Customer experience and skills against cold facts

A customer sent us a pair of Samsung LJ92-01490A Y-Main and LJ92-01524A dual buffer board for diagnostic and service.

After checking both boards on the bench we found nothing wrong so we put them in the testing unit and they worked just fine.

We returned the money paid by the customer on eBay for the Y-Main repair service ($69.95 at the time; repair orders placed via eBay are paid in advance as opposed to after successful repair or diagnostic service as we do for boards submitted through our site, i.e. our direct customers; this case is a good illustration of why we do not take money upfront).

Subsequently we invoiced customer $37 total made of $20 diagnostic fee and $17 for return S&H; the usual amount for return S&H is $12 to $15, but in this case is more due to the long dual buffer board.

Customer took a few weeks to get back and eventually stared disputing first the amount on the basis of eBay advertising "free shipping" and later for the fact that the boards may not have been working.

I won't quote the full correspondence, only their latest message as it summarizes past exchanges very well. Here it is without any editions:

"the tv shop in Indiana pa------we sent you a y -sustain board and buffer board------the y sustain board has for a fact -----shorted output transistor----I wanted you to repair this board------your trying to tell me its not messed up-----your wrong===better look again----I paid 15 dollars to get it to you------now your telling me its going to cost 37 to get it back ---not fixed-------im upset about this----------ive been fixing tvs since 1973-----I know a blow up when I see it--------------we were looking for a good rebuilder for these-------we repair roughly 40 units a week."

In addition to the bad grammar and punctuation it features some bold claims (of us being wrong) as well as some really impressive arguments on their ability to analyze and troubleshoot boards.

Our answer to the letter is just this:

I am not writing this article to get back at the customer.

I am posting it here and will be sending others to this post as a reminder to be careful with the statements you make and to not use your past experience or even current experience or volume as an argument for convincing others they are wrong.

Try sticking to measurable, provable facts.

Thank you!