# How do you handle customers not happy?



## FatboyGraphics (Sep 20, 2009)

Customers aren't happy with what you did, how do you handle it?

I know every situation is different, just curiuos to see what the typical response is.


My situation...
Local company i use for my embroidery , did a job, i sent them to the customer, and customer didn't like them, sent them back and demands a refund.

Personally, I don't believe refunds are acceptable on custom jobs, I will redo the job for the customer if I feel that there is a issue.

This job, I do believe could have been embroidered better, and I told the customer i would get them redone.

But this customer is demanding a refund as "they've ordered them elsewhere since I'm not able to get the job done right."

How do you handle these type situations?


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## mrmopar64 (Oct 1, 2009)

My understanding in Calif. is that the customer has to give you one chance to fix the problem before going elsewhere... So I'd say they are out of luck
Did you provide them with a sample before the job was done?

MM64


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

Instant refund if they're not happy. No questions asked.

If they return to try us again and they're not happy again, also an instant refund but we refuse them future business.


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## Mabuzi (Jul 3, 2007)

Terms, terms terms...you must have your terms displayed in store, on the website and in the footer of your quote. 

If we outsource we always QC check the stock in before sending it to the customer. Always.

You have lost the customer already but you should be given the chance to redeem yourself.


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## Sport T (Nov 10, 2010)

If there was a real issue with the embroidery quality I would refund my customer and not pay the embroiderer. Did you inspect the job before you delivered it to your customer? Have you discussed the problem with the embroiderer?


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## mygivingtee (Dec 18, 2009)

You've already lost the customer. If you try to redo the job they will be even more particular and you'll spend good money chasing a bad order. 

When you outsource work get a proof from the embroidery, show the customer and have them sign-off right on the proof, and keep the proof to check the embroiderer's work. Check each product before you leave the embroidery shop to make sure each one is as good as the proof.


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## Embroidthis2200 (May 30, 2008)

As an embroiderer who out sources his Screen Printing, I can assure you I do not have the time or will to go though every shirt my screen printer makes to check every aspect of registration...500 or a thousand shirts to inspect is unrealistic in my book.... Work with good people you can trust to do it right, will there be goofs, sure there will. But the cost of a few goofs over the time and expence of checking every shirt... I'll check a few and call it good. Just my opinion


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## Sport T (Nov 10, 2010)

You are right Ace about outsourcing to a company you can trust to do a quality job. I contract all of my silk screening and embroidery and have developed a relationship where I don't inspect every job as I have them direct ship to some of my customers. If I am working with a new supplier I do spot check my orders until I am confident their quality control is there. Be sure your suppliers understand what you expect and develop a close relationship. When there is a problem you have to jump on it quick and don't give your customer a chance to go somewhere else. Let them know you are concerned and are going to take care of the issue now. A good example is when my silkscreener had a drier temp. problem and shipped an order direct to my customer. They calledl at 9 a.m. and said they were going to use someone else so I jumped in my truck and was in their office 275 miles away by 2:30 p.m. They were so impressed that I was so concerned that they stayed with me and let us re-print and they remain a good customer today. You have to act quickly and show your customer you are going to take care of them no matter what. Then your relationship with your supplier kicks in and you work it out with them. If they are a good company and care about quality they will take care of you like you took care of your customer.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

we will either fix the problem or buy the product back. end of story. 

but... we do fire customers from time to time if they just demonstrate that they don't want to accept anything we offer.


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## jfish (Feb 26, 2010)

I always provide digital proof prior to printing them actual proof of first printed shirt/item with high res photo where they can make color and placement adjustments (any other adjustments are made in the digital proof which is approved prior to making screens) if they have an issue with the shirts after all proofs are approved its usually a mooch trying to get free ish. You can usually tell who's a flat out punk and who is just being overly anal about nothing. 

I will provide half off the next order etc but generally haven't had much orders where they simply flat out dont accept because I take the extra time doing proofs to avoid this. 

I don't give refunds, never will. If they don't approve the proofs then we make them right until they are correct. Plain and simple reduces communication problems and wasting a lot of time and money on my end. 

I have dealt with a few small orders where color balance is off or something in inkjet transfers etc and I made them another set of shirts (Small orders) and gave them to them at no extra cost. I have had this once with DTG and I provided a reprint on them as well but these a very small orders. I will ship out an actual proof if needed on large orders so they can see exactly what the shirt is like before I continue with a large order. 

