Customer Service Not Worth A Hill of Beans

Money Magazine featured the following lack of customer service story:

A customer purchased what he thought was a disc storage drive. Upon opening the box at home, he instead found a bag of beans. He returned the box to the chain store and asked for another box containing the drive. The Complaints Rep replied it is the manufacturer’s responsibility.



The customer wrote a letter to the manufacturer describing what took place. The manufacturer wrote back that this was the store’s responsibility. This left the customer in the middle of a circular argument that could not be fixed.


This savvy customer wrote a letter to the CEO of the store and immediately received satisfaction. If the CEO were smart, he/she would review return policies so that their time would not be wasted in the future. Wasted time and bad word-of-mouth – after all this landed in Money Magazine – is far more costly than giving up a new disc storage drive.


Review all of your policies when it comes to customer service. You will find cost cutting measures, improve client relations and enjoy many more Smooth Sales!