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Dealing With Customers Pissed Off Over Delayed Shipments?

Topics relating to managing people and relationships

Testament

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Hey all!

Recently I've begun to dip my toes into ecommerce and it's been going really well so far! However, I've had a situation come up recently that's been causing me a lot of headaches and I'm not entirely sure how to deal with it properly.

I've been dropshipping my products and some of them have been getting there pretty late - much later then expected. As you can imagine, this has resulted in some pretty upset customers emailing me. I've responded so far just by being honest and apologizing that their order is taking so long and assuring them it will come soon. This has quieted most of them down while the product has been on it's way, but a few of them just get angrier and angrier to the point of becoming pretty verbally (or textually?) abusive in their communications, which I'm not really enjoying dealing with. I can certainly understand their frustration (I wouldn't be happy either if my shipments were really late), but at the same time after I've apologized and let them know the status of their order and they still keep messaging me, I don't really know what else to respond with.

I'm just curious if any of you ecommerce guys/gals have strategies to handling the customers who start getting really irate? Do you just offer a refund and wish them well? Or do you just repeat your apology and hope that the late shipment arrives before they start messaging you again? Do you guys have any templates or resources you'd be able to point a fellow fastlaner to that might help?

Thanks for taking the time to read my post!
 
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DrkSide

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You are trying to fix the effect of a problem has rather than the cause of the problem.

Either start stocking products yourself or find a dropshipper that can ship them out within a reasonable time.
 

Texan

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I'm in the b2c e-commerce business. Any b2c business, regardless of niche, is really in the people-pleasing business. We have a seasonal product that we pre-sale every year. We have customers pay us months in advance. Because of this and the fact that many customers doesn't read the bold printed info about shipping, about 2-3% of them email asking where their product is, and a handful of them are irate (again, even though this is clearly stated at purchase and this product depends on specific weather to be ready).

I always err on the side of apologizing to the customer for their trouble, restating the reason the product hasn't shipped yet, and offering a refund. If they say they'll wait, I throw in extra goodies with their order. When we do ship, I have my employees make sure that those customers get what was promised.

There are always unstable people who threaten to sue, or send you profanity-laced, semi-coherent emails. Refund those people and tell them, nicely, to go to hell.

Lastly, as the owner, do what you can to separate yourself from angry customers - let an employee deal with it. I hate the negativity (when it happens, which isn't often anymore) so I have any employee who handles most of that now. I do handle bigger customers, all of whom know me and text me with any issues.

Good luck!
 

Runum

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You are trying to fix the effect of a problem has rather than the cause of the problem.

Either start stocking products yourself or find a dropshipper that can ship them out within a reasonable time.

This. You have a fire and you better put it out, fast. This problem will only get worse if you don't figure out another way of delivering your product. These pissed off customers will definitely share their story about how you done them wrong.

Good luck.
 
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Ravens_Shadow

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Simply assure the customer that they are right, offer a refund, and find a new drop shipper.

As stated, you need to fix the issue that's causing the irate customers. In the meantime, count it as an expense of business and refund them. Who knows, they might tell their friends how awesome you are you might get more sales.

Also, if you're getting serious sales volume, a fulfillment center may be more reliable for you.
 

ZCP

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Offer refund and free expedited shipping when it comes in. Stock 'hot' long lead time items. Make deals with the dropshipper to set aside inventory for you only.
 
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CostChisel

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Need to deal with the issue instead of coming up with clever ways to hold off angry customers.

I had issues in the past with a shipping company I used at the time. After I complained, they gave me better rates, promised to change and get better but never happened... and while I was waiting for them to provide better service I ended up with more and more angry customers. Talk to the drop shipper and see what the issue is but don't wait too long.

Don't allow a supplier to jeopardize your business.
 

Testament

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Thanks for all the great replies, guys.

Yeah, I guess I just have to get a new drop shipper - talked to them about the long wait times and I felt like they kind of gave me lip service about getting things more efficient. I'd order a lot of items and then sell, but I'm really still trying to test what is going to sell so I don't end up with something like a warehouse full of unsold pet rocks.

Well if nothing else, this is a great lesson on how important shipping is. :headbanger:
 
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X01

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Testament buys product from so called Dropshipper. Dropshipper gets online and buys product from person on ebay or amazon pocketing a couple of dollars. Person that dropshipper buys from finds it even cheaper online pocketing a couple of dollars. End result = Testaments unhappy customer.
 

TheGrind

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If you're really looking to build a long term and profitable business, buy the stock and don't dropship.

By dropshipping you're eliminating any chance of repeat customers for the most part. Decreasing the lifetime value of a customer like that hurts.
 

lucasmello

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I don't do dropshipping, but I have had the same problem simply because the Post Office is unreliable.

We were offering 3 types of shipping:

Normal (1-5 days) (No tracking) - 1.40 euros
Blue (1-2 days) (No tracking) - 2.20 euros
Registered (1-3 days) (Tracking) - 3.05

What happened? Everyone would either choose Normal or Blue. We received a bunch of e-mails by people who claimed they never received their order days after they should have and people who constantly bugged us to know when their order would arrive. We have always answered very politely, always sending up to 2 replacements, but as someone said, that was not the root the problem. We did some math and realized we were losing a lot of money by having to send those replacement. So we cut our margins by like .05%, decreased the price from 3.05 to 2.00 for registered shipping, and eliminated the other options. Let me tell you: Customer satisfaction is at 100%, inventory control is much easier now and our bank account is getting bigger and bigger.

Attack the root, not the symptom.
 
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Walter Hay

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If you're really looking to build a long term and profitable business, buy the stock and don't dropship.

By dropshipping you're eliminating any chance of repeat customers for the most part. Decreasing the lifetime value of a customer like that hurts.
"TheGrind You're not the only one to state this obvious fact, but people blinded by the current wave of promotion of dropshipping as a business model, will choose to ignore it, just as the OP has.

Most people attracted by the hype about dropshipping are:

  1. Ignorant of the fact that it is easy to buy small quantities from genuine manufacturers in China and other countries.
  2. Unable or unwilling to do proper market research. so they use a shotgun approach, "test" marketing heaps of different products, in the hope of finding something they can actually sell.
Walter
 

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