Jobs, Ethics and the "Grey Area"

It's called "Supply and demand."


Have you ever asked a clerk if she knew when the item would be going on sale? Here they're telling you when the sale is gonna happen, and telling you that you can buy it now and come in for the difference, assuming that it's still available at that price.

Heck, most stores have the same policy with their standard items. If you buy it today, and it goes on sale within "x" days, bring in the receipt and get the difference.

The store tilt works at is actually providing better customer service by stating the date and the price, upfront.

Not too long ago, I needed to buy a television. I found one that I wanted at a local Wal-Mart. They were able to confirm for me that they had 10 in stock, but they would not sell one to me. The televisions were scheduled to go on sale two days later. The sale price was only $20 less, and I told the manager that I would happily pay the extra $20 to take the television that day, but I was refused. The sales associate who was originally helping me was sympathetic to my annoyance at the policy and the manager, but it was obvious that they were both following whatever policies are in place. I just thought it was silly. If they were obviously willing to sell the televisions for $20 less in 2 days, why not take the $20 to sell it now? Of course, they may have advertised that they would have 10 of those televisions available on the sale date, but I seriously doubt that. Further, if the televisions were going on sale in 2 days, and they knew they couldn't sell any of them before then, they shouldn't have had the television on display for me to even ask about.

In my own job, I set the rules. I don't believe in the customer always being right. If anything, the customer is usually wrong. I don't disagree with the concept of customers being important, but my business model is set up in such a way for me to make money. That's why I started a business in the first place. If the customer is willing to oblige by the dictates I have set forth, then they are wonderful and great and I treat them with the utmost respect and care. But customers who fell that they are "always right" and things should be done to suit them, are not welcome, and I don't care if they never come back.

As an example, city ordinance requires that I obtain the name, address, and phone number of all my customers. There normally isn't any problems with this. Occasionally, I'll have someone ask why we require this information. I simply tell them about the city ordinance that relates to my particular business license, at which point the person just nods understandingly and continues.

However, once in a great while, I get the person who decides to be irate and upset over the fact that I'm asking for this information, which usually ends with them yelling at me, "I don't understand why you require this information!" To which, I normally reply, "I don't understand why Target requires me to wear pants when I shop there. But they do, and so I do. Do you wear pants when you go to Target, or do you argue with them that you don't understand their corporate policy regarding pants? My policy is that you need to provide this information. If you don't want to, you're more than welcome to go somewhere else that doesn't require this information."

For me, pricing works a bit differently, but I'll still have people that want to give me grief over it once in a while. I respond with, "That's how I make money. I'm not in this business to break even or lose money. I'm here to make money; to make a profit. If you don't like the concept that I want to make money, then that's fine, and you can go somewhere else. But you should realize that 99% of the retail outlets available to you are all interested in making a profit."

konceptum -

That Wal-Mrt thing sucks. Were you able to get it two days later?

And, I hesitate to ask, but what kind of work do you do? I can understand people being hesitant to provide personal info....

It's sad to admit how much of a slave I am to television, but I could not wait the two days. I guess it would be more appropriate to state that I did not wish to wait the two days. I ended up buying a television from Target later that same day, for roughly the same price, and it was a larger television. In the end, I was happy with that purchase.

I am basically a liquidation agent, which is a fancy way of saying that I sell off other people's failed businesses. Mainly, I deal in the consumer goods portion of the failed businesses. If you've been to any of the large "going out of business" sales for places like Circuit City, that's very similar to what I do. Only, I'm one small person and that means I don't get the large companies like that.

I got a hell of a good deal on a front door(was building my house at the time) from a liquidation guy. About a $2,000 door for $300. I had to drive about 9 hours round trip to get it but I'm happy. So you go boy, good for you.

I enjoy the job, and especially the people I meet, but the profit margins are thin. Especially if you want to give people a good deal, which I do. It's still amazing to me when people get upset that I don't deliver. Geez.

So why do they want customer information from you?

Maybe to track stuff if someone claims it's stolen? Kind of like these metal recycling places. Bubba brings 200# of copper to a recycling place to get whatever(although it was stolen of off a radio tower the night before). I'm in Texas, so we do have Bubba's. ;-)

I have a Second-Hand Dealer's license. The city requires the tracking of said information because the vast majority of people with that kind of license are buying and selling to people off the street. The city is worried about stolen merchandise in that situation. Even though my business doesn't do that, I still fall under that category because of my license, and thus have to collect the information.

About "The customer is always right"...

It took me a long time to understand this saying and what it means. It always seemed so hypocritical when someone in management would say it and clearly not believe it. And to take it literally is quite absurd. Is the customer right when they want to take items and pay for them later, without setting up an approved account? Don't think that hasnt been tried.

But now I am of the opinion that it means there is a type of argument that you don't ever need to get into with a customer who has a non-valid problem, and that is whether company policy is right, and whether the customer is wrong. 99% of the time, anyway. They are going to drop it if they don't have a leg to stand on, yet never have to be told they are wrong, exactly; if at the same time the person handling the complaint does indicate "regrets" then it is the best face for the company.

People can really be ridiculous and try to get away with murder. An item they bought has a great big scratch; they want to bring it back saying they don't know how the scratch got there, without being able to claim delivery people did it. Believe it or not they try this. Most places of business: they have to be told that the warranty doesnt cover "don't know how it got there." It is not necessary to say, "you are wrong. Clearly a scratch doesnt come out of nowhere."

I'm certainly not saying customer complaints can be handled by waving a magic wand or that there is anything easy about that job. Some people don't "drop it", even when they are wrong. But upper management pretty much knows it was handled wrong if their people keep getting into big arguments with customers about who is right. If the problem gets to them [mistake #1 btw] and all they hear is all the things the buyer heard that was about who was right and who was wrong, then maybe things are getting handled badly. With some customers, the company should be making an effort to accommodate them in order to keep them, even when they are wrong. That it's time to make it clear there are better ways to handle problems might result in hearing someone try to explain, "the customer is always right."

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