Document This So Others Can Avoid It

(We offer some additional insurance on our website, as there are a few things the standard warranty does not cover and we do not legally have to accept returns for. We have made the description of this insurance five short sentences, the second of which says that in the event you want to make a claim, we need photos of [document] and the item itself. It is the end of a very stressful week with customers not reading the warnings on our website and at the checkout about our current shipping delays, and about 90% of our job this week has been dealing with customers upset that their stuff hasn’t been shipped within three days, so we are all slowly losing patience.)

Customer: “My item was delivered last week, but I need a replacement item due to [reason]. If you check my order, you will see that I purchased the insurance, so I need it sent out as soon as possible.”

Coworker: “No problem. If you could just email a photo or scanned image of [documentation] and the [item], we will get that arranged for you.”

Customer: “I disposed of them when they arrived last week.”

Coworker: “Would it be possible to retrieve them? It does state on the insurance page that we require this evidence to arrange a replacement for you.”

Customer: “They are at the bottom of my rubbish bin. Do you seriously expect me to dig through and get it?”

Coworker: “If you want a replacement item, yes.”

Customer: “Fine. I will get them. I’m sure I am not the only customer who would not appreciate having to go through this just for the insurance.” *rants for a couple of minutes about how disgusting his bin is and how this is awful customer service* “Do you not think that your company should make this policy about evidence clearer?”

Coworker: *with about a week’s worth of frustration that has now evolved into pure sarcasm* “We always appreciate feedback and suggestions from customers. We took great care making the insurance information as short and concise as possible as we know that not all of our customers like to read things before purchasing. We even made the requirement for photo evidence the second sentence so that customers wouldn’t have to read the whole thing. But if you have any suggestions on how we can make this even clearer to our customers, by all means, please enlighten us so that we can save others having to go through their bins instead of keeping [document] somewhere safe.”

(There is a pause.)

Customer: “I want the name of your manager and how to contact them.”

Coworker: “Certainly. His name is [Manager]. You can email [email address] and make sure that you put, ‘For attention of [Manager],’ in the subject to ensure that he gets it.”

Customer: “Good. He will be hearing about this.” *click*

(Our coworker did not get in trouble over this, especially as this was not the first time the customer had tried complaining about something after failing to read the information on our website.)