Here is an email we received from a know-it-all customer the day after the service call. To provide some background, she called and said something came loose and fell off and wanted us to put it back together and service the elliptical and asked us to bring some misc. nuts and bolts.
The actual problem was a welded stud that broke off a pivot block which is no longer available from factory, and she needed over $300 in new parts to upgrade her machine to usable condition.. but we never got the chance to explain it to her.. We figured we’ll walk away from this one and never look back… but only after we responded back.. 🙂
“Comment: HEY GYM DOCTORS!! SO, YOU’RE RUNNING A SCAM, HUH? I CALLED LAST WEEK TO ARRANGE SOMEONE FROM YOU COMPANY TO REPAIR MY ELIPTICAL TRAINER. I TOLD THE REP ON THE PHONE EXACTLY WHAT THE PROBLEM WAS–THAT A NUT AND BOLT CAME LOOSE AND FELL OUT AND THE PEDAL NEEDED TO BE PUT BACK TOGETHER. BECAUSE YOU HAVE INFLEXIBLE HOURS, AND LIKE MOST PEOPLE, I WORK FOR A LIVING, IHAD TO PAY SOMEONE 50 BUCKS TO COME HERE WHILE ONE OF YOUR BOZOS CAME TO FIX MY EQUIPMENT. HE COULDNT’ FIX IT, STATING WHAT I HAD ALREADY TOLD YOU–IT NEEDS A NUT AND BOLT. FOR GODDSAKE! YOUR REPAIRMENT DON’T EVEN HAVE BASIC REPAIR SUPPLIES ON HAND?! HE TOOK MY CHECK FOR 179.00 AND LEFT. THAT IS JUST OUTRAGEOUS. I WAS INCONVENIENCED AND PAID A TOTAL OF 230 BUCKS AND GOT NOTHTING. I AM STOPING PAYMENT ON THE CHECK AND WILL BE NOTIFYING THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITIES ABOUT YOUR SCAM AND YOUR UNETHICAL PRACTICES. WHO KNOWS? MAYBE THE PRODUCER OF “AMERICAN GREED” ON CNBC WOULD BE INTERESTED IN INVESTIGATING YOU.”
Naturally we passed this around the office and had a good laugh.
“Hi Diane P.,
Don’t know if this personality can be helped or reasoned with, but you get a lot further with sugar than vinegar. Wonder if we’ll get a Yelp review out of her too!