Angry 'Customers'

I can't really call them customers, because they don't place orders.  They just complain.  The web has a way of growing phenomenons way beyond their means and making them obsolete.  Much like email is being ruined by spam.  Online B2B is becoming increasingly difficult due to the fly by night 'seller'.

Everyone and their mother is selling online now.  This week it's Zippo Lighters and next week they have a Fishing Tackle Site.  I have complained about this in the past, but it just keeps getting worse.  I have made it harder to get on our site.  I have rejected plenty of 'customers' that are clearly trying to sell anything that they can get their hands on, usually on ebay.  I have tried to stop selling to anybody that is selling only through ebay stores.  But they keep coming.  The latest influx has been from a demanding bunch that thinks the whole industry should be run by their rules.

Here are some examples of the 'demands' I have had to put up with lately.

One 'customer' wanted to know how come we were always out of a particular item.  I looked, and that item had just sold out an hour before, for the first time in months.  The customer then proceeded to tell one of our salespeople that they could not make any money if we were out of this item, what was wrong with us etc. etc.

Another 'customer' couldn't buy a certain product because it was illegal in their state.  This 'customer' called and called, practially begged.  Then they turned around and wrote one nasty letter accusing us of being racist and that is why we wouldn't sell to them. (and no, it wasn't a baseball player in San Fran)

And then there are the myriad of others that don't know what a case pack is and wonder why there are items out of stock at all and compalin that we are ruining there livleyhood by not having certain items in stock, usually items that are impossible to keep in stock and items that they have never bought in the past.

At least I'm not the only one, look at this article from PC World..

But it's not all bad, we have picked up some pretty big customers online, including some big names.

Now that I got that off my chest, I hope to be adding to this blog more often and hopefully getting some more traffic.  Keep watching for more info..