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How To Lose My Business In A New York Minute

by Steven Wagenheim
12 replies
I won't mention any names but this is how to lose my business, and I am sure
many other people's business, in a New York minute.

I just finished my CD of original tunes and wanted to rip the songs off of it
to create MP3s so I can make some Camtasia Videos from them. Neither
Camtasia or Audacity can convert CDA files to MP3 so I had to look for a
ripper. Well, I found one that is supposed to be the top one out there. So
I went through the order process and chose PayPal as my payment method

The process itself was long and drawn out, and since they were delivering
me an unlock code via email, I don't see why they needed my street address,
but whatever.

Anyway, I finally got through their convoluted process, made it to my PayPal
site, paid and at the end of the payment, got a message saying that my
payment has been delayed.

Now, I've got TONS of money in my account and I even checked to make
sure that payment was being made through available PayPal funds so there
was NO reason for a delay.

Well, after a while, I went to their support center. Here is where it gets
good.

There is NO way to contact them.

What you have to do is send them YOUR email address in a web form
along with some stock drop down box options, submit it to them and then
THEY would get back to you and ask you what your question is.

After way too much time screwing around with these idiots, I downloaded
something else that's open source code and should do what I need it to
do, went back to their site and canceled my order.

I wonder how much money these people have lost because of the way
they do business?

Amazing...Just amazing.
#business #lose #minute #york
  • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
    Windows Media Player can rip them for you and save them as MP3. I've done it, but I'm not sure what version of Media Player you need.
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    Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. -Winston Churchill

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  • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
    Banned
    I doubt they care Steve. Still it's a good lesson for Internet Marketers. Thanks for sharing it. Having good means for customers and prospects to contact you is good business.
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    "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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  • Profile picture of the author Bruce NewMedia
    Steve I see that same thing happen all the time.

    I recently tried to buy an audio cd set on languages. Should have been a simple transaction, but instead it ended up requiring a support contact. ...and it turns out they promise a response within 48 HOURS!!!!

    I gave up and ordered something similar from a different site. What a joke!
    ______
    Bruce
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    • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
      Banned
      Originally Posted by brucerby View Post

      Steve I see that same thing happen all the time.

      I recently tried to buy an audio cd set on languages. Should have been a simple transaction, but instead it ended up requiring a support contact. ...and it turns out they promise a response within 48 HOURS!!!!

      I gave up and ordered something similar from a different site. What a joke!
      ______
      Bruce
      A good second place for annoyance is customers who think their business is that important. I've read a lot of posts like Steve's and they just make me laugh. I'm not saying people shouldn't have good customer support. Of course they should. And Steve's shared a valuable lesson.

      But let's be fair. No one really cares if [Insert Disgruntled Warrier Here] does business with them or not.
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      "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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      • Profile picture of the author Talltom1
        Originally Posted by ZigZag View Post

        But let's be fair. No one really cares if [Insert Disgruntled Warrier Here] does business with them or not.
        Excuse me???

        As many orders as I process, I still care about each and every one. When you stop caring, its time to take all of your piles of money and go permanently sit on a beach somewhere.

        Talltom
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        • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Talltom1 View Post

          Excuse me???

          As many orders as I process, I still care about each and every one. When you stop caring, its time to take all of your piles of money and go permanently sit on a beach somewhere.

          Talltom
          All I'm saying Talltom is that we shouldn't think too highly of ourselves.

          Thinking about it I probably would care if Steve chose not to do business with me because he seems like a good guy. I think your suggestion is a little over the top there. You shouldn't really be telling people what to do and predicting failure for them just because they have a different opinion than you.
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          "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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          • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
            Originally Posted by ZigZag View Post

            All I'm saying Talltom is that we shouldn't think too highly of ourselves.

            Thinking about it I probably would care if Steve chose not to do business with me because he seems like a good guy. I think your suggestion is a little over the top there. You shouldn't really be telling people what to do and predicting failure for them just because they have a different opinion than you.
            Personally, I think it's kind of sad if it gets to a point where somebody is
            so successful that they don't care if they lose somebody's business because
            their customer support is so bad.

