The customer of the day: Was I being "too hard to deal with"?

[jmowreader]

This one's a poll because I'm going to put this to a vote.

A customer came in this morning to buy fenceposts. He wanted 200 of them.

He pulled out a receipt from Lowe's of Smithfield, NC, with the posts priced at $2.49 each and told us the Home Depot in Fuquay-Varina had price-matched it, so he wanted us to price-match it too. Date of the receipt: June 1, 2006. (My calendar says that was a really long time ago.) That's way below my price.

If we price match from a receipt, we want the receipt to be dated within a week, and it's also kinda nice if the store we're matching is in our trading area. Lowe's of Smithfield is 55 miles--yes, I have measured--from Home Depot of Fayetteville. But just for the hell of it, I called Lowe's of Smithfield and learned that the posts he bought were six inches shorter than mine and they sold these ones on clearance because they went to posts the same length as mine--which, in case you're wondering, are the same price as mine.

So I told the guy that we couldn't match the receipt and he demanded a manager. I got him one.

The manager told him that if he could find a store in Eastern North Carolina that is selling the same posts for a lower price today, we'd beat it by ten percent. He told us he wasn't going to call around, we were. So I got my list of farm supply stores, building materials stores and other sellers of this kind of thing out. I made two copies of it, handed one to the service desk manager and one to the store manager, we figured out who was going to call which numbers, and we started dialing.

After an hour of dialing, the store manager found a farm supply store in Clinton, NC, that had the posts for $4.30, which is 75 cents less than we sell them for. (Clinton is almost as far as Smithfield, and it's up a two-lane road so you have to go there on purpose. We don't consider it in our trading area, but if it'll make the guy happy...) I only make a quarter per post profit, so if this guy pulls out his wallet I'm essentially going to pay this man $186 to take my merchandise--ten percent off is 43 cents per post.

I gave the man the new and improved (?) price for the posts. The very first thing this man did was demand to receive five free T-post clips per post--a total of 20 packages. They're two dollars per package. Now he wants us to pay him $226 to take our merchandise.

Folks, I've seen lots of associates get taken back to the office. Until today I've never seen a customer get taken back there. We very gently explained to this man that we can't afford to lose $186 on a $774 sale, which we've offered to do, and then give him another $40 in free merchandise on top of it. Therefore, we could either give him the clips but sell the posts to him at shelf price, or we could sell him the posts for $3.87 each and he'll have to purchase the clips separately.

Before storming out to his truck, which he left in the loading zone (it's posted "no parking--tow-away zone") he screamed that he would have bought them from us but we are too hard to deal with.

So whatcha think? Was I too hard to deal with?

[Maddy McCall]

1. Where is the...

"above and beyond the call of duty" option?

Y'all actually do the calling around for the customer? I'd have xeroxed the list, put it in his hand, and sent him home to make the calls on his dime.

You were much nicer to this guy than I would have been.

[Momgonepostal]

3. Totally agree

That customer was an ass. And I don't think 55 miles away should be considered another local store...not with gas as high as it is.

[Oeditpus Rex]

2. No. Fucking. Way.

The guy was an asspipe from the time he parked his truck.

I think you showed uncommon restraint. I might've showed him a new way to carry a 4x4.

[skygazer]

4. No, you weren't

Customers like that, I can do without. They're rarely repeat customers and even if they are, they always want something for nothing. Losing them is never really much of a blow (I work grocery - wine - and run into the same sort of thing).

That guy could come to your store every week for 20 years and you'd probably never make a dime from any sale to him. In addition, that type will badmouth the company to all his friends, bitching about how you tried to cheat him but only his superior intellect allowed him to get a halfway decent deal so you can't even count on them for word of mouth sales - except to other assholes just like him.

Nope, in my opinion, you went well beyond the call of duty and offered him a decent deal. He's just a loser.

