Should I have handled this differently?

Bit of a tangent to wine but hopefully wine knifes fit in this category as well. Fellow retailers, I appreciate your views.

Here is the situation:
I got a mail yesterday from a new customer wanting to buy one of our wine knifes. I normally ship them and ask for payment upon receipt, but the tone of this message was a bit off so I asked for upfront payment and issued an invoice.

A few hours later, I got a short follow up message asking for a discount due to COVID. I replied equally brief that we don’t do that. I woke up this morning to a message stating that the order is canceled due to my inflexible pricing and that the customer wishes me well selling overinflated products in a pandemic.

I took the time to write a kindly phrased response, indicating we do actually sponsor some COVID-affected somms but only after we chat a bit and I understand their situation. And that asking for discount after ordering without any actual meaningful communication doesn’t tend to work with me. And that we’re obviously affected by COVID as well, but still pay the same purchase price and just have little room for discounts.

Radio silence ever since…

I’m now wondering whether I could have handled this differently. Would any of you have given an instant discount? Appreciate your views!

I think you were nicer than I would have been. He/she was insulting and the sense of entitlement came through in your post. Curious why you should bear the burden of COVID. It has hit us all. So no, you did fine.

Some people are just a**holes.

I had to re-read your post because the idea of shipping a product without upfront payment as a normal practice is really unique. Do you state that in whatever marketing this customer responded to? Maybe they assumed that you were so accommodating that they could take advantage. Whatever… I don’t see how you could have handled things better.

I make my money in a different (non-wine) business, but, for whatever it’s worth, I think you handled it well. (And you were quite a bit nicer than I would have been in the analogous situation…)

COVID has screwed many of us in one way or another. The burden of that should never fall entirely on you. It’s completely up to you what/how/when to discount.

Tangential. What’s a wine knife?

edit.

I just looked at your signature line, googled “Code38”. Those look really nice! Esp the all titanium one, the P-type titanium!

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That person was either an asshole or a scammer. Don’t sweat it.

Also, don’t ship people product without payment up front. You’re asking for problems and you’re extending a courtesy that is neither necessary nor expected.

Thanks guys, appreciate the views! The whole send first, pay later comes from my wine glass shipments. I had so many cases of broken products no matter how well I packed them, that I decided to only ask for payment when the customer was fully satisfied. But wine knifes don’t break indeed, so I’ll handle this differently going forward. For Peter: have a look at the Titanium X on my site (code38nl.com), it’s even cooler!

Nothing wrong about a customer inquiring if there are any discounts that they can take advantage of, it’s another to both expect it and be upset when none is available. You’re response seemed more than adequate, and likely much more polite than many other could muster. I’m guessing the sell first, invoice later comes from dealing with businesses like restaurants, but outside of that I’ll echo Chris’ note that it makes little sense to ship items without prior payment, that should be the exception (something like a client who you have a longstanding relationship with), not the rule.

In the US you don’t invoice people for goods delivered. It’s payment upon delivery. Taking that approach with all customers eliminates future problems.

Just checked out your site. Didn’t know Code38 came in a bronze variant (funny enough, they don’t have that on their .com site). That looks really nice.

As I see it, there’s nothing that prevents you from taken payment first and continuing to ensure your customers are fully satisfied by appropriately dealing with any glasses broken in transit. I reckon as long as you continue to maintain the quality of customer service you do, your clients will be equally satisfied

Whilst Jeff is busy designing, improving and assembling all the models, I had the luxury of spending some time on the site to ensure the entire range is listed :blush:

That is very cool. If I owned that I would only use at home as I’d be afraid that after a few bottles of wine I’d leave it at a restaurant and it would be gone forever!!

Can I use them for Bekkesnijden? What’s your website?

I too am not in the wine business but retail sales. My cost of doing business has not decreased during COVID. I’m actually fortunate to be an essential business. With that said, customers earn discounts and there is no reason for you to be “flexible” because they are cheap. I have a saying that the best deals I make are sometimes the ones I don’t make. Say you run a 40pt margin. Customer asks for 20% discount. Are you willing to cut your paycheck in half for him? That’s what he is asking you to do. E-commerce has made it tough on brick and mortar businesses. People are programmed to ask for discounts. That doesn’t mean we have to say yes.