Dealing with angry customers

[Falcon_LS]

Had a customer in today, screaming at one of the parts guys and causing a scene. The guy has a '02 Town Car, and wanted to buy spark plugs, but $2.90 per plug for platinum Motorcrafts was apparently too much for him, when he could get "plugs" for $1 outside the dealership.

So I tried dealing with him nicely, explaining what he was buying was probably copper, which we do not stock and that these were platinum and good enough for at least 100,000 km (62,500 miles). In return, I was accused of being a "thief" and was told that "even Mercedes plugs are cheaper". We have a '05 ML500 in the household, which has twin spark plugs per cylinder that cost $8.80 each.

I ended up telling him he was disturbing other customers, and that we did not want his business. So he ended up going to the Aftersales Manager and making a formal complaint against me by name. Thankfully no action is being taken, because the AM said he would have done the same. But the nerve some people have cause a scene for $23.

 

[CivicFan]

You never tell a customer that you do not want his or her business. You live in Middle East, and it must be a big no-no in Kuwait as it is anywhere else I have been in the region.

Is the dealership American owned? I would be surprised to see such poor customer service if it was Arab owned.

 

[Pablo]

He must have been a BITOG BOGO guy. Under $3 for Plat is good. Under $6-$7 for Iridium good.

It's tough to handle nasty (wrong) customers. Kinda off topic, as my businesses are all online - but without being face to face, people are actually worse (they think they are protected or something). Here's the funny part. We get complaints and a lot of them - about parts we don't even sell. People ranting and raving about some carb needle or some kind of cheapie part that we wouldn't dare sell. If I can get a question in, they usually think we are some other company......crikey if you are going to make a fool of yourself, get the company right (We don't actually get many complaints at all about our stuff).

Bottom line: Calm, collected, legitimate complaints will be heard and acted on.

 

[The_Jeff]

Some people are wired to try to bargain with anger and not logic. These same idiots create friction when they're shopping for a used car, lambasting chocolate-colored oil as being "way overdue" and generally getting way too personal, ie your "thief" comment.

One scam that comes to mind is someone buying an $8 item with a $10 then angrily demanding $12 in change, because they just gave you a $20, and you made a mistake. Imagine the fake anger that follows. It's just the right amount of money that most give in.

 

[Pablo]

Originally Posted By: CivicFan
You never tell a customer that you do not want his or her business.


Never tell them that to their face. But there ARE customers you simply do not want to sell to. It's just not worth it.

 

[CivicFan]

Originally Posted By: Pablo
Originally Posted By: CivicFan
You never tell a customer that you do not want his or her business.


Never tell them that to their face. But there ARE customers you simply do not want to sell to. It's just not worth it.


Exactly. There are ways of dealing with difficult customers and this is not one of them.

I don't know if you have lived in a Middle Eastern country. The customer is truly the king there. The ladies will go out shopping and are invited into the stores to have tea and sweets. As soon as a regular customer walks in, they are offered coffee or tea and a small chit-chat ensues. they frequently round down the total.

It's an amazing treatment.

 

[RTexasF]

I disagree with you never tell a customer that (no matter where you live). With an out of control moron like that you have little choice especially after you have calmly explained things and are accused of being a thief. I would have done exactly the same.

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

I would have done the exact thing you did.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Originally Posted By: CivicFan
You never tell a customer that you do not want his or her business. You live in Middle East, and it must be a big no-no in Kuwait as it is anywhere else I have been in the region.

Is the dealership American owned? I would be surprised to see such poor customer service if it was Arab owned.


The dealership is Kuwaiti owned, although there is a fine line that the customers are expected not to cross. Calling someone a thief (or any other insult directed at an employee), just because they work there, is actually grounds for a lawsuit. In the public sector, this sort of treatment has zero tolerance and he would have gotten a six month prison sentence.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Some people are wired to try to bargain with anger and not logic.


I kid you not, there are people who sit 4 hours in the manager's office for a $7 discount, in addition to a 20% discount they have been given on a fast moving item.

