Time to Fire the Customer?
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A customer called yesterday and said he was having a problem with our software. After getting some strange answers to some questions I asked what operating system he was using. "Windows ME" was the response. We clearly state on the website that we support Windows XP and later. It may actually work, but we integrate with a 3rd party software application, and it may have problems with ME. I don't do this often, but it may be time to fire this customer. I don't think I want to try to support a product that Microsoft stopped supporting years ago.
SS => Qualified in Submarines "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm". Winston Churchill
Most of the comments so far recommend not "firing" the customer, but frankly, if you can't support them you are basically telling them the same thing. If you fire them, you tell them to go away, if you tell them you can't support them, your telling them to go away (assuming they wont upgrade).
Proudly drinking the finest Maryland craft beer. Visiting Maryland for business? First round is on me!
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We 'fire' several customers a year, even if they are a larger customer. We tag them as 'Do Not Call' or 'Avoid' so that our employees can identify them and act accordingly. We have absolutely no problem telling our customers to PISS OFF if they have been rude or aggressive to ANY of our employees. We do not want to deal with them in any way ever again, and they become the ones left out in the cold. You should see them come crawling back, but it's often too late! ahahaaa!! It is a zero tolerance policy as far as arrogant and beligerant customers are concerned, with NO thought to loss of income for the company; we are a family (100+ employees) and it is absolutely necessary to keep this as our policy. As for your customer, it appears as though they don't deserve to be fired, really. I am assuming because they are running WinME that they are not a terribly large business, and have not had the resources to upgrade to something better. I would be a bit more understanding to their plight. Maybe you could offer them some sort of solution as far as an upgrade is concerned. If they cannot upgrade, the only thing to do is refuse support, unless they are prepared to sign a different and more costly support agreement, which, if you do not want to honour regardless, you could raise the price through the roof. :-\ Poor bastards! lol
Logan Black wrote:
Maybe you could offer them some sort of solution as far as an upgrade is concerned. If they cannot upgrade, the only thing to do is refuse support, unless they are prepared to sign a different and more costly support agreement, which, if you do not want to honour regardless, you could raise the price through the roof.
No need to set it insanely high, $400ish will cover a new bottom end desktop that'll still be faster than an ME relic.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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A customer called yesterday and said he was having a problem with our software. After getting some strange answers to some questions I asked what operating system he was using. "Windows ME" was the response. We clearly state on the website that we support Windows XP and later. It may actually work, but we integrate with a 3rd party software application, and it may have problems with ME. I don't do this often, but it may be time to fire this customer. I don't think I want to try to support a product that Microsoft stopped supporting years ago.
SS => Qualified in Submarines "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm". Winston Churchill
:thumbsup: TOS is and should be a two way street. I assume they clicked to agree to yours; & had they not done so, no deal or software would be allowed to go to that client. Most bottom-lines don't have room for hand-holding. Who wants this type of 'confused client' tying up and frustrating help desks and Tek. That said, if you have a heart & just feel like being nice....buy them an upgrade lisc. :~
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A customer called yesterday and said he was having a problem with our software. After getting some strange answers to some questions I asked what operating system he was using. "Windows ME" was the response. We clearly state on the website that we support Windows XP and later. It may actually work, but we integrate with a 3rd party software application, and it may have problems with ME. I don't do this often, but it may be time to fire this customer. I don't think I want to try to support a product that Microsoft stopped supporting years ago.
SS => Qualified in Submarines "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm". Winston Churchill
This is not a time to fire the customer since this appears to be a one time incident with this customer. Either the customer did not read the required system specifications or the customer thought the specifications did not apply to them for some reason. Simply explain that the software will not function on ME due to incompatibilities and this is the reason that you specify in your system requirements that the user use either XP or a newer operating system. Offer them possible solutions such as upgrading to a newer operating system (even be prepared to tell them where they might can find the software) or offer a refund with a restocking fee. Afterwards, apologize for the inconvenience and ask if there is anything else you can help them with today.
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We started with 90 days many years ago and started noticing everyone we dealt with had a 60 day policy for the software we buy. QuickBooks is a notable example. We release a major update roughly every 12 months though at this point where it was more hit and miss in the old days. A lot depends on the cycle you're on.
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You started with a 90 day policy and reduced it to 60 days based on the policies of other companies? Why? To make more money?
Yes. We didn't have a 90 day policy for very long, just in our early days. In fact 60 is generous these days, a lot of companies have 30 day policies. Again as I said before it depends on the release cycle overall and as we support every major past release as long as it's practical to do so it's no real hardship on our customers, it's their choice if they want the new features or not.
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One of our resellers is exhibiting exactly that sort of behaviour towards our online merchant at the moment (they paid for a substantial order by wire transfer, forgot to account for the transfer charges and then threw a major paddy when the merchant contacted them to tell them that there was a shortfall). It's not pleasant to see, and if it wasn't for the fact that the order is for an existing customer we'd have blown them out by now.
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
modified on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 5:50 AM
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:) We've faced that exact same situation before. If it's small we eat the charges usually because people are often confused by wire transfer fees.
So do we...however the shortfall in this case was a significantly more than the amount I'd expect to see lost in fees from a transfer. What has me more concerned is the way the reseller in question flipped out when advised of the issue. Not in any way professional, to say the least.
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
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So do we...however the shortfall in this case was a significantly more than the amount I'd expect to see lost in fees from a transfer. What has me more concerned is the way the reseller in question flipped out when advised of the issue. Not in any way professional, to say the least.
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"
Ahh...that's why we've never had resellers, not only because we don't want to give up any revenue to them but because we want our customers treated right. We get arrogant bastards emailing us regularly saying "If I'm a reseller I get a free copy right" even though it's plastered on our website that we don't have resellers. I think it's just an excuse for people to get a free copy or a big discount for themselves.
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Ahh...that's why we've never had resellers, not only because we don't want to give up any revenue to them but because we want our customers treated right. We get arrogant bastards emailing us regularly saying "If I'm a reseller I get a free copy right" even though it's plastered on our website that we don't have resellers. I think it's just an excuse for people to get a free copy or a big discount for themselves.
To be fair, most of the ones we've dealt with have been OK (and some are really good at generating new business) - it's just this particular one which is proving to be a pain.
Anna :rose: Having a bad bug day? Tech Blog | Anna's Place | Tears and Laughter "If mushy peas are the food of the devil, the stotty cake is the frisbee of God"