From time to time something comes up that makes us realize we all have responsibilities in every puppet related transaction.
A couple of weeks ago we had a customer who we had dealt with a few times in the past. From the original contact, we had his name and address in our files and when he contacted us about a puppet we had on “Available Now”, we shipped the puppet to him immediately when his payment was confirmed via PayPal.
We only use PayPal for our International customers because they take care of currency conversions and it is practical for that reason. We don’t use PayPal for domestic customers because the fees they charge would require us to raise our prices which we do not wish to do.
We have many PayPal customers who do NOT want us to use their PayPal address to ship to for whatever reason. Therefore we always use the address on file for shipping purposes.
We have never had a problem with this. Until this time. The “gentleman” from Australia failed to say anything about having moved to another State in Australia, and since we have never had a problem, we failed to ask where he wanted the puppet shipped.
On Thursday night a week ago, I checked email just before going to bed. (Nothing from him). On Friday morning, there was a note from him SCREAMING – “YOU SHIPPED THE PUPPET TO THE WRONG ADDRESS”. As is my custom, I went on for the next few minutes looking over all incoming email and discovered that while I slept, this fine specimen of a human being had sent us an email and within minutes opened a complaint with PayPal.
Over less than a couple of hours he communicated with PayPal three times and escalated the situation to a full dispute and had our PayPal account frozen. All this without us having been given the opportunity (during waking hours) to even respond to the problem.
After a very long week where we had several agreements with this . . . “person” we ended up sending him a full refund and a cordial invitation to take all of his future business elsewhere.
I have said all of this to arrive at this point. We don’t like losing good customers. Maybe I should have sent him an email confirming his address. However, if you have purchased puppets from us in the past and order another puppet, PLEASE let us know if you have had a change of address since the last puppet came your way.
I’m sure that none of you would react this way to a small mutual mistake, and none of you would go on the blogs telling a bunch of lies about the situation, but please help us with address information. We would not have done this intentionally for anything, and we certainly could not have anticipated someone like this unbalanced individual going off this way on a very fixable problem.
Thats all for this week folks, back to the lighter side of Ventriloquism next week.
Steve and JET
Wow,
I can imagine the trouble you guys must have gone through over just a single purchase. Well, just one bad customer should never ruin your days guys, you are the best.
PS: why am I having this feeling that this customer’s name starts with the letter B?
He sounds like a real Richard Cranium.
you may now this but on paypal the receiver has to choose the address to be shipped to. So if he did not change that it is his fault. If he did change it then just make note next time to check the address on paypal to see if it matches your records.
Some People are over reactive. Hope you got the puppet back.
Just a thought…Nora
I just want to say that I appreciate the service you provide. I for one trust Steve & Jet. Giggler (my puppet) is great & kids love him very much. I have recommended your web site to people who are seeking custom puppets. When I am able I plan on purchasing another from The Dummy Shoppe. Thank you & God bless!
As a Puppeteer/Vent here in Sydney Australia, I feel terrible that this has happened and I am sure it was just a mistake but as we all know, the person who is wrong makes the loudest noise.
Whenever you move house, it is so important to advise all contacts of your new address, we have laws here where you are fined by the authorities if you do not change your address on your drivers licence within a certain time and it is common sense that if you have an order being mailed to you, then you tell the company of your new address.
Maybe he has move to the dimentia clinic, cheers guys from Adam (Adams Puppets)
I can understand your frustration. I on the other hand was extremely impressed by how much communication you had with me even prior to receiving my puppets. Please take into account how many people are grateful to you for your amazing work even prior to sending them to their new owners. Be encouraged.