When You Give Them Exactly What They Paid For: Nothing

I used to work for a company that handled inbound phone calls for dozens of different magazines. I’d get calls from people that ran the spectrum from just asking a question to being one step away from ending up in a nice, padded cell somewhere.

One day a customer called about a popular financial magazine, and he immediately demanded a refund. He was having issues with the free email newsletters he got from their website, which are provided – for free – to anyone that signed up on the website for a free account, no magazine subscription necessary. He told me that he felt he wasn’t receiving everything that he was paying for, despite getting the paper and digital magazines that he did pay for each month like clockwork, since he wasn’t receiving his free email newsletters.

Did I mention that the email newsletters were free? Because I did say that to him, and he kept demanding me to give him a full refund for his entire subscription because he was having problems. I told him in no uncertain terms that there was no way that was happening.

Of course, he swore up and down that he would get his full refund, he was going to contact corporate, have me fired, and all that good stuff. When he finally realized I wasn’t going to cave to his demands, he disconnected the call.

Never heard anything about that guy again.