Tuesday Tip | Politely ask companies to make things right.
I was thinking about how sometimes people make two opposite errors when a company messes something up:
- Approaching the employee/company with a rude, entitled attitude
- Not feeling like they have a right to point out the mistake/poor service/etc.
The first approach goes wrong because that's just not a kind way to treat others. People that work at companies are still people, and they should be treated with respect. Plus, starting out with an off-putting attitude usually doesn't help you get what you want.
The second approach feels off to me because I think you should get what you pay for when you give your money to a company. The company isn't a charity; rather, the idea is that you give them your money, and you get an agreed-upon good or service in return.
If you don't get the good or service you paid for, then you totally have a right to ask for that to be corrected.
People with the first approach might say, "Oh, I don't want to be a pushover!"
And people with the second approach might say, "Oh, but I don't want to be rude and demanding."
The lovely news is that you don't have to choose between those two options. There's space in the middle there, which looks like politely and respectfully asking for a wrong to be made right.
I've had so much success at getting errors corrected, faulty items replaced, billing adjusted, and so on by being brave enough to ask, but also being polite and respectful (even when I have to be firm or insistent.)
So, if you tend toward one of these extremes, I just want to encourage you to respectfully speak up and ask to get what you paid for.
Agreed, this has worked for me in the past. Another thing I do is tweet to companies when say something breaks - even if it lasted long and was a good item. I recently had a zipper break on a backpack that was pretty old and that had been through the ringer. I tweeted that it was a great pack and that I was going to "give it a proper burial" and the company responded and sent me a new one! Companies like that kind of publicity. Plus they now have me as a customer for life
YES! And having worked so much customer service, trust me- we remember the rude ones and it's the first thing we think of when we see you, every time. (I'm no longer in customer service, but it was a great course on how to treat employees.)
I recently worked with some yarn that had quite a few flaws. I emailed the company and told them that it was nice yarn, but then I explained the problem and politely inquired if that was the norm for their product (having never worked with that brand before, I honestly didn't know). They responded back with the equivalent of, "YIKES! NO! Let us send you other yarn to make up for it!" Which wasn't at all what I was after, but was very appreciated, and their customer service was so great that I definitely want to support their company again in the future.
It definitely pays to be a respectful customer.
I am usually the one who hesitates to ask, why, I don't know, and I find a lot of people are the same. I'm getting better about it, and I'm much better than I was years ago.
You are right, being polite about it is by far better than being aggressive. I get much better results when I smile and imply it's a simple mistake, not incompetence or greed.
Thanks for the post. I recently had TERRIBLE service at an urgent care (I had glass in my foot. They took Xrays, which were totally not needed, bilked my insurance and took my deductible payment. Only to tell me they don’t remove glass from feet and sent we away. They should have told me that in the very beginning. The Dr never examined me or asked my pain level or anything I went to a different urgent care the next day. They removed the glass in five minutes with no X rays. Thanks fir the encouragement to contact the first urgent care complain poliltky
It always always pays to be nice. Even if the only 'pay' is being able to look yourself in the mirror!
I had wanted a coach bag for forever. Ironically, after reading your piece on ThredUp, I found one I really liked and decided to order...
They have a No Refund on handbags. I paid a lot for this bag, even secondhand. Less than two weeks after I got it, the 'leather" all peeled! my bag was a fake! I sent them a nice email, complete with pictures and asked what we could do to save this situation. They asked me to mail back the bag and refunded all of my money!
And guess what! I still use These Up and I speak highly of their customer service.
I hope they would speak highly of me!
This problem falls under a different legal issue, that of fraud (intentional or unintentional). If ThreadUp offered it as a genuine Coach bag - or even genuine leather - and it isn't, ThreadUp is legally required to fix the problem. The usual remedies are to give you your money back (jurisdictions differ on whether ThreadUp would be required to give you back all the money you spend, or just the money that went to ThreadUp) or send you the genuine Coach bag.
Glad the process was easy and painless for you. It isn't always.
