If you are selling any type of product or services online, this article is for you!
I hadn’t planned on writing this, today, but as a writer, if I experience something that affects me strongly enough, I will write about it.
Recently, I experienced what I would call bad customer service.
I am left to feel not valued as a customer, and kind of an annoyance that they wanted to try to ignore the best they could, and ignored me they did. Willingly or unwillingly I can’t say for sure. But ignored nonetheless.
I sent about a dozen emails from two different email addresses. I contacted them a dozen times on their forum that seems to be inactive for months now. I’ve tried sending several tweets, and Facebook messages…, you name it!
Really, folks, if you have any type of online business, you don’t want to avoid your clients or customers. Not by any means. This is a crowded world we live in and the competition is fierce. Frankly, how many customers can you afford to lose? If you’re still promoting your business in one way or another, my guess is none.
Frankly, how many customers can you afford to lose? If you’re still promoting your business in one way or another, my guess is none.
In this article, I wanted to discuss 5 reasons you should never treat a customer badly, but rather do your best to provide good customer service at any cost.
1 – The Numbers are Against you
According to a survey done by RightNow a staggering 89% consumers began doing business with a competitor due to bad customer service, and up to 60% of consumers are saying that they will pay more money to get better customer service.
When you sell a product or service your business doesn’t stop at the selling stage. You’re basically selling as long as the customer or client is your customer or client.
It’s not because they bought from you that they will stick to you if you treat them badly. If you feel that you can afford to treat your customers badly, they will have no problem leaving you for someone who will treat them better.
But in case you have made that fatal mistake, you need to apologize and fix the problem as soon as possible. A survey from the same source is saying that 92% consumers would be willing to go back to a company after a bad experience if they received an apology and correction.
A survey from the same source is saying that 92% consumers would be willing to go back to a company after a bad experience if they received an apology and correction.
Competition is huge, and as you can see that almost 90% of unsatisfied consumer will go to the completion. Can you afford that?
Can you afford that?
2 – You’re Spreading Negative Mouth to Ear
The average customer who has a good experience will tell to 4-6 people.
Now, what do you think will happen if they have a bad experience? Well, at the very least, they will tell the story to those same 4 to 6 people.
Well, at the very least, they will tell the story to those same 4 to 6 people.
Here is what RightNow.com – Customer Experience Impact says:
“Companies spend billions on advertising and marketing, yet word of mouth remains the most powerful vehicle for influencing one’s purchasing decisions. 76% of consumers said word of mouth most influenced their purchasing decisions… It’s apparent that consumers are listening to what their friends are saying and it is influencing what and where they buy”.
I don’t need to tell you how bad that would be for your business after you’ve treated badly one customer after another. Not only you’ll lose that customer, but you’ll lose a good amount of valuable potential customers as well.
You don’t even know how far that could go.
Don’t treat a customer badly just because you have an online business. Treat your customer or client as if you had them in your store right in front of you.
Go to any of those luxury chain stores (which I happen to know well) and you’ll see that the customer is king there, and he’s always right, no matter what. This is because they know how important that mouth to ear is for their business.
3 – Ignoring your Customers will only Enrage them More
Do not try to ignore or brush off a customer’s complaint, thinking that it will go away. It most likely won’t, and certainly not to your advantage.
You don’t know what a mad customer can do nowadays, with online access and social media.
Even if you are annoyed by the customer’s demand, do your best to handle the problem as soon as possible. Whatever you do, do not ignore the customer or client as they will only get madder at you.
If you care about your business, you don’t want a customer trying to get even with you and certainly not in today’s technology where everything can spread so easily on social media.
According to that same source mentioned above, this is what customer expect:
- 42% expect a response within a day
- 39% within a week
- 7% within an hour
- 2% within a minute
4 – You’re Hiding Something from your Customer in the Hope they’ll never Find out
When I signed up for lifetime full tech support as long as I paid the fee, I wasn’t told that it didn’t include not quite everything. As a matter of fact, I was told that it did, so you can imagine how shocked I was when I was told that my package didn’t include doing updates and that it was only done as a favor to me.
