Never received license or login…

I received a refund with this response:

I haven’t read your review. I can tell you this though, you’re demanding a high level of service on a Sunday evening when we are not in the office. Not only did we respond and attempted to help you but we did so promptly. Instead of working with us or being understanding you went right for the throat and were threatening.

Here’s what we’ll do. We will refund your money and will not be sending you a license. Feel free to leave the review up if you like. Our goal is to put out positivity and to help and work with those who do the same, supporting and propping up business of all sizes, not tearing them down. Our best wishes for your project and we hope you find a partnership that works for you. We’ll refund your money tomorrow morning EDT at the latest.

Chris,

Thank you for posting. I considered posting our conversation publicly as well. Again, it is my goal to prop businesses up instead of attempting to tear things down, so in situations like these in the past I haven’t even responded.

On a Sunday, January 15, Chris made a purchase of one of my plugins. I have an automated system that sends out confirmation emails. His server configuration prevented the receipt of that email. He reached out. I was able to respond immediately via mobile phone, as I was not in the office and attempted to address his concern. From there I was on the road and unable to respond with such immediacy. Within one hour Chris had sent 5 emails which escalated to this review. Again, I was not able to reply within this timeframe, especially on a Sunday.

His email indicated that he had posted a negative review and would revise once receiving his license. This is, in essence, attempting to hold our reputation hostage unless his demands were met. I do not owe my product to anyone. I offer products for free and at a premium, but I am not required to do so. I am happy to sell the plugin, however that sale comes with support. That means issuing a license to Chris would require that I may have to continue to serve him.

It was my feeling that the escalation from “can you help me?” to “I’m going to publicly punish you unless you satisfy me” happened very quickly and in such a manner that I would not really want to continue to interact with Chris. So I offered him a refund. Was happy to do it.

I’ve been contemplating for some time what to do in these situations. I’m a one man shop with minimal help here and there from partners on very specific projects. I don’t make a lot of money on plugins. However, for $10 a pop I deal with people from all over the world who are often rude, abusive, aggressive, condescending, and more, on at least a weekly basis. It’s difficult to know how to deal with all of that. I can only serve so many people, so I choose to offer my time to those who are appreciative, decent, or at the very least maintain a decorum when we deal with each other. (I should say parenthetically, I have so many customers who are extremely appreciative, kind, patient, and trusting. Thank you all.)

I’ve thought about blogging about this many times. I’d like to hear how other plugin developers deal with their customers / potential customers. It’s never frustrating when people want support. It becomes so very quickly when people become demanding, impatient, or use aggressive tactics as a first resort (this happens way more than it should.) The “make this work now or I want my money back” before we can set the tone of “let’s solve your problem together” is a standard. Almost every one of these situations where something isn’t working immediately, by the way, is a misconfiguration or oversight that can be resolved by reading documentation.

Okay, Chris, I’ve given you too much time here. It’s after midnight and I have a number of items on my project list I still have to tackle.

Regards,
Matthew

• This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by ternstyle.