blog-o-shery: January 2005

Entries "January 2005":

Monday, January 31, 2005

Cutting Jack off

I have a personal rule: Some customers are not worth the trouble of trying to keep them! Issue a refund at the first sign of trouble.

I know... it may sound like a rash decision, but hey, I'll run my business the way I want! Nah, kidding aside. There are occasions when it's wiser to simply refund a customer than to try keeping him and doing things to satisfy/appease him (e.g., some would suggest giving a complaining or loud customer additional products, discounts, etc.). Why?

Case in point: A couple of weeks ago, someone bought a product I was selling at a special discount. Let's call him Jack. Before Jack purchased my program, he would have gone through my product information page and read exactly how the ordering process would go -- from purchase to product delivery.

As soon as I received Jack's order (which was practically a few minutes later), I sent him his order details and download instructions. Jack came back with this reply: "User ID: ****4 Please send registration key. Note: Could you have made this a little more complicated?"

I supplied Jack his registration key along with the question: "Pardon me for not understanding what you meant by your note -- "Could you have made this a little more complicated?" Could you please enlighten me? Was the ordering and download process complicated? I'd appreciate your feedback so I can improve the process and make it easier on others."

(Note that a registration key was required for the product was explained to Jack on the product page, on the page after his order was processed, and the third time in my e-mail acknowledging his order, and that it's a one-time thing.)

Jack came back with: "My note, "could you have made it more complicated" was sarcasm. I have downloaded many programs from the Internet, and never had to go thru the steps required by your program. You could, for example, include the registration code in the original email, or you could have a built in code. In other words, your medthod is not so complicated as it is ANNOYING.

Now, I just cut and pasted the registration code you gave me and pasted it into the dialog box when I started up the program....it would not accept the registration code you gave me. What now?"

(There was only 1 step in order to activate the program after downloading -- that is, copy the User ID and e-mail it to me so I can generate a key for it.)

I gave Jack his key again and added: "Please make sure that when you highlight and copy the registration key, there are no extra spacings before or after it.

Regarding the registration code -- the registration key is different for every download, because the program gets tagged with a different user ID for each computer it is downloaded to as a security feature. Thus, it's not possible to include the registration code in the original e-mail since I do not know the user ID of the customer who downloads it unless he/she lets me know. However, the registration code needs to be keyed in only once to unlock the program, so licensed users are not bothered or annoyed anymore into having to input it everytime they use the software."

(I had to secure my software to protect it from being passed along indiscriminately and at the same time protect licensed users who paid for it.)

A few minutes later, Jack came back with a rather indignant e-mail: "With all due respect, I know how to cut and paste, and I know about extra spacings,etc. Those things are basic. When I open the program, I get a Registration dialog box. The box asks me to enter a User Key. I enter the Registration key you sent to me, but it does not accept it. I have done it several times with the same results. If we cannot get this fixed, I think it would be a good idea to cancel the purchase. Please give me a solution or tell me what we need to do to cancel the purchase."

My response: "Hi, Jack. I meant no disrespect earlier when I suggested to make sure that there are no extra spacings when you cut and paste. I've had a couple of customers who experienced this problem and found out that when they were highlighting and pasting, they were accidentally including an extra space or so. My suggestion was not meant to imply that you didn't know about basic things such as copying and pasting. I have no knowledge of your computer proficiency, and I was only providing troubleshooting support.

The user ID you gave me was this: ****4 and the registration key generated by the program I used to compile the program is this: ***-***-***-*** . The user ID will only work with one registration key, and vice versa.

I'll go ahead and refund your purchase. You'll receive an e-mail from the our online processor as soon as they've refunded your order."

A few minutes later, his response made me glad I decided not to keep the money of this troublesome customer: "It makes me cringe to acknowledge it, but the number I sent you was wrong. I should have sent ****1...not ****4. Whether I like your system or not, I guess if I provide you with the wrong number, I can only expect the wrong number in return.

However, since you are in the process of cancelling my order, I will let it go at that. I'm sure your program is a good program, but I would not want to jump thru all those hoops again just to get it. By the way, perhaps you would re-send me the free version of the program. I deleted it when I thought I would be buying the full version."

I resisted the urge to tell him to go take a hike, get better glasses and realize that just because he paid me, he has a right to start acting impolitely ;o) I'm sure if I'd retained him as my customer (since the product included free updates), he'd have been an abusive customer -- the kind any seller would wish she'd given a refund and gotten rid of a long time ago ;o)

A few hours later, 5 orders for the same software came in, and all 5 customers had nary a complaint about the process!

And that, my friend, is why I believe some customers are not worth the trouble of trying to keep them. It's more prudent to cut them off by issuing them a refund at the first sign of trouble than risking bigger problems with them down the road.

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Posted by: sheryruss in: today's blog-o-shery