Lee McIntyre went from overworked high school teacher to full time marketer in just 56 days. He is the founder of Aim Higher Marketing where he shows others how to use honest marketing to build profitable Internet businesses in record time.
« Another 77 Mins of FREE Video Training Added to the Pot | Home | Discover How I Run My Business Without Spending a Cent »
The True Cost of The Desperate Sale?
By Lee McIntyre | April 4, 2008
If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You can also sign up for my extremely popular FREE newsletter by clicking HERE. Thanks for visiting!
It’s not just online where certain marketers break the rules and bend the truth.
Today I had a deeply frustrating offline business experience that some of the most slippery online marketers would be proud of.
I’m in the process of changing the name of one of my companies, and for various reasons I wanted this doing today.
I contacted one company who promised this could be done as a same day service. In return I’d have to pay a premium price and the cost would be £120.
Not a problem I thought….I urgently needed this doing so I was happy to pay the extra although I negotiated this down to £99.
The service was sold on the understanding that the name of the company would be changed today, and I’d document this by digital signature.
I have no idea if that’s how this process normally works…but this is certainly how the company in question got me to part with my £99.
They were VERY clear that the name change would happen today.
So what happens next?
Well an hour after they have my £99 they inform me that I must send them some forms and that this will be processed on Tuesday at the earliest.
What?! There was no mention of this when they were selling the service and the whole contract was negotiated on the basis of a same day service.
Now this was enough to leave me deeply frustrated as the wasted time and confusion had thrown a major spanner in my plans.
Anyway, I rang them to explain why I was upset and to ask for a refund.
The response? Work has already been undertaken and so no refund can be processed at this time.
First they need to speak to the operative who took my call who’s out to lunch somewhere, and they’ll call me back. I got the deep impression that a refund wouldn’t be forthcoming.
And even if they do return my money I’ve wasted half my morning dealing with the aftermath of shoddy sales people misrepresenting their services. Is the £99 really worth the damage to their reputation?
Would I shop their again? Not a chance!
Yes we’re in the business of closing the sale, but never forget that in this business the means never do quite justify the ends.
Sure, they have a measly £99 sat in their account right now, but if they’d have accurately represented their services they’d have had the potential to win over a lifelong high spend customer.
Not now. Not a chance!
Anyway, there’s an interesting lesson in here somewhere….
If you overdeliver with the sale you can win a customer for a life. If you do the opposite then you can lose MANY customers for life.
People like to talk about bad sales experiences a lot more than they talk about positive ones. And if they don’t give me my money back I’ll be talking about this to a lot of people!
Shall I name the company in question? Or shall I just say goodbye to my £99? Let me know if the comments below…
About the author | |
 | Lee McIntyre is the founder of Aim Higher Marketing where he shows others how to use honest marketing to build profitable Internet businesses in record time. Subscribe to his newsletter now and receive $239.80 in valuable freebies just for giving it a try!…Visit LeeMcIntyreNewsletter.com now! |
Last 5 posts by Lee McIntyre
- How To Position Your Product For Maximum Profits - June 22nd, 2009
- Your Questions Answered..(And The Contest Winners) - June 18th, 2009
- How A Product I Created In Less Than 4 Hours Earns Me $45,354.47 Per Month - June 17th, 2009
- The Super Simple Formula For Massive Online Success - June 16th, 2009
- Win A FREE Copy Of My Newbie Friendly Coaching Program - June 15th, 2009
 |
Real Marketing For Real People (…And It’s FREE)Subscribe to the Lee McIntyre Newsletter and discover how to build your online income fast…plus you’ll INSTANTLY receive more than $97 of valuable freebies just for giving it a try. Click HERE Now » |
Popularity: 5% [?]
Related posts:
Topics: Ethics |
April 4th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Name and shame them I say
To be honest they sound like really shoddy operators and others deserve to be warned about them.
