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Posted on Fri, May. 09, 2008

Store loses customer over $4 and an apology

By DAVE LIEBER

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Jeff just snapped. That's not like him. He works in social services and has compassion for people. He understands that people make mistakes, and he believes in a second chance, even a third.

But every so often, something gets his dander up.

This time, it was a $4 mistake.

"The amount is irrelevant," Jeff said. "It will barely buy you a gallon of gas."

But then he said something that The Watchdog hears time and again about companies that owe their customers small amounts of money: It's not the money; it's the principle.

"The problem is that nobody was willing to take responsibility for the problem and apologize for the error," Jeff said. (He asked that I not use his full name because he's looking for a new job and doesn't want prospective employers to think he's loco.)

In December, Jeff was charged $90 for a service. But as he stood before the cashier, he saw that the invoice was totaled incorrectly. He was being overcharged by $4.

He asked the cashier. She fetched the manager. The manager assured him the total was correct.

So he paid the bill and left the store. But the overcharge hung over him like a dark cloud.

A few days later, he went back to the store and asked that the bill be corrected.

He was rebuffed again.

At some point, desire can become obsession, and that's what happened here.

He went back a third time to ask for his $4. He got the same answer.

Most people would give up. Not Jeff, apparently a true member of The Watchdog Nation.

On the fourth visit, he recalled, "I took a printout with my own math to show them in black and white that the amount was wrong."

OK! Uncle! The manager had had enough of this guy. He handed Jeff four bucks, probably expecting the matter to go away forever.

He didn't know jack, er, Jeff.

Jeff sent a letter of complaint by certified mail to the business's supervisor and another to the business's local owner. He told them what happened.

Neither bothered to reply.

So he took it up the next notch: He wrote to the corporation whose name is on the store's front door. His reply? A voice-mail message from a woman at headquarters telling him to expect a call from the business's supervisor.

He waited. And waited. A week passed. Nobody called. He called the woman back at headquarters. Sorry, she said. Nothing more she could do.

Jeff stepped up still another rung on the company ladder. He contacted the supervisor of the woman at headquarters and reported that his complaint had been ignored.

The supervisor repeated the company line: Sorry. See ya.

Had Jeff run out of rungs? Not exactly. He could have sent letters to each member of the company's board of directors. Or he could do what he did: contact The Watchdog. (Sometimes just talking about these common business dysfunctions is therapy in The Watchdog Nation.)

"I think my experience is highly representative of everything that's wrong with the American way of doing business today," he said. "The employees didn't care about doing their job properly because they knew their supervisor wasn't going to hold them accountable. And the owner didn't care because he knew, quite correctly, that while the corporate bosses might make a small show of it, ultimately, they weren't going to hold him accountable either."

Of all the contacts Jeff made, nobody accepted responsibility.

"I guess that was too much to expect," he says.

Now he is torn. He loves the product involved. But he will never buy from the company again, he said.

The company stands to lose a customer over $4 and an apology.

A few years ago, I would have thought that Jeff was being a bit obsessive. But now, after hearing hundreds of stories like his, most involving more than $4, I don't trivialize the experience.

Get this: Jeff is not the one with the problem.

If the Jeffs of the world lose their passion to fight for things no matter how big or small, then who is left among us who will fight at all?