The Money or The Box?
Part 1 of 2
My toner ran out last week. This took down my fax, printer, photocopier and scanner.
A price check showed my usual bricks-and-mortar supplier was 25% off the pace.
Keen to save some loot and trusting a 1-3 day delivery promise, I bought online.
Big mistake.
Day 1, 2 & 3
I faithfully attended Empire House every day of the delivery window. This wasn’t too onerous, but it did stop me visiting the supermarket, post office and pool.
Day 4
On Friday I rang the online shop. A customer service chap said that while he didn’t know what was wrong, he would arrange an express courier for that afternoon.
It didn’t happen.
Day 5 & 6
It was the weekend. While I’d rather have scanned the books I wished to sell on eBay, I did find other things to do.
Chief among them was quarantining the emails and attachments I needed to print when the toner turned up.
Day 7
I rang the shop again. The chap told me he’d arrange an express courier. If not for this day, then certainly the next. To be sure, he gave his name. I told him that:
· I’d been promised 1-3 days delivery.
· I ran a business.
· My fax, printer, photocopier and scanner had been down for a week.
I then asked if he’d add the topic of compensation to his enquiries.
He replied that while he was happy to investigate my case, the only compensation he could offer was an apology.
Impressed by this profound admission, I let it slide.
He rang back. While he’d not solved my problem, he was keen to explain that his was a high-volume, low-margin operation that had barely made 3% on my order. This was why he couldn’t offer compensation.
At this moment, I realised I had a blog post.
Has this happened to you? Do you know how it’s going to end? Post your comments and predictions now and tune in Thursday for Part 2!
Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire
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I can see you getting fed up, and popping down to Officeworks (or similar) to get the toner they have in stock, despite paying extra.
A business model that runs on 3% margins is unlikely to succeed at anything much, especially customer service.
You said it, Stephen! Thank you for reading and adding your voice.
Oh, oh! Grab ya floaties mate, the floodgates are about to open
My answer to your question (as if you didn’t know
…is ummm! YeeesSS! 
But I can’t talk now…right at this minute, I’m writing to my Bank…with references, including, you guessed it, this fine blog, where much of my story is documented
Incidentally, you’ll be happy to know that orders are coming in for my pizzas…but as you know, I’m struggling to service those orders…with all of the ‘Small Business Support’, including Gov’t approval of my Business Plan, which so many ‘experts’ have seen, it seems that none of the ‘experts’ had a working knowledge of real-life business and could not accurately or adequately advise on workable financial requirements. Even the bank, to whom I submitted my Business Plan up-front, deemed that I could purchase my $30,000.00 of Capital Equipment, all of my compliances (insurance, registrations etc, etc, etc), start my business and run it with $12,000.00. I asked them for help again in July…I was refused. So I reckon I’ve done pretty well to get this far…now that the orders are coming in, if for no other reason but ‘for the record’, I’m compiling ‘The Letter’, requesting that I be treated as a bona-fide business and be given access to viable finance solutions to continue my business…it’s not an unreasonable request, is it?
So, as usual, ‘Aaarl be baaaark!’
And I promise I’ll stay a bit more on topic than I did here
Cheers
Stephen G
Dear Stephen, as far as I’m concerned, you can tow our topic through all the roundabouts of Canberra. There is learning and entertainment in everything you write.
I read your business plan and thought it was a ripper. Perhaps, if The Great Machine does grind you into polymers, you can carry on a set of ‘ghost’ books to show how much money you would have made had you been given the chance.
I can see the spot market for black humour going through the roof in weeks to come. Hang in there!
Hi paul
No longer do I fall for the ‘we are cheapere than your local provider’ for ANYTHING.
I prefer customer service with a smile and if that means paying a little more, then so be it.
My stationery supplies are bought over the phone from a store 10km away – not the closest, but the nicest. They will deliver same day if I request it, but mostly it is next day.
The price may not be the cheapest – but I can always ring and know who I am talking to – and if I want that thingme bob with the do-daddy on the end – they always find it for me – are happy to exchange and still manage to get me a comparible price (not the cheapest) but they don’t charge for delivery
I suppose I am a creature of old habits, but a smile is worth more than the almighty dollar.
PS – toner cartridges – burnt once with poor quality – and also remember some warranties are void by using non-original re-fills
Dear SWAS, I hear you! The older I get, the more I appreciate the ‘old’ ways. The ‘new’ ways sure aren’t doing us (or the planet) any favours.
