In an age of transparency, what with social media and all, doing the right thing for customers should be number one on every company’s “What We Do Here” list.
With the ability to broadcast unhappiness to thousands of people with one post or tweet, customers can cause a big fuss and potential headache for companies not doing the right thing for customers.
Given the choice between taking a [very small] loss and gaining an advocate, I’d choose the latter every time.
A company I interacted with in December of last year chose to do the former.
Here’s the Story
I signed up for a “free” seven day trial with a company to take it for a test drive. The process required that I put my credit card info on file, but wouldn’t be charged if I opted out of the trial before the seventh day. Lots of online companies offer this kind of thing and it’s pretty straightforward.
I’ve tried several services this way in the past; some I’ve stuck with because I found them to be useful to my business while others I cancelled because they didn’t fit. No big deal. Never had a problem.
I marked the starting date on my calendar and the date by which I needed to cancel my trial subscription so my credit card would not be charged.
On day six, I logged in and downgraded my account to the “free” version. Case closed, right?
Wrong.
Two days later, I noticed my credit card had been charged for the service I didn’t want. I immediately called the company and sat on hold for twenty minutes until a customer service rep finally took my call. She explained their policy regarding the seven day trial and assumed I had cancelled outside of that time frame which would explain the card charge.
“I’ve removed your card information from your account,” she said. “You are free to use the service until January 17, 2014.”
“But I don’t want the service,” I protested. “I cancelled the trial before the end date.”
I was then instructed on how to request a refund as that was beyond her authority.
I did as she told me, and today I got my answer from their accounting department:
“Our records indicate you didn’t cancel before the trial period ended…”
Blah, blah, blah.
My response to them?
[su_quote]You had a chance to make me happy and gain an advocate for your company. Instead, you have lost my respect and I will make sure to let people know NOT to use you ever because doing the right thing for customers is clearly not a part of your company’s operating policy.[/su_quote]
That was the kind, uncensored version I ultimately sent back to their customer service department.
It’s Not That Hard to Do the Right Thing
I don’t expect to see my money refunded, and I realize that responding negatively to the situation via email won’t win me any points.
If I hadn’t followed their rules, and was expecting a refund say, two weeks outside of the trial period, then yes. I would know at the end of the day I messed up.
But in this case, I did what I was supposed to do and still got penalized.
As far as I’m concerned, that warrants a candid response.
Knowing what we know these days about providing A+ customer service, it’s not that hard to do the right thing. Maybe next time, they will.
