[Very] Long Vent: Terrible Customer Service at Voltaire

[Halt_Near_X]

[QUOTE=anev;7439065]
I am hoping that if someone else out there is looking in to buying from them, they benefit from knowing the possibilities of dealing with a Devoucoux Part Deux.[/QUOTE]

When I look at customer reviews, particularly negative ones, I also look at the person giving them. In this case, your reaction to the hats themselves and your interactions with the company are so disproportionate to the actual situation that no, I wouldn’t rethink dealing with the company based on your experience.

The company could have and should have been more professional, but frankly what I have learned from this exchange is:

• They sent a customer a free extra hat as a romantic gesture
• They apparently monitor their emails on Sunday nights. That could be a good thing if I were having some major, time-sensitive issue.
• Despite the sand-flinging on both sides, they did send everything necessary to do the refund, and even did the refund before the hats were sent back (were they sent back?)

Frankly, they come out ahead. Not smelling of roses, but certainly ahead.

[CJ82Sky]

1. the customer is not always right. there are tons of examples of that on the internet where a company calling a rude customer out was met with a positive response.

2. are you really comparing a $20 hat to a $5,500 saddle? just checking, because that alone makes my head spin.

3. repeat above. no, the customer is not always right. especially when said customer is comparing a $20 hat to a $5k saddle. hardly the same market and totally laughable imo

[CJ82Sky]

here you go: http://www.krem.com/news/235504261.html

[jetsmom]

[QUOTE=CJ82Sky;7439170]
here you go: http://www.krem.com/news/235504261.html[/QUOTE]

That was the first thing I thought of when I read the OP. Thanks for linking it.

[pacific_jumper]

[QUOTE=CJ82Sky;7439170]
here you go: http://www.krem.com/news/235504261.html[/QUOTE]

Wow! Thank you for sharing!

[mvp]

[QUOTE=katarine;7438940]
you acted like a cow.

You really did.

They shipped you TWO for the price of one.

Then you behaved badly because you had a sad. Poor, poor you.

They will not miss you. Some money costs too much.[/QUOTE]

Preach it, sistah.

As this thread progresses, watch the number of Thumbs up for katarine’s post vs. the Anti-Voltaire ones.

OP, you provoked the Voltaire response. Being the customer does not entitle one to be a total PITA. You admitted you were harsh. You pointed out their sending you two has, as though that was part of the mistake.
The $40 your boyfriend paid them wasn’t enough to purchase the right to be rude.

[rainechyldes]

I have to say to the OP

Coming from a professional background where I make it my business to develop long lasting client relationships and teach others how to.
And I never ever teach 'The customer is always right." Ever.

What I teach is 'Never negotiate your value."

You as the client - deserved a small smack for your rude email. If I’d received an email like your first one - I would have done some serious ‘wtf’ eyerolling no doubt. You aren’t the sweet innocently wronged victim here- you started it. Own that.

Let’s also review - you weren’t even the customer. Your BF was. So some poor CS rep got a bitchy ass email out of the blue and snapped back.

What the rep did incorrectly was email a reply - he/she should have called directly. That type of email from a customer/client whatever should never be responded to by return email.

You also got an apology.

Could have been handled better on BOTH sides. Definitely.

[Emily_amp_Jake]

OP, I don’t think your initial email was rude or snippy at all - that’s certainly not the tone I sensed when reading it.
I think you explained well the reason you weren’t happy with the product, and you did ask nicely how to return the product to them. Their return email was very unprofessional, and if that’s the way they handle the majority of their customer complaints, (as I’m sure they’ve received MUCH worse email exchanges from customers), then it is no wonder the OP says they have a teetering reputation.

And to whomever said that “good customer service means the customer is always right”, probably has not worked in retail/customer service.

[gabby.gator]

so the OP has admitted that her first email could have been worded differently, and I agree, however, for me, the bigger issue is the response.

I own my own home based business, and I treat every single person with politeness and respect, even the ones that sometimes talk to me like I’m a paid servant.

Not just because I want THEIR business, be it a $20 order, or a $5000 order, but also because of who they might refer to me, as that person could be that $5000 order.

I was once treated with extreme rudeness by a vet, I wasn’t one of their “important” clients because I only had two horses-- what they missed out on was my referral to my trainer, who had a barn of 25, and was looking for a new vet.

in another life I used to sell vacuums door to door, and one of the things we were taught was “If you leave a positive impression the homeowner will tell ten people, but if you leave a negative, they’ll tell a hundred”

that’s certainly what’s happening here

[Ruth0552]

I think I saw this on a Seinfeld episode once.

[Trail_Rider]

I have to say that this thread has put my bloomers in a bunch.

