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I have been in the computer service business going on 15 years and have learned a thing or two about what makes people delighted and what drives then stark raving mad.
There are a couple of cardinal rules that B&N broke that will kill any company in the long run.
Cardinal rule 1: Its not the mistake that matters but what you do about it. They should clearly pay for postage and make it easy for you to return the book. Given they did neither they should give it to you for free.
Cardinal rule 2: Service is all relative to expectations. If someone is expecting it to take 4 weeks and you deliver in 2 they will be much happier that the person who expects 1 week and it is delivered in 2. The morale here is don’t make commitments you can’t keep and always strive to beat your commitments.
Cardinal rule 3: Half of service is an attitude. If there is a mistake you can’t make it the customers problem. Telling them that they used the wrong process (didn’t e-mail for the sticker) is a loosing proposition every time. If they used the wrong process it is the company fault for not make the correct one intuitivly obvious.
In the end they should have got you the right book and probably given you a gift certificate for another. The value of a loyal customer is 25 times what it costs to fix a problem. You will probably never buy a thing there again. More importantly, happy customers tell three friends about their experiences. Unhappy customers tell 10 friends how unhappy they are
On the other hand.....
Having been on the other side let me also tell you my theory on how this happened
1. Amazon and B&N are growing at 300% per year with an enormous bulge of orders at Christmas time.
2. In order to handle this growth you have to hire constantly and train constantly.
3. Your chances of getting someone new who hasn’t learned the return policy or hasn’t been doing their job long at these two places is high.
4. Most times when you get an attitude problem the person has just gone through a divorce or their car is broken down or they are working double shifts around Christmas and are totally stressed out.
I wish I knew as much about boat building.
Jack
> Sorry if this is slightly off topic, but I'm writing this to save you all
> the trouble that I've went through.
> I ordered the book "Kayakcraft" from amazon.com. I've never had
> any problems with them so I put in the order. A few days later the book
> didn't come (Amazon and I are both in Seattle so it doesn't take long). I
> looked at it again and it said that it normally takes 2-3 weeks to ship. I
> didn't want to wait that long so I canceled the order and ordered it
> through bn.com (barnes and noble). BIG MISTAKE!!!
> On December 3, 1999 I put the order through bn.com. About 3 days later I
> received a book from bn.com. Yipee!!! (NOT) It was a book on building
> clocks (Stupid Dolts), the order form included in the box did say
> "Kayakcraft". They had a form in the box that was supposed to be
> a simple way to return the book. I checked the box on the form that said
> it was the wrong book. I also checked the box that said I wanted them to
> send me the right book, not that I wanted a return.
> I thought about the postage it was going to cost to send the book back, so
> I e-mailed them to find out how I was going to get my postage back for
> their mistake. They said that I would be reimbursed when they got the
> book.
> I periodically would check the status of my order and it would always say
> that it was complete. I sent message after message asking where it was
> with no reply.
> Today (12-27-99) I finally got 2 replies. The first said that returns can
> take a month to process (what's the deal with that?) and that next time I
> should e-mail them and they will send me a special sticker that will
> provide the postage back (like I didn't e-mail them). The second reply
> stated that they received my book and they credited me the amount of the
> book. Stupid dolts again, I asked for the right book, not a return.
> So where am I now? I'm right where I started, no book, out almost 4 weeks
> total waiting, and out $3.91 for postage. Stupid Barnes and Noble!
This is an archived message from The Kayak Building Bulletin Board.
Guillemot Kayak - High
Performance Wooden Sea Kayak Designs
