Its real easy to make generalizations Tom. You have sent ME plants 3
times, and twice half of them were dead on arrival.

Oooo,you might not have wanted to go there.......

Point No#1
Have I ever recieved any form of compensation for the above said
plants?
Answer: no

Point no#2
Have I ever ordered from you?
Answer : no

Point no#3
Have you sent weekly emails taliking about some nice plants you got
from that are for sale and that you sold?
Answer: Yes.

Point no#4
Have you offered to compensate me?
Answer: yes, with plants, but I have placed orders for these plants
but never recieve anything for one reason or another, I suppose since
I'm not a paying customer and it's just a "trade". True, I have not
brought it up but since you did, well there comes back to bite you.

Point no#5:
Have you ever mentioned to me that the plants came in so-so or "dead"
when you recieved them?
Answer: no

You seemed happy to get them to me.

You complained to me about the "free" plants you have never
compensated me for.... but you do not want compensate others?

Hummm..........
Well I have never received a dime for those plants which you have
sold, because I know some of the folks that bought the plants from you
and I also know how much profit you made off them since you never paid
me for these plants to date. The customers also told me how they liked
the plants. Must not have been too bad of shape.

I've recieved poor plants from Arizona Aquatic Gardens, Peter took
care of me and sent free plants for the replacement. He knew that the
heat or whatever got them. He was cool about, asked a few basic
questions, and then said I'll take care of you. A few days later, a
free box of weeds at my door. I did not ask for them, they just
appeared since he knew that it would make me happy and could read what
the customer needed.

I understand very well the nature of this plant business and heat
cooks plants. I cannot, nor can anyone for that matter promise perfect
plants every time. All it takes is a few hours of good heat.

I send out 40 to 50 orders a week and I get 6 or so people a MONTH
complaining of the condition of the plants. Thats 6 out of 200. Out of
those six I often have one or two people who appear totally
unreasonable in how they want it resolved. Now perhaps I do need to
take this more seriously. My first response is to tell people what the
stated policy is on my WEB site. Then I
offer some way to resolve the situation. For some people this is not
good enough.

I offer the weeds free, they are cheap and grow fast, no sense in
****ing a customer off. Peter did this for me, Darin and Dan did in
the past years ago as well. I'll order more if they work with me and
we both try to minimize losses.

If the customer has repeated issues, then you simply say you cannot
serve them and refund their money etc or not take their order.

There are scammers.
But if you follow the policy outlined on the site, then if that's not
good enough send them new free plants(once only).

Now one or two out 200 is not going to cause that much of an issue.

Should I make a greater effort to make sure these people are happy
regardless of the cost? Should I just write it off? What would you do?

Give those cheap plants to them and keep them happy.
Service is king. They will buy again and tell a friend, "hey, I got
some so so plants but they replaced them free!" They took care of the
customer.
Since it's only a few folks, it's not going to cost much, shipping is
not a lot.
The plants at your cost are not much. The Reputation you'll gain from
this is a very worthwhile advertizing investment.

You have to serve the customers. It's just the simple. Smiles,
Service, Sales. Be friendly on the phone, make them feel special or if
there is anything you can do for them, let you know. Tell them you
will personally pick out some nice stuff and tell them about the
shipping in the heat etc not to let the box sit outside etc for 4 hrs
at 100F.

I have been doing this since 1999 and it is always a constant battle
to deal with this issue to keep the loss of damaged plants at an
absolute minimum. Now I have many, many loyal customers that have
bought from me continously over the years. They know they will be well
taken care of. This is what has kept my business growing. Every
quarter my business has doubled. But I can not have first time
customers turned away from a bad experience and continue to grow,
regardless of the reason or how unjustified. I have always strongly
been a advocate of this hobby and gone to great lengths to provide
eduation. Thats what my whole WEB site is about. But I guess I am now
realizing that is not good enough.

I know you try better than many Robert. I'm just saying for the small
% that you said have a real issue, just give those plants to them.
It's not worth the hassle at some point no matter how good you try
etc.
**** off one and they tell 100 people, make one happy they tell 2-3.
Plants are cheap. Even if they are wrong(But the customer is never
wrong anyway), just deal with it.

"What can I do to make it right sir/madam?"
And then listen.

So I will examin this very closely and try to determin a policy that
protects the customer and will make them feel like they can buy from
Aqua Botanic with trust and confidence so that even the most demanding
newbie will feel satisfied.
Robert

Sounds like a plan!
I'd caution against back and forthing with a customer on a forum, it
seldom ever does anyone any good, least of all the retailer. Just
ignore it.

Look into business management, other ways of dealing with customer
services. These are basic tenents.

Regards,
Tom Barr