Customers here are very full of themselves. At one point, I made a chart of cooling system capacities for popular cars, because customers don't even know what their cooling system capacity is. I got people accusing me of 'ripping them off when all the car needs is one gallon (4 gallon total capacity)' so I stopped being overly helpful, unless that polite customer with a smile walks in, willing to listen and understand instead of barking away. You also have geniuses who claim coolant is just for new cars and if the car is old, it'll run 'fine' on tap water.

 

[bullwinkle]

Sometimes you're better off letting the "hurricane" blow itself out, put on a big plastic smile, and tell them that Genuine Motorcraft plugs are far superior to the generic no-names they can get elsewhere. And if they're such a good deal, then go try them, and let us know in a few years how they did? Unfortunately in my dealings with that kind of customer-if you give them a break when they act like that, like a spoiled child it just encourages them to do it more.

 

[chad8]

Originally Posted By: Falcon_LS
Had a customer in today, screaming at one of the parts guys and causing a scene. The guy has a '02 Town Car, and wanted to buy spark plugs, but $2.90 per plug for platinum Motorcrafts was apparently too much for him, when he could get "plugs" for $1 outside the dealership.

So I tried dealing with him nicely, explaining what he was buying was probably copper, which we do not stock and that these were platinum and good enough for at least 100,000 km (62,500 miles). In return, I was accused of being a "thief" and was told that "even Mercedes plugs are cheaper". We have a '05 ML500 in the household, which has twin spark plugs per cylinder that cost $8.80 each.

I ended up telling him he was disturbing other customers, and that we did not want his business. So he ended up going to the Aftersales Manager and making a formal complaint against me by name. Thankfully no action is being taken, because the AM said he would have done the same. But the nerve some people have cause a scene for $23.

Here is the Rock auto price.you thief...
I wonder if it a cultural thing to try and bargain that way?

MOTORCRAFT Part # SP493 More Information About this Part {Click Info Link for Alternate/OEM Part Numbers3L1E12405AA, AGSF32PM, AGSF32PMF4, AGSF32PMF6} Single Platinum; Platinum Spark Plug
Suppressor Spark Plug PLATINUM - NICKEL PLATED SHELL
Gap: .054

Part Image
$2.51
Add to Cart

 

[Falcon_LS]

Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
Sometimes you're better off letting the "hurricane" blow itself out, put on a big plastic smile, and tell them that Genuine Motorcraft plugs are far superior to the generic no-names they can get elsewhere. And if they're such a good deal, then go try them, and let us know in a few years how they did? Unfortunately in my dealings with that kind of customer-if you give them a break when they act like that, like a spoiled child it just encourages them to do it more.


Good point, it does become difficult to deal with people sometimes.

Originally Posted By: chad8
I wonder if it a cultural thing to try and bargain that way?


I wouldn't say cultural, but rather people are conditioned to behave in a certain manner when they don't get their way. My father, who is an Endodontist, used to complain about the way patients behave, and I'm also hearing the same stories from my high school friends who are now in the medical field and working for the government. It's always a case of "If you won't do what I want, then I'll get the manager and make you do what I want". There are examples where people have lost their jobs, because a certain customer has higher up contacts in the company and wasn't happy with them.

 

[bigmike]

Originally Posted By: Falcon_LS
Originally Posted By: CivicFan
You never tell a customer that you do not want his or her business. You live in Middle East, and it must be a big no-no in Kuwait as it is anywhere else I have been in the region.

Is the dealership American owned? I would be surprised to see such poor customer service if it was Arab owned.


The dealership is Kuwaiti owned, although there is a fine line that the customers are expected not to cross. Calling someone a thief (or any other insult directed at an employee), just because they work there, is actually grounds for a lawsuit. In the public sector, this sort of treatment has zero tolerance and he would have gotten a six month prison sentence.


I think you hit it on the head. The customer is no longer a customer when he starts calling you a thief. In my line of work, that gets you an escort out of the building.

 

[Eosyn]

you know, maybe you could put up a sign at your store that reads: "ALL of our customers make us happy. Some by coming, others by leaving."