Really? Aren’t updates part of technical support?
A customer or client will always respect you much more if you tell them upfront what is and what is not included in your customer service. This will avoid any misunderstanding and headache that will only make your customer service look bad and get a bad review.
It’s your responsibility to make sure that the customer understands what your service does and doesn’t include. And it would be in your best interest to do so, because when you get back to your customer, saying, this is no included, when THIS is just what they needed, it makes you look very unprofessional and sloppy.
5 – You’re disrespecting your customer
I my case, I felt totally disrespected, and frankly I had to ask myself the question, is such disrespect also linked to the fact that I’m a female? Hum, something to think about, still, even in the 21st century.
Either way, you can’t afford to disrespect your customer or client. On the contrary, you need to treat your them as valuable people, because your business couldn’t survive without them.
You can’t afford to treat a single customer badly. Make sure you treat each one of them as well as possible, regardless of whoever they are.
Stores and restaurants, for example, know this well. Most of them are always treating customers well and act as if the customer was right even when they’re wrong.
In any case, those businesses usually don’t jeopardize their customer-business owner relationship by not respecting the customer.
Those who do, don’t have a chance to stay in business for long.
Conclusion
There you have it, 5 good reasons why you should never treat a customer badly, and something to remember as you conduct your business.
1- Customers will leave you because of a bad experience in customer service.
2- They will spread the bad word about their negative experience.
3- Ignoring them will only infuriate them more and you don’t even know how far and bad this could go for your business.
4- Not being honest from the get-go and telling the customer what is and what’s not included won’t play in your favor in the long run.
5- Don’t ever, ever disrespect a customer, because they will lose all respect for you as well.
I hope this article has helped you to understand customer service better, and most of all encouraged you to improve your customer service if it’s lacking in quality.
Spot on Sylviane 🙂 No a business doesn’t end at a sale. Every business need repeat customers and more customers.
If the product or service is of good quality and if the customers get proper treatment, they will come back to buy more products from you (repeat customers) and they will spread the good words about you (more customers).
Otherwise, yes people don’t hesitate to spread the negative reviews and with social media, negative reviews get viral pretty soon! I myself don’t hold back to cast my negative vote on a company and spread the word if I had a bad experience as a customer.
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Hi Jane,
Yes, nowadays bad reviews can spread like wild fire, and this guy is only lucky I haven’t done that.
The reason I haven’t is because my goal isn’t to do damage, just getting the service I need, but I will have a hard time to refer his service to anyone, and that’s sad, indeed.
Thank you for your input.
~Sylviane
Hi Sylviane,
Word of mouth is golden. Especially now, with the on line world! When we have a product or service, customer service is more important than advertising.
I’ve seen it in my counseling business. I never advertized it. It was purely word of mouth and good customer service. If a person needed more…I gave it to them freely. They were shocked! But that word of mouth is still going strong for 30 years now.
It is such a shame what happened to you. I know that frustration when you cannot get the service a company says they will provide for you. Not even a call back! I’ve experienced companies like that also. Oh boy did I give my word of mouth out to others so they won’t get “trapped” in a situation.
When building a business, we need to asses the time factor of how we are going to deal with our customers. That is something people forget. Instead they put all their energy into the “sale” and not the quality!
I hope things work out for you Sylviane. You are too busy to deal with such aggravation.
-Donna
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Hi Donna,
As you know it well, word of mouth is indeed powerful in both ways, positive as well as negative.
When I paid for my 6 month tech support, I would have never believed that I would have a blog with NO sharing buttons for now 3 weeks.
Even though the BlogSkin guy said he was done withthe last update, it seems that’s not the case. Ashvini found some errors left there still, in the theme, and that’s why the buttons aren’t showing. I sent him an email about that as soon as I got Ashvini’s email, but no reply still.
