Bad Customers

90% of your problems will come from 10% of your customers. Most of these customers are just impatient or have unreal expectations as to how quickly they should receive their order. Good communication will help to make those problems smaller and satisfy some of those customers.

Some customers however, no matter how careful you are, will create problems. These customers are either never satisfied, or are just out cheat you. These are the people you wish you could send to your competition. They will try to take advantage of you to get free merchandise and get away with anything they can.

One of the more popular problems you may have with these bad customers is their trying to return used merchandise. Either the same item they purchased after using and breaking it, or sometimes they will order a new item and attempt to return a similar but different item saying it's the one they ordered and now wish to return.

A strong return policy can help with some of these people. Some companies charge a re-stocking fee to avoid people “renting” the merchandise they buy and returning it when they are done. Whether or not to do that depends on what you are selling, and your return rate. Some merchandise like shoes and clothing demand a reasonably lenient return policy

Another tactic some of these customers use is claiming not to have received their order. Unless you ship everything signature required, which is more expensive and not always practical for smaller orders, shippers will often leave packages at the delivery location if no one answers the door. Most customers are honest and will retrieve their package when they return. You will get less honest customers who will find their packages at their house, and then claim they did not get them. While this does happen to honest customers, as some thieves follow around delivery trucks and wait for them to leave a package and then take it, it more often is an attempt to cheat you.

There are some ways to get a better idea of which is which. A customer who claims they never received their package and then immediately wants to cancel their order and get refunded probably has received the package. A customer who emails right after the package is delivered looking for a shipping update, may already know exactly where their package is.

Many times challenging these customers indirectly will cause them to back down. Advise them that the package was delivered and request they check with family or neighbors to see if someone has it. Let them know that the delivery company will investigate a missing package, and their driver will be interviewed. Tell them that the delivery company may file a police report for insurance purposes. You might be surprised at how many packages are suddenly found, or how often you don't hear anything more from the customer.