I had a most interesting day yesterday. Going about the day's errands in my typical professional, pleasant manner, I was straight out called a liar by two businesses. One of these businesses, I frequent every single day. The other, I frequent quite often, on an as-needed basis.
The first- we stop every morning (sometimes twice) to get coffee at a local bakery called Yum Yum Donuts, which is a legend here in San Jose. Their coffee is excellent, but the one problem is the cups' bottoms wear through extremely fast- sometimes before you get your cup of coffee drank. We've had this happen a few times, but it's never resulted in a huge problem. Yesterday, it did. The cup's bottom once again blew out, and hot coffee leaked all over David's phone.
I could have attacked it from a more aggressive angle, demanding that they pay for a new phone. But I didn't. I calmly went in and told her what had happened, and asked that when I get a cup of coffee, to please double cup it, as this happens frequently. Also, if it's happening to us, it's certainly happening to others. Those people may not be as gracious as I was. Or, simpler yet, invest a few dollars more and get better cups.
I had taken the cup inside to show her exactly how it blew out. She looked me straight in the eye and said "You didn't get that cup here this morning". Me- "Yes, I did. We got two cups not even an hour and a half ago, you waited on us, and this is one of those cups. I'm not asking for free coffee, for a new phone nothing. All I'm asking is that you double cup when I get coffee, so this does not happen again", and she proceeded to argue with me. How, I wonder, is it that she thought she could tell when the cup was purchased, as every cup they use is plain white with no markings of any kind. And the fact of the matter was, yes, it was one of the two cups that I had purchased just an hour and a half earlier. She blatantly called me a liar! This morning I went in there before she arrived and made the manager aware of the entire incident.
The second- we went into Staples to return a cord to charge our phones' battery. We had bought this cord one day prior, in that store, and I had the receipt. We simply told the associate that we had bought this yesterday and it did not work. He took it right over to some device they have, plugged it in, and said to me defiantly "It works". I said "Well take it out to my truck and plug it in and see how well it works". By this point, I was a little upset at being called a liar TWO times by people whom we spend money with. And more so, I could have taken it back (since it was within 30 days, I had the receipt, and all associated packaging) and received a full refund for ANY reason, or no reason at all (e.g. didn't like the color, didn't like the service, changed my mind, anything).
To add insult to injury, I paid for the product with cash, clearly stated on the receipt, and he refunded me on my debit card! Well no biggie, since it is already in my account, but that's not the point. If I pay cash you refund cash, if I pay debit you refund debit, if I pay credit you refund credit- that's how it goes.
So both businesses will be getting a thoroughly worded review of my experience on Yelp this morning.
#1 rule in business- you DON'T piss on and call the people who have made you successful liars. Keep doing this, and you can lock your doors.
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