Bad customer service experience with Fixe Hardware

Delta Bravo wrote: I call bullshit on that, son: Kevin, I got the aliens in the mail today. I also got a MountainGear catalog that has them on sale for $59.99 each! DOH! Will you honor this discount? If so, I'd like to use the difference ($20 each on 3 cams = $60) to get the yellow alien. So maybe you can just send that one my way as well? Hate to be a pain but that's a huge savings, so I'm hoping you'll honor it. Thanks very much, Eric AFTER the transaction you come back with "HONORING" a sale price he had nothing to do with and even lay out just how he could give you free shit. No, it takes a bit more than a 3rd grade education to understand that this is flat out ethically wrong. Not the asking if he'll help you out part, nothing wrong there as long as you're going with the idea that the worse he can say is no. But you essentially demand reimbursement by taking it to the point of asking him to honor another outfits lower price, laying out the best way he facilitate you, and then dropping the 'I'll spray' bomb. All I see from him is typical business methods. A bit heavy on the mark-up? Perhaps. Is he all sensitive and shit? No. Is he more responsible to his retail clients than a direct buy? I would assume so. If I were him I'd just shut down direct sales altogether and be strictly wholesale. I'd still love to hear what biz you're in, btw.

WOW, I am failing to see why you are taking this so personally. As someone who worked in sales and customer service for a few years, I can say that keeping individual customers happy is much more important than holding on to a measly $80. More than that it isn't hard at all to tactfully respond to this sort of request. Anyway, the real issue here is the service. The dude from fixe was a total asshole in the emails and the OP is trying to do the only thing he can, out him in a climbing forum. I fully agree with the OP. Fixe is not legally obligated to honor other sales, but they should be nice to their buying customers at the very least. I would lose my shit as well if someone responded to me this way after I just purchased their product.

When I worked in sales I always tried my best to accommodate every customer that took the time to reach out to me. It is also common for most retailers to share this same sentiment. The customer is always right. There is no business sense in pissing them off.

Delta, what kind of business do you take part in where the bottom line always comes before the customer, banking?

DB

I don't think anyone can disagree that Kevin's emails were unprofessional. I was going to spend $1000+ with FIXE but I got short unfriendly emails with no capitalization and bag grammar when I inquired. It sent up a red flag and I took my business elsewhere for hardware.

On a general note, I can not believe how many half-ass business people there are in the climbing industry. There's a bunch of morons who can't even return their emails in a prompt fashion. It's disgraceful. I especially loathe when the OR Show comes along and no-one can return any messages for two weeks while they play roller hockey in the SLC convention center. I got customers who want answers now and in this day and age with everyone's email/phone at their hip it should happen. I'm sorry if people are busy but it only takes 15 minutes to sort through emails and get back to someone with an answer. Can't handle the pressure? You get too many emails? Then get the hell out of customer service, you don't belong. Don't get me wrong there are some great ones out there but overall it's a bunch of hippy hacks who can't cut it.

Remember Steve Jobs? Yea, the ultra successful genius behind Apple? That guy was a total cock but he would personally answer customer emails to a billion dollar company in a professional and prompt manner. Lessons to live by.

I think posting this email exchange was a great way to respond to this company's policies. Dont buy from them again. I have read of more people being dissatisfied with this company's service than those that are happy and maybe this thread will help change that.

I'm still with S.P.L.T. Image on that one. It's a poor display of what customer service should be - for any reason - right or wrong. The guy is unprofessional and should be fired. He's a poor representation to Fixe and it's already costing them a loss of customers that were ready to buy their wares and spend their money - which now will go elsewhere. Maybe Kevin doesn't really give a shit? That's his problem. he has a poor attitude IMO.

As I said - all my cam biz goes to BD - I won't buy dirt from Fixe after hearing this. Too many OTHER good companies out there that DO value their customers and want to keep them and/or treat them well instead. Donating vast amounts of money to any organization or cause doesn't't make up for his serious lack of professionalism. Today you have to kiss customers asses to keep them - too much other good competition out there to be had. I used to own my own tattoo business. Don't think I/we didn't have to cater and kiss a lot of asses to keep our customers and in the end keep them from going to XYZ studio. It's just the way it is out there in today's market.

Christ - 7 pgs later - I think this thread has been beaten to shit! No?

