Dec 12 2006
some people just HAVE to have the last word
Sometimes we offer services to clients in addition to selling items on eBay and we do a pretty good volume of these.
One such sale came in mid Novemeber. We did all the work we could on the service but then we got to the point where it was dependent on the buyer sending us information that allowed us to finish. We emailed him asking for said information.
Now, we get a huge volume of emails between all these other services and sales (not to mention that it’s the holidays so our personal life is just as busy) so when the guy didn’t email me back, I didn’t notice. It wasn’t until he purchased a second service from us a week ago that I recognized his name and realized that I never heard back and sent him a second, very polite email, which roughly said “We never heard back from you, did you ever recieve this email?” and resent the request for info.
What we were writing for him in the original service was a press release and we were waiting on the interivew type quotes from him to put into it.
This is what I get in reply:
I sent 4 freakin emails and you literally ruined our entire launch as the magazines were waiting for the press release and advertorial..I will answer your questions but we will never do business again. I never got this email I assure you. I needed the press release a week ago.
The four emails I have. They are all from before the request for info and they are him #1 him saying I bought the press release, what do I do next, #2 him giving me the title of his book and his website, #3 “ok” in responce to the email below and #4 his purchasing two unrelated additional services from us and asking us what the next step was. I am not sure how any of them are relevent to this at all.
I understand that in this world of spam blockers and whatnot that emails get lost and get eaten. I totally understand that. But the email I send him prior to my request for information was: “Thanks [name]….In a few days I will have some interview-style questions for you to flesh out the release but, until then, what is on the website is plenty to get me started.” He replied back so I know he recieved this email.
So, when a MONTH passed and you didn’t see those questions, wouldn’t you email me and ask what’s up? I mean, especially if you were in such a rush, why would you wait for me to email you? If I hadn’t noticed, would this ever had become an issue at all or did he truly forget that he had purchased it and decided to react in rage.
I responded:
I am sorry if you are upset but this was something that was out of our control since we had no notice that you did not recieve our mail. If you had let me know that you were on a tight deadline, we would have happily given you rush processing.
I issued you a refund for the [2] services even though labor has already been done on both. I cannot refund you for the [other] service as that has already been completed.
I am sorry that email prevented us from working together. I have worked with a great number of clients who have been very pleased with our press release work so it is a pity that a few crossed wires caused you so much trouble.
We wish you the best of luck with your launch and your future endevours!
I am a fair person. Even though nearly all of the labor had already been done, I refunded him the full price for the other two services. I figured we were done. Then I recieved 3 emails in a 24 hour period demanding that I send him his press release, which is obviously not finished since he only sent me the info I requested, after I refunded his money and he told me he didn’t want to work with me.
I replied similar answers to all:
As per our previous emails, we have refunded these services upon receipt of the email from you that you no longer wished to work with us.
He says:
I said I wasn’t going to do business with you in the future – I still wanted my press release. You guys wasted 30 days of my time.
Now this is starting to get really stupid. We emailed HIM to remind him that he hadn’t replied yet. If we hadn’t, even more time would have elasped. I suppose you could say that I should keep track of every single person who emails me back or not but if it was as big a rush deal as this guys says, why did he just sit there when he didn’t get the email from us (assuming that our email got lost in space)? I still don’t understand why he didn’t contact us.
Now, I have not shown you all of the back and forth in this, but, at this point, I was really getting the impression that this guy was just desperate to get the last word. I ended up having to repeat the same stuff back and forth several times and he would send back stupid emails like “Yeah, whatever.” (I can only suppose this was to stun me with his intelect.) I felt like I had to keep replying to have a record of the conversation in case he filed a claim so he couldn’t say I was ignoring him, but I felt like everytime I replied it was making him send another email so he could get the last word. This suspicion was 100% confirmed today.
I sent this reply to his email of the day saying how I ruined his life:
I understand that you are embarrassed and upset that you missed my original email and caused yourself such delay, but that was not something I had control over so your anger at us is misplaced, especially since we already issue you a full credit for both services despite the fact that we had already done the labor on them.
And this is what I get as a reply. A total nanny nanny fo, I get the last word, let me win:
Whatever… Let’s drop it and get on with life. No more emails please.
While this does bother me because this is what I have been shouting at my computer every day at his emails since this started, it did give me a good laugh.
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