Is it possible that the OP could have been nicer? Sure. There isn’t a moment in anyone’s life where they couldn’t have stretched to be nicer. But…

Her expectation was she would receive the hat she saw at Devon. Reasonable expectation. I would have expected the same. When that didn’t happen she was disappointed in the product she received.

Good customer service is finding out the problem, and solving it if you can. If you can’t, you find out what would make your customer happy and suppy that - within reason and ability - so that you have a long-time customer.

Customer service is not snipping back at a customer. Even if they are “wrong” in your eyes. Because in their eyes, they have been disappointed in your company. You need to fix that, or you lose. To say that they are not worth being a customer because they are snippy is a sure sign your company will eventually fail. You are not listening to your customer. Nothing kills a company like not delivering to their customer. Whether it’s the product, good will, or trying harder than the other one.

There have been times when I have complained to a company, or a person, and my frustration shows through. We all have - admit it. The “you catch more flies with honey than vinegar” applies both ways. The response by the person I was losing my patience with, when nice, reasonable, thoughtful, and helpful - completely diffuses the situation and the two parties can get down to a “what’s the real issue here” solution. When I am approached that way, after a complaint, I so totally appreciate their level headed response, I want to help them understand my issues, and try very hard to keep the emotion out of the picture and get down to what the issue really is.

That exchange never happened with this company - because they refused to look at the situation as a “customer service” oriented company. They took offense to the request from their customer and lashed back. No thought to what the issue was or how they could help. Basically they said - sorry about your luck, here’s a label to send back your [stuff] and by the way, leave us alone we don’t like you. Gads. That will get you customers.

This post does, absolutely, sway my decision on who to do business with. Certainly won’t be Voltaire. I want to do business with someone who will listen to their customer, good ad bad. Someone who wants to help their customer, and resolve issues. This company provided none of this.

Whether it’s a $20.00 hat or a $10,000 saddle. It doesn’t matter. The company’s philosophy of customer service comes through in both instances. Both items are made by the company. Both items should be considered a representation of the company. Both items should be backed by the same philosophy, and good customer service should be given to those buying both items. If not, I don’t want their merchandise because they cater to the “haves” because they have the $ and the power that goes along with it. I want the company that bends over backwards for the guy who buys the $20.00 hat. That company shines in my eyes.

Every time a company interacts with a customer they are either promoting good will or destroying it. This company chose to destroy their relationship with this customer. So very sad. It could have been so easy for them to put it all in a positive light and pleasantly please their customer.

[Trail_Rider]

I have to say that this thread has put my bloomers in a bunch.

Is it possible that the OP could have been nicer? Sure. There isn’t a moment in anyone’s life where they couldn’t have stretched to be nicer. But…

Her expectation was she would receive the hat she saw at Devon. Reasonable expectation. I would have expected the same. When that didn’t happen she was disappointed in the product she received.

Good customer service is finding out the problem, and solving it if you can. If you can’t, you find out what would make your customer happy and suppy that - within reason and ability - so that you have a long-time customer.

Customer service is not snipping back at a customer. Even if they are “wrong” in your eyes. Because in their eyes, they have been disappointed in your company. You need to fix that, or you lose. To say that they are not worth being a customer because they are snippy is a sure sign your company will eventually fail. You are not listening to your customer. Nothing kills a company like not delivering to their customer. Whether it’s the product, good will, or trying harder than the other one.

There have been times when I have complained to a company, or a person, and my frustration shows through. We all have - admit it. The “you catch more flies with honey than vinegar” applies both ways. The response by the person I was losing my patience with, when nice, reasonable, thoughtful, and helpful - completely diffuses the situation and the two parties can get down to a “what’s the real issue here” solution. When I am approached that way, after a complaint, I so totally appreciate their level headed response, I want to help them understand my issues, and try very hard to keep the emotion out of the picture and get down to what the issue really is.

That exchange never happened with this company - because they refused to look at the situation as a “customer service” oriented company. They took offense to the request from their customer and lashed back. No thought to what the issue was or how they could help. Basically they said - sorry about your luck, here’s a label to send back your shit and by the way, leave us alone we don’t like you. Gads. That will get you customers.

This post does, absolutely, sway my decision on who to do business with. Certainly won’t be Voltaire. I want to do business with someone who will listen to their customer, good ad bad. Someone who wants to help their customer, and resolve issues. This company provided none of this.

Whether it’s a $20.00 hat or a $10,000 saddle. It doesn’t matter. The company’s philosophy of customer service comes through in both instances. Both items are made by the company. Both items should be considered a representation of the company. Both items should be backed by the same philosophy, and good customer service should be given to those buying both items. If not, I don’t want their merchandise because they cater to the “haves” because they have the $ and the power that goes along with it. I want the company that bends over backwards for the guy who buys the $20.00 hat. That company shines in my eyes.

