anal sphincter muscles at Sporty's just lost a customer

I could have avoided the problem by not adding in the noncritical item.

I could have avoided the problem by phoning in the order instead of
using the web.


****WARNING - DEVIL'S ADVOCATE AHEAD****

When the order hit the shipping department, if they had said, "Well its not
the entire order, so we'll wait until we hear from him to determine whether
to ship it or not". Then when they can't reach you to determine what to do,
they don't ship ANYTHING because they don't want to overnight the wrong
part. I would be more furious with that scenario.

If you were in DIRE need of the hood and agreed to pay for overnight
shipping....and oh yeah throw in some new approach plates too. Wouldn't you
now be singing the praises of how efficient Sporty's is? How were they to
know which part was needed in a hurry?

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 12:53:55 -0500, Jeff Franks
wrote:

When the order hit the shipping department, if they had said, "Well its not
the entire order, so we'll wait until we hear from him to determine whether
to ship it or not". Then when they can't reach you to determine what to do,
they don't ship ANYTHING because they don't want to overnight the wrong
part. I would be more furious with that scenario.

If you were in DIRE need of the hood and agreed to pay for overnight
shipping....and oh yeah throw in some new approach plates too. Wouldn't you
now be singing the praises of how efficient Sporty's is? How were they to
know which part was needed in a hurry?

This is not entirely unreasonable from a distance. Thing is, someone
from the cutomer service department took the time and trouble (i.e.
did what they're supposed to be paid to do) to call and leave a voice
message, but left out 2 key elements: 1) that they would proceed with
the partial shipment, and 2) that if it wasn't my preference, to call
back before [some arbitrary time]. Even then, I did call them back,
only a few minutes after [some arbitrary time]. If they had handled
that half-assed voice message properly in the first place, when I didn't
get it in time, I might have been inclined to be more "reasonable" about
the situation.

Put things in the worst possible light (for me): they tried their best
and had to guess my wishes. They guessed wrong even if they tried to
do the Right Thing. I still say they should eat the extra cost of the
wrong guess just to keep a repeat customer happy. Anything less than
that might or might not be tolerable. Today, I don't find it tolerable.
Tomorrow, I might quietly accept it and just find another supplier.
Last week, I might just shrug it off and continue doing business with
them. Next month, who knows?

Most customers won't blow a gasket and go nonlinear in this situation.
As I acknowledged before, it's minor in the Grand Scheme of Things. One
doesn't have a very happy life if one can't let go of the small stuff.
It's really the cumulative effect of a lot of small stuff (and some big
stuff) that primes the fuse for the next one.

Besides, IFR hoods aren't exactly so rare that I would be desperate to
buy one from Sporty's on the day the charts roll over.

Compare this to another situation on this thread:

| I've been very happy with mypilotstore.com-- they once made good on a
| misunderstanding that was mostly my fault. I've had my chart subscription
| with them ever since (a year or so).

This is how to handle customer service issues and the result is a loyal,
happy customer. If you can't compete on price (and Sporty's doesn't),
what else do you have to go on?

This is the highest possible recommendation. Last time I looked at
mypilotstore.com, they didn't have Canadian charts. Now that they do,
guess where I'm going to be buy my charts from now on.


Morris (with thanks for the recommendations of alternate suppliers)

Besides, IFR hoods aren't exactly so rare that I would be desperate to
buy one from Sporty's on the day the charts roll over.


LOL, I thought about that as I typed it....was wishing you had "thrown in"
something to your order that made more sense that you MIGHT someday need in
a hurry

Compare this to another situation on this thread:

| I've been very happy with mypilotstore.com-- they once made good on a
| misunderstanding that was mostly my fault. I've had my chart
subscription
| with them ever since (a year or so).

This is how to handle customer service issues and the result is a loyal,
happy customer. If you can't compete on price (and Sporty's doesn't),
what else do you have to go on?


Agreed. I don't usually do the Sporty's route either. Being that I work
daily in customer service, I just wanted the opportunity to argue with a
"customer" 8^). Right or wrong, they don't appear to be going out of their
way in the slightest to help. That's not a good perception from a customers
point of view.

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 15:23:36 -0500, Jeff Franks
wrote:

This is how to handle customer service issues and the result is a loyal,
happy customer. If you can't compete on price (and Sporty's doesn't),
what else do you have to go on?


Agreed. I don't usually do the Sporty's route either. Being that I work
daily in customer service, I just wanted the opportunity to argue with a
"customer" 8^). Right or wrong, they don't appear to be going out of their
way in the slightest to help. That's not a good perception from a customers
point of view.

And that boils down to my entire point. It's about how well a company
does exception handling. In software and in customer service, the
bulk of the effort goes into those supposedly rare conditions.

If your solution is to blow of the one unhappy customer, you're also
blowing off that customer's future orders which will go smoothly
on average. Right or wrong, when an exception happens, my expectation
is for them to go the extra mile.


Morris

journeyman wrote:

Most customers won't blow a gasket and go nonlinear in this situation.

No kidding.

Tim

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 13:02:10 -0700, Tim Bengtson
wrote:

Most customers won't blow a gasket and go nonlinear in this situation.

No kidding.

But the 9, 99, or 999 incidents (depending on your fuse length), which
have nothing to do with Sporty's (in this case) will prime that pump.

I know a guy whose fuse is set at 1 and has had what can only be
described as a wasted life. He's invariably right and articulate in
arguing his case, but that kind of energy is usually better spent
fighting bigger battles.

I am really sufficiently vented on this and ready to move on...


Morris

In a previous article, (journeyman) said:
the partial shipment, and 2) that if it wasn't my preference, to call
back before [some arbitrary time]. Even then, I did call them back,

Most warehouses are not manned 24 hours a day, and even if they are, it
would be rare indeed to find customer service and the warehouse
communicate with each other outside of regular business hours. I don't
see how "call before 5pm" should need to be spelled out.

Besides, IFR hoods aren't exactly so rare that I would be desperate to
buy one from Sporty's on the day the charts roll over.

Do you know many pilots who work as stock pickers and shippers in a
warehouse? Because if you only want to deal with companies where the
person packing stuff knows what it is and exactly what it's used for,
you're going to have to restrict yourself to operations a LOT smaller than
Sporty's.


--
Paul Tomblin , not speaking for anybody
"It's 106 light-years to Chicago, we've got a full chamber of anti-matter,
a half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing visors."
"Engage."