I’m The Customer And I’m Always Right
When it comes to being a consumer of goods and services, I’m not a very demanding person. I won’t allow a company to take advantage of me, but I’m also not the person sending back my entrée at a restaurant because it’s not 100% to my liking.
In my youth I worked quite a few jobs in retail and learned the mantra “the customer is always right”. While that statement as worded might not be true, it’s the idea that matters.
In the end I like companies that stand by the customer and make things right. I’ve had two recent experiences that are worth writing about that are great examples of that ethos.
As frugal outliers and minimalist consumers we in the FIRE community should celebrate the victories.
The Behemouth
Let’s talk Amazon. Love ’em, hate ’em, or in between, they can’t be ignored. I’ve been an Amazon Prime customer for a good while now. I mainly signed up because not only can I get pretty much anything on Amazon, I really like not having to get in my car and waste time and fuel driving to a store to buy something.
A $30 pack of furnace filters winds up costing way more than $30 when I have to waste an hour dealing with the madness of D.C. area traffic and the chaos of Home Depot or Lowes. With Amazon Prime I order them in 30 seconds and have them on my porch in two days.
Or maybe I don’t. Over the past year or so I’ve noticed timelines slipping from the famous “two day delivery” Amazon Prime guarantee to sometimes 3 or 4 days. A little while ago I ordered a new bike tire that was marked as included for Prime delivery and it took a week to arrive.
Again – I’m far from the demandy type. I have a big enough world view to not get all angry and fired up because it took me a week to get my bike tire delivered. Social media is full of out of touch people who go online and express outrage over such things. Those folks need to travel to a 3rd world country and see what real troubles are.
That said, when I’m paying for a service and I’m not getting the service I’m paying for, I do feel the need to address it. To make things worse, Amazon raised the yearly price of Prime last year from $119 to $139, a hefty jump.
Not So Prime
After a few more Amazon Prime purchases that took way longer than two days to arrive, I felt the need to take action. I found a guy online who said he was also fed up with extended delivery times on Prime items and called Amazon to complain. They quickly refunded him $11.50 which is equal to the monthly cost of Prime if you subscribe annually.
If I saw $11.50 on the ground I’d pick it up, so I figured why not try. I quickly got an Amazon rep on the phone and explained, very calmly and kindly, that many so-called Prime items I purchase are taking 4 days or even a week to arrive. I asked for compensation. The rep apologized and agreed to refund me a one month equivalent cost of Prime.
While I was on the phone with her I got an email from Amazon stating that they’re sorry to see me go and that I had canceled Prime. I told her that she just canceled my Prime subscription and she seemed flustered. After putting me on hold for a while she came back and explained that somehow their automated system decided to cancel my Prime when she only attempted to refund me $11.50.
Things were not going well. But she made it right and them some.
Refund +
She then asked me to re-sign up for Prime, which would charge my credit card another $139. And she said Amazon would refund the full $139. When this happened I was about 5 months into my 12 month Prime subscription. So she was giving me another full year of Prime free, but I only got about 5 months from my previous 12 month subscription. So in essence I’m getting about 7 months of Prime free.
That’s about a $80 refund for some mild and gentle complaining. Amazon does have a good reputation for trying to put the customer first and in this case they did. The woman messed up a simple refund and decided to give a bigger one. I did get the full $139 refunded on my credit card a few days later.
I will see how Prime performs over the next year and then decide if I want to keep it.
If you’re a Prime customer and have seen 2-day shipping times slip a lot, you might want to consider calling Amazon and asking for some money back.
Reinvent The Wheel
My second story, or victory, involves bike wheels. The rear wheel on my main racing bike developed a crack a little while ago and it was time for a new set. Regular readers know I’m a bike nut and ride 5,000-6,000 miles a year. The cracked wheel had about 40,000 miles on it. It had a good life.
I ordered a new set of wheels from Hunt, a U.K.-based company that specializes in performance wheels. A good friend loves his and they generally garner high praise in the industry. A pro team in Europe even races with one of their models. My friend claimed Hunt is very customer focused and will stand behind the product, so he won me over.
When the wheels arrived I noticed a slight area of damage on the rear wheel. It could have happened in shipping, but the box didn’t look thrown around and the wheels were packed well and protected. I think it was likely a manufacturing flaw. I also didn’t get my quick-release skewers in the package which are the pieces that secure them to your bike.
The damage… it looks minor but would likely damage my brake pads
When I called Hunt they apologized and gave me instructions to send the wheel back free of charge of course. And they quickly arranged for a new wheel and skewers to be sent. When the new wheel arrived, they still forgot the skewers.
If you’re a cyclist you realize quick release skewers are pretty standard and interchangeable, and I could just use my old ones until they got me the new ones. But that’s not the point. The point is they kept screwing up the order.
I called them and got a cheery bloke from the U.K. named Ian. He was very cool, apologized profusely, and admitted that Hunt was not making a good impression on me. He then offered to refund me $70 which I accepted. So my $550 wheels only cost me $480 in the end, and that’s a great deal.
Most importantly Hunt showed me that they care and will fix mistakes which makes me happy with my choice.
Reinvent The Wheel
These two events happened in the same week, so I was refunded $150 from Amazon and Hunt combined. Not too bad. And it reminded me that as the customer I am indeed always right and should take the time more often to demand I get what I paid for. Notice I didn’t say complain.
