toythatkills
Member
He said he was taking his business elsewhere before they cancelled his account. Maybe ShopTo figured they were doing him a favour since he wasn't going to shop there anyway.
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So... Shopto (UK retailer) cancelled my PS4 preorder for complaining on twitter
- Thread starter Carl
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He said he was taking his business elsewhere before they cancelled his account. Maybe ShopTo figured they were doing him a favour since he wasn't going to shop there anyway.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
"oh man, this guy is saying nasty shit about us twitter, and that he's going to cancel his order because we won't price match"
"ugh, damn, that's bad pr, we should do sonething about it"
"let's cancel his order on him ourselves"
"yeah that a gre-wait what?"
"ugh, damn, that's bad pr, we should do sonething about it"
"let's cancel his order on him ourselves"
"yeah that a gre-wait what?"
How did he abuse staff? If a customer insults and threatens ME, I have the right to ban him from using my companies services, but he didnt abuse any staff. He said his own opinion to a friend of his. It was in no way acceptable for that Shopto dude to take that as a reason to cancel his account/preorder.
If someone on my team did this, they'd be fired in no time.
Broken Joystick
At least you can talk. Who are you?
What the fuck.
Christ, I have an account with them but never ordered anything, now I definitely don't intend to. What a pile of shit.
The flaw to this argument is that he was not like @shopto FUCK YOU. It was a comment to a friend, and it wasn't exactly malicious.
Imagine a real life scenario, say you are sick of the gym services of Gym A, and you walk up to the counter and say 'I think I'll move to Gym B in the future, as a fuck you to you guys', that is far, far more abusive yet the employee should be expected to reply with 'I'm sorry you feel that way, let me know what you decide in the future' and not 'Okay sir, I have canceled your membership, don't let the door hit you on the way out'.
I've dealt with plenty of angry customers in one job where they told me the product we sold them was shit and didn't work right, you calm them down, then you try to help them. It might not be relevant in every situation, and the guy running the ShopTo twitter clearly did not have the power to change the price, but there were a dozen better ways for ShopTo to deal with it from a PR perspective.
Oh come on.
Are you one of the people that think any publicity is good publicity?
The fact that so many people in here don't seem to think ShopTo made a ridiculously stupid decision is pretty crazy.
The One Who Knocks
Member
While I know you're purposely exaggerating to make the point crystal clear, I do concur with it. How many threads have similar implications been made? Perhaps the idea of doing something as a 'fuck you' to a company is childish (and somewhat of an over-reaction) but it is both an extremely common, harmless sentiment that in no way does it justify the response which was short-sighted and irrational. Seeing ShopTo's actions justified is just bizarre to me. A quick Google search of the term "Fuck Microsoft" on Google, restricting results to NeoGAF, yields 1,160 results; "Fuck Sony" 2710; and "Fuck Nintendo" 1,890. I'm quite sure if the individuals who made those had their accounts closed on the respective online networks for their comments (admittedly in those instances items would be lost so it is not directly comparable but if we're going on 'you deserved it' or 'you did something childish' then by all means it should apply) a similar disbelief would be found at the respective company's behaviour.
It's only common sense in hindsight (knowing they were going to close the account). The logical thing that the company was going to do with the account number was to provide some way to try and 'make it up' to the unhappy consumer to ensure that they continue purchasing at the site. It doesn't make any sense to think "They're looking for my account number to close my account and ensure I'll never purchasing anything from them again after a history of purchases". Also, I can absolutely see you're not defending them, I just completely disagree that not giving the account number was a logical response since that relies on the customer service being vindicative.
If the consumer had purchased from them in the past and shown himself to be a dedicated consumer then they've lost potential sales and, in addition to that, needlessly created negative PR (at the time of their tweet, it was a risk of negative PR) which could lead to even more potential losses of sales. So while it's probably true that the loss of money is not immediate, they have lost potential sales.
Shouting abuse at staff working there is different to complaining about the store to a friend on a social media site. So if a retailer is charging significantly more for the same product compared to another retailer, that doesn't constitute a good enough reason to complain?
Oh wow. They should really try to stop being shit heads. It's bad for business..
Miles Quaritch
Member
Sued? Don't be so silly.
I live in the UK, would never use random retailers online.
Colonel Nasty
Member
I cannot believe people are defending the OP acting like a jackass? Before the cancellation what did Shopto do to deserve those actions? They could have just said I'm sorry we don't price match but they even went into detail on why they couldn't. I guess we should all just go into businesses and bitch till we get our way or a cheaper price because that's good customer service?