I will not advise anyone to get a BlogSkin theme unless they’re super techy and can handle it all by themselves. No way, after I’m going through.
Thanks for your input, Donna and have a great week.
Sylviane, you did exactly what I do – you get annoyed and write about it! Why not, it looks like this was a really bad experience for you and I would have called out the company by name so other people know what to expect. There is definitely a HUGE gap between what companies like this offer and what they really provide. It’s kind of pathetic, that they have to make everything sound like such a great deal, they want to give you the world usually for very little cost. Then when you need something you find out it wasn’t included. Or there is some fine print somewhere with an exception. And I know exactly what you mean about being ignored. Drives me nuts!! Why would you NOT answer someone, especially when they contact you many times and many ways? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to get support for things and you email, you call, you tweet… for nothing. Where the heck ARE these people?
I can tell you for a fact that if I don’t get good service, I will go to a competitor every time. (If I can of course… sometimes you’re stuck and that’s even worse) I will even pay more for a competitor if the service is good.
Nowadays with so much potential for customers to badmouth your service, between social media, Google and Yelp reviews, WHY would you not be on your best behavior?
Makes me mad 🙂 And I completely agree with all of your points. If only some of those bad companies would read it…
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Hi Carol,
Thank you for coming and thank you for sharing this everywhere, I noticed 🙂 I know that this post WILL be shared!
the last time the guy got back to me was when I posted on his facebook wall 🙂 YES. That he didn’t like so he replied almost right away, and added that it wasn’t cool. Oh, really? What about what you’re doing, is that cool?
My problem is that I’m a not techy at all and unless I can pay someone hundreds of dollars I’m kind of stuck with those blog themes. I never thought I’d be stuck that way. Those Thesis blog themes seem to be so popular.
In any case, this guys seems to have issues and I have to get to the bottom of this. Even his forum seems to be inactive since this past July.
Hopefully this post will bring some light on his business. My goal is not the hammer on someone’s biz, you know, but enough is enough, and I want thing to get better or I’ll find a way to leave this behind.
Thanks so much for coming and for sharing this 🙂
Hi Sylviane,
Tell me about it. I recently posted my experience with Sheraton and Marritt in Memphis, TN when I came back from a business conference there.
The post was shared so much on social media channels that Sheraton came back to me with apology and they offered me a free stay in their hotel the next time I visit them as a token of their appreciation of me as a valued customer. I appreciate them for doing that.
On the other hand, Marriott did nothing about it. I didn’t hear from them. Not even an apology. Guess what, I am never going to go there again and they will always be in my blacklisted hotels list.
So, you are right. Treating customers with disrespect and ignoring them isn’t going to help any business, big or small.
Great post. Thank you for sharing these tips because we are in business as well and it is a great reminder to me too. Have a great week.
Regards,
Kumar
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Hi Kumar,
Oh, I sure remember you recent post about the bad service you received at Sheraton and Mariott, and shared it myself. Wow, I tell you this social media sharing can go far. I can’t believe Sharaton got to know about it! Well, actually I can 🙂
This is not the time to deliver bad customer service, because you can go down under pretty fast with a bad wrap that will spread like the plague.
Thank for your feedback, Kumar.
Helping your customers is good business Sylviane and ignoring your customers is bad business. I have only 1 rule when it comes to customer service; I will listen to complaints and do my best to address them but the moment any type of abuse/treatment like trash occurs, they are gone!
I severe a relationship immediately once a customer crosses the line. Goodbye. Other than that, I will do my best to correct or resolve any situation which might be growing.
Great post!
Ryan
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Hi Ryan,
Yes, Good customer service is good business and bad customer service is bad business, indeed. Now if the customer is a jerk, that’s another story, but if you do business the right way, that shouldn’t happen very often anyway.
