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Brain Teaser: When you OOPS with a price... how can you make the customer happy?

by Scott Ames
16 replies
Yesterday I ordered a printer and it was a crazy price of $10, plus shipping which brought it to around $50. Sometimes things are sold as loss leaders and crazy prices because of rebates, etc. so I didn't think much of it other than it was a great deal. Perhaps it was a soon to be discontinued item or the buyer got too many.

I then get an email as below. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to craft a better response or policy that thrills the customer and leave no hard feelings. You can't complete the purchase or your company will lose too much money. You have to be creative and do something else.

Good luck:


We have received your order for a KONICA MIN. MC 1600W COLOR LASER
PRINTER; however we regret most sincerely that we need to inform you
that this was incorrectly priced on our website at $10.00 - instead of
the correct selling price of $134.99.

As you can imagine we received many thousands of orders - at a time
when our offices were actually closed for the weekend so we were
unaware of this issue until this morning.

We do appreciate that you may be disappointed; however, we hope and
trust that all our customers who were affected by this pricing error
will understand that this was a genuine mistake, and that you will
accept our deep apology that we are unable to accept your order for
the printer at the previously published price.

While we try and ensure that all prices on our website are accurate,
with the thousands of items available on our website, pricing errors
may occur, (please see our terms and conditions), and we are extremely
grateful for your understanding.

In accordance with our Terms and Conditions of Web Site Use and our
Pricing and Availability Policy, we are left with no choice but to
cancel all affected orders. If you still wish to purchase this item,
please place a new order which will be charged at the correct price.

Any other items ordered at the same time will be processed and shipped
out, unless they are accessories for the cancelled unit. If you would
still like to order the accessories - or indeed if you would prefer us
to cancel your entire order, we would understand, but please do let us
know as quickly as you are able in order that the changes can be made.

If you have any questions arising from this, please do contact our
Customer Service at blah blah blah who will answer any
additional questions you may have.

PS: Most people are trying to figure out what I should do. That's not the point. The point is to use this as a lesson / idea farm. Pretend YOU own the company that did this. What you gonna do?
#customer #happy #make #oops #price
  • Profile picture of the author T.I.M.
    There will be ways to re-write that better but you're still not going to be able to thrill the customer. A mistake tlike that $125 difference is a big mistake, agreed. They should have checked double checked maybe even have a policy to double check all items $100 & up.

    In a retail store if everything is priced as error (legit mistake not price switchers aka shoplifters) you have to give it to them for the price then pull inventory and reprice it. Hopefully it gets caught in time to keep the losses at a minimal.

    If it was really error in thousands ordered that will be $100's of thousands lost in revenue so they have to suck it up with letter like this & leave people unsatisfied or lose that revenue which is mostly cost since there is low mark up on electronics.

    I am looking forward to seeing others responses crafted though
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  • Profile picture of the author DogScout
    Dear Store,
    Since you do business in the United States, I am sure you are aware that an advertised price, regardless of mistake or any other reason, obligates the store to actually sell it at that advertised price. You have several items I will be purchasing in the next few months and had decided to purchase them from you. I am somewhat disappointed to hear you have no intention of holding up you legal obligation, (not to even consider the ethical implications). I suspect with this sort of attitude you will not be in business long enough for me to purchase other items from you anyway. Please return my payment at your earliest convince. I will forward your sales page and ensuing email to an FTC investigator I know and make my purchase at a different establishment. I cannot say it was a pleasure not doing business with you, but would be thrilled if I never received anymore correspondence from you (except for the return of my payment).
    Good luck
    (You'll need it)
    Customer
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    • Profile picture of the author Jacer
      Originally Posted by DogScout View Post

      Dear Store,
      Since you do business in the United States, I am sure you are aware that an advertised price, regardless of mistake or any other reason, obligates the store to actually sell it at that advertised price. You have several items I will be purchasing in the next few months and had decided to purchase them from you. I am somewhat disappointed to hear you have no intention of holding up you legal obligation, (not to even consider the ethical implications). I suspect with this sort of attitude you will not be in business long enough for me to purchase other items from you anyway. Please return my payment at your earliest convince. I will forward your sales page and ensuing email to an FTC investigator I know and make my purchase at a different establishment. I cannot say it was a pleasure not doing business with you, but would be thrilled if I never received anymore correspondence from you (except for the return of my payment).
      Good luck
      (You'll need it)
      Customer
      I have been in this situation and received product at the mistaken price. I think the email they sent is their way to gracefully weasel out of their obligation. I agree that they have a legal obligation to sell at those prices. Even ignoring their obligation, I would expect them to offer a big discount or a free bonus upgrade for their mistake.
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      • Profile picture of the author Greg guitar
        This touched a nerve. Bait and switch tactics (whatever the excuse) is a pet peeve of mine, expecially lately, since 2 companies in the IM arena just pulled it on me.

