This has been an interesting discussion, right out of a Customer Service
seminar I wrote. All the attitudes are the the vendors who want to make
things right but are wary of the scam artists (anyone hear of Wendy's
lately??); customers who would rather tell anyone rather than the vendor of
their satisfaction, thus guaranteeing bad outcomes for both themselves and
the vendor; customers who are overly aggressive in their complaints; and the
occasional vendor who doesn't care bat s**t about what the customer thinks.
That last type is a tiny minority of all vendors, in and outside the orchid
community. Most business people understand that a speedy and good response
to a legitimate complaint can change an irate customer into a customer for
life.

I do not order from you, Kenni, because you are "jest down the road a piece"
and I see you all the time. Ray, never have I been disappointed with a
shipment. I do remember an order that I placed a few years ago, from a major
and well recognized orchid vendor (no names!). The plants were listed as
blooming size. Hah! They are still in the nursery, after about 3 years. They
are growing with the former residents of a compot that I bought around the
same time. I suspect they will all bloom out at the same time, in probably
another year. I blamed myself, because the prices were unrealistically low
for BS plants.

To close, it's not always the big bad businesses that are to blame; it's
often the customer who has overly high expectations or worse. I once had a
bank manager come in to speak to a seminar I was conducting. She told of a
customer who insisted that he didn't know there would be a charge if he
overdrew his checking account. She told him, "We'll take care of the fee
THIS TIME, and I'll make a note of our conversation here in the remarks
section of your account." No more problems with that one!

Diana