What separates a company that is good to do business with from one that is unpleasant isn't how they treat the customer when everything goes right but how they handle mistakes and keeping the customer happy.
I don't think I am a difficult customer. I have dealt with many companies for various reasons and in the end, the outcome was almost always one that kept me as a satisfied customer. In some cases the companies went above and beyond and now when I discuss companies such as Morley or Antique Electronic Supply, I always tell of their amazing customer service! Other companies (like EMG) have left me soured and I will never do business with them again.
I had ordered electronic components for my up and coming business from Futurlec. In the past I had never had any issues. It took some time for the items to arrive but the prices were good enough to justify the wait. My most recent and final order was placed at the beginning of April 2012. I waited roughly 45 days before contacting them asking if my order had shipped and why it had not.
I was told it had not shipped as 3 items were back ordered and they were having difficulty securing those items. I told them to cancel those items and to ship the remainder of the order.
I get another response from them saying that due to the weight of my package, they would need to charge my card an additional fee on top of the shipping fee I had already paid. I told them to cancel the entire order.
Their shipping is set up where you pay a shipping price based on how much you spend rather than how much the item weighs. That is their system. Not mine.
I waited a few days and checked my bank. They had issued me a credit...but it came up $15.82 short from what I had originally been charged. This of course doesn't include the $7.05 exchange rate charge that my bank hit me with because they didn't ring in my order in US currency.
I asked them to refund the remainder of the money I was owed. They said they had issued me a full refund but would leave $15.82 on my account as a credit anyway.
I will NEVER order from them again so what good does a 15$ credit do me!?
I have since contacted my bank to have the money recovered through their fraud protection/merchant dispute. While this has been an inconvenience for me and the amount of money isn't the issue, it is the principle that is important.
Do your customers right and they will continue to patronize your service.
Following the cancellation of my order with Futurlec, I spent a few hours on Mouser's website trying to recreate a similar order. I got the important things ordered and paid for the most basic shipping on the Friday Night of Memorial Day Weekend.
I get a confirmation email saying that my order was received. Then I got another email on Saturday saying my order shipping had been upgraded from UPS ground to UPS 2 Day Air.
Following that, I had another email saying my shipping had once again been upgraded for free from UPS 2 Day Air to UPS Overnight Air.
I had my parts on Thursday. I was more than pleasantly surprised by this. I have made orders with Mouser before but this was going above and beyond. One of the emails said something to the effect of me being a valued customer and how they understood that having my components was important. It made me feel important and from now on, I will order from Mouser and not screw around with cut rate companies with cut rate customer service.
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