        One was a leading video submission software company who I won't name (but it rhymes with raffic riser). They sent me an email touting their recent improvements to the videos on their sales pages. They invited me to come and check them out, so I did, as I was quite interested in trying their service.

        The page their link took me to had a link offering a free 30 day trial, followed by a $97 per month membership if I don't cancel. I was thrilled, since I thought I'd lost that opportunity, as they had lately been offering only a $2500 "business in a box" model.

        I clicked on the link, which took me to a sales page (with video), offering nothing but the $2500 deal again. Couldn't find the free trial or even the $97 a month deal anywhere, and I tried several times to make sure. So I registered at their site, created a support ticket, and asked "where is the free trial you promised me?"

        I got a reply in a day or two, that said they were currently updating their sales page, and telling me to come back in a week or so to see some new cool offer they would be making. They didn't address the fact that I was misled.

        I suppose they think "updating the sales page" explains it away, but I don't think so, especially for a multi-million dollar company. Do they expect me to believe it was unavoidable that they have wrong information in their link? Could they not afford to pay a hundred bucks to a programmer to change it, or to honor the advertised deal until they get around to it?

        I'm with DogScout on this one: I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that any public advertisement is actually a one way contract with the people who see the ad. You can't renege on it, no matter what your excuse is.

        It's probably not worth it, but the option may exist to enforce the contract legally. I guess the reason companies get away with this is that it just isn't worth hiring a lawyer to get a sale price. Maybe it would be if it was a class action.
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      Originally Posted by DogScout View Post

      Since you do business in the United States, I am sure you are aware that an advertised price, regardless of mistake or any other reason, obligates the store to actually sell it at that advertised price.
      In the U.S., that varies by state. Some states may require that it be sold at the advertised price; other states may require that the store have a stated policy for handing such errors.

      Whether that applies to websites or just in-store sales may also vary.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Blaze
    I could very much understand them getting the pricing wrong if it was suppose to be $100 and they missed of one '0' but to be marked at $10 and the real price is suppose to be $134.99 is really a very big mistake to make!

    I also doubt any of their other items are exactly $100 or $10 or even $1 which could have been a data mis-configuration.

    My bet is it was probably done on purpose and a % of people will just pay the extra and be done with it!

    Mark Blaze
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    • Profile picture of the author Marketstriker
      Originally Posted by Mark Blaze View Post


      My bet is it was probably done on purpose and a % of people will just pay the extra and be done with it!

      Mark Blaze
      Hey!
      I had the same idea after reading the first post. It's much harder for people to give back something they owe. Besides some of them can like the price. That's why they could pay 125$ more.
      So, Scott, if you don't feel anything from above mentioned so just give it back. Anyway this company won't have many customers after this kind of error.
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
    The sad thing (for them) is that others may do as I did and research the going price for that item. I found it offered at $119.90 plus shipping at a competitor. The could have turned this around for themselves by offering at least that price and perhaps a bit less.

    If I were the owner and some flunky part timer that was inputting data did that for me over the weekend and caused this situation, I would try to honor the price, but.. what if I couldn't.. What if that would put me out of business? Ok.. next best thing..or things...

    Here are some of my ideas:

    1. As mentioned, offer to sell it to me for the best price anywhere on the net.
    2. Give me a $100 coupon for future purchases of xxx amount or accumulated purchases over xxx amount with no time limit
    3. Wrap it in several CPA offers. They would have to allow incentives, but it would recoup most of the cost, then sell it for the advertised price.
    4. Talk to Minolta and see if they could kick in some promo dollars for my mistake
    5. Cross sell the dickens out of it. Paper, toner, etc.

