particular instance.
I'm not actually convinced that this is good business practice as wouldn't a customer who's been told he can't buy a TV just walk out and go to another store? Unless your shop is super-competitive on prices, of course.

From what you say (and we do only have your side of the story) you made every effort to determine whether the wall bracket was suitable.

No, the customer wasn't right to complain.

If the customer

admitted that i'd asked them about a bracket....yet continued to shout incoherently when pressed on why they hadn't checked their bracket.

if I were the manager I'd have advised them that my staff were trained to determine as far as possible that a suitable wall bracket was in place and that is what you had done.
I'd have gone on to say 'If your bracket is not suitable, we can sell you a suitable one for £x'.

I don't think your manager has been particulary supportive - or savvy.

Maybe it would be sensible to have a disclaimer that you get the customer to sign to show you've explained about brackets.

fabforty

I think you're worrying over nothing - the matter has been dealt with and should now be forgotten.

In answer to your questions, I wouldn't have complained if I was the customer, but I can understand why they did. Very few people admit when they are in the wrong, especially if they believe that they will lose money as a result of their mistake or that they will get something for nothing.

Your manager did the right thing. Giving them a freeby (which incidentally probably wouldn't have cost the company anything - shops give discounts and freebies all the time), was a quick and easy way of resolving the matter. It doesn't mean that she believed the customer, or that she felt you were in the wrong. Alterntively she could have wasted time and energy investigating wh said what, and then sent customers away with a flea in their ear. Result - one unhappy customer who will no doubt badmouth your company to friends/neighbours/future customers, and a relatively trivial issue which rumbles on for weeks, especially as it was basically your word against theirs.

It's really just about good customer service. The customer made a mistake, was loathe to admit it and your manager resolved the issue with minimal fuss.

Ivory_Tinkler

fabforty wrote: »

Your manager did the right thing. Giving them a freeby (which incidentally probably wouldn't have cost the company anything - shops give discounts and freebies all the time)

What makes you think that the OP's company probably doesn't have to pay for wall brackets? If this was the case, wouldn't they give them away free to every customer who buys a TV?

OP you obviously value your job and do it well. I personally wouldn't have complained either but there are some people out there who would (as you have found out). I don't think your manager has been very supportive and I think you need to work together to a way of avoiding this problem in the future rather than refuse to sell a TV without a bracket as this could ultimately cost sales. That said, your manager did the right thing by resolving this quickly as fabforty said, just for the sake of good customer service.

fabforty

Ivory_Tinkler wrote: »

What makes you think that the OP's company probably doesn't have to pay for wall brackets? If this was the case, wouldn't they give them away free to every customer who buys a TV?

.

They probably could if they wanted to . I understand your point but to clarify I said that giving the bracket away 'probably' wouldn't have cost retailer anything not that they had definitey not paid for it.

I made that point because most retailers build profits into everything that they sell and the mark up on electrical goods (and wall brackets) is generally pretty big, probably more than enough to cover the cost of giving one away. I remember Dixons giving them away free in the past with TV's over a certain size; they also gave away laptop cases free with new laptops (again for a limited period), and other similar promotions elsewhere. This is why haggling often works and why retailers can have sales every year. They still make a profit, just not as much.They wouldn't do it if they were making a loss. I suspect that if giving away the wall bracket would have caused the shop to make a loss, OPs manager would have been less willing to do so. Obviously I don't know for certain, I'm prepared to admit that I could be wrong to avoid moving this thread away from the original questions. However, my main point remains the same - sometimes it is easier and cheaper in the long run to resolve something quickly, especially in situations such as this where it is OPs word against the customer.

I do agree with your final point, that OP should seek clarification from his manager to avoid this happening in the future.

Oopsadaisy

Your customers are scum.

fabforty

vyle wrote: »

Last week, I sold a television to a customer. They were going to have the television on the wall, so I sold them a wall mounted installation and asked them if they needed a wall bracket.

them: We already have a bracket that the old tv was on.

me: what size/type of tv was it?

them: A flat one.

me: If your old tv was a different size, or didn't use VESA mounting holes, it may not be suitable.

them: We'll measure it when we get home and see.

So I left it at that.

Today, I find out that the customer rang up complaining that they couldn't have the TV installed because their existing bracket wasn't right and apparently that's my fault, so they've been given a wall bracket for their trouble.

