Week 3: Communication: Business and Consumer Blog Post, Part 1

I remember a  particularly frustrating and long experience with communicating with a costume jewelry business on the Internet a number of years ago. At the time, I was looking to buy some unique pieces of costume jewelry, and after encountering numerous ads by the same Indian costume jewelry company, I decided to browse their website.  I had never heard of this company, but since I did not realize that I would be safer buying from well-known companies with better reputations for delivering high-quality products to their customers, I decided to give this obscure costume jewelry company a opportunity to woo me with their products. The jewelry on their website appeared to be quite attractive and made with high-quality materials, so I bought $80.00 worth of jewelry, which was shipped to my house. The jewelry took at 2 ½ months to arrive, which was ridiculous because even the owners of the company claimed to be Indian, the business headquarters were in New Jersey.  I should have realized that this situation was highly unusual, but I was eighteen years old, definitely more naïve than I am now, and I was just interest in obtaining the jewelry that I ordered under any circumstances.

When I finally got the jewelry, however, I was severely disappointed. The jewelry did not look as attractive as it did in online photos, it was made out of cheap materials, and the bracelets were too small for my wrists. To my surprise, this jewelry appeared to have made for preteen girls if it had been made for anyone, not an eighteen-year-old woman like myself with an adult physique and proportions. I attempted to contact the company through Facebook, but they simply refused to answer any of my questions when I asked them if I could send the jewelry back. I also sent them multiple emails asking them about how I could send the jewelry back and receive a refund. After five or six unanswered emails, someone at the company finally sent a response back. The response stated that they could only give a refund for two of the nine pieces of jewelry that I purchased, and that I would have pay the shipping and handling costs in order to send the jewelry back so that they could give me a refund. At that point, I was so irritated that I refused to communicate with them any further, even though they had essentially stolen $80.00 from me. From that point forward, I vowed to always research the reputation of the companies that I buy from and their return policies. Using social media (Facebook) did not make getting my problem solved more efficiently because the company ignored and refused to respond to me when I attempted to address them on a public platform on Facebook. It was only when I sent them multiple private emails when they finally responded to me in such an apathetic fashion. Most companies with good reputations probably would have interacted with me on Facebook and expressed regret over my concerns, but I think I was actually penalized for indicating that I was anything less than satisfied with their jewelry on a social media platform.

I have never had a positive experience with communicating with a business on social media because I don’t have a habit of patronizing certain businesses on public social media platforms. Being scammed by this Indian jewelry company left a particular negative impression on me, so after this incident I vowed never to publicly interact with any business on a social media platform ever again. However, I realize that not all companies are trying to deceive their customers and sell them low-quality products, and I also think that companies that sell high-quality products and deliver fast customer service deserve more attention. The closest positive experience that I can personally recall with a company that uses social media is when Amazon.com was able to solve a problem that I had with an order within the first few hours of me addressing a mistake that was made with regards to the order. After placing an order for college textbooks, I realized that I had ordered the wrong book (other than the one that I needed), and I promptly sent an email to Amazon to inform them of my mistake and request a refund. An Amazon representative sent a brief email to me no less than four hours later and told me that I could send the book back to Amazon at no cost to me (even though the book was bought from a third-party seller), and they would give me a full refund. I was so impressed with such outstanding customer service and understanding that I having buying almost all of my books from Amazon.com every since this incident.

If I had my own business on a social media site such as Facebook or Twitter, I would respond to all of my customers and potential customers as politely as possible. I would thank customers for positive comments about my business, and I might offer them discounts so that they can “share the same satisfaction with their friends.” By doing this, I could gain more loyal customers through giving them good deals so that they will buy of my products in the long run, and potentially gain their social media friends as potential customers, too. If I were to receive negative comments about my business, I would simply reply to these comments by apologizing for these customers’ dissatisfaction with my business. I would then tell them that I welcome their suggestions for improvement, which can be left at the company’s email address (which I would post in my response). I believe that fighting with customers on a social media website would reflect more poorly on my business than on them, so I rather not bait them into making my own business look bad simply because they were dissatisfied with the service that they received.