I follow a company on Teh Facebook. Occasionally, they have a sale on a product.
One day I purchased a product, and the following week they dropped the price.
When I called and asked for a credit for the difference, the CS girl - who had been uber helpful when I made my purchase - acted butt-hurt and refused to give the credit, citing company policy.
The difference is only $20, but it’s the principle, ya know. Fine. I got’s the internets.
I put a factual sentence re: my situation in the comments section on their daily post, and bada-bing! I get a call from the CS boss saying she’ll refund the difference.
It’s been two weeks, she never answers, so I decide to start posting again. A lot of people see this post daily, and in fact some complain that they haven’t gotten products they’ve ordered. I think a little Caveat Emptor for the public is in order, but when I go to post something, there is no comment box for me anymore. It’s there on all of my friend’s posts, but not this company.
Our only relationship is I “Like” their page. How did they block me, and how can I circumvent it?
I don’t want to destroy their business; I just want to warn others of their poor customer service.
Assuming companies don’t work any differently to groups, then absolutely they can silence you if they wish.
If they’ve actually done this, then call them up and tell them about the web site and/or COMPANY X SUCKS!!! facebook group you’re going to create about them. This is ridiculous.
Is it a normal thing to expect a company to refund you the difference when a product you bought this week goes on sale next week? Asking for such a thing would not occur to me. You happily paid the asking price for the item, but now you’re upset and complaining about bad customer service because the thing you bought went on sale later?
I do not understand.
Anyway, to answer your question, if they blocked you from posting on their page, no, you cannot circumvent this, short of creating a new fake account and using it to post, and I suspect that would not work out very well for you either. I guess you could make a “COMPANY X SUCKS” Facebook page if you’re really that worked up about this.
Yes, you can ban people from pages. I assume this means they can’t post things, but still can read the page. This seems to be protection against spammers.
That’s one of those subjects that is remarkably and surprisingly divisive if you ask your friends about it, like declawing cats. Half of them will think it’s par for the course and the other half will think it’s outlandishly boorish and both sides will be completely unable to entertain the other point of view. I’ve had that discussion with my friends and family and man, that’s certainly become a verboten subject around the dinner table.
That’s ridiculous. Are you suggesting that any company that wants to decrease the price of an item should also retroactively apply the discount to everybody who has already bought the product? If your idea of “good customer service” were the norm, there would be no discounts ever, anywhere.
Many companies have a policy that refunds the difference if they lower the price or have a sale within 2 weeks of your purchase. They call it “price adjustment.”
I did this with a laptop once. Best Buy had a nice laptop on clearance. I bought it, and they dropped the price another $75. I took in the receipt and they refunded the difference without batting an eye.
Of course ducati’s situation is a little different, since s/he got a phone call promising a refund. Not giving the refund after that is really bad customer service.
Really? Price adjustment is not an unknown phenomenon.
Walmartdoes it. Kohl’s does it. Sear’s does it. Nordstrom’s does it. Macy’s does it.
Those are just the first national chains that came to mind.
In my experience, I’ve never known a retailer to not honor a reduced price within a reasonable time frame, typically 14 days, but I’ve seen 7 days and 30 days as well.
Many companies make this part of their advertising, especially this time of year.
I’m not trying to force a company to initiate such a program. They’re not honoring what they told me they would do.
Given the many complaints I’ve seen from other disgruntled customers, I’m liking the “Widget Corp. Sucks” page idea. Maybe if they don’t answer the phone for a week…
This is exactly how it works. If a company bans a follower from their page, the follower can read the page, but the page will appear to the banned follower without a comment box.
OK, so you feel aggrieved that the price dropped by $20 a week after your purchase. What if the price dropped by $20 two weeks after your purchase? Still feel entitled to a credit? Why? At what point do you think the claim for a credit ends? A month? Six months?
Now ask yourself this: If the price had gone up by $20 the week after your purchase, would you insist on paying an extra $20 to the Company. As you say, it’s a matter of principle. Honestly, would you have paid over your extra $20?
This has nothing to do with you being blocked on Facebook, but it does go to the heart of your perceived grievance.
First, I think its clear that the OP is mostly angry at the promise of a refund that never happened.
Second, refunds of this sort are standard practice (as already stated). Essentially they are tied to the RETURNS policy. For example, if I could return the item within 14 days for my money back, then “price adjustment” is merely recognizing the fact that I could return the item, get my money back, then buy the item again at the lower price. Simply refunding the difference saves everyone the trouble – especially, if the retailer would have to send the returned product back to the manufacturer.
Third, honoring such a policy is something retailers need to do to keep people happy and buying their product. There was a huge brouhaha over the original iPhone. The initial price was very high and a few months later Apple dropped the price. “early adopters” were pissed. Apple didn’t give refunds for the difference, but did issue credits for some portion of it. Apple recognized that having a reputation defined by the original iPhone pricing and price drop would actively discourage people buying Apple products on launch day.
The store’s policy does not require me to condone unethical behavior and while failing to follow through on a promise is bad service, when I feel the payout is undeserved, my ire is oddly mitigated.
edit: And I thought the original iphone purchasers were nitwits. My stock phrase, “If you live on the cutting edge, expect to bleed a lot.”
14 days seems to be the standard, and I can live with that. It was actually 6 in this case.
The original cost of the item was $60, so it’s a substantial percentage of the item.
I’m not talking about $20 off a new roof or a Prius.
I sent one last email to them saying I’d much rather have a credit instead of creating a fun new Facebook page…
Their reply included proof of credit to my credit card account today.
So, if I paid $4.50 a gallon for gas a couple weeks ago, and today, it’s $3.89, I should be able to go back to the station and get a refund for the difference? That’s awesome! I’ll tell all my friends!