It's a good way to lighten up the mood and have a laugh.

 

[javacontour]

I've "fired" customers before. I usually call my manager and let him know before I do it, so he's not blind-sided with an irate customer.

I had one this past weekend. Wanted me to drive 50+ miles at 1AM to put Solaris media in a drive because they couldn't boot the machine.

I told my boss I wasn't going to go since that's not a contract service. We are not a customer's personal services group when they decide to use folks in India to manage their data center.

I then e-mailed the customer with a CC: to my boss indicating that I wasn't coming out because this was not a contract service. I also reminded them that since the cabinets in the data center are locked, someone from operations had to open the cabinet. I suggested they have that person insert the media so they can test.

That's one of the more 'mild' cases. I've walked out of places where the folks were just out of control. Some customers try to hold an engineer 'hostage,' not letting him go until some other vendor's issue is solved.

Oh, the same group that wanted me to stick around this weekend, earlier in the same day kept me waiting two hours from 5am to 7am before we started an upgrade on a system scheduled to begin at 5am. When it was almost time to start, they sprung another down system on me, and then wondered why I had to leave to get the part. (Faster than waiting for the logistics folks to locate a courier and hope he/she can find me.)

After I did the upgrade and got the other system back up, they indicated I had to stick around 2 or 3 hours while they patched the system.

I politely said no, I had three other service calls and if they had an issue with the system, to call me.

I spent 7 hours on their site before moving on to two other calls that afternoon, and a third at 11pm Saturday night. The overtime will be good, but it sure messes with my sleep and mood from time to time.

 

[CivicFan]

You know, it's the customer that pays your salary. The business world is littered with companies who treated their customers like garbage.

 

[bigmike]

I haven't seen anyone say they treated a customer like garbage.

 

[saberz]

Actually it is not all the uncommon for these occurances to occur in the Middle East. I know all to well that "some" of us(Middle Eastern decent) can be very very haggle minded. It is not worth the aggrivation, because if you give in to them once, they will continually hound you in the future. You did the right thing.

Back in 2001 my friend(RIP) was a Mechanic at his fathers shop and given the area we live in its very Arab/Circassian populated (Haledon NJ) and a guy came into his shop and dropped a car off for repair. He said "Do whatever it takes to get it running right". My friend called the guy and told him what was up with the car and he gave him the price and said it was ok. Friend does the work, guy comes down and starts screaming about the $300 repair job. Saying that he could have had the dealer do it for less, and that he could have gotten cheaper parts this and that. My friend was like if you want it cheaper, I'll take out the new parts, put your old parts in and you take it somewhere else, but you still have to pay me labor. Guy flipped out, friends father came out and they were talking in arabic back and forth(guy was haggling) and his father got [censored] at him to. He told his son to lower the charge and told the guy to NEVER come back.

Middle East is the same thing, my family is from Syria and the stories I heard from them is ridiculous. Cut your losses now and be done with him.

 

[Falcon_LS]

Originally Posted By: CivicFan
You know, it's the customer that pays your salary. The business world is littered with companies who treated their customers like garbage.


I'm very well aware of that, and I do try to make a difference provided I am respected in return. I am there to help him, that is my job and what I get paid to do. But I can only do my job if he is willing to cooperate. He does not own me, nor does he have the right to disturb and delay other customers who are there, just because he's buying a set of spark plugs for $23 and isn't happy with the price.

I went up to him nicely, asked if I could be of assistance. I explained the difference between his $1 spark plug and the $2.90 Motorcraft Platinum, and how it could save him money in the long term. What else was I supposed to do? Award him a discount I could not give, or pay for his plugs out of my own pocket?

At the end of the day, Lincoln is an upmarket brand, not one that's supposed to cater to cost-conscious people. If he cannot afford to maintain a Lincoln, regardless of which one he owns, he shouldn't have bought it in the first place. If he was behaving this way at the Mercedes or Lexus dealership across the road, he would have been escorted out by security. They do not want people to associate their brand with "customers" like this one.