Customer Service 201 - Getting what you want.

mbalbritton

mbalbritton

#@$%!
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Location
Lakeland, FL
Yesterdays fun with a Vendor. It began with an email from our client notifying us of a broken part. Let me preface with: We design and make retail displays. We design them in house, farm out the manufacturing of the wood, metal and plastic parts. Bring them in house and do final assembly and shipping.

Yesterday we get an email and photo of a broken metal rail. It's 2 pieces of flat bar that are broken over on the ends and have metal tabs spot welded to it. Each tab is spot welded twice. this particular rail holds about a dozen pairs of Socks. Not much weight at all. Count it now. 2 Tabs per rail, two welds per tab. that's 4 spot welds that failed in order for this to break and it's holding SOCKS!

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So the customer calls with a photo of the broken rail and asks for a replacement rail. My reply? No Problem! We'll overnight one to you in Orlando. You'll have it by 4pm tomorrow and I'll send the tracking number for you shortly.

I happen to have a couple in stock from a sample display that we keep here in our office showroom. I called the Metal Fabricator and tell them, Hey one of the rails broke and I'm pulling one of my rails off our display to over night to our customer. Since it's your part that failed, please cover the shipping for the overnighted part and send me a new rail to replace mine.

On the phone he tells me, I'll have to check and see, but that's not our companies policy.....





From: Ed
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 2:54 PM
To: Brent Albritton
Subject: RE: Broken hook rail

Brent,

I cannot pay for freight to replace the broken rail to your clients store but what I can do is issue you an RMA# once you let me know how many you want to return and we will pay the freight to us, fix them, and return them back to you on our dime.

Let me know what you have.

Ed

_________________________________________________________________________________

From: Brent Albritton
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 2:14 PM
To: Ed
Subject: RE: Broken hook rail
Ed,

We cannot send this back because it failed in retail. We do not have it here to send to you to fix.

We will replace the broken part that we paid for with another rail that we paid for as well, and we’ll ship it on our dime. Please note, that is 2 rails at $10.25 ea. Plus $27.56 for overnighting a replacement rail. That’s almost $50 this will cost us due to weak welds on a metal component that you built for us that failed.

I would appreciate, at minimum, a replacement rail to fill the place of the rail I had to take from our display in our office.


Brent Albritton
Production Manager



_________________________________________________________________________________
From: Ed
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 3:58 PM
To: Brent Albritton
Subject: RE: Broken hook rail

Brent,

This is what we will do ...... make you 4 hook rails for free. All you have to do is pay the freight. They should take about a week. Sound good? Forward me your ups number and we will send it out ground.

Ed

_________________________________________________________________________________
From: Brent Albritton
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 4:14 PM
To: Ed
Subject: RE: Broken hook rail

Ed,

To be honest, don’t even worry about the 4 or even the 1 replacement. If the $8 in ground shipping 4 rails is that much of an issue for your customer service department, then I would hate to bother anyone with it.

Brent Albritton
Production Manager



From: Ed
Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2012 4:47 PM
To: Brent Albritton
Subject: RE: Broken hook rail

Brent

You have a valid point. We will pick up the shipping costs for the rails. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Ed


Sent from my iPhone

_________________________________________________________________________________

GIT ER DUN!
 
I work in commercial furniture and deal with this same crap everyday! You really have to stand your ground with some vendors.
 
Nicely handled. Slack on their part. I know some of those clothing store display stuff are no jokes stoutly made, but then there are a few that I was worried to hang something on them. i am surprise the otherside did not fall as well.
 
RenegadeT said:
don't design for the intended use, design for the worse-case possible use.
Click to expand...

e.g. a bunch of kids.
It's amazing how quickly they can break shit.
 
Why not put a proper weldment on the part and circumvent the whole circus? The end result would take as much time and effort. Thats the fabricators point of view, unreal world design real world approach.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
Why not put a proper weldment on the part and circumvent the whole circus? The end result would take as much time and effort. Thats the fabricators point of view, unreal world design real world approach.
Click to expand...
two reasons,

1. As mentioned above, the fixture and broken part are in the store in Orlando.

2. Because I paid for a part not to break at the lightest pressure.

The point was customer service, not, how do I dice a broken weldment ;)
 
that wasn't my point. I agree whole heartedly with the need for the supplier to rectify the situation. I also know why you pulled the existing part from the display to handle the repair in a expedient time frame. I also would not have been nearly as PC as you were with the supplier. My statement was a bit vague. I meant to convey that the supplier should have had enough knowledge about the end use to provide a better weldment and or offer expertise on how the part should be properly manufactured. Problem is cheaper is better and after a product leaves a manufacturer these days it seems people believe the responsibility for its quality left with it.
 
I see this crap more often than I like. We are having our frames built in Mexico now. These guys try to flame cut a 1" hole in 1" plate for a cyl. pin. Bam! reject! I ship 2 truck loads of frames back to mexico. (2 frames per load) Their paying the freight or our shop labor rate to fix them.

Please Pm me the vendor you used for your welding, I want to make sure we don't use this idiot. We deal with enough of them.
 
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