Mad customer wants employee fired, boss says 'I'll let his disabled wife know.'
'Sometimes you just do what the customer wants!'
One of my employees accidentally sent out the wrong item on an internet sale. Person was more than just pissed. We offered return at our expense and will ship the correct item ASAP and original shipping would be refunded.
But noooooo that wasn’t good enough for this person. Told me I should fire “Steve” for this. Steve (not his real name) had made a simple mistake and things happen because we were in the busy time of the year. Now this was 2 weeks before Christmas and I finally replied to this angry customer.
'Dear (customer). Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate your insistence that action be taken in this case. I had been building a case to remove Steve from the company for some time and this helps me seal the deal. You aren’t the first person to tell me this.
Thanks to your complaint I have give to steve his walking papers! He was very upset. He even cried a little bit and asked after 4 years how I could be so heartless to fire him 2 weeks before Christmas and that he was the only source of income for his family with 2 kids and disabled wife.
I simply told him he pissed off the wrong customer. Sorry Steve, but Santa won’t be visiting your kids this year. Oh, and Steve, sorry but you no longer qualify for your year end bonus.' I thanked the customer because his complaint was gonna save the company a lot of money and as a reward I was making his $8.00 purchase totally free.
The customer sent back a very long email where he profusely apologized over and over to the point they must have been crying at the computer while typing it out. They were shocked and stunned I would fire someone just before Christmas and that I would have this attitude that it was a good thing. They literally begged me to hire him back!
Well Steve and I had a good laugh reading what this angry customer wrote. I saved the letter and over the next 2 years sent it out twice more. Steve was not only a good employee who was honest and caring I also considered him a friend. Give the people what they want and suddenly they realize they are the monster they hate the most.
Here were the top responses to this post:
Good job!!! Steve died because of your silly complaint.
Yeah, that Reverse Uno worked like a charm!
Send them a $20 gift card as appreciation for their cost saving suggestion.
It just provides that slight patina of a corporate system response carried out by a drone.
It's amazing how much better of a place the world would be if people would take a second to step back and see how their actions might affect others. Good on you for making this particular individual reflect on their behaviour.
OP responded here:
Ya telling me to fire him over an $8 pair of earrings!