Update: Woot Customer Demands Non-Existent Black iPod Headphones
Last week, Woot asked Consumerist readers what it should do about a customer who was irate that their black iPod came with white headphones, despite the fact that Apple does not make them. The post was notable for several reasons. One, I think it might have been the fist time we posted a complaint from a company. Two, with over 477 comments, I think we broke a new comment record on a single post. After carefully evaluating your responses, Woot has said they'll offer Millard a full refund and send a box with a pre-paid shipping label to send the iPod back in. This is acceptable to me. As I've said in the past, it's all about the money. Once you have your money back as a customer, there's nothing to complain about.
PREVIOUSLY: Woot Customer Demands Non-Existent Black iPod Headphones
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Comments:
Woot is being too nice
Somehow I don't think this will make the customer happy. The iPod was a gift. He was an idiot (everybody knows that iPods have white headphones, which is what makes you a target to pickpockets and thieves when you're walking around with that white cord dangling from your ears...). He wanted woot to pay for the rather spendy black earbuds he purchased to complete the look.
Despite all that, as a girl with an iPod, those damn earbuds are too large for my ears. I have pink skullcandy ones now thanks to a deal posted last Monday.
+1 Woot
Millard is still an ass.
What a jackass that guy is. I would have told him to re-read the part about buyer's remorse.
They say the customer is always right, but I'd prefer to not have that kind of customer.
Woot is being too nice.
What happened to the spray-painted gameboy headphones? I'm gonna call Woot and demand the money back for my wine.woot purchase- it didn't come with titanium-red cyber corks. My wine was red - I expect the corks to be!
@Sidecutter: Agreed that the complaint is ridiculous.
But hey, if Woot is willing to do what they did, that ain't bad at all. Complaint well fielded Woot! Keep up the good work!
See. Now woot is wootier than ever. Good for them.
Good call on Woot's part. I wonder if he'll send them back. He did get a good deal????
This is obviously Apple's fault for not assuming that little princesses may demand black earphones. A can of spray paint ought to fix this.
I think htis is a terrbile solution. One of the things that drives costs up for all consumers is overly liberal return policies. Quite frankly it drives costs for those of us who actually research what we buy higher. I guess I won't really knock woot for it, but I absolutely don't think they should even have given her return request a second thought. The product was as described and not DOA, that should be the end of the story.
In addition, if I recall the original story, it probably won't fix the complaint that they 'had' to buy black headphones, unless they can still return those as well. Oh well...
@Sidecutter: ^^^ agree'd, if someone can drop $100+ on an ipod she should at least be able to splurge on a nice $30 pair
But will Millard want to return the iPod now? He's already bought the black ear buds, so unless he can return those as well (and I hope he can't if they've already been in somebody's ears) he might as well just keep it.
Woot took the high road. What Millard thinks about them really is moot. He is just one person. What those 427 people who commented on the story think -- along with the countless others who read it and didn't comment -- that is much more important. Mission accomplished, I'd say.
WTF! This is totally unfair!
This guy complains about not receiving something that doesn't even exist, and he gets free return shipping.
I receive a defective product, and I have to pay more than $35 to send it back to them?
Total bullshit.
@gatewaytoheaven: No paint needed. A pot on thre stove at 170 degrees with black RIT dye and a touch of acetone will quickly turn those headphones as black as the little diva likes. Wash thoroughly and allow to fully dry before trying to use them again, and she's set. Cost? About $2.50.
Absolute lunacy, this is consumerism gone TOO far. It takes about 30 seconds go to on apple.com and see that all the iPods hae white earbuds. Any reasonable person would check things more throughly before buying something, apparently this person is not such a person.
I think this is good actually, if woot! wants a reputation of making their customers happy, then this is a good reaction.
That's it, I'm returning all of my shirts because the tag doesn't match the color of the shirt. I only have to see it a few times a day, but when I do see it, my day is completely ruined.