In both cases I’m quite proud of myself in the way I handled things on the phone. I was kind and diplomatic, and they responded in kind. In my younger years I would have likely been far more aggressive, probably pretty assholy actually. I think semi-retirement has made me kindler and gentler, haha.
The lesson here is that when you’re a customer and you’re not getting the service you deserve, consider a discussion with the merchant.
Don’t be complainy or a diva, but calmly explain why you deserve better. It might net you some cash.
I bought some nonrefundable air tickets on Southwest using their app and did it on a new tablet for the first time. Somehow I realized the next day I had bought the tickets on the correct dates but on the wrong month and I had “missed” the flight that morning that I intended to be taken three months from now. The were the lowest cost nonrefundable tickets so technically I had blown the entire $480 cost. I called Southwest and explained it was my mistake and hoped they could help me. They agreed to a full refund that I could use to purchase the right ticket on the right date. They did not need to do that but I was respectful and it was obvious I wasn’t purchasing the ticket for the next day on purpose and they made an allowance. Not the same as your examples but the same technique of being honest and friendly still paid off for me. I think most companies want you to be happy and will try to make things right. If not they will have a hard time competing with those that do.
Dude that doesn’t surprise me, Southwest rocks and they focus on customer support. That’s why they’ve always been profitable, unlike every other big airline who have all had long periods of losing money and most who were bailed out by us in the 2009. SW was never bailed out, they didn’t need it. Maybe things are a bit different since the pandemic, but prior to it I highly doubt any other airline but SW would have helped you. Some might have even laughed. Great story
“It never hurts to ask”. It can work not only for poor customer experiences but also things like price matching (at stores with better service but generally higher prices), free upgrades, extra discounts/promotions, etc. Success is less often here but I still feel it’s worth the small effort it takes to ask.
Yes very true, I need to ask more often. I hate conflict, but knowing how to approach it in the right way avoids conflict. Thanks for stopping by.
i think real customer service is making a comeback, except for the dirty filthy telecom companies. good for you for using the right tactics to ask for what you wanted.
back in winter/spring i ordered some bandanas from a louisiana facebook store. they were products i has bought many many years ago and sweated into and washed hundreds of times until i sold them for what i paid on ebay 20 years later. well… turns out they’re not really making any more and it seemed like a one or two person operation so i sent them 60 bucks via paypal for 12 “new” bandanas. they never arrived and i sent a friendly note saying so. the woman apologized in writing and said she was bringing the package to the post office that day. once again, i was patient, allowing weeks to go by between messages. about 2 months after the initial order i tried one last time to contact the business and got no reply. i opened the case with paypal with all the screenshots of the documentation of our communications. it took a few more weeks but i just got my 60 bucks back today. don’t know if it was from paypal or the seller and it doesn’t matter to me. i really wanted those bandanas though.
PayPal rocks. They always back the buyer in circumstances like that. Took bad you didn’t get ur bandanas though. Ordering from small ma & pa places like that does carry some risk. When I do that I use either PayPal or a solid credit card like Chase Sapphire who will back you.
Glad it worked out with both vendors, but I’m impressed you ride 5-6000 miles a year, thats remarkable! Just stumbled on to your site, look forward to reading more about your outdoor adventures, thanks for posting!
Thanks Jim, I’ve ridden my bikes more miles than I’ve driven for 4 years in a row now. Just doing my part to be healthy and burn fewer fossil fuels. I have lots of posts about cycling, rock climbing, mountaineering, and other outdoor fun. Glad you found my site and thanks so much for commenting!
Hi Dave! I was getting annoyed with the Prime shipping delays too. One thing though is that shipping is still free so for about 2 orders a month, you’re breaking even as compared to if you had to pay for shipping on more orders. I know, it’s the principle to some degree, but also still a good deal, even if things don’t arrive quite as quickly as they say they will.
I detest subscriptions and don’t actually pay for Prime. About every 6 months or so they offer me a free or $1.99 ‘trial’ month to try to woo me over to a subscription, so I just keep a list of things I need and order it all in the trial month. Then cancel before they charge me for month two. Cheap, I know, but I have a real mental block with subscriptions:)
That’s a great strategy Andrea, I might consider that in the future if I decide not to renew. Even though I’m not a big media watcher I do enjoy some of the content on Amazon Prime video, they have lots of documentaries. I’ll see how they treat me over the next year, haha.
Yeah calling out a company when they fail to deliver is a good thing, as long as it’s done calmly and respectfully. There’s now a whole library of Karen videos because people forgot their manners and whine when things don’t get fixed ASAP or to their liking. We’re all humans and need to be kind to one another. Being recorded yelling vulgarities at service workers over $10 is only going to cost you.
That said, I’ve also had luck getting refunds on items past their return deadline, free replacements, and hotel points back just by explaining my position as the customer. Ultimately, it’s up to the company or rep you are speaking to, and as long as you’re genuine and candid in a nice way, you’ll rarely have an issue resolving your complaint.
When I was a much younger punk-ass I think I got into some angry phone convos with my health insurance company. I’m a better person now, and realize the person on the other end has a less than optimal job and yelling won’t get me anywhere.
I think the key is to always be polite and gracious when lodging a complaint. Too many people resort to being petty jerks and all they do is make themselves look bad and make the representative they’re talking to less likely to go out of their way to help.
I try to make them laugh, that works even better 🙂
I’m all for this strategic complaining, provided you are courteous. All you have to do is ask–and the worst they can say is no. You have the power to not give them your business again!
Power baby! We consumers do have the power an if we act even remotely together in unison we can move mountains 🙂