Although my manager doesn't think I did anything wrong, she's advised me to essentially refuse to sell an installation without a bracket to avoid similar problems in the future, even if the customer says they have a wall bracket.

If you were in my position, what would you have done when they said they had a bracket? Would you have pushed the situation anyway, or take the customer at their word?

If you were the customer, would you have complained?

If you were the store, would you have given away freebies?

The customer even admitted that i'd asked them about a bracket....yet continued to shout incoherently when pressed on why they hadn't checked their bracket.

It's stuff like this that ruins my job. It seems I have to spoonfeed people who one would assume could do some research or think for themselves

Some people will have done research, but many will not. I understand your frustration about the complaint but as the person with the knowledge - i.e. you, try to think of spoonfeeding the clueless customers (we are all dense about something - men buying underwear for girlfriends springs to mind ) as an essential part of your job and not an element to be endured. I remember buying my first laptop - thank God the sales assistant knew his stuff because I was totally clueless. Yes, I had to be spoonfed, but as a customer I expected nothing less. I did some reading beforehand but as a complete technophobe and most of it went over my head.

vyle

Thanks for your replies. I'm glad I'm not totally insane or missing something blindingly obvious I should have done.

fabforty wrote: »

Some people will have done research, but many will not. I understand your frustration about the complaint but as the person with the knowledge - i.e. you, try to think of spoonfeeding the clueless customers (we are all dense about something - men buying underwear for girlfriends springs to mind ) as an essential part of your job and not an element to be endured. I remember buying my first laptop - thank God the sales assistant knew his stuff because I was totally clueless. Yes, I had to be spoonfed, but as a customer I expected nothing less. I did some reading beforehand but as a complete technophobe and most of it went over my head.

I have no problem with answering questions and explaining things. In fact I spent two hours with one customer on thursday methodically trying things out on her dvd recorder to determine if it was faulty, and will be going to install it for her on monday and showing her how to use it, which will take as long as it takes.

The thing I'm dreading is ending up being almost patronising in a Lou and Andy from little Britain kind of way.

For instance:

"Do you need a wall bracket? No? Are you sure? You do realise that this might happen if you don't? Are you REALLY sure? Have you measured yet?"

I'd end up spending all day making sure one person was REALLY sure, rather than treating them as adults and respecting if they say they do or don't want something.

I don't think my manager thinks I did anything wrong, because she acknowledged that I made notes on the record that the customer stated they had a bracket and would be measuring, but she just wanted to get the customer off the phone as soon as possible before she upset any more of her staff.

Unfortunately I don't think disclaimers that need signing would help much, because as soon as they're introduced, customers will become suspicious about why they need to sign anything and will wonder what they're agreeing to.

It's just frustrating that no matter what you do, someone will complain. We've got a league table of who has the most customer "appreciation" letters, and since june last year, only one person has got as many as 8. We all have far more complaints against our name, and whether those complaints have been upheld as valid, or dismissed as insane (somebody complaining that I wouldn't replace a camera battery for them because a: we don't stock them and b: they didn't buy the camera from us and lost the battery themselves), they still all count against the department and the staff.

By tuesday, I will have probably spent 5 hours in total with a customer, free of charge, showing them how to use their DVD recorder, when I don't even have to. I'll have started work an hour early so I can deliver the recorder to their house, and I doubt I'll get any recommendations from her to my managers, so in their eyes when it comes to my annual appraisal, I won't have offered "good customer service" because I'm measured on appreciations received.

however, I will have black marks of complaints because of stupid things where I probably couldn't have done anything right. It's things like this that almost make me tempted to throw it all in and become a surly supermarket checkout person, because going the extra mile only ends up getting you nowhere .

fabforty

Is this your first job in a customer facing role? If so, my advice to you would be to grow a thicker skin. Speaking as one who has worked in various shops and call-centres over the past 25 years, what you have experienced is not unusual.

We are all somebody's customers and we all have the potential to be anal sometimes. You will have customers who swear blind that you said something that you didn't, or that you didn't say something that you did, that you gave them the wrong change, were rude when in fact you practically kissed a***, and I guarantee that you will be told 'I pay your wages..' more than once.

It's not ideal but it does happen - and you will tie yourself up in knots if you stress about it everytime. Easier said than done, I know, but healthier for you in the long run.