    What other things would work? Time for your thinking cap.
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    • Profile picture of the author Greg guitar
      Originally Posted by Scott Ames View Post

      The sad thing (for them) is that others may do as I did and research the going price for that item. I found it offered at $119.90 plus shipping at a competitor. The could have turned this around for themselves by offering at least that price and perhaps a bit less.

      If I were the owner and some flunky part timer that was inputting data did that for me over the weekend and caused this situation, I would try to honor the price, but.. what if I couldn't.. What if that would put me out of business? Ok.. next best thing..or things...

      Here are some of my ideas:

      1. As mentioned, offer to sell it to me for the best price anywhere on the net.
      2. Give me a $100 coupon for future purchases of xxx amount or accumulated purchases over xxx amount with no time limit
      3. Wrap it in several CPA offers. They would have to allow incentives, but it would recoup most of the cost, then sell it for the advertised price.
      4. Talk to Minolta and see if they could kick in some promo dollars for my mistake
      5. Cross sell the dickens out of it. Paper, toner, etc.

      What other things would work? Time for your thinking cap.
      If it really was an honest mistake, and honoring it would put me out of business, I might try disclosing everything to the customers, including my price (including any volume bonuses or incentives from the company), and how much I would need to get for the item to break even. Then offer it at the break even price, along with further incentives like, say giving them 20% off for the next 5 years.

      A variation on this approach would be to explain that I'd put myself in a terrible position with this mistake (and explain how the mistake was made, and what I'm doing to prevent it happening again); then offer to give any customer wholesale prices (letting them see my invoices) on their next $1000 worth of purchases, or for the next year or two, as an incentive to cancel their order.

      Perhaps I'd send a short bio out about the business, maybe profiling some of my key people.

      Basically my goal would be to communicate how seriously I'm taking this, how sorry I am to be trying to get out of honoring the deal, and how dedicated I am to making it up to them. Also, I'd try to give them a sense of the community that depends on the business staying afloat.

      I think in this situation, it's important to build trust, and give people the good feeling that they're supporting something good by being flexible enough to help with the solution, while at the same time, getting even more future value than the savings they would have had, in exchange for giving up the great deal.
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      • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
        Originally Posted by Greg guitar View Post

        Perhaps I'd send a short bio out about the business, maybe profiling some of my key people.
        An perhaps a profile of the recently fired people that made the screw up


        Basically my goal would be to communicate how seriously I'm taking this, how sorry I am to be trying to get out of honoring the deal, and how dedicated I am to making it up to them. Also, I'd try to give them a sense of the community that depends on the business staying afloat.

        I think in this situation, it's important to build trust, and give people the good feeling that they're supporting something good by being flexible enough to help with the solution, while at the same time, getting even more future value than the savings they would have had, in exchange for giving up the great deal.
        I like this. Good thoughts.
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  • Profile picture of the author iVentureBiz
    hmmm well that's quite the pickle to be in... I guess the best way to handle things would be to offer a dicount to people that tried to purchase... maybe a coupon of sorts.

    For example:

    "Sorry about the price....blah blah blah... Please accept this personalized coupon code which will save you $50 on your next purchase of $300 or more..." Or maybe a coupon code that allows people to buy one item at cost.. So they could buy 1 of those printers at cost (say $105) instead of $134.99... that would be where I would start. Think is you really have to find a happy medium where you're making it up to the genuine customers while at the same time trying to not bow down to the people that were just looking to make a quick buck by trying to buy 500 units to resell on ebay or something.

    Customer satisfaction is very important.
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  • Profile picture of the author newbim
    My theory: If they can't have their money back, tell them why, if they kick up THAT MUCH of a fuss - life's too short, give them it (if you can) and give them a voucher as an "apology" that will at least prompt them into returning - which is more than they could do if they didn't get ANYTHING.
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    • Profile picture of the author Simon Royal
      If I was the operator of that company I would...

      Now have a list of truely interested and possibly pissed off customers.

      So I would send another email to just that list and offer the printer for not the original listed price but for $10 over cost.

      That way the customer would still get a chance to get a great deal and I would send them special apology letter after they ordered the new promo and include a coupon for a percent off of their next purchase.

      That way if they took me up on my special offer after my screw up they are true customers and understand mistakes happen. Then the letter would instill a trust with them as it would be a further apology and a discount for their next purchase.

