Wayne County Hose said:
So he cancelled the order because it was taking too long to come in. He then changed his mind and apologized for canceling the order (which it seems like is his prerogative) and that he'd like to buy it when it arrived. So you get it in and the price goes up 25%?
My question is why did the price go up? Did the wholesaler charge you more for it or did you increase the price because he cancelled an order? If you increased the price punitively I'm not sure who the 'bad' guy is in that scenario.
I hear an awful lot about people in adversarial relationships with their customers. And I'm not claiming that its any different with me, but it seems a bit disturbing. I often have to remind myself that these folks, who are often rude and thoughtless are the people who put bread on my table. Sometimes that helps my attitude, sometimes it doesn't. And in the case of the OP, some folks just aren't worth dealing with. If all of your customer base fits that bill then maybe you (and me) would be better off doing something else. Fortunately most of my customers are good folks who pay me what they owe, get good service from me and we're all happy.
But in my opinion the saying ought to be 'all is fair in love and war...and business'. As a customer I want to get what I want and for the best price I can find. And in that regard I'm talking about comparable services and quality. Quality is part of what you choose to pay for or not pay for. That's not the issue, I'm talking apple-to-apples. If I want to pay less to get less, well, that's a customer's prerogative too.
I was in my mother-in-laws shoe store many years ago and there was a shrew-like older women who was obviously very wealthy (she looked it and this shoe store is high end) in there giving her heck about prices and trying to get here to come down. Well, my mother-in-law knocks the price down and sells her some shoes. After she left I was a bit amazed. I asked my mother-in-law why she even dealt with that old witch who was too rich to be low balling here like that. My mother-in-law smiled and told me two things: First, the reason she was so rich was that that was how she handled all her affairs, she kept as much of her money as she possibly could and that my M-I-L admired her for it. That didn't make me feel much better about it but then she told me that this lady was probably her very best customer and had stuck with her for years and brought a lot of money into that show store. So she was one of those PITA customers but in the end, she was worth every penny of it. This shoe store is still open after 30 years with Walmarts and Pay-less shoes, etc all around them.
And here is a take home message: Competition can do wonders for us folks who have customers. I know that from first hand experience. When you compete for your customers you're much more likely to keep that smile on your face and a good attitude. Lack of competition makes some of us worse than our worse customers. BTDT.
But the bottom line is that it all boils down to the Golden Rule doesn't it? And in that regard there are customers and 'merchants' who don't get it and never will. The world is full of sorry people on both ends. All the rest if us can do is try to live by example and hope some of them will come around and when they don't, cut our losses and be done with them.
I do business with a lot of people who bring nothing more to the table in regard to the product or the service than anyone else but I still do business with them, sometimes at higher cost, just because they are good, kind, decent people.