[NuttyFluffers]

29. a far more polite and reasoned post than mine

working retail soured me before my years. if i had the power to detach myself and say something sensible it would probably be close to your post here. though i'd still feel better if i could throw my shoe at such asswipes.

[MrCoffee]

5. screw that loser.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. I would have sent him home as soon as he told me make phone calls.

Fuck that. I can't believe you guys spent an hour calling around for the jackass.

Too hard to deal with? I'd say you were damned easy.

[Missy Vixen]

7. You are much too kind

I think I would have put the fence posts someplace they would have been truly painful for him.

>he screamed that he would have bought them from us but we are too hard to deal with.<

At that point, the only thing left is to advise him he may be happier shopping elsewhere. Good for the store manager for sticking up for the staff. I'd work for that guy, too.

Julie

[jmowreader]

33. We've got a rare-for-today's-HD manager

Bob Nardelli has a Leadership Development Program, which he's using to develop all his new store managers. He recruits Army captains who are resigning their commissions, puts them through a quickie "this is the difference between Home Depot and the Army" course, gives them a year managing one of our operations departments at district or region, gives them a year as an assistant store manager, then gives them their own store. This is something he started doing when he ran the Erie, PA, General Electric plant.

The problem with this program, besides the fact that it's now impossible for someone to start at the bottom and work their way past Assistant Store Manager level, is that it's put a LOT of really shitty managers in the stores. Fayetteville is a very popular place to send LDP ASMs because we have unbelievable sales volume for our building's size. We've had six of these people work at our store--five ASMs, and the last store manager we had before this one was an LDP guy. Of these six people, five of them have been fired for conduct. The sixth skipped store manager and went straight to national manager for carpeting.

My store manager started his Home Depot career as a sales associate, and you can tell in an instant the difference.

[Darth_Kitten]

8. Uh, no...........

this guy's a deluded, angry a-hole. sorry, but there are people just born difficult in this world.

They want to be right, they are cheap as hell, and they have all the grace and class of a moldy dishrag.

Sorry, but even calling all these stores for this guy is WAY beyond good customer service. You don't HAVE to do anything.......

[mtnester]

9. You are a saint

start the canonization procedure now.

Beatification here you come.

Seriously, as small business owners ourselves, we understand how you sometimes have to bend over more for people...but sheesh, you went way beyond the call of duty and customer service.

Congratulations...now may I contact the Congregation for Cause of Saints...choose your name!

:)

[Orangepeel]

10. why would you WANT his business?

businesses aren't obligated to lose money just because somebody walks through the door. you don't need his business or the business of anybody that would listen to his recommendation.

[jmowreader]

34. I DIDN'T want his business.

I don't think the boss realized just what was going to happen, or he would have cut this guy off long ago.

One of my responsibilities is to spy on the competition, and one of the most important things I look at is price comparison. (I also look at minor shit like the amount of shelf space a particular product gets in someone's store, and the amount of backstock they're holding.) Some of my competitors I don't have to spy on; there's a pro roofing dealer I work with REAL closely because I send him a ton of business and he reciprocates by sending me homeowners who want shingles I carry--he HATES to deal with homeowners for good reason. Walk into my store carrying a green shingle and ask for a bundle of them, and you're getting sent to ABC Supply because he's always got them and I don't have 'em at all. Anyway, he'll call me once a week and give me his prices and a list of what he's got in stock.

Back to the story. I didn't really think I was going to be beat by anyone on this fencepost because everyone in town is either where I am or a little higher, depending on the vendor they use. There's no such thing as an American-made fencepost anymore; all the fencepost mills are in China because of price. And there's no profit in fenceposts. The company that makes them doesn't make shit off them; the vendor doesn't make shit and I don't make shit. Remember upthread: 25 cents profit per post. You sell fenceposts so you can sell fence fabric, which is a very profitable subclass.

