AM I BEING OVER SENSITIVE OR IS THIS JUST AN EXAMPLE OF TERRIBLE CUSTOMER RELATIONS?

Well I needed a boot up the jacksie to actually post something on this blog....we have been camera less and without a pc for a while,, and although I have been busy painting (and gaming surprisingly) I have had little inclination to post much...apologies to followers one and all.

Anyhow, Steve Weston toy soldiers provided the catalyst to get me to write this post, but unfortunately in a negative way. here follows a copy of the email conversation we have just had

following on from a enquiry about a Replicants set.

MY EMAIL
Thanks Steve, could you send me an execution set please? I can send you a cheque if you let me know postage costs or pay by paypal if you prefer. I'm also looking for a UK source of Supreme knights and Vikings (primarily for my son)...any ideas?

THE REPLY (my thoughts in bold)
Hi Mike, the minimum P+P is £4.20  for the first kilo ("but I only want a few figures"), total for this order would be £13.20 with P+P but you could add a lot more figures to this which would not change the P+P price.

you want to give your son figures made by Supreme?("yes") do you also feed him MacDonalds? ("No") Shame on you both counts! ("I feel so much better having been falsely labelled as a neglectful parent")

Paypal? Surely you are not still encouraging them and their ridiculous fees? ("I have never paid them a penny and wish to save my own time and money as well as using less paper for ecological reasons")

Payment by cheque , Postal order (remember them ?) ("Yes, I am not suffering from Alzheimer's Disease or Vascular dementia") or card.

Thanks Steve (" you're welcome, any time you want to randomly insult someone, I'm your man.")

perhaps I am being a bit touchy, but working in retail myself, I had always understood it was good policy to make the customer feel valued so they come back again. It's fine to think some of them are complete morons, but ideally you keep those thoughts to yourself so they come back and spend more money. I think Mr Weston believes he has his customers over a barrel being the only stockist of Replicants figures...in a way he is correct, but this doesn't give him licence to insult them with impunity. He infers that because I am enquiring after these (I think rather nice) figures (lifted from the excellent Penny Whistle blogspot)

I feed my kids junk food (ie. don't care for their well being)

I could answer that

1.. I hold the opinion that a lot of the figures he stocks are pretty flaky
2. By using post and cheques I am wasting paper, time and my own money
3. His own postage fees seem pretty ridiculous (they are only a few pieces of plastic for Gawd's sake)
4. Even if we did feast upon big Macs daily it's none of his damn business.
etc etc. (any more comments I might make would be most welcome).

Unless I can get hold of the priest figure from the Replicants execution of Charles 1st set elsewhere  I suspect I will go ahead and place the order with gritted teeth but honestly...some people.

I had a similar experience a while back from Minden Miniatures.... a polite enquiry on postage costs (not specified on the webpage) brought forth a torrent of abuse (containing swear words) along the lines of " how the f.... do I know postage costs unless you place an order  and tell me what you want". Needless to say that time I didn't proceed with the order. (scroll right down to comment if you would like to.... I can't seem to get rid of the gap between the end of this post and the comment box!)