I’m not in love with Officeworks, but I reckon they do a reasonable job of answering my questions when I go in. Your supplier arrangement sounds best of all. Perhaps I could tempt you to plug them in your next comment. Perhaps they’d be willing to table their view here too.
Not that I wish to compromise your secret identity.
Given your final, chilling warning , it sounds like a few extra bucks spent with a good crowd is a very worthwhile investment. Thanks so much for stopping by.
I haven’t stepped inside an officeworks store for 3 years – and I distinctly remember it was christmas and my normal store was shut for christmas and I needed something for my daughters school list. The options avialable were min-boggling to say the least.
The following year I made sure the booklist got to my stationers BEFORE they closed and everything was delivered the week they opened – plenty of time for the new school year.
The stationers I use (and they have PC support for the PC illiterate) are…………………….
Officeland, 270 Settlement Road, Thomastown, Vic, 3074, Phone 03 9466 4600. They will deliver almost anywhere in northern suburbs and possibly everywhere else!
Support a small business near you – it pays sometimes!
Thank you, SWAS. I spend a fair bit of time in here slamming bad service. I’m delighted that you can show us the other side of the coin. Thanks very much for those details. Readers take note!
An excellent take on this discussion can be found at:
http://www.copyblogger.com/eliminate-competition/
Forgot to mention the ‘online’ aspect
– I am rather old school – here is the website for Officeland http://www.officeland.com.au/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
Tell them Heather sent you!
Cool! And for triple bonus points, do you reckon you could entice them to add their perspective on this discusson for our benefit?
Sometimes the one thing that will bring a bad business to its knees is….customers!
Part 1 of your toner post reminds me of two customer service situations that I experienced.
2 years ago when the drought realy started to bite we bought a tank from the local tank place. We weren’t the only ones. Suddenly tanks were hot. This little two person business just wasn’t geared up for customers. We got out tank. In the end. But the little business is gone and missed out on what would have been a huge 3 to 5 years of sales.
The other experience was Tiger Airways. I won’t go into it….(Believe me – you will thank me for that….cos once I get stsarted…. :S ). Like your Toner Bloke they set a price for their product. But then they couldn’t operate on that price. THEY decided that my custom was only worth 10 bucks and then treated me like a 10 buck customer.
I eagerley await today’s update to Toner Bloke.
Thank you, Bambi. I really appreciate you taking the time to give us your views.
It’s funny how too much success can actually damage a business. A bit like medicine.
I see a lot of stories about Tiger, Jetstar and the like. It seems the adage ‘you get what you pay for’ has never rung truer. We actually like it when people get started in here, so don’t hold back on our account!
I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until Thurs for Part 2. But I reckon it’ll be worth it. Best regards indeed. P.
Hi Paul.
Well, I love your story – part 1 about your toner. I look forward to reading how the solution was found. I know waiting can be awesome, you sit by the phone and wait and wait and wait.
I recently purchased a notebook for which I wanted a webcam so I could talk to my clients face to face over distances when I am away from my office. Well, I only had a small allowance as it was a gift from my mother it was very special that I shop around for price. (Please don’t tell me good things happen in office works – NO COMMENT!) Anyway, I shopped and asked everywhere. No joy. Finally I got online and found THE laptop I wanted at Harvey Norman. Phoned them to confirm they had one in our local store (Liverpool). A friend drove me there and I asked for the said notebook. It had to come from the store room as it was not on show. (probably too cheap) I asked – does it have a web cam. The red sticker (HP Compaq) on the notebook said it did. The sales man said it did. He opened it up and I asked is that little hole at the top of the screen the web cam (not being familiar with notebooks, I didn’t know top to bottom where it was) He said Yes that’s it. So I walked out with my new notebook beaming with happiness.
Three days later I got a chance to set it all up and looked at the diagram on a sheet of paper which came with it. The web cam was shown. Even my friend had said that the hole was the web cam. I had commented at the store that “They sure make these things small these days…” (If I seem like a dinosaur, I actually have been using desktops since 1983 – not notebooks!)
Anyway, the web cam needed some software to be installed so it could work. I duly downloaded and followed the instructions. It did not work. After a few hours at night in my “spare time” (which means I cut into my sleep time) I tried to work it out. With no joy I phoned HP service.
