Firing Customers – Part Two
As we've said before, we love our customers and will do whatever we can to see that their needs are met. In the Harvest Haven Facebook post about the last customer firing, we received great support from those who shop with us, while we had a couple of know-it-alls who have never been in the store, telling us how to run our business.
One percent of entitled customers cause 99% of the grief for a business. We're not about to let that happen to us.
Martin had another encounter with a customer we had no choice but to fire. Here's Martin's account:
So, I had to fire another customer this week. This week the honour goes to Amelia Peesker.
And before anyone goes thinking that we're just impatient intolerant people, I'd like to point out that we've been suffering from her selfishness and rudeness for many years. We do try to hold our tongue and be patient. We know that we all have bad days and that we must bear one another's burdens.
But, let me pursue my pernicious habits as always and overshare my experiences.
In 2019, Amelia ordered a flat of strawberries and when we had them ready, we called her to come pick them up. When she came to the till to pay for them and we told her the price (which was only about $6/lb at that time), she loudly and rudely remarked that she'd have to take out a new mortgage at prices like that. And she did that in front of two new customers that were waiting in line. She was glad they heard it.
I winced and told her that she could get her berries somewhere else. She said she didn't want other strawberries. So, she knows ours are better, but needs us to feel as bad as possible for making a living.
We put up with her. Honestly, we grimaced every time we had to deal with her. She was so rough and rude and always bitching about our prices. She's not poor. Just for the record.
We put up with her for years. And I didn't just give her the cold shoulder. I tried to befriend her and hoped she'd soften up.
She came into our store one time just loudly bitching about Donald Trump being President. Again, making a scene in front of our customers. I asked her if she could name a single political policy that Trump enforced that she disliked. She couldn't come up with a single thing. She just insisted that Trump was an asshole and that she didn't like him. The usual ignorance.
I asked how she'd feel if people spoke the same way about her. She said she wouldn't care. So, I guess we'll see if that's true. She receives this newsletter.
We still tolerated her after that.
Fast forward to 2024.
It was a cold spring and our strawberry patch was late and the harvest a little thinner than most years, but we still had more berries than our competition. We had all kinds of people contacting us for berries this year because everybody else was sold out.
It was entertaining for us to see all kinds of old "customers" who hadn't bought berries from us for years scrambling for ours and ending up on our long waiting list. Everybody insists on receiving the best customer service, but seldom do people recognize their obligation to provide faithful patronage. Many folks are about as faithful as opportunistic stray cats that go wherever the advantage is. They forget that nobody will care about them when there's a shortage.
Amelia wanted strawberries but we had a decision to make.
Do we try our best to get her some strawberries so she can bitch about the price again? Or do we call one of our favorite customers who wanted multiple flats this year so she can come in joyfully and buy all kinds of other groceries while she's here?
It wasn't a hard decision, personally or financially.
The season was almost over and Amelia left a message on our answering machine, "I didn't get any berries this year and I'm wondering what's going on over there!"
I told her very nicely that we barely had enough berries to satisfy our faithful customers, so she wouldn't be getting any this year.
She cut me off and said, "Sounds like you're being pretty selective over there," and then hung up the phone.
So, I called her back. She got her husband to pick up. I told Merv that his wife just hung up on me and that we're not okay with being treated that way. I told him that I didn't think he was okay with the way she treated me, either.
She snatched the phone from him and began shouting at me. She denied hanging up on me and told me it was just a phone connection problem. She was lying and I told her so. She was so childish.
Then she started screeching at me, "You're not Trump! You're not Trump! You're not the end all, be all! You think you're so much better! You're not the end all, be all! You're not Trump!"
It was ghoulish. I told her that she was being really unpleasant. She said, "So what!", and then hung up the phone again.
So, I called her again. After all, she was having phone connection issues, right? She didn't pick up, so I left her a message letting her know that we were done doing business with her.
I'm not making this stuff up.
Tell me, why should we do business with people who hate us? Why should we allow people to bite our hands while we try to feed them?
There will be more of these postings. If people are so confident that they're justified in acting this way, then they won't mind us sharing their tantrums with the whole world.
The irony.
Amelia says, "You're not Trump!"
We say, "You're fired!"