Every time a company interacts with a customer they are either promoting good will or destroying it. This company chose to destroy their relationship with this customer. So very sad. It could have been so easy for them to put it all in a positive light and pleasantly please their customer.

[Dispatcher]

Sounds to me like a typical response from a Frenchman to the hated American.

[Pennywell_Bay]

OP has owned her email was not worded appropriately. You sound young, don’t know if that is accurate (can’t perceive tone from email or posts, people). Frequently, when returning an item, you are asked “why”. I believe that saying you felt that the craftmanship was lacking as opposed to what you saw at Devon was fair.

Dealing with rude people is part of retail. A customer buying a $20 dollar hat may be a customer who is buying a $5000 saddle. I have wanted to lose my S%&t on a few of my customers (not in retail). Thankfully, I am most likely not dealing with the volume V. is dealing with and fielding issues from us high maintenance horse people. =)

Considering the visceral reaction from both parties (shame on a company for that though, they are the “professional”), hopefully they will both learn to take a minutes before crafting an email. In life, it pays to slow down and think about how you are going to come accross. A carefully worded, professional email (from both parties in this case) will glean a better reaction. Hey, maybe you could have received 3 hats!!

Take it as a life lesson and move on. (for what its worth, I still wear a chocolate brown “Devon” hat. Years later, it is faded and worn but still my favorite hat). Devon is only ~ 3 months away. Hopefully your hat will be there!

And give your BF a big hug for this. It is a great thought and I am sure he is uncomfortable with the situation swirling around his thougthful (and properly trained) gesture caused.

[Claude_Mode]

Good morning everyone,

My name is Claude Mode and I am the one who sent the answers to our customer. I usually do not respond to any post as I think everybody has the right to say what they think about us (The good as well as the bad). I was not even registered to this forum until today.
I would like to say that this will be my first and last message as I do not want to go and go with this problem that for me was resolved on Monday. I just want to have the right to answer to something I am directly concerned.
I apologize in advance about my english that is not perfect.
I received an order for a hat from the boyfriend of this customer. I understood that this order was placed a few days before Valentine’s Day and I decided to send two hats instead of one to be nice to them so they can match this day.

I received an email last Sunday (you can read it, this is the first one) and I was chocked (you sent me poor quality hat, the brown color is unattractive, you sent me two poor quality hats instead of one nice…)
I am sorry, on my side I felt like I did everything wrong and I responded to this email the wrong way I admit.
I can understand a customer who does not like something and ask for a refund, I have no problem with that, but I felt bad this Sunday night, peoples who know me, know how I am dedicated to our customers, each of them, the one who is buying a jar of soap or the one who is buying 3 custom saddles the same day. I just could not accept all these words just to ask for a refund for a hat. We can respect each other even if we have a problem.
This is my personality, and I am sorry again about the messages I sent you.
I already apologized to you, I refunded your boyfriend credit card on Monday morning before getting the product back, I sent you a prepaid UPS Label to ship the hats back to us, I also proposed you to keep them for free.
What else do you want me to do? Please let me know.
I just want to say that I am speaking under my name today, not under Voltaire Design’s name. Nobody at Voltaire know what happened with this order and the entire story. they probably will now as you decided to post on this forum. I may get fired, but I cannot let you say that we have a bad customer service, just by respect for all our employees who are working hard every day.
I did a mistake, I apologized to you, it looks that it was not enough as you decided to go further and post on the Chronicle, so I apologize again in front of everyone.

Have a nice day

Claude Mode

[Pennywell_Bay]

[QUOTE=Claude Mode;7439305]
Good morning everyone,

My name is Claude Mode and I am the one who sent the answers to our customer. I usually do not respond to any post as I think everybody has the right to say what they think about us (The good as well as the bad). I was not even registered to this forum until today.
I would like to say that this will be my first and last message as I do not want to go and go with this problem that for me was resolved on Monday. I just want to have the right to answer to something I am directly concerned.
I apologize in advance about my english that is not perfect.
I received an order for a hat from the boyfriend of this customer. I understood that this order was placed a few days before Valentine’s Day and I decided to send two hats instead of one to be nice to them so they can match this day.

I received an email last Sunday (you can read it, this is the first one) and I was chocked (you sent me poor quality hat, the brown color is unattractive, you sent me two poor quality hats instead of one nice…)
I am sorry, on my side I felt like I did everything wrong and I responded to this email the wrong way I admit.
I can understand a customer who does not like something and ask for a refund, I have no problem with that, but I felt bad this Sunday night, peoples who know me, know how I am dedicated to our customers, each of them, the one who is buying a jar of soap or the one who is buying 3 custom saddles the same day. I just could not accept all these words just to ask for a refund for a hat. We can respect each other even if we have a problem.
This is my personality, and I am sorry again about the messages I sent you.
I already apologized to you, I refunded your boyfriend credit card on Monday morning before getting the product back, I sent you a prepaid UPS Label to ship the hats back to us, I also proposed you to keep them for free.
What else do you want me to do? Please let me know.
I just want to say that I am speaking under my name today, not under Voltaire Design’s name. Nobody at Voltaire know what happened with this order and the entire story. they probably will now as you decided to post on this forum. I may get fired, but I cannot let you say that we have a bad customer service, just by respect for all our employees who are working hard every day.
I did a mistake, I apologized to you, it looks that it was not enough as you decided to go further and post on the Chronicle, so I apologize again in front of everyone.

