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Hi guys.
Well, this is what happened to me a few hours ago.
I was notified my website is going to go down today at 12am by my webhosting company, they are doing some maintenance work and have to shut down cloud hosting, it's not a big deal, it happened before, so I went ahead and posted a comment last night in my notice board in my website saying my site is going down today at 12 am.
So I went and purge my fetchapps program (the program I use to link the download of my movie to my website) anticipating the downtime so I can make a database clean up myself, I have a lot of expired coupon, trailer and stuff there stuffing my cloud storage, I turn my fetchapps off and then I went to bed at 11pm.
So 4am this morning, I woke to the notification bell on my phone, someone has email me, I read it, half asleep it's something "Urgent" and then I put my phone down and go back to sleep, then I got 3 more bleep within 5 minutes. I decided to get up and turn on my computer and see what's going on.
It turn out my website did not go down and someone bought a movie from my website, he cannot download the movie because I turn off my fetchapps. And he is furious about it. He bought the movie in 3:45 am, and blast me with a few email before 4 am... I woke up 4am (well, around 4 05) and send him a message explain that I don't know the website is still up and I did not anticipate people will buy from my store because the webhosting company said they are going to turn off my access at 12 am, and I have put a notification up on the website and that it's 4 am and I was sleeping.
While I did not anticipated some empathy, but I do anticipating some understanding about the situation, but what I get in return is a somewhat nasty surprise to me, which said, he is "explained" to me I am running a website, so he expected around the clock support, and you should be expecting to get up at 4 am and answer my question in cases like this......
I mean, wow, this is just funny. I don't know about any of you fellow producer, but our support is quite limited, we are a 3 men operation and I basically in charge of everything, I can't do round the clock support. We have an operating hours for a reason, and the fact that I get up at 4 am to answer his question, I already felt it's above and beyond. I do know and understood you had paid money and you must be frustrated if you did not get what you pay for, but still, should there be some understanding normal people don't get up at 4 am to answer your question? If I bought something and not satisfy, I wouldn't blast them with e-mail 3 o'clock in the morning and expecting to hear from them or I am going to sue you.....
I meant, just exactly how much customer service you are expecting?
Rant's over, now it's 6 30 am, and I cannot go back to bed... And I have a tough day ahead...
Anyway, thanks for reading, and if moderator think this post does not belong here, please move it to appropriate section. Thank You
Ava
Question for fellow Producer - How much Customer Service is enough?
Last edited by AvaHeinz 5 years ago, edited 1 time in total.
I've seen this type of problem for a small independent computer game site where it was announced that the new game would be available on a certain day. Complaints about where's the game started shortly after midnight New Zealand time when the company is based near Seattle, Washington (Pacific Daylight Time). For the next over 12 hours there were "is it available yet" comments. These lasted until download links were available.
Good luck because not all your customers are even close to your time zone.
Good luck because not all your customers are even close to your time zone.
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GeekyPornCritic
I am sorry for your bad experience with a bad customer. His expectations are not realistic. Most companies do not have 24hr support. Major companies like Amazon, Nintendo, and Walmart have closing times. The guy was being a jerk to get under your skin.
I always give companies 24 hours to respond and more time during holidays and weekends.
I always give companies 24 hours to respond and more time during holidays and weekends.
Hi MateVisitor wrote: ↑5 years agoI've seen this type of problem for a small independent computer game site where it was announced that the new game would be available on a certain day. Complaints about where's the game started shortly after midnight New Zealand time when the company is based near Seattle, Washington (Pacific Daylight Time). For the next over 12 hours there were "is it available yet" comments. These lasted until download links were available.
Good luck because not all your customers are even close to your time zone.
You know what is funny about this? We are actually on a similar time zone, if I did not get the time zone wrong, I am only 3 hours ahead of him. And if I live in Western Australia instead of NSW, I will just be 1 hour ahead of him... So when he bought the movie, it was 1am or 130 am his time, and I was sound asleep in Sydney at 4 am. He still banging on my email like there were no tomorrow...…
I am not saying people should not care about their money, I mean you pay for something and then you did not get what you pay for, but still, do anyone actually believe people would answer your question 24 hours a day and 7 days a week? especially its 1 am at your end as well when you buy the movie. I meant I value customer care, but there are something I cannot do....Certainly not when I actually doing it, I got my head chew off....
There are some expectation of service, and one of them is that you expect you were serve as soon as possible, not immediately after you have some problem. But well, I guess he expected round the clock service for a A$40 bucks purchase eh?
Thanks for your post
Ava
Hi MateGeekyPornCritic wrote: ↑5 years agoI am sorry for your bad experience with a bad customer. His expectations are not realistic. Most companies do not have 24hr support. Major companies like Amazon, Nintendo, and Walmart have closing times. The guy was being a jerk to get under your skin.
I always give companies 24 hours to respond and more time during holidays and weekends.
Yeah, most people will give at least 24 hours to resolve any situation, not 5 minutes...
It's literally impossible nor financial feasible to have round the clock support even for major company, certainly would not be small independent production company like us.
But then I guess some people are just expecting a lot even for a very small purchase, well, in a way, they entitled it, but in a way, whether we can provide with such support is not about their entitlement. It's about what we can, or cannot do.
Thank Goodness my webpage finally went down, probably at 9am instead of 12 am...but mate, let me tell you, it had already took a toll on me...
Anyway, thanks for your post. My rant's over
Ava
I can see both sides of this one.
I'v been online in the middle of the night and gone to a web site and tried to sign up or buy something and been bitterly disappointed when something goes wrong, and either I can't buy it or worse, I pay and then can't download it, or download it and it's corrupt, etc. This can be incredibly frustrating for us horny perverts.
On the other hand... shit happens. The internet goes down, servers fail, hard drives crash. The world ain't perfect and sometimes things go wrong.
So while I understand your customer's frustration, I also understand that sometimes shit it out of your control. That's life.
I'v been online in the middle of the night and gone to a web site and tried to sign up or buy something and been bitterly disappointed when something goes wrong, and either I can't buy it or worse, I pay and then can't download it, or download it and it's corrupt, etc. This can be incredibly frustrating for us horny perverts.
On the other hand... shit happens. The internet goes down, servers fail, hard drives crash. The world ain't perfect and sometimes things go wrong.
So while I understand your customer's frustration, I also understand that sometimes shit it out of your control. That's life.
Hi MateTIEnTEEZ wrote: ↑5 years agoI can see both sides of this one.
I'v been online in the middle of the night and gone to a web site and tried to sign up or buy something and been bitterly disappointed when something goes wrong, and either I can't buy it or worse, I pay and then can't download it, or download it and it's corrupt, etc. This can be incredibly frustrating for us horny perverts.
On the other hand... shit happens. The internet goes down, servers fail, hard drives crash. The world ain't perfect and sometimes things go wrong.
So while I understand your customer's frustration, I also understand that sometimes shit it out of your control. That's life.
Well, I am not sure, I have done everything I need to notify the people for a server down. It would have been on the front page of his order when he makes it. So I don't know..
As I said, I understood fully that you get something and you pay for it, and when that goes haywire, you are going to worry about your money, but as I said, still I would have waited a bit, not 4 email in 15 minutes after you found out you cannot download the movie....
Anyway. That's in the past now, my website should be going online again tomorrow, so business as usual.
Thanks
Ava