To tell this shop owner I think her behaviour is unprofessional

[Dressily]

I am buying a few expensive items from a shop (expense relevant because I expect a certain level of service when buying expensive items). I went into the shop a few weeks ago and selected the items I want. These items aren't just for me so last week the other person involved went to see the items themselves. Once they confirmed that, yes, they agree with my selection all was good and I wanted to go ahead and make the order. There was some rush to this as the items have (for a limited time) been placed on sale. This was further complicated by the fact that I don't live in the UK so needed to pay for the items from overseas using a foreign bank account.

I found the woman I dealt with in the shop (the owner) extremely unprofessional for the following reasons:

• All email communications from her are extremely sloppy. She does not proof read so there are many spelling errors/typos. Whatever email program she uses is plain text so the emails look scruffy anyway, no footer image or contact details.

• She has hounded me to pay for these items, despite knowing that I was waiting for the other person to confirm. I get explain to me that the discount is for a limited time so please confirm ASAP but to keep emailing so often is a bit much

• I told her I would make a card payment over the phone expecting that she would ring the transaction through and then do a "cardholder not present" payment on the till. Nope, I called to give my details and her response was oo let me just get my pen. No! I don't want you writing down my card details! The connection was so bad that the call was terminated before I gave all the details.

• I asked for a load of details to do an international transfer (you need more info than for a regular transfer) but she only gave me the usual account no. and sort code. When I pointed this out and asked her to refer to my previous email she sent me some details saying "this is what you need for an international transfer" but obviously hadn't read my request because she didn't give me all the details I needed. This was followed up a couple of hours later with a "how's the payment coming" email.

• I really need/want these items, especially at the sale price, so I don't have much option but to buy from her

AIBU to email her letting her know that I find her behaviour very unprofessional and detailing why that's the case?

You sound like too much trouble for any shop. You've already caused this person a headache before you've handed any money over. If I were the shop owner I'd tell you to jog on and give somebody else a headache.

I’m sorry but I am and at all the comments of how people in retail are in their feet all the time bla-bla-bla. And therefore it’s not in to ask ANYTHING bar the minimum form them.

The op isnt talking about Tesco there but a high end shop dealing with overseas customers from a DESK.
It might be annoying but yes people will judge a company from the emails they send and if it’s full of spelling mistakes, it doesn’t come out well.
If the person is pressuring the potential clients, it sounds desperate and pushy. Again rarely will anyone be happy with that (See comments about people in shops not leaving you alone browsing - it’s not nice)
If the person isn’t able to give the right bank details for a bank transfer, it is unprofessional. Clearly they aren’t used to deal with overseas customers....
As for WRITING the card number down?? Who the heck could see that as normal??

And with all that, it’s the op that is entitled
I would say that whoever is dealing with her doesn’t do her job well and has no idea what a good customer Service is.

Finally, the customer is NOT responsible of the working conditions on retail. Said conditions might be crap (even though again, I’m getting the feeling we are not talking about your box standard chain in the high street there somthe situation will be very different) but when customers aren’t treated well, they go somewhere else. And with the internet, that means they take their money to another country.

If you are disappointed with the service, take your custom elsewhere.

Oh wait, you cant, because she's the only supplier and you can only afford it at her sale price.

So you need to suck it up and pay. Use Paypal like a normal person for fucks sake.

I am also laughing at the idea that the OP is just too much for any shop and that no one would want her as a customer.

Really, as a business owner, you would reject someone who is ready to spend apbig money with you? And you will be choosy as to who will be your customer? Do you really think that’s how it’s works?
I suspect none of you have been business owners then. Because the idea is usually the opposite.
You want to people to come in. You want them to spend money. Amd to do that, you want to give them the best experience they can get. That starts with making it as easy as possible for them to buy what you are selling as well as making the experience nice and enjoyable.

Who says that said company is using PayPal and is happy to pay the 2~3% (??) they are charging too?
PayPal might be practical but it’s bloody expensive compare to a bank transfer!

I used to work in the industry very similar to what op is buying from.

I can tell you now that if youve come across the same way to this woman as you have on here you've lost yourself your items.

There is nothing worse in retail that a potential customer (you're not a customer yet) expecting the world with a plate of biscuits, speaking down to you via nastily worded emails and then not paying.

The seller has most likely reduced the items you wanted and sold them to someone nice.

What you need to realise Mrs customer, is that retail staff are so used to customers being arseholes that we switch off when we get someone like you. We give our minimum effort because that's what you deserve. And then we go home and slag you off to our partners or make up a nickname for you with our colleagues that incites a store/office wide eye roll whenever we repeat your story to scare the newbies...

Can you not send her an example of the IBAN number you need? I work with a lot of customers who pay me from abroad and many don't realise what one is or what it looks like and get confused, if someone isn't sure i just send them an example.
Some people don't have the money to lay out for a fancy email system etc or aren't as tech savvy when it comes to these things. The fact that she's held them for you which she doesn't have to do as they are sale items says shes being as helpful as she can

When I've had a retail job we would never have held sale items back for someone to faff around deciding. The point of a sale is to get rid of old stock, so I think the owner has actually been very nice to you. By the time your friend deigned to look at the items, the owner was probably assuming she would buy them then and the two of you sort it out. Oh no, more keeping things back and a whole load of PITA extra work for her to save you and your friend a tiny bit of organising.