Woot, you shouldn't have offered a refund for the iPod. You should have told him where he could stick it.
@kamel5547:
But on the other hand, Woot likely decided it was cheaper and easier in the long run to offer a refund, because Millard is the type of person you try to do what you can to make them go away. I know it is not satisfying on a personal level, but sometimes you must remove that from the situation to find the best solution.
They are going above and beyond what 99.99% of other retailers would ever do. It's almost a double standard simply because he's ignorant.
I'd rather lose one stupid customer than a bunch of other worthy customers.
the customer should be entitled to return the product for a refund if they really are unsatisfied with it. this should be the norm for all products within reasonable limits. it's not what you wanted, you should be able to return it. that being said, this guy was a whiner and an idiot in the first place by not checking out the product fully before purchase which is definitely the customer's responsibility. woot is being nice.
The only other thing I can think of is:
A) Re-Explain to him that the only remediation is to refund the purchase.
B) Send him a pair for crappy black headphones (which i know woot has stored somewheres) And if he complains about his $30 dollar purchase to buy the matching head phones... explain to him you can not refund his $30 because it was an accessory, not a repair of some sort.
C) Tell the guy nicely to take a hike and Woot will have to take a bad review (if there is a such a thing) Woot is such a solid retailer, and I have always been satisfied, it would only ding their armor.
I think they should make a t-shirt in reference to this event and sell it on tshirt.woot.com
I think it would be funny if Woot made fun of him in their next iPod write-up.
@kamel5547: In addition, if I recall the original story, it probably won't fix the complaint that they 'had' to buy black headphones, unless they can still return those as well. Oh well...
That's the beautiful part. Everybody wins. Woot made a legitimate effort and the product has a low chance of actually being returned.
I think its beyond nice what Woot is doing I have read the policy on the website and it pretty cut and dry.
If you've never dealt with Woot, you don't know what you're missing. They have phenomenal customer service as illustrated here. I've bought many things from them, and on the rare occasion that I didn't feel I got my money's worth, they quickly offered a refund without question.
A while back, they sold some batches of comic books and a bunch of people were unhappy with what they received (duplicates of certain titles). Woot could very well have said, "No, you got what we offered -- 10 random comics." but instead, they offered refunds to anyone who complained. They didn't even have to send the comics back.
Now days, I'll literally wait two months to buy certain products just to see if they'll come up on Woot and I will buy them there.
While I applaud Woot for the customer service right answer. As a user of their site and knowing some of the people that go there.. I almost wish they had told him to pack sand.
Based on the comments so far...I'd say Woot was gonna catch hell no matter which way they went.
Offering a refund with shipping isn't enough, I'd put a little paper in there that says "we'll take the ipod back, if you wont be a customer again".
Exactly! White headphones are iPod's trademark. If you don't know this, you haven't been out from under a rock in 8 years.
"Once you have your money back as a customer, there's nothing to complain about."
I don't agree that this is true all of the time. My wife and I recently booked an trip to India with Orbitz, and one of our flights was changed such that we would have had a twelve hour layover in Helsinki (originally four hours). We found flights through another city with times acceptable to us, but Orbitz refused to help us book those. They did offer us our money back, but at that point, new tickets would have been prohibitively costly. We already had booked a tour in India, so canceling really was not an option.
In the end, we talked directly with American Airlines, and they rerouted our flights for us, with no help from Orbitz. (American was outstanding about this whole thing.) But I just wanted to point out that in this case, we could have gotten our money back as customers and still legitimately had plenty to complain about.
Man I wish every company would act like this when there is actually a complaint to be had. Woot is just way too nice but this will help them out in the long run. You can't much a price on a good public image and that is what Woot has done in this case.
This is wrong! It is the customers fault not he companies. If you do not know anything, people usually research about the item and this customer failed. Especially with an item like the ipod which many consumers have, wouldn't you pick up something in your mind that everyone with it has white headphones? He is just lazy!