I really have my system down well to the point where customers are almost always certain about what they are getting/ordering and no surprises when shirts are picked up/delivered. 

When I didn't do a digital/actual proof I had a higher rate of surprise by the customers and started doing this system on all orders. The only time they don't see proofs are on 24 hour or less rush orders etc where printing goes all night etc (Which I hate doing and I generally make it clear that quality can be reduced as thats what happens when tight timelines are required)


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## beanie357 (Mar 27, 2011)

Sew offs and signatures. Solves all problems.
If we do one wrong on the machine, we fix it before we call the job done.

Do we ck all outsourced work? Yes.Time consuming? Yes. Having a perfect reputation? Pricelss.

Even trusted vendors have employeess having bad days. It's human nature. Murphy says that the one bad shirt in the 500 will be given to the head of the event in a public news coference on national tv. It's just the way s**t happens.

In this instance, customer is gone, until where they went does not satisfy. I'd craft a play to at least leave the door open, unless you don't want them back. Did they sign off at pick up?


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## aflow01 (Oct 14, 2011)

I give them a refund and a corrected order, especially if its ebay, those customers can be itchy to leave bad feedback, ive managed to keep everyone happy, but have dealt with terrible people, an instant refund is the best remedy along with the corrected product.


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## veedub3 (Mar 29, 2007)

I send items out to be embroidered and I will admit that I don't always check them before sending them out to the customer. The company I use is very professional but every now and again I may have an issue. I fix it right then. If the customer will only except a refund after I offer to fix the problem then that is what they will get. But when they come back to me - and they always will down the line for some reason or another - I tell them we can't meet their time line even though I just don't want to work with them anymore. You won't give me the opportunity to fix the error but you want to place another order with me......I don't think so. I had a similar issue twice with a county official. He wasn't happy with the embroidery but wanted to keep the shirts but wanted me to give him a discount on them. Months later he ordered screen printed chair covers for the auditorium but the gray wasn't gray enough after he picked out the color gray to use. I gave in on both those orders just to keep the customer happy. In this case it was clear he was trying to take advantage so this guy was fired. We don't accept any more business from that office PERIOD!

In your case, I would refund the customer her money and move on. If it was truly an issue with the embroidery I will go back to the embroiderer to see if i can recoup some of my losses. If not then I view it as lesson learned and be done with it.


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## Frienzy (Mar 13, 2012)

Client is always right even if he is not  Golden rule of businesses.
You will sometimes pay for "Hard" clients but in future you should charge the "Hard" client %200 more than normal client. If he wont pay for his luxury treatment you don't want that client


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## SunEmbroidery (Oct 18, 2007)

I always get proof approval but since most proofs are digital they can be misinterpreted. I don't believe I've had a situation where I've given a full refund but I have given partial refunds where I believed the order was completed as approved but for some reason the customer wasn't happy. In that case I make sure that the cost of the blanks is covered. When there is an issue I believe its important to find out exactly what the problem is. I have been in the situation where I thought the problem was one thing and after spending time with the customer I learned it was actually something else. I've never been a believer in the "customer is always right" theory because there are people who will USE you if you let them. I believe you should run your business and not let your customers run it.


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## lray (Feb 1, 2012)

refusing to give a refund is a pretty good way of ensuring that they won't be repeat customers and that they won't recommend your company to anyone else. give em the refund and donate the shirts somewhere for a write off. someone else made a good point about providing them with a sample, not sure if you did or not but that's probably something to consider for future jobs like this one.


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## binki (Jul 16, 2006)

we just fired a customer that was #3 on our list because they were never happy and took up too much of our time. it works like this: customer3 has 3% of our sales but takes 20% of our resources is gone. end of line on this one. nothing we could do would satisfy this one, time to break it off and refer them to one of our competitors.


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

If they went elsewhere before giving you the chance to fix it, that sounds shady to me. It sounds like they found someone to do the same job for less money and went with them and demanded money back from you. I have had great customers with very large orders contact me with some problem shirts. I make it very clear that I will replace the defective shirts but will not issue refunds. I think that they couldn't sell those particular shirts and just want a refund. Especially because that was 6 months ago and they never sent me back the defective shirts and never mentioned it again.

I would have offered to right the wrong but not issue a refund. Then add a clause to future invoices that say that you will replace defective product but no refunds will be issued.


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