Today I decided to drive to Clinton to take a look at these fenceposts. (It's a very nice drive, and on the way down I found the greatest car wash in the world. Check for another thread on this...) They turned out to be "U" posts, which are made of stamped sheet metal, and not "T" posts, which are steel castings. Totally different product, and his price is way out of line with what "U" posts should cost. This guy's "T" posts were way more than mine. You know the asshole who brought on this thread drove way the fuck down to Clinton and shit a brick when he got to the feed store. Serves him right.

[Redstone]

11. You should have just kicked him in the nuts. It would have saved

everybody a whole bunch of wasted time.

Redstone

[Neoma]

12. Huh.

More like the other way around.

[xchrom]

13. the customer is NOT always right.

i work in the furniture business -- if you knew how many people spend any where from 1,700 to 2,800 and more for armoires -- and then when they can't get them in door demand we take them back...

you would lose your mind.

btw -- we state at the beginning ''be sure and measure your doors'' -- and it's on the receipt.

PLUS -- plus all our armoires are custom made -- and solid wood. -- arrrrgh!

[breakaleg]

14. you should be thankful he left without buying anything!

[bertha katzenengel]

15. Oh, please. You and your co-workers bent over backwards to

please this guy. And you know it! :hi:

[Mutley]

16. Hell no.

I've worked in retail for a long time, and I just don't have that kind of time to call about the state for an hour. :o

[GOPisEvil]

17. Damn. I wish you worked at my local HD.

You went WAY above and beyond. Some people refuse to be pleased. :shrug:

[haf216]

18. I work for a company that

takes pride in "going beyond." i have seen customer's given huge discounts or get to return stuff you would not believe, but we would not have dealt with that man. You did everything you could and more, he was just a jerk.

[Briarius]

19. Is your town full of assholes?

Every time I read one of your customer stories, I have to shake my head. You're a saint for dealing with everything.

[lildreamer316]

20. Well, it IS called Fayettnam.

NOT that I have ANY problem with the soldiers..actually, I don't think they are any part of the problem. It's just an economically depressed area. Don't anyone jump me, I was born here in G'boro and my mother is from Southern Pines....

[SacredCow]

21. Exactly why I HATED the retail gig...

Some people just have this sense of entitlement, and are grade-a ASSHOLES about it.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

22. I would have been tempted to offer him an entirely new method

of transporting a fencepost out to his truck -- a method that probably would have made him walk funny.

[driver8]

23. Were you the same DU'er who had the guy tear down his

fence and try to return the fence posts??

You are a saint!! :toast:

[Gold Metal Flake]

24. I've worked retail.

I do believe that by the time he demanded that I make the calls for him that I would have offered the posts at $0.50/ea for as many as he could carry up his ass.

[NMMNG]

25. People seem to have the notion that retail stores are the same

as flea markets and yard sales--or even car lots. They want to go in and haggle the prices of items down to virtually nothing so they feel like they're getting a "deal". It's absolutely insane. :crazy:

[TK421]

26. Having worked over eight years in retail, I can understand where

you're coming from...and you were not hard to deal with, he was just an unreasonable customer. I used to have these kinds of shitheads come into the store with an enormous chip on their shoulder, but I didn't bow to them.
By the way, have you ever noticed how customers will ask you to match the price of an item rather than purchase said item at the location selling it for less? WTF is up with that shit? And this crap used to happen a couple times a week! :banghead:

[NuttyFluffers]

27. i'm just sad you didn't give him a firm nudge to the ass with your boot.

:patriot:
you do all of us who suffered through retail proud. remember, the customer is always wrong. and their ill-mannered kids suck, too.
:evilgrin:

[Broken_Hero]

28. You were justified

the customer was being a PITA....

[NewWaveChick1981]

30. You weren't being hard to deal with. He was being a total ass.

:eyes: He wanted something for nothing. What a jerk. :grr:

[Blue_Tires]

31. that's one for the customers suck HOF

[Catshrink]

32. What a moran! Did he have a W'04 sticker on his truck?

on edit: You all should've towed his damn truck -- it was parked in the loading zone for an hour, right?