Now here is a company known world wide for quality merchandise and customer service etc. So Day 1 brought be to be talking to a fine Indian chap who directed me to the software and walked me through and basically I did exactly what I had already done, however there were many steps to process as none of them worked. He confirmed the serial number and model of the notebook before we started. This took most of the day. He left me in the mid afternoon with further instructions which would take the rest of the afternoon to work through myself. At the end of the day it still did not work. Give him his dues though, he did phone me to request my status. Unfortunately my mobile phone battery was dead and needed rechaging. I did not get back to HP service until the next day.
Being in business as a consultant means I have clients wanting my services right there and then. So I had to answer them, then I was back on deck, trying to fix my notebook. Got on the phone and spent another wasteful day, trying this and that – though as always the service was met with smiling voice and a polite manner. Re-installing software, questioning the model & seriral number of the notebook before we started. He had the details of Day 1 on the screen and even bade me to download the instructions on how to do everything and I was then emailed other software to install which lamentedly did not work. None the less, I live in hope and at the end of day 2 I was told “work on this (with further instructions) and I will phone you again later this evening(apparently this service detail does not close until 7 – 8pm). Which of course he did and this time, I missed the call as I was on another call. When I phoned back, they had closed so I phoned the next day.
Day 3 started the same as day’s 1 & 2. Serial number and model of machine. Checking this and that – re-installing the software, then as a very last straw toward the end of the day, I was bade to restore the computer as if I had first taken it from the store. This meant that any software I had installed (My favourite Office Suite, Photoshop, and of course – Accounting Package etc) was all going to have to be re-installed. Oh well, I thought this was a small price to pay to have it done properly. I had already wised up to save my data to my giant 2gb stick so there was no problem here.
So this was done and I was duly walked through this as well as what to do next – which meant re-downloading the software for the web cam and finally re-installing it. I was full of relief and grateful it would be all over as this new man on day 3 (did I mention, there was a new man each day…?) had found the answer – when all is lost – restore. I did all that was required to the letter. I restored, re-downloaded the software and re-installed it.
Still this web cam did not work!
So again, I phoned up the help desk in the late afternoon around 5.00pm. This time a woman talked to me and she again asked me for the model and serial number etc. I gave her these details as well as the problem number which she duly read. Then she told me this: “Ma’am I’m sorry this model does not have a web cam” To which I was prepared to argue black and blue and told her about the red label on the notebook and the hole in the top of the screen etc. She told me this: “Ma’am, I’m sorry. This model does not have a web cam. What you are seeing at the top of the screen is a microphone. The label on your notebook should have an asterix there. I looked closely (with a magnifying glass) and then saw the * which said “selected models only” along side of the Web Cam being included in this model.
Well, you live and learn. It took three days and three men to tell me it should be working. Then one woman gets on and knows that it doesn’t have what I wanted. I was ropable and wanted some kind of, well, retribution, however I would have settled for compensation. I contacted the company, twittered them and emailed them again. So far, I am still waiting for an answer!
You know what happens when a company gets too big – they get ignorant and careless with the customers. I will NEVER EVER BUY ANOTHER HP COMPAQ ANYTHING – KNOWINGLY OR WANTINGLY. NO MATTER HOW MANY BELLS AND WHISTLES IT HAS!
Thank you Paul for allowing me to have my say. I apologise to anyone who thought I am just having a whinge – I am not. I hate the company – not the products.
Bright Blessings
Sandy
Well! Another fine pot of controversy has been stirred up here I see my Good Man
And nice to see Bambi pop in…Hi Bambi
It seems that businesses can succeed and fail for just about any reason; many of which are often identical. It’s a pickle, no doubt about it
I’ve been thinking about this post since I popped in the other day and quite frankly I discovered that I have my own inner flood-gate. So many experiences similar to Paul’s.
In fact I’ve had 2 web based ones in the past couple of months…fortunately they were small and caused no real damage. But they were nevertheless indicative and at least on topic (for a change
.
Funnily enough they were 2 small online purchases I made on the same day with different companies. One was in Hong Kong, the other here in Oz.
Differences were however, that I didn’t feel bungled by the follow-ups. It was just the website information that was incorrect. And the follow-ups, though time consuming, were at least well intentioned and effective…eventually.
The first one was ‘Stock on Hand – 5′…actual ‘0′. They were good enough not to charge me for the missing stock…but they lost the purchase.