In my case, I’m actually writing this post while being very meek about it still. Has my freind Carol said, I haven’t even mentioned the business by name in the post.
Thank you for coming and sharing your thoughts.
Hi Sylviane!
Sorry to hear about your experience, did you finally get it resolved? Customer Service is the utmost importance for me. If I get bad CS, I will likely dump the product. I may give it a second chance because not everyone has 100% good days. Maybe the CSR was just having a major downer or maybe picking up on my frustration however, I do like to live by the 3 strike rule. You give me bad CS 3 times and we’re done for sure.
Thanks for sharing this with us and bringing CS to light!
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A lot of important points here! It’s a great list but for me the most crucial negative effect is about spreading the bad word when you have an unsatisfied customer. When that happens there is no turning back, you and your business will suffer.
nice post.
Hello Lipe,
Yes, that’s why’s it’s so important to provide good customer service.
Thanks for you comment and welcome here.
Boy do I ever hear you on this one Sylviane and I’m so sorry you had to deal with this crap too.
As you know with my hosting fiasco, I’m a very loyal customer. I’ll give you plenty of chances to make the situation right. But once you screw me over and over again not only will I go with a competitor but you could apologize to me and offer me free service and I will never return. It’s like a relationship… You screw me once you’ll screw me again. I’d be the idiot it I let you do it to me again.
Word of mouth is huge and we appreciate hearing other people’s experiences with companies they’ve been a part of as well. I went with a new hosting service upon the recommendation of someone I trusted that knew would not steer me wrong. So far things are still good too with a few little bumps but nothing is perfect. That’s just part of life I’m afraid and a lot is beyond even their control.
It still boggles my mind why people treat their clients this way. Even when I was in corporate America I’ve always said that you can have a good product or good service but you rarely find them both with the same company. If you do then never ever leave because it’s so hard to find.
I say bravo for writing about it and like Carol I would have called him out on it. People need to know this so that they can seriously think whether or not they want to buy his product knowing these issues will more than likely arise. I mean you’re just being honest having experienced it first hand.
So here’s to smoother times ahead and while you’re at it, have a great week too.
~Adrienne
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Hi Adrienne,
Yes, I remember your ordeal with your hosting service. So, I know you know what I’m going through.
For the life of me I don’t know what’s wrong with this guy, but something must be. I would have never signed up for this if I had known, but now I’m kinda stuck.
He doesn’t even go to his freaking forum anymore it seems. He has never got back to me about a couple of questions I had months ago about using a header optin box.
He was great at the beginning, but it really deteriorated over time. I didn’t call him out because I want to keep things as peaceful as possible and because I still use his product, but if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t.
Thanks for coming Adrienne.
Hi Sylviane
This post needs to go everywhere, to everyone.
Customer Service is the key to any business. But if the customer service is negative, it can be the downfall of the business.
We are told, customers come first! Sometimes I question that because I have had very negative experiences with no apology. I do let it go, but I have a rule of thumb, a company treats me negative and give no consideration, I stop doing business with them.
Once a company crosses the line, I am done. I respect others and I expect others to do the same to me,
I am so sorry you are experiencing this “headache”. I will share this post on all the groups I am involved with.
Thank you
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Hi Gladys,
Thank you for coming and for sharing this post.
This is the kind of post you don’t want to have to write, but I used my sad situation to help people out in understanding what bad customer service looks like and how it could be avoided.
Have a great week, and thank you for coming.
I know exactly how you feel Sylviane! I’m going through this myself. I have left messages and have gotten no response. You’re right, I do feel as if I’m being ignored and that’s only making me more angry. I will not hesitate to take my business elsewhere if I’ve been mistreated as a customer.
I’m very big on customer service. I used to be a manager in a call center, every time I’m on the phone with a service rep, I’m rating their call from beginning to end :). I’m sorry you had to go through this, I sure hope you gave ’em a piece of your mind!