I feel sorry for woot, they are paying double shipping to send a prepaid package to them. The customer did something wrong and he should pay for the shipping price, not the company.
I think the guy compared this situation with buy a car. I want to buy a black car, do i get everything black? NO, the interior would be a different color and the exterior will be black. Just because you see something that is black, doesn't mean everything will be black. This guy is just too cheap to return the product and pay the shipping label.
He wants black headphones so it can match his daughter Gothic look!
Woot should have mailed him a black sharpie and an instruction sheet.
1. Un-cap marker
2. Color in white areas on headphone until covered in black
3. Your account has been disabled.
@katylostherart: Yes, but should Woot be paying for him to return something that was EXACTLY as described?
Doesn't everybody just buy new headphones anyway?
This was a good call on Woot's part.
Not that I think the customer deserved a refund, but as Ben pointed out, their article here was A BIG DEAL.
Both because consumers on the internet love Woot, so that drew a lot of attention, and just look at the number of comments!
Woot is coming out of this, giving a refund, like the nicest company in the world. Anyone who had concerns about buying from them should be 100% comfortable with them now.
While this may act as a precident for someone to feel they can pass off a shady return on Woot, it is outweighed by the huge possitive buzz they get.
@cashmerewhore: I agree with you, $30 for headphones is too much. I have on right now a sweet pair of ear buds that only cost me $10 - JVC. couldn't he have just walked into the dollar store to pick up some cheap headphones rather than go buy expensive ones and than complain?
Someone's going to get an Ipod in their Blinged Out Cabbage next time around!
I take it you've never been to Woot? It's a closeout market in a way, but they take returns on defects. If I'm 100% sure I want an item, why should I pay extra for a seller to handle returns from someone on the fence? Also, since Woot sells an item for 24 hours, then pulls it, it's hard for them to do anything with all the returns...a Wootoff is an option, but not viable on a large scale.
From their website:
Will I receive customer support like I'm used to?
No. Well, not really. If you buy something you don't end up liking or you have what marketing people call "buyer's remorse," sell it on eBay. It's likely you'll make money doing this and save everyone a hassle. If the item doesn't work, find out what you're doing wrong. Yes, we know you think the item is bad, but it's probably your fault. Google your problem, or come back to that product discussion in our community and ask other people if they know. Try to call the manufacturer and ask if they know. If you give up and must return it to us, then follow on to the next FAQ entry.
First, I would like to commend woot for such good customer service.
Second, Woot was NEEDLESSLY and EXTRAORDINARILY nice in this situation. I would not want that customer as a repeat customer. It would just bring about more crazy situations like this.
this just proves if you're an unreasonable tool, your "opponent" will eventually fold.
i understand why they did it, i just disagree.
as long as they don't pay for the $30 headphones, then fine. customer didn't like product, they return it. done and done.
still would've been better if they sent him a sharpie marker...or better yet, a pack of sharpies so he can pick what color to make his headphones.
@RedwoodFlyer: no i haven't. and from your description of this company, to me it says basically this person shouldn't have been purchasing from woot anyway. it also says that in general this wouldn't be a great place to purchase from period unless you always know exactly what you want or you need something that fits an immediate purpose and you don't care about the outcome too much. this is why i said it's up to the customer to check out the product entirely before purchase and after if necessary. but it shouldn't mean they get stuck with something they didn't want when the seller can resell it if the customer has done their homework. this person shouldn't have shopped there. and i do think the customer was a whiner on this case, as i've said.
thanks also for explaining woot to me. it'll save me from ever buying something from them. especially when shopping online and it becomes a hell of a lot more difficult to check a product out to my own satisfaction.
Booo. Woot should tell him to get bent. The complaint is rediculous and hinges on the need to satisfy his little diva's all-important fashion sense. Woot does not own this person anything and should not be willing to take a hit for them.