Darwin wants to know what you would do.
 

Consider the following email found in my inbox this morning. While I get a lot of fan mail and a lot of detailed questions about airsoft BBs, this one threw me a little.





Lets see:

- The bag says 6mm on it and the graphic is available on the site in the shopping cart
- The bag also says "Airsoft Projectiles"
- Links throughout the site refer to 6mm BBs and calculations

I'm going to modify all the product descriptions and FAQs to prevent someone from being able to claim they could not find the "information anywhere" so its there in front of them - lesson learned, that person will buy my BBs if I don't say it outright.

BB Bastard has a satisfaction money-back guarantee, so I'm obviously going to honor that but, I'm curious, what do you all think and how would you reply? I'm holding back right now because I want to see what you all would say.

I would take back the BBs and refund but I may be too nice.

however once I ordered 10 back of black BBs because I didn't see they were black, so now I'm stuck with black BBs - it's my own fault but that information would probably gain to be written in BIG letters ;)

canadian tire to far for him?

Seems like this is the first time this has happened. I'd say that since this rarely happens, I wouldn't revamp my bag and/or site information for this one isolated incident. I would refund and politely inform him of the error, since he's been pretty polite in his email. My two cents.

Offer a slight discount on purchasing an airsoft gun to go with those bbs :D

I don't get it. If he knew his gun took 4.5mm, why would he order 6mm ones that is clearly labeled on the package in the picture?

He wasn't a dick about it, so that's a plus. Id say refund him his money and tell him to be more aware of what he is purchasing next time. I'd ask him to count the BB's just to make sure they are all there as well :P

Sadly stupidity is not a crime, but it damn well should be. If it weren't for these people I'd be out of a job.

I personally never buy anything without a picture attatched to it that is decent quality so i can inspect it throughly.

its gonna cost him more to ship back the bag of bbs... XD

Eat the loss and in the future get used to the absolute dumbassery of customers (myself included probably) and don't bother being surprised by this kind of shit. I had a customer buy every single kind of printercartridge at a walmart and open every single one and try to install them in her fucking laserjet printer. Walmart refused to accept the opened boxes so she called us demanding that we provide her a refund for all the cartridges because none of them worked.


People do crazy stupid things.

Seeing as how he is being civil in the manner, as a business I would refund him, as a individual person, probably not. He has a definite interest in "BB guns" so airsoft may not that far off. So he is a potential long time customer as well. Instead of modify the package, would it cheaper to slap a more noticeable "6MM" sticker on the packages? Then using that to update your website pictures?

You could also try a disclaimer at then end of the confirmation stating the sizing of the bb's.

I have no idea what it goes in producing the packaging for your product, but I gather then less money you spend revamping, the more you will have in your pocket, guaranteeing my present and future purchase of BB's :)

EDIT:

Just briefly browsing your website, I notice you do state : "Dimensions: Round, 6mm, for Airsoft 6mm Gun use Only." I think putting that in bold/underlined would go a long way.

Are they Bastards? If the are you can always trade them for white, you just have to cover shipping. Or when you do another order, send them back and I'll include them swapped in white at no addition shipping charge. Saves you the outbound shipping.

Yeah, I just added that this morning. I'm getting Brent to modify the FAQ as well.

I just found some boxes of copperhead BBs Ive had sitting around. Those are 4.5mm. I'll send those out to him, freebies. My son likes the old airgun but he likes shooting the lead badmonton style ammo.

"I did open the zip locks to test each weight of BB I purchased."

So, this fellow bought more than one bag, and after realizing they didn't fit, still opened all/both bags to test their weight?

I'm not sure what I'd do, as I've never been in retail.....probably for good reason.....the urge to fire off a strongly worded reply would be too much to bear.

Ehh, as tempting as that is, stay pro, bro. Even the biggest dumbasses have friends who might be customers and if you can get the guy to say, "Yeah, I fucked up, but they took care of me," you're probably going to get a bit of good feedback.

;)

Pretty much doing exactly that.

Fortunately there are so few returns or problems its not hard looking after you guys - I've comp'd BBs and replaced product due to things like split bags or other mostly delivery problems. The odd time I've swapped out weights. I guess I am used to the customer base in southern Ontario who largely know what they want and why. Since BBB has gone into other markets (ie: US/Europe/Asia) I am getting some really weird communications of late. I expected some challenges but customer education was not one I anticipated. I've have guys with Droidz that Russian full auto BB sprayer ask for product as well, but its such a small market.

Mail him an Airsoft Gun. Then you will have a new customer for life.