Excellent attitude 🙂 Having spent a bunch of time working in a grocery store when I was younger I used to be on the receiving end of a lot of hostility over things beyond my control. I do my best to keep that in mind when I have an issue with a product or service and give the person I'm talking to the benefit of the doubt and the respect that all people deserve.
Yes, give people a chance to do the right thing. I have a friend whose first response is always "I got used, they owe me money, I'm going to sue." In the case of a shoddy home repair job, I convinced her to approach the company with the mindset that they want to fix her problem. I helped her write a letter where she fully described the situation, also pointing out the good parts (he arrived on time, he was very respectful) and mentioning that she was a longstanding customer who had always received excellent service from them in the past, and would appreciate their help in resolving this situation. They resolved the situation immediately.
It's kind of a golden rule thing, you know? We'd love to be given the chance to make something right, and so we should give other people that chance too.
I don't like to raise a fuss about anything but today actually I had this issue. I rented a car via my insurance company while we get a small fender bender body work done. I was supposed to get a small car like a Corolla or Elantra. Instead, they drove out a Lincoln Continental! The car was an absolute boat and didn't even have a lever to open the door. When the employee told me you have to shift using buttons I looked at him and said, "You know I really just wanted a small basic car." So he then passed me off to another employee who tried to put me in an Escalade! Yeah, if the boat wasn't enough, they wanted me to drive a tank!
I had to be firm but I wouldn't leave the lot in anything but a small sedan which is what I had booked and if she hadn't scheduled cars properly, that was their problem. Eventually we compromised on an Impala and she was terse with me at the end.
I'm sure this woman probably told everyone that I was the rotten customer of the day but I really don't care. Like I said, I was nothing but polite but I also wasn't going to be taken to the cleaners on a vehicle I didn't want.
I think your response was perfect. Polite, but firm. The error was on their end, not yours. Therefore, you waited to get the kind of car you booked (or at least something similar).
I completely feel you. A bigger rental car is not necessarily an upgrade!
Spouse and I travel a lot and rent cars. We have long realized that rental companies will let you reserve ANY sized car you want, they just may not have it in stock when you get there. It's a little bit of bait and switch.
Usually we actually get upgraded at no extra cost, but recently we arrived at a rental counter, after a long flight, and found there was NO car in our size. We were 45 minutes earlier than we had said we would arrive. Our choices were to immediately take a low slung Camaro made for 21 year olds to impress each other (we're in our 70s) and pay an extra $10 per day for the privilege, OR wait out the 45 minutes until our assigned time. Then we would probably STILL have to take this ridiculous car but we wouldn't be stuck with the upgrade charge. We were far too exhausted to sit in an airport for another 45 minutes so we took the car and paid for the upgrade.
Honestly, we could hardly even get into it. For the first 24 hours my big husband would curse up a storm every single time he entered or exited. Finally we just started laughing as it felt like we were riding around on a skateboard and we just made a funny travel story out of it.
But after reading this blog I think I will email the company and ask for a price adjustment. It couldn't hoit. 😀
A contract is a contract. If they said they'd give you a certain class car, that's what they owe you. If what they give you is larger and you have to take it, you can reasonably negotiate for additional compensation to make up for the extra gas. I usually go for a tank per week's rental.
Once a rental company tried to give me an F-150 instead of the economy class I wanted. Sorry, no can do no matter how much gas money they offered me. I was going to an area with limited parking. Had there been paid parking lots in the area, I would have negotiated to have the company cover my parking lot costs.
So true! I tend toward not saying anything. But you're right, you get dealt a bad deal, and the company doesn't know what they need to improve on.
I've always said kindness can go a long way for saving money. That goes especially for when you want a company to make something right!
YES! I used to be afraid to ask for things to be made right, except at the grocery store (I had seen my Mom do it all of my childhood), but my husband is very much of the opinion that we should get the services/products we pay for. Last Thanksgiving, we were unable to fly as planned because my son was very sick, and I didn't have any insurance on the tickets. Technically we didn't qualify for any refund of any kind, but I called the airline anyway, hoping to get a credit for a future flight with that airline, but the agent couldn't do anything. I realized he probably didn't actually have the authority to do anything even if something could be done, so I politely asked if there was perhaps a manager that might be able to work something out. And less than 10 minutes later, I was fully refunded--not even just a credit for another flight. This experience helped me learn a new skill of being firm and kind, which has served me tremendously as I "work" with a pediatric medical supply company that is very easily confused about what my child needs.
