'Punishing' companies for bad service -even if it costs you?

tailwindhome

From the 'I blame Wiggle' thread

spasypaddy wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

They may be the cheapest but it doesn't mean he'll use them. I never use Tredz, Shiny Bikes or Fudges as they have all screwed me about before. I'd rather pay more than give them my business.

A man after my own heart

I don't understand this.

Why financially penalise yourself to punish a company due to a previous bad experience?

It makes no sense



As DDD would say - Discuss

spasypaddy

if people voted with their wallets then companies would start to buck their ideas up.

davis

Although I think spasypaddy's reaction has been (a lot) more extreme than mine would've been in that example, I sort of agree with the principle. If you believe the company is truly awful, the only thing you can do is refuse to give them any money. I know that 1 person can't make a real difference in isolation, but that cop-out would mean you're very unlikely to do anything that isn't directly about you.

BT won't get any of my money, for example. Assclowns.
Cisco. Gits.
Sony. Anti-consumerist scum.

rubertoe

I will always go with what is cheapest, as it means more money for other things. With regards to CS, I am a glass half full sort of guy so I always expect the worst then am pleased when its not.

the_fuggler

It's not quite the same, but I will pay more, particularly for bigger purchases at my not-so-local bike shop because I trust them to do a good job and to help me out if I have a problem. For commodity items, I will go wherever is cheapest or convenient.

BelgianBeerGeek

You're entitled to take your custom where you please. Price is not always the motivating factor. I wouldn't go back to a restaurant if the service was poor, likewise with an LBS/internet service. Why would I put myself through more of the same?

asprilla

I value my time and as a result I only want to deal with companies that don't waste it.

If I attach a monetary value to the time I have to spend sorting out problems then those companies which provide poor service or do not deliver on their promises are not the 'cheapest'.

msmancunia

It's not a bike thing, but I have, and will continue to pay more for non-budget flights rather than ever ever ever ever ever give Ryanair my hard earned money to fly with them again.

davis

msmancunia wrote:

It's not a bike thing, but I have, and will continue to pay more for non-budget flights rather than ever ever ever ever ever give Ryanair my hard earned money to fly with them again.

+1. Ryanair are another company that I've driven further and paid more to specifically avoid.

spasypaddy

and so it appears that im not so weird after all

Kieran_Burns

spasypaddy wrote:

and so it appears that im not so weird after all

What happened to you was a one-off in your experience (I gather)

Mistakes happen and they are hopefully rectified. If a company makes a mistake then it's how they handle that is important. In this case you were refunded but you didn't get your written hug. Shame that, but they did sort out your issue.

In the case of Ryanair - they're just crap and I would rather walk the entire distance on shards of broken glass than fly with them.

davis

spasypaddy wrote:

and so it appears that im not so weird after all

From what you've said I wouldn't reacted anywhere nearly that strongly over the Wiggle late-delivery. I react to repeated awful service, not the occasional cock-up.

spasypaddy

no they didn't apologise or take my complaint seriously. thats what has annoyed me on this instance.

unlike city link who apologise profusely and will look into it further.

however wiggle aren't the only company to have felt the force of my wrath. there are a few.

daviesee

spasypaddy wrote:

and so it appears that im not so weird after all

Nope.
And I fully endorse all the supporting posts for the reasons given.

From a cycling point of view, because I have blanked my LBS, I can now fully service my bikes and make savings that way, as well as on components.

tailwindhome

spasypaddy wrote:

and so it appears that im not so weird after all

No. It just means there are a lot of you!


Take Chain Reactions for example. Last year I got caught up in the whole security breach thing. Santander blocked my current account and it took 3 months to get it sorted. A major pain in the a$$.

Now say I want to buy a new saddle (for example). CRC have the saddle for £50, best price elsewhere is £60.

Would it not be crazy for me to financially penalise myself £10 because of something which happened in the past???


I can accept that if a company has a repeated pattern of letting you down in the past and you'd rather not go through that again. I can accept that price may not be the only factor. However that's not the same as not buying off them 'on principle' or because they are in the 'big book of grudges'

daviesee

I do bear grudges.
Do me wrong once, that's your fault. For me to allow it a second time is my fault. A third time is stupid.

spasypaddy

TailWindHome wrote:

I can accept that if a company has a repeated pattern of letting you down in the past and you'd rather not go through that again. I can accept that price may not be the only factor. However that's not the same as not buying off them 'on principle' or because they are in the 'big book of grudges'

But you know they've let you down before so why risk letting them let you down again?

as davisee says, once is their fault, second is your own fault.

suzyb

I wouldn't stop buying from somewhere after one or two bad experiences. But if it happened after that then I'd stop using them and pay more if I had to.

