Idiot wants to Boycott my Bakery Because of NPR

Today I received an e-mail from "Trey Hensley" at trey_hensley@hotmail.com who threatens he will boycott my bakery because of a contribution I made to our local public radio station a year ago. Get a load of this gem:

from Trey Hensley <trey_hensley@hotmail.com>
date Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 2:37 PM
subject Protest & Boycott of Your business

Dear Sir or Madam,

We are planning a protest and a boycott of your business. The reason for this is because you are a sponsor of KUT 90.5 the local "National Public Radio" (NPR) station. It is our belief that Juan Williams was fired without cause over comments that are protected under the First Amendment and was singled out because he is African American by NPR management. He was the only African American journalist employed by NPR. We will keep our protest in front of your business legal and abide by all laws but we will choose the days and times that will affect you and your business the most. We have started a website and added you to the list of businesses that we are encouraging all people of the Austin area to boycott until you consider removing your sponsorship and stop supporting a station who's management is racist.

Feel free to reply to this email or if you want to call Hawk Mendehall (Asst GM for KUT) at 512-471-1631 the local NPR station and let him know you are being boycotted because of your support for them. If you want to postpone or cancel our demonstration in front of your business please let us know you will no longer be supporting KUT 90.5. This is in no way intended to be a threat we are just giving your company the benefit of the doubt that you may no longer want to support an organization that is prejudiced against African Americans unless you want to see Americans exercising their rights to free speech on your door step.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration

Respectfully
Trey Hensley

My reply:

Mr Hensley:

First, boycotting small independent businesses because of a decision made by a radio corporation in Washington DC is incompetent and idiotic.

Second, suggesting Mr Williams was fired because of his race and somehow linking that to my bakery, a minority owned business, and where or where we do not seek to gain marketing exposure is asinine, ignorant, and misdirected.

Third, our decision to support (or not to support) a local, commercial-free radio station because of its local content and non-commercial drive to grow and support its community is ours and ours alone. You do not make that decision for us.

Good luck in your attempt to draw light upon your ignorance. We only wish you directed your anger toward the officials in Washington DC rather than send form letters to businesses you clearly do not frequent.

Timothy Lux

Feeling Ignored: How Not to Provide Customer Service

Like many people, I work a lot of hours. Most of those hours are spent not in front of a computer or phone. Most of my online purchasing, researching, etc is done at home, at night, when most businesses are closed.

It amazes me how businesses and their customer service departments just drop the ball for no apparent reason.

How not to get my business - Part 1

I received a cold call email from Sheryl Langley, an Austin sales rep at a group buying/coupon site LivingSocial.com. There are a LOT of these sites out there -- we hear from new ones several times a month. Wed, Oct 6, she sent me a generic email asking if we wanted to participate in the great offer that is a featured deal on LivingSocial.com. I responded that night asking the simple question of how the money would be split between us and them. She responded from her Blackberry that night, three times, with three short messages:

message 1: 60% to you, 40% to us, Groupon is 50/50.

message 2: And... you get your full check for the 60% within about 20 business days from close of your deal which is much better than Groupon.

message 3: Would you be available for me to stop by tomorrow or Friday to discuss?

Um, this isnt high school. I dont need to be spoon fed text message-like e-mails. But none-the-less, I set up an appointment on Friday Oct 8 at 1pm at my business. She confirmed a few minutes later.

Not only did Sheryl Langley never show up for the appointment, but she never emailed, called, or showed up later to apologize for missing the appointment. I havent heard from her since then. I guess my business is not important for her or LivingSocial.com.

How not to get my business - Part 2

Restockit.com bills itself as the place to shop for business supplies. Ive used them in the past because of their 110% price match guarantee. I went to their site October 10, added items to my cart, got the total, and then compared that price with another site and with a local business supply company. I found the items almost $100 cheaper at another site, so I used the contact form on their site to ask them to match the price. Several days went by and I realized they never contacted me back. So I went online again, chatted with one of their sales reps, who told me she would get back to me by the end of the afternoon. That was October 13. A day went by, with no response. So I sent one final email to their customer service email address, asking for an immediate callback first thing in the morning. No call. No email. Sorry, restockit.com -- no business from me.

Update 10/18/2010: Transcript of a webchat with Restockit.com:
[Jacob] Thank you for contacting ReStockIt.com. Please give me one moment to look into that for you.
[Jacob] I am looking at your email right now, Tim. I do apologize for this delay.
[Jacob] Please give me one moment to verify the costs at our competition...
[Jacob] In this scenario, you should place your roder with competitor; they have a great price on these that we can't match I am sorry to say

How not to get my business - Part 3

October 10. I emailed the business email address for a particular drink supply company asking if an item we purchase from time to time was off the website because it was discontinued, out of stock temporarily, or what. No response. I emailed again three days later, asking the question again and why I didnt get a response. No response.

They take phone calls between 9am and 5pm, which doesnt work for me. So I incorrectly assumed their website would allow me to reach someone 24 hours a day (getting a response from them the next business day is acceptable). No response? No business.

It just boggles my mind. Never ignore your customers.