            I try to give the best support to each of my customers, even bending over
            backwards in some cases because of download problems or other technical
            issues. No, I don't expect everybody to go the "extra" mile, but at least
            make it simple to contact them for support.

            Just an FYI, I just found out that this company is located in Germany, so
            that may be part of the problem. I don't know. I thought PayPal payments
            were instant regardless of where in the world they're going to, but I
            could be wrong.

            If anybody knows for certain, maybe they can shed some light on this.
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            • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
              Banned
              Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

              Personally, I think it's kind of sad if it gets to a point where somebody is
              so successful that they don't care if they lose somebody's business because
              their customer support is so bad.
              No. I agree. That's why I said--twice--that you made a good point that people in Internet Marketing can learn from. Customer support is important. Personally I haven't reached the point where I think my personal custom is that important to write a post about it.
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              "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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              • Profile picture of the author 4morereferrals
                Good lesson steve ...

                I used to use a lot of stuff to rip and burn mp3 ...

                I like the old school freeware stuff.

                Exact Audio Copy to take it off cd from CDA to .wav - then LAME Encoder - with Razorlame front end to converts the .wavs to mp3. Tunes sound great, not hacked and muted like some of the other rippers and encoders.

                Just did 2 cd's to ipod last night as a matter of fact. Yes - mp3s to ipod with out the drm crap of iTunes - requires my daughters ubuntu linuz system, but now thats the music hub in the castle - vs the win xp box. No 1 device limitations. All the kids, the mrs. and I can put mp3s on an ipod from the central system.

                eBook maybe... LOL

                Sorry, like to wax nostalgic on old school mp3 v. iTunes drama.

                Im done.
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              • Profile picture of the author Talltom1
                Originally Posted by ZigZag View Post

                Personally I haven't reached the point where I think my personal custom is that important to write a post about it.
                Sigh,

                Well then, we'll just resort to plan B - keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em s**t, sorta like growing mushrooms.

                Would it make you feel better if Steve sends his posts to me, to post on his behalf?

                He's made an excellent point with his original post. He's pointed out a classic example of the problems people have when setting up their online business.

                Your only problem is, that Steve Wagenheim posted about it, instead of somebody else???

                talltom
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                • Profile picture of the author Jonathan 2.0
                  Banned
                  Originally Posted by Talltom1 View Post

                  He's made an excellent point with his original post. He's pointed out a classic example of the problems people have when setting up their online business.
                  Well that's something I wasn't aware of Telltom. Thanks for clarifying. I wouldn't have presented my message in such a self-important post but that's just my personal style.
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                  "Each problem has hidden in it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem. The greatest success stories were created by people who recognized a problem and turned it into an opportunity."―Joseph Sugarman
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        • Profile picture of the author SMS
          It would appear that in their world, the customer is not always right
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          • Profile picture of the author Talltom1
            My business specializes in consulting work mostly for off-line type business ventures. I can assure you that there isn't a single one of them that are in a position to take ANY customers for granted in today's economic environment. The ones that have, or are, are just about out of business.

            Having said that, there are always customers who think the sun rises and sets over their left shoulders, and there always is a case for determining when to extend an invitation to do business elsewhere.

            However, Steve's original post was a very clear cut example of exceptionally poor customer service, that I have witnessed repeatedly in my career. These merchants ultimately are NOT successful even in the best of times.

            Justify it or excuse it any way you want, its just the way it works in the business world.

            Talltom
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  • Profile picture of the author Talltom1
    I understand...

    Regardless of what you think of Steve's style, people keep making the mistake of throwing out the baby with the bathwater here.

    There's a reason the guy is where he is. He's actively communicating his own 'Lessons Learned'. Take it for what it is. Read between the lines. Disregard the 'style'.

    You're right - he does have a certain style to his communications. But instead of learning anything from what he took his time to communicate about, this thread (and most of the others that he shares here) turn into major personality conflicts.

    Instead of hunting the guy down everytime he posts something useful here, 'turn the bleeping channel'. Nobody is forcing you to read his posts, and certainly don't require any additional commentary.

    Personally, I find the attitude of all of the 'Steve bashers' here much more offensive than the writing/communication style he uses.

    Talltom
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