So I have this customer who wants me to put this design on a picnic blanket for her. It's a gift for the coach. This is a sample on scrap material I always embroider out first.
I double and triple check the name spelling (because this looks odd to me) and yep, I've spelled it right. I finish up the job, ship the blanket to her and she sends me an email that says, "You spelled the coach's name wrong.
I tell her I guarantee against my errors but not customer errors. She tells me she verified the spelling in the phone conversation we had. I said, "No....we verified we were doing Coach Lindsy on one blanket and replacing the second one with your last name". I had her send me an email before embroidering to verify the spelling of the coach.
Long story short, she said I didn't...I send her a copy of my request along with the email she sent with the name spelled incorrect. She says it's not her fault because she sent the email from her phone and it dropped the e out of the name. I offer her a new blanket at cost and the embroidery free. She still wants more. I told her it wasn't my error but to save the relationship I'll do a patch (applique) for $10 but won't guarantee how it turns out. I also explained, the $10 fee didn't even cover the cost of thread because it was more than 13,000 stitches.
She agreed to the applique patch and brings the blanket to me. I'd already worked the new spelling and design into a patch and sewed out a sample so when she got here she could see it.
She loved it, we changed the coach's name to white thread and took off for an hour with her kids (she lives in Fremont) so I could do the task. Considering I was embroidering over the old design, the patch turned out pretty darn nice. The actual blanket had less puckering then the sample above shows. I was talking sweetly to my machine because it really wasn't happy sewing over so many layers of thread. Like a trooper it pulled through.
I always have a phone customer send me an email with the correct spelling so I can avoid situations like this. Luckily, this is the first time I've run into such a problem. I did some work for this customer last summer and she was nice to work with and loved what I did. She'll have more work for me next month because they have all new soccer uniforms that need personalizing. I felt it was in my best interest to bend over backwards more than I normally would but wasn't about to give her a new blanket and sustain a big loss.
Having D around really helped because I was getting angry she was trying to throw the error in my lap. I'd storm into the office and vent my frustration then he'd calm me down so I could think straight. I was frustrated that she just wouldn't say, "I'm so sorry I messed up." Instead of the various you did or didn't do this or that.
When I gave her the completed blanket with the applique patch, she apologized for the mistake and gave me $15 instead of the $10 I was charging her. We agreed this was just a bump in the road and would both move on and be more careful in the future.
It was an all's well that ends well but sure took patience and creativity to come to that conclusion. I was glad to eat the cost of set up time to make a past customer happy.
3 comments:
I've had similar problems but not often. I usually have no problem admitting that I made a mistake. I found that most people understand that and it makes things go smoother. Except with Darryl. We have a policy to not admit we are wrong and deny everything. Yup, works for us. It's a joke between us and has worked to diffuse the occasional hotly disputed finger pointing. It's simple...we are both always right.
How frustrating! I'm glad that it worked out in the end.
It sounds like you handled the situation very well. I have been dealing with customer service for my new dryer and the company wont even apologize for the inconvenience they have caused us. I am a loyal consumer and will pay a wee bit more for the service provider that provides the better service. You did the right thing
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