DBarton wrote: Delta, what kind of business do you take part in where the bottom line always comes before the customer, banking? DB

Close.
I'm a plumbing/heating/ac contractor.
However, my primary mission as I am licensed by the State is to uphold the Codes to provide for the general health and safety of the public.
Because of that, I am often working for no profit or even at my expense to rescue people who are going through hard times.
So when I get the post-installation 'I think I'll only pay you half, sue me for the rest' bullshit from a client (the wealthier they are the more this happens), that would be why I get pissy with Mr. Douchy Mcpoopy-pants here, who already has backtracked on his inflammatory statements.

Delta Bravo wrote: Mr. Douchy Mcpoopy-pants

Genuis! That title made me chuckle.

It's pretty clear who in this forum has worked in custy service and who hasn't... I would suspect if Kevin could hop in the ol' time machine and rewrite those emails he would at this point.

SPLT - i think it's funny you picked up on the issue before you dropped the $1k @ FIXE.

Delta Bravo wrote: Close. I'm a plumbing/heating/ac contractor. However, my primary mission as I am licensed by the State is to uphold the Codes to provide for the general health and safety of the public. Because of that, I am often working for no profit or even at my expense to rescue people who are going through hard times. So when I get the post-installation 'I think I'll only pay you half, sue me for the rest' bullshit from a client (the wealthier they are the more this happens), that would be why I get pissy with Mr. Douchy Mcpoopy-pants here, who already has backtracked on his inflammatory statements.

I am also a pipe fitter (not a dirty plumber) and find it odd you are comparing installed piping to a cam. Find it a little harder to resell some glued pvc. The fact you are a mechanical contractor working for no profit makes me question your ability to accurately bid a project(most important part).

I was interested in replacing my entire double rack of CCH Aliens with new cams from Fixe, however with Kevin behind Fixe I will gladly go with Totem. Still no comment from Kevin on the shipping rate?

wow. It read to me like the purchaser was rude in expecting a free cam right away. Blaming your lack of shopping research on Kevin... then attack him on a public forum. Pathetic.

tim naylor wrote:wow. It read to me like the purchaser was rude in expecting a free cam right away. Blaming your lack of shopping research on Kevin... then attack him on a public forum. Pathetic.

I'll go ahead and address this because it keeps coming up. The sale happened after I ordered them. It wasn't a lack of shopping research. It was the items I just bought at full price going on sale elsewhere afterwards. Big shop, little shop, it doesn't matter. It's customary for retail outfits to match prices. All I did was ask for the discount. I didn't necessarily expect him to honor it. I just expected him to reply in a professional manner. I also didn't attack him. I called him out for what I thought was bad customer service. Honestly I think he did more damage with his own words than I did with mine.

Andre Dupas wrote: Still no comment from Kevin on the shipping rate?

Exactly.

"I am also a pipe fitter (not a dirty plumber) and find it odd you are..."

Pipe fitters are plumbers with their brains knocked out

Todd Ritter,
owner, Ritter P & H Inc
Boulder, CO

Time to give up on this thread. Opinions have been formed.

Andre Dupas wrote:Still no comment from Kevin on the shipping rate?

In defense of the shipping rate, since the rate would vary based on where the merch is going people like to simply quote a flat rate to make things easier. Obviously the $14.95 shipping is a pretty big overestimate but I can see doing it this way considering that the package itself also cost a little. However, in this day and age it's pretty easy to incorporate a shipping calculator into a website to avoid this problem.

Man, just a little tact would have gone a long way in this situation. What baffles me across the board is that giving good customer service isn't that hard considering the benefits or consequences of not having it. What's scary is that it's impossible to measure how far one bad experience can go. With the internet now things can go "viral" as the kids say, rather quickly and reach thousands of people. Of which a business will never be able to know if they could have been potential customers had it not been for that one online or offline complaint.

I had this cleaning crew once that was pretty sub-par but they were really cheap so I kept them on. One day though I came in and $150 was missing from the til AND the key was left dangling out of the un-locked lock box. I had closed at 11pm the night before and was in at 8am, the cleaners had signed in at 6am. I checked all the deposits to make sure there were no mistakes but it seemed pretty clear these guys were the culprits although I had no direct evidence. I called the manager up and in a relaxed tone told him the story in a message and that I didn't feel comfortable with the current guy cleaning especially since he left the front door key out in the open. He called me back all hot and bothered telling me that his guys would never do that and I'm wrong blah, blah, blah. I told him "wrong answer" and fired them immediately. But all the guy had to do was tell me was he was really sorry, that won't happen again and take the current guy off the job. He didn't even have to fire him as all I wanted was a different person cleaning! But no, this manager lost the job because he didn't have any tact.