Great post Sylviane. Everyone with a business should take time to read this. Have a great week!
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Sylviane, The Buffer app proved this is true. They told us a problem immediately, did not HIDE it from us and answered all our questions along the way. That\’s Customer Service. One does mind having a problem most of the time as long as you are aware of it and can prepare what to do along the way. But if you are ignored that\’s a whole other story and experience. I always had the 24 hr rule to respond and now try to cut it down to 1-8 hrs. if all possible. We live in a high tech world where everyone expects things immediately….Like Ryan mentions some customers can be abusive and then you must think: Do you really want that kind of clientele? Great topic! Have a great day ahead.
Hi Sylviane,
You are absolutely spot on! There really is no room to treat any customers badly, especially not when dealing with them online.
Word of mouth is incredibly important in any business and even just one customer who is not happy with how they were treated can end up causing a lot of damage as they can easily just write about it online. A while ago I saw a programme about a B&B that treated a customer really badly and then got p*ssed off about it when that customer wrote about it in length on TripAdvisor. It’s like they were committing business suicide!
Thanks for great tips and sorry to hear you’re experiencing this. Hopefully it will get sorted very soon.
Laura
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Hi Laura,
Yes, you would think that with the easy that it’s given to us today to write anywhere about anything online, business owners would be watchful of their customer service behavior, yet, some are not.
In the case of this guy here, he should definitely know better being a blogger and a social media user himself, yet his behavior is crazy.
Thank you for your input, Laura.
Hi Sylviane,
When I ran my own computer business, I learned that it may take you years to cultivate a customer, but only seconds to lose one. Being aware of customers needs is one thing, but treating them with the utmost respect goes well beyond business. It speaks to who we are as human beings. If we do not offer dignity, respect, kindness, compassion, or understanding… business or not… we fail to be as humane as we should be.
Kindest Regards,
Bill
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Amen to that, Bill.
His answer after 15 emails I might have sent his way was “ this is not even part of the package, I’m just doing this as a favor, so give me a chance,” which I translate, “I don’t give a crap that your blog has no social sharing buttons, and you’re the last thing on my list.” This is not only bad customer service, but as you so well said, it speaks about who you are as a person.
Thank you so much for your input. Very much appreciated.
Hi Sylviane
I hate, hate, hate bad or none existent customer service. and your experience recently was disgusting to my mind.
There is so much evidence that generating a new sale to a new prospect is so much more difficult than selling again to an existing customer. So it amazes me when businesses do not cherish their customers.
I am surprised that 42% of people expect a response in a day. I never do now because few people give it. Sad isn’t it?
I agree with you 1000% Sylviane.
Sue
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Hi Sue,
Thanks for agreeing with me, Sue 🙂
I’m so sick of his customer service that this morning I send him yet, ANOTHER email with the subject line “Are you still in business?” and I reminded him when at the very beginning he asked me if I would write a good review for him, which I did. I’m going to give him a few days to answer this email, but if I don’t get an answer I’m going to post an open letter on my Facebook wall.
Now, the letter will not be meant to attack him, which is absolutely NOT what I’m after, but asking for help and asking people if they have had the same experience with his customer service.
I’m glad you came and have a great week 🙂
Hi Sylviane
Prior to being a stay at home dad, I worked in the pensions industry as an administration manager.
Customer service was very much a key part of what I did and your blog post speaks volumes to me.
I often found that by picking up the phone and speaking to the person who had complained was always a good way to start.
It didn’t always work but usually just showing that level of interest and not hiding from the complaint meant that things were handled in a more friendly manner.
It’s always important to be upfront about exactly what is included in a service agreement and what isn’t.
I find though another problem these days is the small print. Who has the time to read all the terms and conditions fully before signing on the dotted line? And if they did, would they understand it?
I would prefer companies to be much more explicit about these things, to use less jargon and to use plain and simple English.
I hope you got your issues resolved Sylviane in any case!