I'm more likely to not go back to a bricks and mortar shop if I feel the service has been poor my first visit, like staff more interested in their social life than serving you :evil:

I fly very very rarely but would also avoid Ryanair. From what I've heard about them they seem to be taking the wee-wee now with additional charges.

MrChuck

Depends on exactly what's happened. I'm generally an everybody-makes-mistakes kind of guy so I don't boycott companies at the first hiccup but if there's a pattern or they've been particularly obnoxious they can end up on the list.

That said if you took that approach too far you'd have nobody left to deal with-none of them are perfect.

UndercoverElephant

I've only ever flown Ryanair once, but I was actually pleasantly surprised, given the amount of negative comments. Certainly the passengers who went looking for a fight got one, but those of us who were polite got excellent service.

My Granny once got a bad piece of fish from the chip shop at the top of her road, and refused to go back. 20 years later she still always went to the one at the bottom of her road, despite the other one having changed hands several times. Some hold grudges, some don't, I guess.

davis

UndercoverElephant wrote:

My Granny once got a bad piece of fish from the chip shop at the top of her road, and refused to go back. 20 years later she still always went to the one at the bottom of her road, despite the other one having changed hands several times. Some hold grudges, some don't, I guess.

The best part of that story is that your Gran lived for 20 years on a road with two chip shops on.

notsoblue

People make mistakes. Wiggle have cocked up a few times, but their customer service has in my experience been so exemplary that I've been happy to use them even if they weren't always the cheapest (the margin is so low most of the time anyway). Same thing with Amazon and eBuyer.

iPete

Have to return a dodgy light to CRC, it looks a PITA, should have used wiggle, not used a shop that has such hassle free returns.

I blame wiggo.

daviesee

daviesee wrote:

I do bear grudges.
Do me wrong once, that's your fault. For me to allow it a second time is my fault. A third time is stupid.

Edit:- Should have read.
For it to happen once may be a mistake.
For it to happen twice is your fault.
For it to happen a third time is my fault.

Or something like that

But pretty much how I handle bad service. You may get off with something happening once but two similar strikes and you are out.

spasypaddy

CRC and wiggle both use collect+ meaning you dont pay for a return. I returned something to them by it last week

SimonAH

Yep, I vote with my wallet.

Sometimes price is less important than service, and repeated bad service is not acceptable.

There are other reasons too - I won't have any Sony products in my house as they used to be a customer of mine in another lifetime and their purchasing department are the biggest load out. I also shop in ASDA sometimes for convenience but never put anything in my basket that says ASDA on it as experience tells me that four times out of five it will be a disappointing experience.

veronese68

One little mistake that isn't really their fault isn't enough to make me go elsewhere. I'll usually give places a second chance, then avoid them. But I won't bite my nose off to spite my face.
Their is a gastropub near me that I avoid after 2 bad experiences. I won't go there out of choice, there are plenty of other options. However, I have been in there to meet a group of friends that had arranged to meet there. I won't let my personal grudge get in the way of somebody else buying me a drink.

meanredspider

So much more than the mistake is how companies deal with it afterwards.

But I will reward good service (even if it costs more) and "punish" poor service (even if it costs less). I also do my best to point out the good and the bad.

I spoke to AEG yesterday because my AEG dishwasher caught fire. I will never ever buy another AEG product whilst there's breath in my body as I've had so much bad experience with them. I phoned them, though, to let them know it had caught fire. I didn't want anything from them (they were very confused by that) I just needed them to know in case it joins a dot somewhere and helps prevent someone's house being burned down.

davmaggs

Asprilla wrote:

I value my time and as a result I only want to deal with companies that don't waste it.

If I attach a monetary value to the time I have to spend sorting out problems then those companies which provide poor service or do not deliver on their promises are not the 'cheapest'.

+1

I'm frugal, but at times you can pay a smidgen more and be far more certain you won't waste a minute of your time.

I notice a trend at work and with friends in that its nearly always the same people burning time and stress waiting on hold to argue with some customer services department somewhere. They seem to never learn and end up doing it repeatedly.

SteppenHerring

I don't know. I consider taking a day off to wait in for something to be worth something. If the delivery doesn't arrive then I've lost out. OK, I can sometimes get away with working from home but that's burning goodwill with my employer - which is also worth something. I've been messed about by City Link more than once. At least if the Royal Mail fail to deliver, the collection point is less than 2 miles away.

Ginjafro

TailWindHome wrote:

From the 'I blame Wiggle' thread

spasypaddy wrote:

Asprilla wrote:

They may be the cheapest but it doesn't mean he'll use them. I never use Tredz, Shiny Bikes or Fudges as they have all screwed me about before. I'd rather pay more than give them my business.

A man after my own heart

All the above companies plus many others have annoyed many of us at some point and I've even considered "boycotting" the odd one or two for messing me about. Trouble is, a few weeks or a few months later I just can't remember who and why I wanted to avoid ever using again!