Thursday 18 December 2008

Bah! Humbug!



Well Merry Christmas Everyone!
We're very excited in the Frog house, our 11ft real Christmas tree is up and looking good. Father Christmas is the topic of the moment and the children eagerly look forward to their Uncle arriving on Christmas Eve with some carrots and a bucket of oats, sometimes a small net of hay. He makes a fuss of showing them the reindeer food and assures them it's freezing outside, they rush into the sitting room and listen for him to climb onto the roof (he throws sticks up there I think) to put the food in place and then rush to talk at him, all three at once while he has a congratulatory cup of tea and mince pie. He loves it, they love it.

This year a miserable supply teacher has been told not to return to one primary school after she told a class of seven-year-olds that Santa Claus did not exist!!

Children at Blackshaw Lane Primary School in Oldham were talking about Christmas when the teacher came out with the news.

Father Christmas was not responsible for delivering their presents on Christmas Eve, the pupils were taught. The teacher, who had been drafted in for just the day, has now been told not to come back and I'm glad that action was taken. Life is tough and we're a long time grown up, why spoil a little childhood magic? It achieves nothing but disappointment.

Frog in the Field has been extremely busy, I'm happy to say. Frog headquarters has been hopping with orders and this year I've had one or two excellent complaints which I'd like to share with you.

The first was a great comment about how in the web site photograph three products were featured, but only two arrived.

I replied: "Dear Mr A,
we were disappointed to see your negative feedback on Amazon regarding the service received from Frog in the Field.
May we please draw your attention to the technical details which clearly state the price is for two products.
We respectfully request you withdraw your negative feedback owing to this not being our error.
Negative feedback has a detrimental effect on business and the ability to trade on Amazon.
I very much hope you will honour this request.
Kind regards"


I got a fantastic reply:"Hi,

I understand your concerns, and acknowledge that the detailed technical small print does in fact indicate the price is for two products. I will therefore remove my negative feedback on the condition that you change the picture on Amazon, which is much more obvious and has three products in it. I could understand if it had one item, showing the product, or two showing the number you get, but I do think that most people would assume that they would get three of these by looking at the picture, and not realise they needed to check the small print.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Regards "

How much was the item? And what was it?
Well, it was a skull & crossbone temporary tattoo costing 50p.

The next one was great too:

The customer left feedback which read something like: 'Poor quality, not worth the money, postage costs far too high'

I responded
"Dear Mrs Rymer,
We are most disappointed to read your negative comments on Amazon regarding the toy microphone you purchased. I'm very sorry you were unhappy with the quality, may I suggest you return the item to us for a full refund? Unfortunately one cannot expect a fully functioning microphone for £1.50.
I would have very much appreciated you contacting me directly regarding your concerns than put negative feedback onto the site. I have not been given the opportunity to resolve the issues with you.

The P&P costs are not excessive for the item (£1.50). The Royal Mail charges us 95p Second Class or £1.14 First Class.
The item has to be picked from stock handwrapped and also packed into an envelope and then two stickers have to be printed to put on the parcel, the item is then taken to a collection point, all these steps are labour intensive and have cost implications.

I very much hope you will reconsider your comments and remove them.
Your sincerely,"

Both customers have now removed their feedback and I have a great selling record again....what is wrong with people?
I also had a request to give a refund on a sheep keyring (£1.50) because it was a no longer needed Christmas Present...what was the scenario there?
"Algernon! how could you?
I simply don't like it!"

Bets are being taken on what my present will be from Shirl this year. I wanted to give her a 2008 Calender but Darling Husband won't let me, the pictures are fabulous and he wants to keep it, damn he's so mean to me!

But today is the Frog in the Field Office Party...yippee!!
I look forward to slurring ribbits all afternoon and eating far too much lunch.
Must go and get glammed up now (wash my wellies).

Frog (hic!)
x

8 comments:

LifeBehindTheCoach.com said...

flippin heck I know there is a credit crunch on but honestly! Some people have literally nothing to do with their lives than interfere with others and as for Mrs 'there's no Santa' Claus, i think she should put her claws away - what a horrible woman!
Love the idea of your 11ft christmas tree - I had an extension built with 14 ft high ceilings so I could put an ENORMOUS tree up then The Husband bought puppies - can you imagine puppies swinging from the tree and eating the baubles? So can we! christmas in our house has to be 5' and above but the beams look a treat! For best results, lay on floor to view!
Happy chritmas Frog

Expat mum said...

I'm a great one for writing letters of complaint, but it really is unfair if you either don't ask for something specific, or don't give the supplier a chance to do anything about it. Good that they took their comments off Amazon though!
Enjoy the party.

Iota said...

People are incredible. I'm glad they removed their comments.

Catherine said...

I always find it is the people who pay the least that make the most complaints i.e. want something for nothing!
Hope you enjoy your party and have a Super Duper Christmas!

Mean Mom said...

Im very impressed with the way you dealt with your difficult customers! Some people don't understand p&p, do they? All they think of is how much it cost you to send it.

What? Your £1.50 microphones aren't fully functioning? Tsk tsk! I won't be buying one of those, then. I think I might get a skull and crossbones temporary tattoo, though, if I can think of somewhere to put it. Hmmm.....

Hope you had a good time at the office party and that the wellies came up nice and clean.

Jo Beaufoix said...

Wow, you handled that very well. I would have been very tempted to insert expletives. Of course I know you were being professional, but blimey!

Have a brilliant Christmas with those gorgeous kids and darling husband (yours not mine), and I can't wait to hear what Shirl brings. o<:o{D (That's my attempt at a Santa. You can see it right?)

Sparx said...

Lordy, the time taken to write your responses must be worth 10 times what they paid... you are very gracious indeed - but it's worth it for the perfect record. Merry Yule!

Hadriana's Treasures said...

Happy Christmas to you and your wellies and your family!