Ernie1

I think its sad that business’ can put an enormous amount of effort to build themselves into something special, and then only be brought down by poor staffing further down the line. I know its a very UK vs USA thing on service but I’ve always admired the Cat & Cloud staff training and ethos, its pretty inspiring. And nothings worse than working in a job knowing that neither you or even a manager cares, at that point just move on…rather than dragging everyone down with you.

Also for alot of business’ especially in a competitive market, its pretty apparant that bad news travels ALOT faster than good news, keeping customers happy and providing good service is part of what we do, its not a chore, it’s just part of the job and its actually enjoyable, and at times when things go wrong its actually benifitial to your business.

9 times out of 10 when we send a bag of coffee to a customer and it all goes smoothly…we never hear anything back, no review, no feedback, no posts on the forum, nothing. When something goes wrong, bag split, lost delivery etc..and we talk with the customer and resolve it as fast/best as we can, they actually often write about it, leave a review, give some positive feedback! Having that chance to work with a customer and understand where things went wrong is an enormous oppertunity for improvement, otherwise we just keep doing what we’re doing not knowing if its right/wrong.

    Just for the sake of comparison…

    I ordered three bottles of a non alcoholic “spirit” a few weeks ago. I have just received them and they had been damaged in transit meaning all three bottles had been punctured at the lid, not enough to lose all the liquid but enough that they would drip slightly if not stored upright and of course they were no longer sealed.

    I emailed the supplier today, they responded immediately to apologise and to say that they would send another three bottles to me.

    And another comparison……

    I recently bought a pair of walking boots at £195. Second outing I noticed the sole - that is designed to be replaceable- was lifting on the inner edges of each boot.

    I emailed the company, they refunded me in full and told me to either keep the boots or bin them.

      Waitforme

      Out of interest are they Solovair boots?

      My other half had exactly the same happen to hers on the second outing and I had similar on a pair of Red Wings years ago.

      Hers were replaced swiftly but sounds like you got fantastic service!

      • LMSC replied to this.

          Ernie1 Situations like this are not common. I can recollect 3 instances in the last 20 months, where the roasters were excellent.

          1: Two KGs went MIA. They were untracked RM. The seller refunded. I purchased 3 KGs after that. I paid a bit extra to get them delivered by DPD instead.

          2: One roaster sent 2 × 1 KG pack with no roast date. They just had a serial number. I called them. They apologised, told me they were roasted a month before sending out. Offered a replacement or a refund. I accepted neither, as the coffee was ok. I never purchased anything from them.

          3: Recently, I had issues on a few 250g packs from one of the popular roasters. Every one of them under weighed by about 15g - 18gs. I emailed them with the evidence. They apologised, offered a full refund as a gesture of good will and thank you for bringing the problem to their attention. I always liked their coffee. I did not take a full refund. I turned it down. Instead, they sent me a token refund of 20%. They never explained what went wrong, but advised me they will fix their machinery.

          While it is entirely fair if one were to take the offered refund, some times drawing a line does put a smile on the roaster’s face, especially under very difficult circumstances. 🙂

            Still no reply but I’ve just pulled a few shots with the unsealed beans.

            Wasn’t a difficult comparison as I had the same coffee from a sealed bag. It’s slightly older but has been airtight since purchase.

            The unsealed coffee 100% tastes worse. It tastes exactly like I’d expect staled coffee to taste.

            • LMSC replied to this.

              thats a shame

              Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

              Well you’ve given the benefit of the doubt, time to request a replacement or refund I think

              @Ernie1 , they are Scarpa Mescalito , now with a wee dod of glue on each sole 👍

                Ernie1 That’s a shame.

                Did you call them? Please do, if you haven’t. It is the busiest time of the year.

                  Waitforme

                  Nice. As I understand it, the glue on replaceable soles like these occasionally doesn’t cure properly and the workroom won’t actually know because the shoe moves down the production line faster than they can check.

                  It’s a fairly common occurrence apparently. Still, far better than a non-replaceable sole!

                    I just called them and they were full of apologies and are sending out a replacement.

                    As above, I wonder if their web CS is contracted out because the service I got on the phone just now was fantastic.

                      Ernie1 Very happy that you have a resolution to this situation.

                      The possibility that the web customer service is contracted out is very real, as is the possibility that the web CS isn’t authorized to provide a replacement for a faulty product.

                        Just a note since the quality of customer service has come up in this thread, in another thread I asked a question about seasoning burrs on a new grinder, and Jake from @CrownandCanvas offered to send me stale coffee beans for the price of shipping. Turns out that isn’t practical, as I’m in the US and shipping costs are silly high for something like this. But the fact that Jake and his operation were willing to take the time to do something like this that nets zero profit (arguably, it’s a cost item for them in that someone would have to take the time to package and send it out to me) is an indication of excellent customer service.

                        My thanks to Jake and his staff for taking the time and effort to look into this for me.

                          wilburpan Very kind of you for the mention!

                          Always happy to help where I can, I’m just sorry that the 3.5k miles between us made this more difficult than I originally expected! 😂 Thanks again!

                            wilburpan

                            The US/UK shipping is nuts. I wanted to order some Stumptown for no other reason than I like their packaging and their presence in the PNW but the shipping was like double the price of the coffee.

                                Ernie1 I just called them and they were full of apologies and are sending out a replacement.

                                I guess the moral of that is that direct contact is worth the effort.

                                I’ve long believed, and acted on, the notion that customer service is a very good indicator of the quality of a company, and that I can read FAR more into how they handle a problem than often is implied by the problem itself. More than a few times over the years I’ve blacklisted a company over customer service, even if the product itself is usually fine. Or conversely, stuck with a company that have provided good customer service, even if I paid a price premium for doing so.

                                Which leads to the lesson for businesses - it’s fairly hard to gain a good reputation, and it takes time and effort. It’s pretty easy, especially in these web-connected days to lose a good reputation, and very difficult indeed to lose a bad reputation once you’ve ‘earned’ it. In fact, it can be impossible to shift a bad reputation, not least because many customers will simply move on, and never give you another thought. Or chance. I operate on the “fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me” principle.

                                As a side note, I do have some sympathy for those operating small or medium businesses. However much the owners care (and some don’t), and however much they sweated blood and tears building a business, some employees just won’t give a …. fig. It’s probably the biggest single challenge facing a business that’s grown beyond “work from a spare bedroom” scale - employing people. Not only are the administration and legal aspects a collossal pain in the butt, and they truly are, but they can do oh so much damage, very fast indeed, if they don’t care.

                                Kudos to CrownandCanvas for the “stale beans” offer. That is the kind f thing that leads me to feel like trying them, next time I order coffee.

                                  Ernie1 I’ve always thought this about Onyx coffee too, their packaging is always gorgeous but by the time you get it here its just so damn expensive.

                                  It’s hard enough to get coffee to our UK customers at the moment nevermind getting anything from the USA 😂

                                    15 days later

                                    Went to the Origin roastery a couple of times this week and doesn’t look like I needed to worry about air-tightness after all 😅

                                      They can’t be filling orders from containers and shipping…Jesus I thought that practice stopped almost 2 decades ago!

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