Nonono, they were right to do that because you complained about their services. You should listen more to the PR experts in this thread.
Impeccable
Member
Customer is always right.
Please don't act petty and derisive toward a whole category of sites just as you highlight exactly where they serve a meaningful purpose.
I have super powers. I can tell who doesnt work and never worked in PR or customer service. I just found out. Does that mean I am a ... super hero now?
Yeah, and I guess every company should throw their toys out of the pram every time someone says anything even slightly disparaging about them. They're free to do that and they're also free to lose a load of business once word gets around as to just how much they value their paying customers.
:lol
Really? Really?
I've bitched about Apple. Do I expect them to ban me and block my iPhone?
FUCK NO!
That kind of opinion is what keeps shitty ass companies alive.
Hopefully this gets even bigger. ShopTo fucked up big time. Do you work for them by any chance?
Colonel Nasty
Member
Not if I explained to them why we couldn't. If he wants to take his business elsewhere then do it. But don't cry about it when the business agrees.
You're missing the point. Regardless of what the OP did, the customer service was inexplicably shit in response.
Pretty much everyone has acknowledged OP didn't act in the most courteous way, but he is one of thousands of customers who have complained about every company imaginable. Like was stated earlier in the thread, on gaf a lone 'fuck some company' has come up thousands of times, its bad PR and bad business to cancel an order for a remark made to a friend. You represent your company when you post in a social media account of that company and it makes them look bad.
These days its entirely possible for a person to get fired for twitter comments, even if off-hand and to a friend, so you would think everyone had better social media policies and companies would know how to act better in a public space like that.
He didnt @shopto. He was talking to his friend. Shopto was snooping around his personal conversations.
OMG him saying how shitty Shopto is on twitter is soooo horrible, Shopto didn't deserve that!! They were totally in the right cancelling his preorder!! Retail stores should always retaliate when a customer complains on a 3rd party site indirectly!!!
I'd also question their morals.
Are you coincidentally Major Nelsons cousin? Just asking.
It's bullying bro!
I should be banned by:
Apple/iTunes
Steam
Google/Youtube/every other Google service
Netflix
About every single company I deal with who isn't perfect.
Impeccable
Member
You know why the customer is always right?
This thread. They've lost THOUSAND of pounds of sales already and it's not even on a new website yet. They didn't have to cancel his order and had no right to. They didn't have to go stalking around looking for insults and act like a two year old when they saw that tweet.
They should have shut their mouths and not get offended. But alas, they lose and rightfully so.
This. I really have no clue how anyone can think that Shopto acted the right way here.
I remember when Halifax fucked up my mortgage payment once, what a useless shower of turds.
Uh oh, now they're totally justified in cancelling my mortgage and repossessing my house now that I've hurt their feelings in a public environment in a conversation that was never directed at them in the first place. That's fair, right?
Colonel Nasty
Member
I'm not even talking about the Fuck You. The OP said when they weren't gonna match Amazon he told them he was canceling his preorders and taking his business elsewhere. We'll if you're gonna take it elsewhere take all of it.
something fishy
Member
must admit I've found them good but not had problems.
too late to change now though anyway,
too late to change now though anyway,
Immaculate
Banned
You just the word "f***". I feel insulted by you using this word while you should know I am in this thread and therefore consider it belonging to my private territory. I have now cancelled your bank account and nation citizenship. Your country doesnt want anything to do with you anymore. Please leave. Now.
Have a great day.
I don't know about other places and all companies, but every company I've ever worked at had very strict policies about how to behave in any public place where you represent them and it is known you are an employee of that company. Someone from upper management would not be wasting time running a twitter account. It's very likely some intern or junior employee is running the twitter, but that doesn't justify anything. I imagine a company as big as ShopTo would have standards and procedures for what you can and can't say in public places, and the employee signed off on them.
Kotetsu534
Member
I think to get a better understanding of how insidious and dangerous this sort of policy could be, people have to imagine it was Amazon or Facebook adopting something akin to what policy Shopto's actions imply. For example, "Amazon will immediately end all contracts with, and close the accounts belonging to, any individual who criticises our operations in a publicly readable online comment, blogpost, Twitter message etc." It could have a significant chilling effect on discussion of the companies' actions.
I bet the twist is that the social media guy is the owner of the store
agreed they have no grip on how social media works.
no way this person doesn't get fired or dented to picking up cigarette butts all say.
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