Angry lady
When I am cleaning up the computer and want to throw away some old emails, I come across it again, the email from a very angry lady.
The lady has been a customer of mine for several years. She regularly orders products that she saves. And that actually always goes well.
Usually they are small products, but then she orders something large; a large plaster corpus.
Because plaster is fragile and vulnerable and sometimes Post deliverers do not handle packages very carefully, I advise her to have the package shipped insured. This way she doesn't run any risks and that's what she does.
Of course I pack the statue very carefully. People who buy from me more often know that.
After the image was sent I don't hear from her anymore.
After almost five weeks I receive an email from her. She has only now unpacked the statue, she writes, and it is broken.
When I ask why she waited so long to report it, she says that it was not appropriate to open the package earlier.
That is of course possible, but she knows that I can no longer do anything for her. After a week, Post NL no longer does anything with a complaint and that is of course logical.
I say that I regret that I cannot do anything further for her. It has been too long. She indicates that she understands
And then suddenly that angry email, in which she calls me 'madam' and thinks that I am someone who has no heart for customers. That I'm just a tough businesswoman.
She is sure, she says, that I sent her a bad image on purpose and therefore wanted to have it sent by registered mail, so that I could have Post NL pay for the broken product.
She touches me with this. I'm not angry, but mainly sad that she puts me down like this. I always describe my products as honestly as possible and if I ever make a mistake, I will solve it properly, I thought.
Or not, I doubt myself for a moment, but then my self-confidence wins over my insecurity. I manage to let it go after a while. I never heard from her again after that.
Now that I come across her email, I get that bad feeling again, but it disappears like snow in the sun, and that's it, wonderfully sunny. I enjoy the beautiful flowers in our garden. I'm walking around and less than a hundred meters from our house the wind is blowing softly through the cornfield that is decorated with the many poppies and cornflowers.
And with that breath of wind, all bad feelings blow away.
The lady has been a customer of mine for several years. She regularly orders products that she saves. And that actually always goes well.
Usually they are small products, but then she orders something large; a large plaster corpus.
Because plaster is fragile and vulnerable and sometimes Post deliverers do not handle packages very carefully, I advise her to have the package shipped insured. This way she doesn't run any risks and that's what she does.
Of course I pack the statue very carefully. People who buy from me more often know that.
After the image was sent I don't hear from her anymore.
After almost five weeks I receive an email from her. She has only now unpacked the statue, she writes, and it is broken.
When I ask why she waited so long to report it, she says that it was not appropriate to open the package earlier.
That is of course possible, but she knows that I can no longer do anything for her. After a week, Post NL no longer does anything with a complaint and that is of course logical.
I say that I regret that I cannot do anything further for her. It has been too long. She indicates that she understands
And then suddenly that angry email, in which she calls me 'madam' and thinks that I am someone who has no heart for customers. That I'm just a tough businesswoman.
She is sure, she says, that I sent her a bad image on purpose and therefore wanted to have it sent by registered mail, so that I could have Post NL pay for the broken product.
She touches me with this. I'm not angry, but mainly sad that she puts me down like this. I always describe my products as honestly as possible and if I ever make a mistake, I will solve it properly, I thought.
Or not, I doubt myself for a moment, but then my self-confidence wins over my insecurity. I manage to let it go after a while. I never heard from her again after that.
Now that I come across her email, I get that bad feeling again, but it disappears like snow in the sun, and that's it, wonderfully sunny. I enjoy the beautiful flowers in our garden. I'm walking around and less than a hundred meters from our house the wind is blowing softly through the cornfield that is decorated with the many poppies and cornflowers.
And with that breath of wind, all bad feelings blow away.