You are the one using a crap phone line that cuts out, expecting to pay on your terms entirely (time taken to pay and method of payment) and messing her around. The emails thing is only important if you think she conducts business in this way often and could be called feedback. If she is only emailing as part of your special treatment, you need to leave it alone.

I, like many business owners, have learned the hard way that some customers are just too much hard work. I turn people like the OP away now.

And that's the joy of being a business owner @HermioneAndMsJones. I have the freedom to pick and choose my customers. You should try it - hugely liberating :)

Op, buy the items, don’t buy the items but give the shop owner a chance. I would imagine that they are doing their best.
If you get the items it shouldn’t matter about a few spelling mistakes etc.

I'm not sure what a "high end shop" is, all we do know is the OP wanted to buy something that to her is expensive. I can pretty well go into any one of the many towns nearby and walk into a small owner-run shop that sells (too me) very expensive items, such as an antique shop - I wouldn't expect them to have fancy emails or the ability to deal with international transactions.

As for taking payment from overseas, I've worked in a shop that sold items from a few £s to £1000s. This was part of a chain and remember taking a phone order from someone who was in the middle east and wanted to buy an item for £2750, ready to be picked up when they next returned. It was a right PITA, luckily we had a head office's finance department who were able to deal with it, I can well understand how a sole-trader could struggle with it.

And you will be choosy as to who will be your customer? Do you really think that’s how it’s works?

Sometimes, absolutely. My aunt's a florist, she's booked up for Saturday weddings until September 2019. She'll quite happily get rid of picky/rude customers at their first contact because she'll easily replace them.

And any email you get will be "ring me dear. I'm too old for typing."

You only do chose your customers when you can afford to chose them though....

Many many businesses do not have that choice because they don’t have enough customers to do so. And attitude like the ones described by the OP is the reason why they do not have the choice.
Eg there is no way I will give my money to someone who wants to write down my CC number!

And being difficult as to who you are working with can be a difficult balancing act. Refuse to work with someone and do it not quite the right way amd you will loose many many potential customers.
Refuse too many people and you end with not enough etc...

My business means that I tend to deal with difficult customers. The answer wasn’t to brush them away. The answer was to find a way to avoid any potential issues with them (aka be spot in with the way I am dealing with them, solve any admi Issue etc etc).
In the OP case, it means that if you are happy to take on overseas customers, then you need to know how take payments for example. That’s really the minimum. But that’s not the customer who is hard work because they happen to live overseas and you dont know your shit.

She hounded you to pay?

How dare she want to be paid for her products!!

YABU and pushy.

Yep some businesses can afford to choose.

One that is pushing for a sale like the OP is describing doesn't strike me to be one of those.....
Either you know you have so many customers that you can afford to chose because you cant meet the demand anyway.
Or you are desperate for a sale, And it shows (like when you are desperately pushing and asking if you will put the order in etc....). And then really you can’t be difficult and what you need to do is ensure you have the perfect customer service....

Nope she hounded the OP to BUY. Which is very different.

If the OP had agreed to the sale, agreed on a date to payment etc... then it would have been reasonable.
It’s not reasonable to be in the back of People so they buy form you (and it makes you look desperate tbh)

expense relevant because I expect a certain level of service when buying expensive items

OP, you clearly never shop in luxury stores like Hermes or Cartier if you believe there is any correlation.

However, I believe that one should expect good customer service regardless of the value of the items purchased.

Ahem

Can we please stop with all of the troll hunting? From what we can see, this poster is not a PBP. However, if you have any concerns, give us a shout and we'll be happy to look into things.

I wasn't troll hunting when I said I thought I knew which regular poster OP was whereas all the people who said she was the Maui poster were, since we know the Maui poster is a PBP

What's a PFB

A PFB is a precious first born.
A PBP is a previously banned poster.

All this OP has said is that she lives abroad and wanted to buy an "expensive item" from the UK. Well, the item could be anything really Why do people think it's a "troll?" We all but buy things that we may consider expensive from time to time. And where is this Maui thread anyway?

Does she normally deal with face to face Sales instead of email and telephone Sales?
Because she may not be familiar with telephone sales to electronic transfers, especially abroad.
It is possibly for a small, local shop to sell high priced items which they are knowledgable about and not have the same attitude as say a sales assist bar harrods.
My only example I can think of is chesterfield sofas near mine. I can buy from what is essentially a warehouse where they are custome made, or I can buy a stock one from a sofa shop. Both items are expensive but the sales techniques would be completely different.

Really, as a business owner, you would reject someone who is ready to spend apbig money with you?

Yes. I run an online ship selling luxury goods and if a customer was pissing me about (and I'm. Getting from the tone of the OP that she's not exactly being nice about it with her contact with the owner), I'd write off the sale.
In fact I have done. My moral needs are stronger than my business needs and I can afford to not sell to people who cause me trouble. From a business perspective, I'd be wasting hours of my time I could be using serving or marketing to other customers who would take up less time, and be less likely to cause me problems. THAT is good business sense.

“THAT is good business sense”

Well, not really because one customer of your luxury goods could have 2 million twitter followers and share how you couldn’t be arsed with him/her and there your your reputation and future business.