I wrote this in reponse to a blog post I read by  Kelly MCCausey.

http://kellymccausey.com/why-i-wont-recommend-verizon-to-anyone-ever/comment-page-1/#comment-41

You just never know who that customer is or might end up being, you could lose a lot of future business by not honing up to a mistake.

Wow, yeah I’ve been there so many times! It drives me nuts because I pride myself in excellent customer service in my own business, and I just can’t fathom how many large companies do not. One time when I first started selling my art online, It was a local Postal Annex store and they had packaged someone’s family photos that were framed into my package and they added a lot of weight to a painting I was sending to a customer of mine. Not only did it cost me in shipping, but it made me look unproffessional to a regular client of mine who thought I had made the mistake, and then these were also meant as Christmas presents I am sure for the person with the photos who had trusted them to be shipped and had paid too. My customer was nice about it and even mailed the photos back to me. I promptly brought them in and showed them their mistake. They said it wasn’t their problem since I had only had it packaged there and not shipped (I went to the post office when I found out how much the Postal Annex going to charge me! Which now I know was because of all the extra weight and the PO charged me a fraction of that price), they would not refund my money or appologize or anything. I asked to see a manager and the guy said “I am the owner”. I was floored. He took the photos from me and said he recognized them and knew the lady since she was a regular customer and assured me he’d get them back to her. When we were outside my husband said he figured the guy probably threw them in the garbage if he was that unwilling to be responsible for a mistake at his store. So sad since I was trying to do the right thing and get them returned and so was my customer. Now I do all my own packaging and shipping through the post office, they never got my business again.

And as most of you know I have shipped tons of my original painting and drawings and thousands of giclee prints all over the US and around the world.