      I only respond this way because after managing a fast food joint for almost 10 years, I have had to deal with many irate customers and making them feel good about using your service is important.

      Giving incentive to return is your way of "making it right" and giving you a second chance not to screw it up again.

      Just my 2 cents!



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  • Profile picture of the author schofieldml
    Having experience in ecommerce...

    It happens, sometimes the wrong price is entered by mistake. Very rare and not usually this big of a mistake. If you have a large store with thousands of products, like we have, you use a spread sheet or database program to post and update prices on your products. So you have thousands of products and prices in a spreadsheet program and if you are not careful a MISTAKE like this could be made. I only had this problem one time and it was off just by a few dollars (dollars and cents were transposed) so yes we honored it. However, a mistake like this would put a company out of business and you could not expect the company to honor it unless you were unreasonable.

    So I would just be honest and tell them about the mistake, tell them it would put me out of business, refund their money right away for the product without even asking if they would like their money back. Then I would use this as an opportunity and offer the product at cost. My distributor would be happy, I would get a bigger discount for volume that may even stick for future purchases. I would also offer to sell them the accessories at a deep discount.

    Of course the company did their due diligence by posting a disclaimer in their terms of service, read the fine print on some of the website you have bought from in the past you will see similar language.

    Plus legal threats would do no good if it was a mistake. No one would expect the company to sell the product at that price not even the FTC or a court. Yes, you are going to lose some customers but probably very few, the rest will be thrilled to get the product at 50% or 60% off.

    Bait and switch tactics however are despicable but probably wouldn't be the case in this situation.
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    • Profile picture of the author DogScout
      Originally Posted by schofieldml View Post

      Having experience in ecommerce...

      It happens, sometimes the wrong price is entered by mistake. Very rare and not usually this big of a mistake. If you have a large store with thousands of products, like we have, you use a spread sheet or database program to post and update prices on your products. So you have thousands of products and prices in a spreadsheet program and if you are not careful a MISTAKE like this could be made. I only had this problem one time and it was off just by a few dollars (dollars and cents were transposed) so yes we honored it. However, a mistake like this would put a company out of business and you could not expect the company to honor it unless you were unreasonable.

      So I would just be honest and tell them about the mistake, tell them it would put me out of business, refund their money right away for the product without even asking if they would like their money back. Then I would use this as an opportunity and offer the product at cost. My distributor would be happy, I would get a bigger discount for volume that may even stick for future purchases. I would also offer to sell them the accessories at a deep discount.

      Of course the company did their due diligence by posting a disclaimer in their terms of service, read the fine print on some of the website you have bought from in the past you will see similar language.

      Plus legal threats would do no good if it was a mistake. No one would expect the company to sell the product at that price not even the FTC or a court. Yes, you are going to lose some customers but probably very few, the rest will be thrilled to get the product at 50% or 60% off.

      Bait and switch tactics however are despicable but probably wouldn't be the case in this situation.
      Now that would perceived (by me) as an honest reply. If the email put it that way, my response would have been MUCH different.
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott Ames
    It happened again. This time no mistake in price, but it was a good deal with a rebate coupon. What do you think of this?



    Important information regarding your recent Quill.com Order

    Dear Valued Quill.com Customer,

    We're sorry, the overwhelming demand for the Canon ImageCLASS far exceeded expectations, and we are unable to fulfill your order.

    Since we are unable to get any additional stock from our vendors, we had no choice but to cancel your order.

    To make it easier to select an alternate printer to meet your needs, please try our new Printer Finder. If we can be of any further assistance, please reply to this email or contact us at 800-789-1331.

    At Quill, it's all about providing you with the best experience in office products. We apologize for any inconvenience or disappointment this may have caused.


    Sincerely,

    Quill.com customer Service

    I like the "Dear Valued Quill.com Customer", that's so personal. Why did this message bother me more than the first? I guess because it's not a mistake, they are simply out of stock. The message rubbed me the wrong way. "Try our Printer Finder" My first thought was "Why? So you can cancel that order too? I already found the printer I wanted"

    Again.. for those tempted to help me deal with these companies. Thank you but THAT's NOT the POINT. The point is to find a way for you or anyone here to craft a response that would not lose the customer or in fact, delight the customer, yet not lose your shirt.
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