The customer is NOT always right…read more
Sometimes, they're absolutely wrong and the requests they're making are unreasonable. I was one of those customers today, with the Amish Marketplace. The calm and respectful way Jake, the owner, handled the situation, is a testament to how great a businesses they really are. It all started when I had an issue with a shed I purchased from them.
The doors on the shed were not opening right, because the shed was not level. I had stones put on the site of the shed and leveled prior to delivery, so I felt that if they weren't level, that must have happened when the shed was delivered. I swore it was the fault of the Amish Marketplace that the doors were no longer opening right (they call it "racked), and believed the delivery person must have moved the stones when the shed was pushed into place.
I learned today that in reality, the site was never properly leveled and my perception of the situation was almost completely wrong. There were a few legitimate issues with communication between the delivery person and me, like he never mentioned a problem at the time of delivery, but apparently told the office that the site was terrible. The delivery driver was a very friendly guy and it was later explained to me that he was trying to be nice and not offend me, but I would have appreciated him being more straight-forward.
That said, the owner of the Amish Marketplace (Jake) was really great about addressing the issue. He sent the delivery person back to our home to straighten the doors, at no cost to me. Unfortunately, the doors "racked" again almost immediately after he left. I was extremely frustrated and called Jake back. We talked for about 20 minutes and Jake explained the situation from his perspective, insisting that the site was never properly leveled. He said that from what the delivery person and I were both describing, it couldn't have been leveled.
Jake wasn't the least bit rude or condescending, and by the end of the conversation, I agreed to pay to have the delivery person come back a third time. He was going to bring concrete blocks to firmly level it. That's when things really went sideways, because there was some miscommunication about when it would happen. I was under the impression that the delivery person would call me on Monday to schedule a day to come, and it would be done by the end of the week. In reality, he had off Monday and Tuesday, and he was booked until next week. He had planned to call me today and schedule for early next week.
As a brief aside, in the past few weeks, I have been struggling with some really difficult personal issues. Things took a terrible turn on Monday, when I lost a special friend, and that loss hit me very hard. There was a lot on my mind when I walked outside to the shed today (Thursday) and could not open the doors, then thought about how the delivery driver hadn't called me or come to level it. I didn't know his schedule and felt like I had been duped, that they never planned on coming. Rather than call Jake back to find out what happened, I left an angry voicemail, demanding that the Amish Marketplace come get the shed and refund me in full. I was angry and extremely emotional, and I had zero desire to work things out.
Jake called me back and we had a tense conversation, because he wanted to resolve the situation and I wanted the shed gone. I felt unbelievably overwhelmed and I just wanted it to be over. Jake believed that his company had sold me a quality shed at a fair price, and already went above and beyond to come back and level it for free once. He offered me two choices- 1. He would take the shed back if I paid $300 for the labor/gas involved in delivering it and picking it back up or 2. He would personally come to my house and inspect the shed, then tell me what could be done to fix it.
I adamantly refused to pay a penny to have the shed removed and insisted that the whole problem stemmed from the shed being moved and positioned improperly, with the stones being pushed out of place on one side. Jake said if he came over and saw that what I was saying was the case, he would work with me. At that point, I wanted Jake to come see that I was right, that the stone base underneath the shed was level, and I wanted him to pay to take that shed away. (The shed itself was great quality and looked beautiful, but it was the principle of the whole thing)
Jake showed up at my home about 10 minutes later. I was pretty angry and I think I had really worked him up on the phone as well. He remained professional, but strongly stuck to his guns and defended his company. It didn't take Jake long to look at the shed, look at the stone base, and conclude that he was right about the base never being level. That completely frustrated me and I pushed back, leading Jack to show me and explain in detail, all the tell-tale signs. He eventually resorted to putting a very large level directly under the shed (he brought a laser level as
