Most Unreasonable Customer Story
Where Do These People Come From?
Through 17 years of shipping hundreds of products a year, and wholesale products in over 100 stores, we’ve suffered through many jerks, unreasonable customers, and undeserved chargebacks.
But if I had to one incident that was most ridiculous, it involved a couple who called to complain that our huckleberry-almond granola product was stale.
That tasty product was one of our top selling goodies at the time, and we got rave reviews, so I was surprised. I dug a little deeper.
Turns out, they had purchased a gift basket from a retailer (one of our wholesale customers) in the Boise area. The store had included our granola in their collection, and put one in this particular basket.
We followed the paper trail.
The granola was sold to the retailer in November, the gift basket was purchased in December according to the couple, and they were calling the following April.
WHAT?
When I explained that they were being a bit unreasonable, because they waited several months to try the product (because, they said, they liked "looking at the basket").
They got very sarcastic with me and the wife made derogatory comments about standing behind our products.
I could not believe it.
Unhappy customers are dangerous to one's reputation, and I did not want this to reflect badly on or to our valued wholesale customer. So, I mailed them another package of the granola. My time, packaging materials, a $5 product (nearly 20 years ago) and maybe $6 postage.
Did I do the right thing?
I was more amenable back in those days. Not sure I would do the same today...
What is your “most unreasonable” customer story? Have you been “Yelp”ed? Please share in the comments.
We've had a few rants shared in our Cottage Food Business community over the past couple years. Unless you are very lucky, you don't have to be in business very long to find a jerk who really should not be allowed to shop.
I remember another time, we sold an Idaho gift basket containing a mustard product. Unfortunately, this processor put “best by” dates on their product… which are completely arbitrary and consumers largely don’t understand.
Someone called, all hot and bothered.
“The mustard in your gift basket EXPIRES IN A MONTH!”
First: Hmmm, someone who can’t eat a 4 oz jar of mustard in a month?
Second: There is no such thing as “expiration dates” on food. Those are freshness dates, or “best by”… and there is literally no scientific evidence of when “expiration” might occur, or even what that means for a food item.
A subject for a future newsletter.
All for today.
Many challenges can rise up in the course of our foodie businesses. None are worse or more frustrating than the self-absorbed irrational customer who will take time out of their day to ruin yours. Just because they can.
Please leave a comment with your most frustrating or dishonest customer story. This will be my first time using this feature, so please help me get this started.
Best wishes and hold the vision.
Mal Dell
The MONETIZATION CHEF
”Cooking Up Success for Foodies!”
