Originally Posted by
nate1749
I can see it both ways, sure it would be nice for them to have a whatever type of attitude, but on the other hand I don't think it should be a requirement for them to accommodate some anal (his words) collector customer. I mean that's not exactly the demographic they're going after. They want problem free easy transactions of people who come in and buy the games to play them and have fun and come back and buy another. Not one who rarely purchases games and when they do they complain because a 25 cent plastic sleeve wasn't in mint condition. The easiest way to think of it is if every customer was like this - they'd shut the doors.
I run a glass business and I deal with customers just like this and it's the best to refuse them business. I used to be all about pleasing every customer, but then I realized what for - I come home feeling drained and when I'd see their name come up on the caller id it was like seeing blue & red lights behind you while you're driving - except worse since the $85 ticket was gone with just $85, the annoying customer was like the whiny complainy never satisfied with anything wife I never married (and couldn't divorce!!).
It was like no matter what I did for them wasn't good enough (even at times giving them the piece for free that was worth hundreds of dollars - yet they still had issues?). I realized these people are just, no matter what the circumstances, huge pains in the asses (not saying this is the OP, but sounds somewhat like it). They were never happy, they always had issues, and a lot of times (in my instances) they didn't even know what they were talking about or asking for.
I also noticed these customers didn't spend much yearly so why was I wasting my energy on low revenue customers? Here I'd have one customer who would spend 5-10K a year and would take up SOOOO much of my time, plus I'd feel drained. Then I have another customer who spends 6x that a year and never complains about anything, in fact, they're grateful and nice. So now I say sorry you're too high maintenance and refuse them business. Best decision I ever made in business was refusing business - ironic.
Plus now I have more time to go get new low maintenance customers (and I have!). So in the end dropping the bad ones has made me more money.
Oh and I run a wholesale company that's why the #s are high (selling to stores - never retail myself!!!).
So if I was that GS manager, I would have taken the game back, given the $ back and sorry we can't provide you the service you need maybe target or walmart will - see you later, and then I'd go spend some time with the local kids who come in all the time and yap it up with them.
In the end it's a better business decision and you save your mojo! Pleasing every customer is not only unrealistic, it's inefficient. Kind of like how they say cops spend 90% of their time on 10% of the population, in business you need to just eliminate that 10% then you'll have 90% more time for your good customers (or new ones). Okay so the %'s aren't scientific, but you get the idea (plus you're not feeling drained - I can't emphasis how important that is!)
Nate