Month: September 2005

theoriginalsoosh

Battle Emails and CC Wars

Today I went to war with a customer. This ranks number 3 in this top 5 list of things you normally should not do:

  1. Bathe a cat
  2. Mix up your girlfriends’ names
  3. Go to war with a customer
  4. Lip off gang members
  5. Tell your boss the truth

I say you should not, but let’s face it; bathing a cat is more dangerous and sometimes you need to do that too…

In a series of emails of escalating tone, my customer keeps trying to toss me this hot potato known as “responsibility”. It’s known industry-wide that most of their problems arise out of their own internal miscommunication. This issue was no exception. It’s worth noting that our company is merely associated with these deals. We get very little out of patching their internal communication glitches.

I’ll paraphrase the conversation, noting especially that the customer had this product in their shop for 4-6 weeks before raising this point:

Customer: “WE asked for setting ‘B’, but the manufacturer gave us a widget with setting ‘A’. What do we do?”

Me: “Recalibrate the machine to setting ‘B’ and remove the ID plate. Send it back to the manufacturer, and they will courier you a new ID plate (from overseas) at no charge. For legal reasons they can’t have extra ID plates in circulation.”

Customer: “We don’t have time for that. We’ll restamp the plates.”

Me: “OK. The manufacturer doesn’t mind.”

I follow up with an email explaining how to do the adjustment and an assurance that it’s ok to restamp the ID plates.

The following day, another day closer to deadline, the customer now emails me and copies both of his bosses. He makes me out to be the asshole:


Customer: “That’s an unacceptable solution” (yes, the one HE suggested) “We can’t send a very important customer a widget with a modified ID plate. WE asked for setting ‘B’, and you WILL come to our office to pick up the plates. You WILL tell the manufacturer that you have them and MAKE them send us new ones immediately. WE will not pay for a mistake that the manufacturer made, or pay the courier charges to send the plates back.”

Here is where we go to war; up to this point I’ve been gentle and patient with him. I know that in the paperwork lurks a massive screw-up on their part, and I’m going to go find it. The manfacturer and I are already doing far too much free work for this fellow.

Eliciting coworker support for this initiative is trivial, and a helpful member of staff jumps in with me. We have both copies of their orders AND the factory order confirmations at our disposal. Minutes later I fire back an email to this effect, CCing most of my own company:

Me: “Your purchase order requests the standard configuration of widget, which is setting ‘A’. None of your correspondence mentions setting ‘B’. The factory order confirmation reflects the standard setting ‘A’. You accepted that order confirmation as-is. I suggest you get those plates over to me, and once they’re entrusted to me I’ll ask the factory to send new ones in good faith to you. I can’t promise they will agree to it. If you don’t get them to me today, you definitely WON’T make your deadline.”

2 hours later, the plates are hand-delivered to me. I also receive a humble email admitting that they may need to get more training and also work on their internal communication.

No, my approach is not in accordance with that idiotic “customer is always right” mantra. Seriously though, try practicing some good common sense and personal responsibility if you want me to work with you.

That, and don’t go into a battle of wits unarmed.