WarrenMorrison
Member
I ordered 14 pen blanks from WoodTurningz for pens that had been ordered by customers. All sold in the $80 to $120 price range. These were time sensitive orders.
I received a package from them with my name and address, but with the incorrect order. After contacting WoodTurningz, my wife and I got the impression that they really couldn't have cared any less about the mistake. As it turns out, they switched my order with another pen turner's. They asked us to mail the package to the correct pen turner, as the other pen turner would do the same. In addition to general hassle of fixing WoodTurningz own mistake, I do not live close to a post office. Driving there takes away some of the already limited time that I have. Regardless, I complied.
In the meantime, I lost some orders as a direct result of this mistake by Woodturningz. Had they simply expedited me the correct order immediately upon realizing their mistake (and had me ship the incorrect order back to them), I might have been able to salvage some of those sales. Not only did I take a financial hit (loss of sales), but my reputation for prompt, reliable service also took a hit.
As a result of the mistake itself and how WoodTurningz handled it, I decided that I would simply go elsewhere to purchase supplies. As a business owner myself, I know that customer feedback is critical to improving a company. In that spirit, I wrote an email to Ryan (the owner) to explain the situation and why I would be going elsewhere for my purchases.
Instead of receiving a response from Ryan, he delegated that to a Sales Manager and told him to offer me a $20 credit for future purchases. Personally, I do not appreciate the fact that Ryan delegated the apparently mundane task of responding to me to someone else.
As far as the $20 credit goes, that does not even begin to cover the financial hit that I took from lost sales, much less the reputation hit that I took. I understand that they cannot (and probably should not) credit me for the exact amount of the damages. What bothers me about this is that they offered this $20 credit as if it were somehow a solution to fix the problem. This is either a terrible misunderstanding of the situation and the losses that I incurred as a result of their mistake or an ineffective, if not desperate, move to try to keep me as a customer.
If keeping me as a customer was a goal, they needed to focus on fixing the actual problem instead of trying to lure me back with a temporary, insufficient patch to the problem. While the $20 credit might have been a nice gesture combined with a sincere concern for fixing the problem itself, it actually served as an insult when combined with the lackadaisical attitude in regards to fixing the problem.
I included all of this in my response to the Sales Manager, and asked that it actually be forwarded to Ryan. What happened next was absolutely appalling. Ryan, himself, finally replied. His response was full of excuses and non-answers in regards to the issues that I experienced. In the end, he told me that future orders from me would be refused - I was no longer welcome to purchase from them.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't going to make any more purchases from them in the first place - I made that apparent early on in my conversations with these people. But the fact that they were so blatantly rude and exhibiting so little interest in actually fixing their issues is simply astonishing.
If anyone is interested in seeing the exact conversation - word for word - let me know. I'll be more than happy to forward it to you.
From here on out, I'll continue to make my purchases from Exotic Blanks. Ed and Dawn are fantastic people, have always offered me fantastic service (no matter how big the order has been), have asked me for feedback on how to improve some issues that they had (they not only kindly listened, but they actually fixed them!) and they get their orders right. They ship quickly, have a wide selection of products, and their prices are pretty good, too. To be entirely honest, I should have simply ordered from them in the first place.
I received a package from them with my name and address, but with the incorrect order. After contacting WoodTurningz, my wife and I got the impression that they really couldn't have cared any less about the mistake. As it turns out, they switched my order with another pen turner's. They asked us to mail the package to the correct pen turner, as the other pen turner would do the same. In addition to general hassle of fixing WoodTurningz own mistake, I do not live close to a post office. Driving there takes away some of the already limited time that I have. Regardless, I complied.
In the meantime, I lost some orders as a direct result of this mistake by Woodturningz. Had they simply expedited me the correct order immediately upon realizing their mistake (and had me ship the incorrect order back to them), I might have been able to salvage some of those sales. Not only did I take a financial hit (loss of sales), but my reputation for prompt, reliable service also took a hit.
As a result of the mistake itself and how WoodTurningz handled it, I decided that I would simply go elsewhere to purchase supplies. As a business owner myself, I know that customer feedback is critical to improving a company. In that spirit, I wrote an email to Ryan (the owner) to explain the situation and why I would be going elsewhere for my purchases.
Instead of receiving a response from Ryan, he delegated that to a Sales Manager and told him to offer me a $20 credit for future purchases. Personally, I do not appreciate the fact that Ryan delegated the apparently mundane task of responding to me to someone else.
As far as the $20 credit goes, that does not even begin to cover the financial hit that I took from lost sales, much less the reputation hit that I took. I understand that they cannot (and probably should not) credit me for the exact amount of the damages. What bothers me about this is that they offered this $20 credit as if it were somehow a solution to fix the problem. This is either a terrible misunderstanding of the situation and the losses that I incurred as a result of their mistake or an ineffective, if not desperate, move to try to keep me as a customer.
If keeping me as a customer was a goal, they needed to focus on fixing the actual problem instead of trying to lure me back with a temporary, insufficient patch to the problem. While the $20 credit might have been a nice gesture combined with a sincere concern for fixing the problem itself, it actually served as an insult when combined with the lackadaisical attitude in regards to fixing the problem.
I included all of this in my response to the Sales Manager, and asked that it actually be forwarded to Ryan. What happened next was absolutely appalling. Ryan, himself, finally replied. His response was full of excuses and non-answers in regards to the issues that I experienced. In the end, he told me that future orders from me would be refused - I was no longer welcome to purchase from them.
Don't get me wrong, I wasn't going to make any more purchases from them in the first place - I made that apparent early on in my conversations with these people. But the fact that they were so blatantly rude and exhibiting so little interest in actually fixing their issues is simply astonishing.
If anyone is interested in seeing the exact conversation - word for word - let me know. I'll be more than happy to forward it to you.
From here on out, I'll continue to make my purchases from Exotic Blanks. Ed and Dawn are fantastic people, have always offered me fantastic service (no matter how big the order has been), have asked me for feedback on how to improve some issues that they had (they not only kindly listened, but they actually fixed them!) and they get their orders right. They ship quickly, have a wide selection of products, and their prices are pretty good, too. To be entirely honest, I should have simply ordered from them in the first place.