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Hi Tim,
No unfortunately the problem is still not solved and the guy is still missing in action, but I know now what I’m going to do next. I had it with this guy.
I agree with the small prints and as you said not only there’re small, but they are almost impossible to understand except if you’re a lawyer. I’m thinking it’s got to be that way in purpose.
It always helps to at least acknowledge the customer and show them that you care about their issue by trying to fix it. That guy doesn’t care, and it’s becoming so obvious to me. If not that, then he must have some kind of issues that he’s not telling. But I have the feeling that I will find out soon.
Thank you for coming and see you around soon 🙂
Sorry about your experience, Sylviane (Then again, that experience is the reason why this post is here, right? It helps to have bad experiences – we learn from them, and we know not to make the mistake :D).
I do agree with your points, Sylviane. When people buy a product, they also buy the customer service (they expect it). And as good business owners, it is our responsibility that we provide a great experience for our customers.
As for your point on negative testimonials, I think negative reviews tend to spread faster. Just look at the web, for instance. People are “interested” in reading negative stuff. Too much negativity. That might be the reason why people also promote positive stuff – like those posts with “faith in humanity” is restored. Frankly, I hate those posts. Do we need assurance that we are “good”? If we need assurance, then we certainly aren’t “good” (then again, it is good to read and share positive experiences).
Thank you for sharing these points, Sylviane 🙂 Have a wonderful week!
I know what you mean Jeevan, I kind of hate those statements as well. I totally understand.
You’re right, that negative experience, which is still going on, at least has produced this post that could be helpful for some.
Thank you for coming and for your input.
Hi Sylviane,
In actuality, customer service has always been my pet peeve. It angers me when I’m not provided in a professional manner respecting what my issues and my concerns are. This is a great article because it lets the service providers know that your input and concerns are important and should be addressed immediately or they will lose customers. I’m not sure why people don’t know that.
Anyway, you give some good tips so people know how to treat their customers.
Great job,
Barbara
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Hi Barbara,
I don’t know what would be so wrong with anyone not to attend to a customer well, because there is no more hiding about anything these days.
As I was just replying to someone else’s comment, this guy might have lost his mind, because I’m about to be louder and more specific about the whole thing, but not on my blog anymore, but on social media. I just had it!
Thanks 🙂 and thank you for coming.
Sylviane,
It’s refreshing to read a post about customer service! The statistics that you included from the RightNow survey (“a staggering 89% consumers began doing business with a competitor due to bad customer service”) is unbelievable. To me, it’s unforgivable to not treat all customers with respect. With so much competition these days and the fact that it’s so easy to let people know about both good and bad customer experiences, it’s mind-boggling to me that someone would provide such poor customer service to you.
I hope everything works out well for you if it hasn’t already.
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Hi Sherryl and nice to see you here.
I agree, it’s very mind boggling that some people would be so suicidal to provide bad customer service today, and this guy I’m referring to might have lost his mind. At this point I don’t known, but he still has to fix something and he’s still ignoring all my calls.
Thank you for your input.
Very good article Sylviane. i could not understand why would someone ignore their customer or treat them badly.
It is hard to get a loyal customer so you should do everything in your power to please them.
I can understand your frustrations. You must have been really bothered to write about it.
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Hi Michael,
At time it’s tough for me to respond to later comments, so I really apologize for the late reply. Gosh I will never do business with this guy ever again. He really sucks, and he stole my money.
Thanks for your feedback.
We should always understand the need and their importance in our business. Remember being good to the customers will only bring new customers to you. I truly loved reading your article. I do follow the same thinking.
Hi Jijin and welcome here. Also sorry for this so late reply.
Yes, customer service is way important. So important that’s what’s keep you in business.
Thanks for coming.
Couldn’t agree with you more, Sylviane – there’s nothing more infuriating than being treated badly or ignored by a company against which you have a complaint.
