Two Horror Stories
OK, so while on vacation, I had my First Rays line kick over to my cell phone. Good thing, as a good customer had burned out a booster pump for his RO system.
After getting his emergency call, I ordered the replacement pump from my distributor. Unfortunately, they didn't have one in stock, so offered to overnight it direct from the manufacturer for Tuesday delivery. All was well… Or so I thought.
The manufacturer did not ship it that day, so offered to ship it overnight the following day. Instead they shipped it by ground. Having found that out, my distributor had them overnight another one. By this time, the Tuesday delivery ended up being a Friday delivery.
When the pump that had been shipped overnight arrived on Friday, it turned out to be the wrong model. We didn't know that until too late in the day to remedy the situation so planned on waiting for the ground delivery on Monday. It was the wrong model also.
Monday was my first day back from vacation so I called my distributor again, and found that they had indeed just gotten in a shipment of the correct model, so they overnighted the correct one, and it should be delivered today - "only" a week late. One positive note is that they are refunding all shipping costs associated with the pump, so my customer at least won't be getting "hosed" that way.
That was the "lousy supplier" story, so here is the "lousy customer" one:
A Canadian customer ordered a semi-Hydro starter kit. On the homepage of the store I admonish all customers to read our policies which include guarantees, how shipping costs are determined, special items for Canadian customers, etc. When one checks out of the store, there is a statement that states that by placing the order, you have read and accepted all of our policies.
In this particular case the customer gave me an incomplete shipping address - without the apartment number. I certainly can't be expected to inherently know whether a street address is an apartment or single-family home, so I shipped it to the address provided.
Well don't you know, the Canadian Postal Service was unable to deliver the package because the apartment number was missing, so they returned it to me. Let's not forget that shipping to Canada is quite expensive.
As the customer did not get his kit, he refused to pay for it (quite reasonable) or the shipping, even though it was his fault (really crappy, if you ask me). I end up eating the shipping cost for no order.
If that customer ever places another order I will likely decline it.
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