Why customers are assholes sometimes
Remember a few weeks back when I discussed how SportsLizard's Price Guide was a love/hate product and how I am dealing with it? Well the past few weeks the love has intensified (more press mentions has led to ~1k new users/week) and with that so has the hate.
Towards the end of last week I got a wave of complaints and it set me off. People generally complain for a few different reasons, all of which are addressed in a handful of places throughout the site. Granted, the majority of people do not contact us, but when they do they seem to be PISSED. They clearly have not taken the time to read the site or check FAQ's, and they always feel screwed over. Sometimes it's because they think we billed them without their permission (forgetting of course that they signed up less than a week ago), other times they demand a refund for no reason whatsoever (some even going as far as opening disputes with PayPal).
Again, in many business situations these things would raise red flags. But in our case, with the volume we're doing, and with the love/hate nature of the product, I'm not worried. Revenue is still increasing fast and there are a lot of happy paying users. Nonetheless I'm only human and it pisses me off when customers send emails accusing us of wrongdoing when we are nothing but stand up, honest, and fair (I almost always give refunds to people who request them).
And being human, I started asking myself why people contacted us with such malice. Were they just assholes and should I leave it at that? I'd like to think that people in general are good by nature, so I don't think that's it. I think customers are so accustomed to companies not caring that they jump on the defensive right away. When I go back and look at the second emails I received from people - after I contacted them and diffused the situation - and most people look like angels compared to their first email. Most are very thankful for my help and the speedy response. They were really just afraid that no one was going to get back to them and help, so they took their email to an extreme.
Unfortunately consumers have been largely treated like crap (particularly on the web) and they'll take it out on companies that don't deserve it. I suppose that many things in life are like that - people take out their frustrations on other people who don't deserve it. There's not really much you can do about it, but if you plan on having a love/hate product like I do you better be ready to deal with it :)
Towards the end of last week I got a wave of complaints and it set me off. People generally complain for a few different reasons, all of which are addressed in a handful of places throughout the site. Granted, the majority of people do not contact us, but when they do they seem to be PISSED. They clearly have not taken the time to read the site or check FAQ's, and they always feel screwed over. Sometimes it's because they think we billed them without their permission (forgetting of course that they signed up less than a week ago), other times they demand a refund for no reason whatsoever (some even going as far as opening disputes with PayPal).
Again, in many business situations these things would raise red flags. But in our case, with the volume we're doing, and with the love/hate nature of the product, I'm not worried. Revenue is still increasing fast and there are a lot of happy paying users. Nonetheless I'm only human and it pisses me off when customers send emails accusing us of wrongdoing when we are nothing but stand up, honest, and fair (I almost always give refunds to people who request them).
And being human, I started asking myself why people contacted us with such malice. Were they just assholes and should I leave it at that? I'd like to think that people in general are good by nature, so I don't think that's it. I think customers are so accustomed to companies not caring that they jump on the defensive right away. When I go back and look at the second emails I received from people - after I contacted them and diffused the situation - and most people look like angels compared to their first email. Most are very thankful for my help and the speedy response. They were really just afraid that no one was going to get back to them and help, so they took their email to an extreme.
Unfortunately consumers have been largely treated like crap (particularly on the web) and they'll take it out on companies that don't deserve it. I suppose that many things in life are like that - people take out their frustrations on other people who don't deserve it. There's not really much you can do about it, but if you plan on having a love/hate product like I do you better be ready to deal with it :)
posted by Adam McFarland at
7/23/2007 05:03:00 PM
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