I think one of the most important things is to make sure you have an effective, efficient, responsive system for dealing with complaints – customers will often be willing to forgive you – may even think more of you – if you respond to their complaint in a caring, sensitive way – and admit it and apologise if you’ve got things wrong.
In my view it’s the attitude that staff convey, as much as any practical, financial compensation, that makes all the difference.
You need to make your customers feel you really care about them.
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Hi Sue,
I’m so sorry but for some reason I’d missed like 5 comments on this post.
For the life of me I do not understand how someone would do that, but I haven’t got a single response back since the last time he finally updated two of my blogs after much begging like 2 months ago. It’s like he disappeared from the face of the earth, expect that I saw him talking on Google+
I will always against his business for sure.
Thank you for coming and so sorry I missed your post, Sue.
One cannot have a successful business without having good customer service. Remember those disgruntled customers will spread the word and you dont want your business to be ruined because of this. Keep your customers happy!
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I will surely spread the word for sure.
Sorry I’d missed your comment here.
This is a great one i must say, i stayed glued to my screen as i read through. thanks Sylviane.
Thanks for coming, Emebu.
Hi Sylviane,
WOW! I can see that you are still upset. Very upset. Well, according to the name of that person, I believe there is a strong possibility of a cultural clash. I am afraid that no.5 is not so far from the truth.
I hope you won’t lose your trust in people and just be more careful in the future. It seems the person you are buying a product or service is very important, too. In the world of small businesses, reputation seems to be very important.
How do we evaluate the reputation of a small business owner? Social proof is far from being enough to evaluate a person\’s reputation. Social proof is just the first thing that attracts attention.
Word of mount is a double edge sword. You can hear a lot of good things about a person but then when you know him or her, it proves to be a jerk. You may also hear a lot of bad words about a person but when you meet him or her everything proves to be false or hype. It happens so many times.
In my opinion, you must study carefully that person before buying something. Also, nothing beats direct experience. I really hope you will be able to solve your problems and get rid of this nightmare soon. If I can do something for you, please tell me.
Have a wonderful day
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Yes, you’re right Silviu, except that in the case of Hesham he seems to have good reviews and good social proof. Nowhere did I read that he is the a%^$H$^&e that he’s been with me.
The guy stole my $29 and never helped with my questions for months now.
In the future I will certainly dig for any things that is better to find out before rather than after. While I was very upset, I’m not going to let that affect me any longer I will just advice anyone asking me to stay clear from his services.
This is why I always want to catch your every post so that I can learn & view something new, interesting and authentic information and suggestion from you. Thanks for your interesting post.
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You’re welcome Alysha,
I hope this can help people to beware of what can happen and never, ever do this themselves if they want to keep a good reputation.
Wow Sylviane!
It’s hard to believe that any business, especially an online business could be so indifferent to it’s true life’s blood! A paying customer!
Sorry to hear your story! But I had a very similar negative experience with an online paid membership site a while back. Get this!
The site which was Internet marketing training based, was originally $24.95 per month.
And as I continued my learning curve, I got to the point where I wasn’t actively using the site anymore.Odd I know, seeing how they were debiting my checking account each month like clockwork! Anyway…
Here’s the kicker! Fast forward two years ahead. One day out of the blue, I decided to log in in order to review a particular training video. Suddenly both my username & password were no longer valid! Say what?
After a gazillion unanswered emails, it turns out the site was actually sold to another marketer, who promptly informed me that the new monthly rate was now $97 dollars per month! Say what?
And when I asked when had all this had taken place, they answered about 13 months ago! So I asked, if that was the case, why had they continued to debit my account each month for $24.95, even though I could no longer access the account!
They suddenly stopped their email correspondence!
Although I was extremely tempted to file a formal complaint! I finally rationalized that the real fault was mine! For not staying actively engaged!
So I truly can appreciate what you went through! Bummer! Thanks for sharing your experience!
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