Have a nice day

Claude Mode[/QUOTE]

^^^^ Very nice and thanks for the “other side”. I certainly hope you do not get fired over this thread. At the end of the day, we are all human.

[Dispatcher]

[QUOTE=Claude Mode;7439305]
Good morning everyone,

My name is Claude Mode and I am the one who sent the answers to our customer. I usually do not respond to any post as I think everybody has the right to say what they think about us (The good as well as the bad). I was not even registered to this forum until today.
I would like to say that this will be my first and last message as I do not want to go and go with this problem that for me was resolved on Monday. I just want to have the right to answer to something I am directly concerned.
I apologize in advance about my english that is not perfect.
I received an order for a hat from the boyfriend of this customer. I understood that this order was placed a few days before Valentine’s Day and I decided to send two hats instead of one to be nice to them so they can match this day.

I received an email last Sunday (you can read it, this is the first one) and I was chocked (you sent me poor quality hat, the brown color is unattractive, you sent me two poor quality hats instead of one nice…)
I am sorry, on my side I felt like I did everything wrong and I responded to this email the wrong way I admit.
I can understand a customer who does not like something and ask for a refund, I have no problem with that, but I felt bad this Sunday night, peoples who know me, know how I am dedicated to our customers, each of them, the one who is buying a jar of soap or the one who is buying 3 custom saddles the same day. I just could not accept all these words just to ask for a refund for a hat. We can respect each other even if we have a problem.
This is my personality, and I am sorry again about the messages I sent you.
I already apologized to you, I refunded your boyfriend credit card on Monday morning before getting the product back, I sent you a prepaid UPS Label to ship the hats back to us, I also proposed you to keep them for free.
What else do you want me to do? Please let me know.
I just want to say that I am speaking under my name today, not under Voltaire Design’s name. Nobody at Voltaire know what happened with this order and the entire story. they probably will now as you decided to post on this forum. I may get fired, but I cannot let you say that we have a bad customer service, just by respect for all our employees who are working hard every day.
I did a mistake, I apologized to you, it looks that it was not enough as you decided to go further and post on the Chronicle, so I apologize again in front of everyone.

Have a nice day

Claude Mode[/QUOTE]

Well, you represent the company and you threw your emotions into a Customer Service problem. So, yes, your company will be judged by your actions.

I certainly don’t think your should lose your job over this, but you clearly need more training in how to control yourself with customers. Or else, find a different position within the company. It seems your personality does not fit in with Customer Service, regardless of how much you apologized and refunded.

[katarine]

Well, the OP got her pound of flesh.
I hope she’s finally happy.

Yes, Claude reacted unprofessionally. You bet. Absolutely

So maybe she’ll be delighted if they fire him. VICTORY!

She laid a trap.She was mad and dare say, offended by the mere existence of the poor hats.

A reasonable, rational, and decent human being would have a) considered that their boyfriend tried to please them with this gift. Instead she blew the entire thing out of proportion. I hope he learned his lesson.

A reasonable, rational, and decent human being would have emailed and asked about their return process, period.

A reasonable, rational, and decent human being would have put the whole thing in perspective and just said well, shoot- I guess they changed something, this is not what I expected. This is not a $4000 custom saddle. It’s a HAT. A BALLCAP.

So maybe the OP finally has her victory. Claude is sweating bullets over caring too much, being too close, and being offended on behalf of his employer. Yes, he messed up. But BOY she wanted a fight, and she got one. Congratulations, OP! You win this piss poor attitude game. How thrilling for you.

[cnvh]

My .02…

I think OP’s initial email was a bit snarky, but certainly nothing deserving the initial reply. Nice of Mr. Mode to come on here and attempt to address this issue, but I wonder if there are some cultural differences at play here? Because to be honest, if I had gotten that kind of response from a company, I would probably be blasting it around the internet as well… But maybe the standards of customer relations are different across the pond than they are here.

For a minute, imagine if SmartPak had sent that reply to a customer complaint… The CotH servers would probably explode. :lol:

[bambam]

You sent an unnecessarily snipey email and got a response in the same vein
Should he have taken the high road when you took the low one because he is in customer service? Absolutely, no question.
But self-righteous indignation when you reaped what you sowed (and even when you got an apology) ??? Sorry, not seeing it.