Sometimes Customers are Totally Unreasonable

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Sometimes Customers are Totally Unreasonable

Posted at November 10, 2007 1:28 pm | In Personal | By Ben Woodruff

I had a lady come in today with a gift certificate for a discount on a new computer that expired 12/06.

She wanted to buy a mouse with it.
I looked at her a bit puzzled and pointed out that it expired on 12/06 and that it was not for mice, but a new computer. She was infuriated. She said that she had been in a bunch of times to buy the mouse with the certificate and had always been told the reason we couldn’t do it was that we were out of stock (since when do we not stock mice)?! So luckily my boss happened to call right at that moment (he doesn’t work on Saturdays but I had sent him a text earlier about a different issue). I explained the situation to him and asked what I should do. The lady was clearly pissed that I wasn’t going to give her this $39.99 wireless mouse for free because she had an expired gift certificate for another product…

So my boss, trying to be nice, says I can offer her a 10% discount on the mouse (which doesn’t come out to much, I rounded it up to $4), or I can tell her that she can save it an use it on a new system any time she wants. I thought that was more than fair considering the situation. So I informed her of this.

She says that she was never told that it could only be used on a new computer and that she would NEVER bring her computer here for service now because I was giving her a hard time. At this point I’m just about ready to tell her to leave. But I’m a professional so I just smiled and continued to talk to her. I explained that my boss was the one who made the call and that he was not in today. If she wanted to talk to him she was more than welcome to call him on Monday (I gave her his business card). She said that she had tried to talk to him in the past but he has never been in the office (this is a slight exaggeration but isn’t far from the truth - he does on-site support a lot). I apologized again and said that even if he wasn’t in the office, the technician at the counter should be able to get in touch with him if she needed them to.

Then she asks if she can use the gift certificate towards service. I’m totally confused at this point. Didn’t she just say she would never come here for service? And didn’t I just tell her exactly what I could give her (above and beyond the gift certificate)? I questioned her. I said “So… you want to use it for service?” She paused a minute and says “Just give me the 10% off the mouse.” So I rang that up. I’m thinking “Finally…” After I get that settled she says “and I’d like to order another one too, a different one.” I had told her that we only had the one in her hand in stock, but that we could order her whatever she wanted. So I said alright… I found something she liked. Then she tells me she wants the 10% off that too!

I told her that her order would be processed Monday by my boss (this is true, he does all the ordering), and I left him a detailed message with what she wanted, why she was unhappy, etc. She said she would pay the current invoice (the one I just created for the first mouse) and pay for the other mouse, when that one came in. This is not our general practice, but I just wanted her to leave, so I made sure I had all her contact info and let her leave with the first mouse without paying anything, gift certificate still in hand.