S.P.L.T. Image wrote: In defense of the shipping rate, since the rate would vary based on where the merch is going people like to simply quote a flat rate to make things easier. Obviously the $14.95 shipping is a pretty big overestimate but I can see doing it this way considering that the package itself also cost a little.

For $15 you can ship a pretty big package. Honestly I try to buy from places that offer free shipping, especially if I was going to place a expensive order.

One lesson here is do your diligence and shop around. Paying full retail and inflated shipping costs when you are dropping a chunk of change is really not necessary. You wouldn't buy a car without shopping around first.

S.P.L.T. Image wrote: Remember Steve Jobs? Yea, the ultra successful genius behind Apple? That guy was a total cock but he would personally answer customer emails to a billion dollar company in a professional and prompt manner. Lessons to live by.

Are you kidding me? Jobs was just as much a jerk in his emails as in person, even to totally random people, like me. That's how people knew he was answering and not some flunky. He was successful because he was a remarkably talented marketer, and had a nearly superhuman ability to identify what people wanted before they knew themselves. He was still a jerk.

Sent from an Apple iPad.

Kenan wrote: ...Big shop, little shop, it doesn't matter. It's customary for retail outfits to match prices. All I did was ask for the discount.... .

There's your problem. Fixe is not a retailer.

Jake Jones wrote: Only if the retailer is not the original manufacturer/retailer, or more simply put, the source of the product. The OM rarely if ever does, and why this is the case is explained in this email from the customer service rep for climbing gear at BD Equipment. I was curious, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't talking out of my ass, so I asked him. "while we do offer some discontinued products and 2nds on our web specials page and a few “end of season” sales, we really try to protect our dealers, whether on-line or “brick and mortar” and not compete with them on price or try to match their sale prices. Lots of reasons to be honest, you are correct, keeping the integrity of our msrp pricing (it can be a downward spiraling trend like you mentioned) would be one, but mainly because our retailers are the back-bone of the outdoor industry, and provide in-depth service that shouldn’t be over-looked, and we try to protect them as much as we can. We want, not only our business, but the outdoor industry as a whole to stay sustainable and this is a large contributing factor." I would guess that WC, Metolius, C.A.M.P., Petzl, La Sportiva, etc. would tell you the same thing. They do not price match with companies that they are suppliers for. This notion that it's customary for price matching to occur is simply false.

It IS true that retailers will usually price match but I think Keenan was simply unclear that FIXEUSA was a distributor and not a retailer. His bad, but that's not the dispute here, the customer service is (beating dead horse harder). Perhaps it would have been smarter not to run any direct sales anyway as situations such as these will eventually arise. Best to leave the retailing to the retailers eh?

And then someone puts out a review like this....DOH! Totem vs. Fixe Aliens....

Kenan wrote: Big shop, little shop, it doesn't matter. It's customary for retail outfits to match prices.

Not retroactively. Some places will offer a price match on CURRENT and IN STOCK items being sold by another dealer but I'm not aware of many places that will price match and sale from another place AFTER THE FACT. You do see this with things like TVs and large appliances but that's the exception, not the rule in my experience.

Others have noted that it's extremely RARE for a distributor to undercut their dealers. Just not gonna happen in the current retail world.

RE: shipping. It does bother me how the Fixe web site shipping works. 1) It seems HIGH in general. 2) Often (I've ordered from them several times) the actual shipping price on the label is NOT what I was charged and I never got a credit for it.
Seems like they need a real-time calculator and need to take advantage of the USPS flat rates. I've ordered 100 bolts on ebay (HEAVY!) and USPS was only 11.95

Well with the review that's up and running and the following it sounds like Totem is pretty on the money. I might even have to get some of the small ones after I sell some blood and semen.

Totem:

• National UPS ground shipping to USA !
• Free shipping on all orders!
• Save 10% if you order any 5 or more cams!