I was extremely fortunate to have the strong-minded staff at my optometrist's go to bat for me over poor service from the lab they use. My prescription is extremely strong, as well as being progressive lenses, (the new advanced version of what we used to call "tri-focals"). My last order of new frames and lenses took several weeks, then was wrong when it came in, then was delayed again.
As the whole process took almost three months, my optometrist asked me what I would like out of the lab: How about a pair of prescription sunglasses? Sure! I no longer have to fuss with strange clip-ons, because they ordered me a pair of purple framed sunglasses that should have cost several hundred dollars. For cost reasons, I've never had anything like them before.
I probably wouldn't have complained, as I respect the work of this doctor and would like to keep her office in business in my small town. I am sure she has lost a lot of business to the fast optical places in nearby cities. (Note that resolving problems might be more important for a smaller operation that relies on good word-of-mouth service). I certainly wouldn't have asked for an additional free pair! But I really appreciate the assertiveness and creativeness her staff took to make up for the lab's error, and keep them as a model for what to do when things aren't timely or correct.
I've been doing this with amazon and have been pleasantly surprised. For some reason, anytime I order something within a day of a scheduled cat litter delivery, they ship in the same box. I finally contacted them and told them about the problem (i.e. 40lbs of cat litter and just about anything else can't be in the same box), and they have refunded the other item AND have put a note in my account to not do this.
I've always been the person reticent to exchange things, and then in the last year or so, realized that often times my need to exchange isn't my fault (bad quality etc).
I have contacted companies (politely) about issues in the past and usually had results in my favor.
Recently I have also started contacting them when I’ve had SUPERIOR service. I believe employees deserve to be recognized when they go above and beyond and I hope my words make it to the employee or if nothing else make the recipient have a better day.
I have called Amazon.com 20 times this month and spoke to at least 20 representatives for at least 20 hours. Tonight a supervisor had me purchase a tablet of my choice and refunded the purchase back to me. I chose a rather nice one and honestly felt like I earned it with each and every tedious conversation I had with each and every one of those representatives. Polite and kind all the way.
I agree; you catch more flies with honey although sometimes you do have to be quite firm. I strongly recommend keeping a record of your calls. Years ago when I first moved to a place on my own I did so with the thought if the bills were too big on my own I would get a housemate - problem was the power company sent me no bills for 6 months despite a number of phone calls. When I made an official complaint they denied I had spoken to anyone & when I was able to name the people with dates & times they huffily claimed I wasn't their customer but other companies said I couldn't go with them until this contract was terminated. I went to the electrical ombudsman (public complaints board) who told me they would act on my behalf & at that time had 50,000 similar complaints - the problem? Power companies were signing up customers in areas they had no contracted meter readers & then billing people 12mths bills in one hit - even small businesses. I found out the law here is that they have to give you the same amount of time to pay as the billing period - the Ombudsman stepped in, forced them to acknowlege their fault & terminate my contract without fees so I could transfer to another company. I was so frugal that year stressed how much the bill would be it ended being quite small but was a really stressful time. So take notes I say.
Oh, for sure. Firmness is fine and sometimes very necessary.
Document exhaustively!!! If it's an expensive thing and your jurisdiction allow it, you can record the conversation as well. Most places tell you they're recording, which I would ~think~ allows you to record them as well.
Write down the day and time you called, who you talked with (some companies have their customer service reps use numbers instead of names, for security and mental comfort), who said what, the outcome agreed to. Also get a reference number for the interaction (sometimes called a complaint number), when the outcome will happen, and a way to follow-up if the outcome doesn't happen.
Consider following up with an email/snailmail saying "This communication is to document the agreement with X that the outcome will be Y."
