Xerxys

So, I recently came across this website and I am at loss of words. I mean gosh! I always felt that customers were to blame for some of the discourse suffered by companies via "shrinkage" if not more but I feel this is a step gone too far.

I understand that dealing with customers can be nightmarish (I worked for sprint tech support) but lumping them in a huge asshole database?? That's so cruel and clever I wish I thought about it!

According to this article, some companies create a list of serial callers and classified them from least to most spenders. Then dealt with them accordingly. The list was further classified to prick Vs. Civilized for better handling. This I'm ok with. But the bad-customer-dot-com website goes on to further list all people who charge back items on their credit cards. This is fascinating because I know someone who does this chronically, my mom. Macy's is her favorite. When she has a huge dinner party she purchases something from the store, with cash, returns it the next day saying it doesn't fit.

Whats some of your experience with return customers, serial callers and what do you think about the bad customer website for people who charge back items?

The_Dunedan

This is a GREAT idea!

I do a LOT of retail business over the internet, and a "Name And Shame" setup like this for deadbeat bidders/buyers has been a long time coming. Example:

Person sees Item A for auction.

Person bids on Item A, sometimes repeatedly.

Person wins Item A.

Person then refuses to pay for Item A, and comes up with every manner of excuse imaginable why they can't: "My kid bought that!" (Sure sport, your kid knew your account password and entered it three times to confirm the bids? Sure.) "I was drunk!" (Drive into a minivan and see how far that goes.) "I changed my mind!" (So did I, I mistook you for an honorable person with a lick of sense.) And my favorite: "I DIDN'T READ THE AUCTION!"

I have to deal with 2-10 of these retreads every week, lose anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars (edited to add; per year) in unrecovered listing/selling fees from the brokerage website I use, not to mention re-selling the item itself and risk selling it for less or not selling it at all. These asshats cost me money and effort, and fair quantities of both. If somebody's found a way to Name And Shame the jerkoffs, I'm all for it.

Baraka_Guru

So, wait...is this supposed to be some kind of public shaming for customers who initiate chargebacks? I can see where it could be used against nefarious customers, but what about instances of nefarious merchants or identity thieves? You know, the reason why chargebacks are a consumer right in the first place.

I see how this could be a good idea, but I primarily see how this could be abused; it easily becomes a tool for merchant bullying.

Not that it matters. If I were dealing with a merchant who warned me about a "BadCustomer" database in relation to my right to chargebacks, I'd probably just take my business elsewhere. I don't want to risk being blacklisted simply for exercising my rights. The current market is too competitive to deal with that kind of bullshit. I just hope this kind of thing doesn't get too popular. It would be a major setback to the average consumer.

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—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
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Glory's Sun

This is right up Best (worst) Buy's alley...

Wes Mantooth

Bizarre. Yes customers are a pain in the ass and yes they try to do everything they can to take advantage of you and your business...but thats just the way things are in sales and always will be. I guess having a list of people you routinely do business with and suggestion of how to handle them could be productive but I just don't understand the point shaming them because they bug you. If chargebacks are too much of a problem then tell people that all sales are final or stop doing business with a customer that habitually abuses the system and the problems solved.

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ASU2003

I have no problems with companies deciding not to do business with some scammers. Or they should be able to state that there are no returns and all sales are final for customers who abuse the system.

Xerxys

It only blacklists you if your in the habit of screwing with the biz and/or are a pain to deal with. I agree totally with it because the "right" you so cling onto is increasingly abused more than often by many customers. I never return merchandise unless it absolutely did not function as was advertised. Playing the devils advocate here I see how this could be a useful tool.

You will get consumers post some major shit about your customer service. services and goods. Truthful or not unverifiable testimonials can sink dignified businesses.

Cynthetiq

The sign reads: "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone."

You as a customer get the same reciprocal ability. "You reserve the right to refuse to be a customer at any place you decide."

Make your own signage here.
We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service To Anyone

I've taken advantage of liberal return policies before, and will again in the future especially if they have a no questions asked return policy. Will I abuse it? No, but I will take advantage of it if I have the need to do so.

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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

ratbastid

A couple summers during college I was a telemarketer for the local symphony orchestra, selling concert series subscriptions.

We were too classy an organization for a shit list. We had a "fecal roster"...

MSD

Merchant rating is a huge part of Internet shopping, and there are third party sites that not only allow you to track what customers think of busineses, but also to find out their affiliations, etc. for socially conscious customers. If you buy camera gear from anywhere but a handful of places like B&H, Amazon, and a few others, you have failed to do basic research and will be ripped of by the too-good-to-be-true deals of Brooklyn Camera. If you buy musical gear from a big name reseller other than Guitar Center or Sam Ash, chances are you got it from one of about 8 big sites, all run by the same company, which happens to be owned something like 35% by Mit Romney (Some may find this objectionable, I consider it a fun fact.)

I don't see why it should be any different for merchants. They don't have the liberty of running background checks on customers, and unless they have gotten a warning like big chain stores send to each other after being ripped off a few times, how can they know that Sir Edwin P. Merriwether III, Esq. who wants to place a large order for the new wing of his estate ran the same scam back when he was NigerianBanker409@gmail.com?