The second one was a technical malfunction. This was the Oz company. They rang me at 10.00 last Friday night (about 8 weeks since the purchase), to let me know that I’d fallen through some spatial anomaly in their system. I would have to share some of the blame for the 8 weeks…I simply had bigger fish to fry and didn’t bother chasing it up.
I’m so sick to death of chasing businesses that supposedly want my business and supposedly spend bazillions trying to capture it. It’s thoroughly disheartening.
That said, I can understand why this happens in a lot of cases. With margins so tight, compliance so extreme and the pyramid shape of our economy, many small businesses simply don’t have the resources to provide the level of service that they either wish to and/or aspire to. And what are they going to do, tell the truth?
e.g. Terms of Service: We would really like to provide the best possible service to our customers, but we can’t afford to. We just lost both or our drivers who became Missionaries in Antarctica, and because of the stupidly high Australian Dollar, our import costs have gone through the roof. Oh! And our bookkeeping and accounting fees have gone up too because the Tax System is reformed so often, we have to pay for them to keep learning the new laws, so that we can keep paying the new taxes. Oh and did I mention that we’ve had to let one of our warehouse staff go, because we can’t afford to pay them any more? But don’t worry, were doing the best we can. We can guarantee that you will get your product/s eventually, and believe us when we say they are well worth waiting for.
Would that attract a lot of customers? I doubt it. Though, funnily enough it would attract me…but that’s me. I just like to know where I ACTUALLY stand.
So here we are in a world simply brimming with totally honest business people… everyone giving more ‘fantasticer’ service and placing their customers ‘firster’ than anyone in the know Universe. Our world should be pretty perfect by now shouldn’t it?
Spend an hour on Twitter and compare how much people talk about making money, and how much people talk about customers.
So we’re back to square one! Pick-up the rock, bash it against the other rock and see what happens. That’s progress? Hmmm!
Ah yes! It’s a funny old world…thank God for Climate Change. At least then we really will have a level playing field…instead of a playing level field. Shame though, that we won’t be here to see what it’s like…but you get that! That’s Life! Right? Suck it up! Man up! Stay positive! Think happy thoughts! Employ the best strategies! Best Practice!…
Has anyone noticed that the Climate isn’t the only climate that is changing? Is there a connection? It’s a mystery, it’s a mystery!
Cheers
Stephen G
Dear Stephen, I never fail to be amazed at the breadth and depth of thinking my little posts elicit from you. We’re so fortunate to have your generous and articulate perspectives. Thank you yet again.
Welcome, Sandy, and thank you for sharing your dreadful tale. You did so well to remain articulate during your discourse. I would’ve lost it after the third stanza!
What a dreadful time you’ve had! Technodramas seem to elicit a special stress hormone that upsets like no other. I can’t beleive you stayed the course for so long, only to receive so little.
I hope you feel a bit better for pouring it out and I warmly invite you to come back soon. Best regards, P.
Oh Sandy! I was sinking lower in my chair and almost peaking through my fingers as I saw the punch line coming. Will Harvey Norman or HP provide a replacement?
I hope you don’t mind Paul, et all, my sharing this post and comments with Debra Templar – and apologies for what may seem as shameless plug – so that you she can use some of the Customer Service examples in the free webinar she is doing on November 10. Paul – Let me know if it is OK to post a link here so people can join? And I look forward to more fodder to pass onto her. Regards. Bambi
Dear Bambi, this blog is for the greater glory of its readers.
Thank for your courtesy. I’d be delighted for you to invoke Debra and anyone else you see fit.
Plugs (shameless or modest) are most welcome.
Pretty much the only things we don’t like in here are narrowmindedness and invective. So knock yourself out!
If you think that there is a tiny possibility that you may not always deliver great customer service in your biz…You may want to join our free webinar at The Brew featuring Ms Debra Templar, the ’saint’ of customers. It is on Tuesday November 10, 12.30pm to 1.15pm (or so). You don’t need to install any fancy pants software – you will get an email from us just before the event and you just click to join. Please register at http://www.thebrew.com.au/webinar_customer_service
And if you have any customer service tales that you would like to share with Deb,that she can use in this and other presentations (with the names changed to protect the innocent) please email me bambi at growdon dot com do au
Thanks all.
Thank you, Bambi. That’s a nice little interface!
And Debra is a strong supporter of myBRC (and a regular contributor) so always happy to help her out
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