Being able to say "On 1 Sept I talked with Phyllis, who said I would get a replacement within 5 business days; see reference number 239847. On 15 Sept I talked with Alfred, who said there was a delay at the factory in Alabama, so sorry, it'll be 10 business days. It's now 5 October and I still don't have the thing." does a pretty darn good job of shutting up the jerk customer service manager to wants to deny any contact.
I've commented a lot on this thread already so I won't go into detail about how I got Sprint to fix the $5000 cell phone bill I received. (Short version of the problem: Sprint's sales guy told me phone calls to Obscure Location were $10/call. They were $10/minute.)
This is where I cringe and want to run away. My mother complains about nearly everything. She will complain about her table, the meal, her groceries and more. Tonight we returned a pot plant that was not satisfactory. Between my mother and the staff member the docket was lost. Mum was getting more and more irate which means rudeness. Mum actually told the staff member she could not understand her. Yikes.
I feel for you! There is a difference between politely handling a situation and being one of those people who COMPLAINS about EVERYTHING... My husbands grandfather is a constant complainer ( seriously if he says he wants his toast DARK.. make it black...).. it could be quite embarrassing.. My inlaws just think the server is to be at their beck and call for every possible thing! ugh I have taken the proactive approach when we go out to eat and I quietly for-warn the server that my inlaws are quite picky and complainy... I have found that that heads up helps the server not get flustered and things go much more smoothly... I also end up tipping more on our bill to make up for the drama.. but it keep the peace for my husband...
Oh goodness, yes. It's one thing to ask for what you paid for and it's another to have unrealistically picky expectations about everything.
Great idea about giving the serving staff a heads-up (and leaving a higher tip).
If humanly possible I do give a heads up. It can fail spectacularly as mum has super sharp hearing and doesn't trust people. We don't tip is Australia as a rule. The I can't understand you story was at the supermarket. I grabbed mum's hand and quietly said shhh! The need to be cautious has become extreme. Ah the joys of growing older.
Just traveled for vacation. We have a 4 year old son, so of course had to have a pool. When we got there we found out the pool was closed for routine maintenance. We politely mentioned that they had not let us know of this, at checkout, when we reserved the room. They gave us a $50 credit and a stuffed animal from the gift shop for our son.
I always begin a CS encounter with good manners and courtesy, not to win favor but because that's what we do as civilized persons. I try to explain the problem and I ask, politely: Is there anything you can do to help me with this and if you can't, can you please direct me to who can help me? If you can't help, let me move on. Don't waste my time (which drives me crazy, along with repeating the same info multiple times to different people. I've got a life.)
But let's be clear: Being courteous and polite is often wasted on very unprofessional and truly unhelpful CS. It usually starts when the CS person will NOT listen to your problem and starts with a script that in no way focuses on your issue (and let's remember, in some cases, in can take a LONG time to get thru to CS after voicemail prompts that do not allow you to get help for your problem, by which time, many of us are fed up with wasting our time.)
No matter how polite you are, there are some CS folks you need to be firm and forceful in saying: You are not helping me, who can. Or even hanging up and trying again with someone else.
And also, a consideration is how some companies treat customers. Some companies are smart enough to know that good CS service helps them retain customers even when something major has gone wrong. They empower CS reps to escalate or actually resolve on their own and they hire people who actually listen.
Also, when people are rude to me, I will respond forcefully. I don't want it to get to that point, and I've learned to just "move on" and not waste time with an individual.
FYI: Entitlement. We are, as customers, entitled to be heard and then to get help we need, not what someone else thinks is needed. It's not an attitude of entitlement in the negative sense.
If I buy a product and there is a problem, I don't want some bored, unhappy with their job, lazy CS rep wasting my time. For all the great ones (and FYI: Whenever someone is helpful, I ask them: How can I let your boss know what a great job you've done? And then I email or send snail mail. Because I want companies to know: Your CS reps are doing a good job. Reward them!)
Life is too short to deal with companies who don't treat consumers well. I would rather spend a bit more money to use another company in future. And I will, via twitter, or facebook, make it clear when they have not done their job.
I've learned that the phrase, "I was hoping you could help me" automatically seems to make the person on the other end *want* to help.
Ooh, that's a good tip.