E-Mail 'Kegs to go, or not...' To A Friend

One thought on “Kegs to go, or not…”

1. Grrr. And today I received an email from a customer stating,

   “I was in last tuesday, to order a keg of mannys, I was told the week before that if I had my order in by tuesday I could pick up the keg on friday…. well I came in at 3.30 pm to order my keg and the lady said that it was too late the cutoff time is 2.30 ??????? This made obtaining a keg alot more difficult and time consuming, also the lady at the counter was much less than polite and bordered on darn right rude, no apologies and was looking over my shoulder to the customer behind me like I was not important , and I was wasting her time. I will never use your store again for any of my beer purchases in the future and will tell anybody who asks how I was treated. I do not know if the person reading this is the person who waited on me, but you or they need lessons in customer service.”

   We (all staff) always say, “Orders are due before 3PM Tuesday, for in-store arrival by 4PM Friday.” It also says that on the website. And when we promote keg special orders in the newsletter we say that there too.

   The “much less than polite and bordered on darn right rude” person he is talking about is me. He and wife waited ’til after the cutoff time to come in and order their keg, despite being able to CALL or STOP in anytime during business hours up to that time — we are open 7 days a week, 62 hours total weekly but he waited ’til the last minute…after the last minute.

   Normal week cutoff is 3:00PM Tuesday. They walked in at 3:40PM and our orders were already in — and our cooler was already full with orders submitted on time (full as of 2:30PM), but that doesn’t matter. The orders were already in and the deadline had passed. He tried to make excuses, then huffed out. I wrote down 3 other businesses who do kegs on-demand and handed it to his wife. Why on earth do people wait not only ’till the last possible moment to order things?! And then take it out on the person behind the counter? And why should I make the guy behind him wait and wait and wait when there’s nothing more I can do other than extend referrals? *sigh* I really wasn’t cut out for this type of retail. I need a mental health counselor.

   While I wish I could help him, I was unable to. And then he was attempting to hold up the line for other customers when there was nothing more I could do except give the referrals to places that offer kegs on-demand. Clearly, this upset him, but was I supposed to make the other customers in the store stand there and wait and wait and wait while he threw a fit? That’s not fair to the other customers.

   ‎”I’m sorry, but the deadline has passed” wasn’t good enough.

   If we went running all over for people who neglected to order on time, we would never be open to serve the majority of people who are really great customers, who adhere to business shopping hours, who place orders early rather than waiting until (or after) the cutoff, etc.

   Certainly, the people he talks to won’t hear this:

   I arrived there 40 minutes after the drop-dead cutoff for orders, demanded that they get me a keg, and was told they couldn’t because the orders had already been submitted. In fact, they had so many keg orders for that weekend that they weren’t able to help me if they could because all available spots in their cooler were already booked! That’s one busy beer place!

   The lady at checkout was conscientious of other customers — making sure they got checked out so they didn’t have to wait while I complained to her about not being able to get a keg from her. But she was nice enough to try to look out for me, taking the time to write down three referrals for me, places that offer kegs on-demand.

   Next time I’ll make sure to get my order in advance, rather than waiting until the last possible moment.

   You can betcha he won’t be telling anyone that story. As a small business owner I can only hope that whoever he talks smack to realizes that he delays things to the last minute and then expects people to bend-over backward for him. I hope that they take his complaints about my business with a grain of salt. There’s two sides to every story, and the simple fact that he chose to come in after the deadline and that I offered referrals are important factoids that I’m pretty sure he’ll leave out.

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