I try to exercise a fair degree of restraint to not let every customer experience become a post, especially not the negative ones. But our experience at The Write Place (2723 Arbutus Street @ West 12th) was just too unpleasant to let slip, and appeared endemic of an overall lack of customer appreciation.
The long and short of it was that we were unhappy about two small details in the final prints of the birth announcements we had made. Both of these details would have easily been caught on a printed proof, but because we had approved an electronic proof there was nothing we could do.
When we called The Write Place to voice our concern about these details their reaction was: “why are you sweating the small stuff when you have two healthy babies?” Really?! What do healthy babies have to do with not delivering fully on an expensive product?
I don’t believe that the customer is always right. Far from it. But that doesn’t mean that the reverse is automatically true either. Never in my life have I had someone hang up on me. Granted, everything that needed to be said had been said at that point, but to actually hang up on a customer? Wow.
The Write Place has beautiful stuff and makes beautiful announcements, and will no doubt continue to do well. With or without customer appreciation. And at least the babies are healthy…
Last modified: July 1, 2008
I agree that their response was totally inappropriate, not to mention tacky. But in the print industry, you get what you sign off on and electronic proofs are pretty standard these days. If the electronic proof was not clear enough, it is the customer’s responsibility to request a hard copy proof. Not defending the store, but this is just standard stuff in that industry.