I remember back in my days of working in retail while I was studying at school, one manager once said “remember a customer who experiences bad customer service is likely to tell at least 10 people” - something which I’m sure rings true and worth remembering.
I know in my IM business - and I know in yours too Lee, we pride ourselves on offering great service to our customers both through the standard of our products as well as through the overall sales and post-sales experience.
If only all businesses would follow this ethic, unfortunately that’s all too often not the case, with money being the sole motivator of such operations
I hope you get it sorted anyways Lee
James
April 4th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Let me make a suggestion on how to get a proper response from from an unresponsive customer service rep.
Ask them if they have ever heard of “Rule 15″. The Rule states that most people love to talk more about their bad experiences vs. their good experiences. They will tell at least 15 people but just use your imagination of the numbers when those 15 people each tell another 15 people. Talk about the “Rule of Compounding Effect” taking place. It works like a charm a good percentage of the time.
Considering the numbers on this blog, I say let them have it and “Tell the World” who they are.
Lee, the lesson here is maybe then they will learn that the world is more global.
By the way, I’m loving the Intern Program & I learning alot. Almost done with week 1. Also, when will the video to task 2 be back up so I can complete it. I going to meet you on the other side.
Rick Wiley aka South Padre Trader
April 4th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Lee,
This is another shocking example of snake oil tactics that seem to prevail in the modern world, especially the UK - (I don’t know whether they are a UK company or not) but it’s pretty sickening..
I’d be tempted to ‘name name name’ but it’s your money Lee and your decision.
I would have thought that would be breaking some trading rule or other?
Hope you get it sorted!
Jerry
April 4th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Wow that was easy!
I guess they must have clicked the link in my email sig and ended up at this post as they promptly refunded my money….apologised a lot….and even gave me some extra on top of what I paid!
I’m going to have to blog about these situations more often.
Next up expect a blog post about my neighbour who parks in front of my drive…or maybe I could make it an Intern task to ring them up with prank calls until they stop?!!
Thanks of the comments!
Lee McIntyre
April 5th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Hi Lee,
Sometime only you take some serious action before they will do something like refunding.
I couldn’t agree with you more that we should not sacrifice the one time sale or commission by ruining our reputation and relationship with our list.
April 5th, 2008 at 3:48 am
Hi Lee,
In Australia we have a program called “A Current Affair”. They report on injustices suffered by average consumers, just like your experience.
Often when the offending company is made aware of the story about to be aired on national television, the problem is quickly sorted out.
There is power in making things public (in the right way) and the Internet is helping to share that power around a whole lot more.
Brendan.
April 5th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Just goes to show the power of a good reputation in business, and this is a critical success factor (as you’ll know Lee) which any company with an ounce of sense will protect at all costs… hence the refund you got.
Bottom line is though - don’t bite the hand that feeds you… they learned the hard way on this one.
April 6th, 2008 at 3:05 am
You are not the person I would ever wish this situation to happen upon. However, there are many,many IM (Irresponsible Marketers) that deserve something like this to happen to them.
It’s a shame it happened to you, but I am glad to hear you had a good outcome, unlike many of us who have been treated like this by the internet snake oil salespeople with no good outcome from it.
Someday the “Kevin Trudeaus” of the internet will face legal action and the good ones like yourself will be left standing and more popular than ever. Too bad the bad ones never understand that there is money to be made by treating people with honesty, respect and service.
Congrats Lee
April 6th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Lee, Hi
Glad you got that sorted out, though it doesn’t sound like they’d have done it without the threat of naming & shaming hanging over them! Did you get your company name changed OK - maybe as a contrast you should Name & Congratulate if you get a company who does do what they say?
I had a problem with a neighbour’s son parking across my drive once, it took a while before I got mad enough to go and tell him, and he just shrugged and said sorry, like he couldn’t see what the problem was… but at least he stopped doing it.
Well done on the Internship Program - I’m half way through week 2 now, it’s hard work but very beneficial experience for us newbies!
Cheers,
Andy