I…you…what?
Maybe it's the pandemic, the US and UK sociopolitical burndowns, the uncontrolled wildfires, and/or all the rest of what 2020's vomitted forth that's causing customers to suck extra much lately. Here's another one from the technical sales (vehicle lighting) niche I inhabit.
Customer orders a pair of headlamps, a pair of bulbs, and a wiring harness. Easy routine stuff-the headlamps ship from facility "A", and the bulbs and harness from facility "B".
By and by, Customer pings me: he got the harness and bulbs; when may he expect the headlamps? I take a look: h'mm, that's odd; I don't have a tracking number for the headlamps. I call my guy at facility "A", he looks into it, and says oops, his fault, he sees where that order got snagged; he'll send it out the next day (since it's past cutoff).
I email customer to apologise for the fumble and tell him his lamps will be shipped the next day and I'll send him the tracking number as soon as I have it. He writes back "No problem, thanks for looking into it."
Two days later, email from customer: "I hope you didn't ship the headlamps to [address he specified when he placed the order], because I can't receive packages there any more. They should go to [other address he's never mentioned before].
I reply: "Oh dear…I'm afraid the lamps did ship to [address he specified when placing the order]. If I had learned of the new address when I let you know your lamps would be shipping the following day, I could have sent them to your new address, but given where the package is in its progress, it can't be redirected now. Will you be able to retrieve them?"
Back comes "I didn't say it was your fault! I just told you my new address! GEEZ!!!"
I write back: "I wasn't seeing any blame, I was just expressing regret that I didn't have this information the other day when I could've accommodated it, thus saving you some inconvenience, and that I don't have a way to make the delivery more convenient for you."
He replies: "Pretty snide response from the jerk who 'forgot' to send the lamps. Good day, pal."
Now, I'm as polite and accommodating as can be, often much more so than deserved…but only to a point.
So I reply: "'Forgot' in quotes? What, you think I deliberately didn't ship them, hoping you wouldn't notice or something? C'mon. Good day to you, too, I reckon. I hope you're able to retrieve your lamps from the address where they shipped."
From him comes: "Do not contact me again."
Next day, I send: "Hi, there. Sorry to violate your directive not to contact you again, but you did previously request the tracking info on your headlamps, so I thought sending it might be worth risking your annoyance or anger. Tracking number [number] shows delivered on [yesterday's date]."
No reply. Did he manage to get his lamps? Only he knows for sure, I guess.
Customer orders a pair of headlamps, a pair of bulbs, and a wiring harness. Easy routine stuff-the headlamps ship from facility "A", and the bulbs and harness from facility "B".
By and by, Customer pings me: he got the harness and bulbs; when may he expect the headlamps? I take a look: h'mm, that's odd; I don't have a tracking number for the headlamps. I call my guy at facility "A", he looks into it, and says oops, his fault, he sees where that order got snagged; he'll send it out the next day (since it's past cutoff).
I email customer to apologise for the fumble and tell him his lamps will be shipped the next day and I'll send him the tracking number as soon as I have it. He writes back "No problem, thanks for looking into it."
Two days later, email from customer: "I hope you didn't ship the headlamps to [address he specified when he placed the order], because I can't receive packages there any more. They should go to [other address he's never mentioned before].
I reply: "Oh dear…I'm afraid the lamps did ship to [address he specified when placing the order]. If I had learned of the new address when I let you know your lamps would be shipping the following day, I could have sent them to your new address, but given where the package is in its progress, it can't be redirected now. Will you be able to retrieve them?"
Back comes "I didn't say it was your fault! I just told you my new address! GEEZ!!!"
I write back: "I wasn't seeing any blame, I was just expressing regret that I didn't have this information the other day when I could've accommodated it, thus saving you some inconvenience, and that I don't have a way to make the delivery more convenient for you."
He replies: "Pretty snide response from the jerk who 'forgot' to send the lamps. Good day, pal."
Now, I'm as polite and accommodating as can be, often much more so than deserved…but only to a point.
So I reply: "'Forgot' in quotes? What, you think I deliberately didn't ship them, hoping you wouldn't notice or something? C'mon. Good day to you, too, I reckon. I hope you're able to retrieve your lamps from the address where they shipped."
From him comes: "Do not contact me again."
Next day, I send: "Hi, there. Sorry to violate your directive not to contact you again, but you did previously request the tracking info on your headlamps, so I thought sending it might be worth risking your annoyance or anger. Tracking number [number] shows delivered on [yesterday's date]."
No reply. Did he manage to get his lamps? Only he knows for sure, I guess.