The Days After: Six Customers Got No Juice At All
August 27, 2008 by admin
So we were indulging ourselves in the compliments you gave us about 3G Juice. But then came Joel J. And Steve T. And Amaury D. And Lawrence G. And Christian D. And Dough C. And even Alexander H. They received non functioning prototypes by accident. We promised the unfortunate buyers a new battery. After three positive feedback ratings for 3G Juice (the firm) and a very positive review for the product itself on Amazon, we got our first negative rating. That will teach us raving about our own product.
We asked Steve and Joel and Amaury and Lawrence and Christian and Dough to sent the battery back so we can examine what went wrong. This enables us to fire some people, burn their houses and hunt their families.
Seriously: six customers did not get the battery we had in mind for them. It’s a fact that the majority of our customers (99%) got the right product, but hey, when you are Steve, Christian, Joel, Dough, Amaury or Lawrence, do you care about that?
UPDATE:
How could this happen? It seems that some units that were shipped on Monday July 28 were prototypes. They won’t blow in your face or something like that, but it was not the battery we wanted you them to have.
Amaury finds our error not the end of the world. He writes:
“One of the prices you pay for early adoption! I’m still impressed by your quick response and great service.”
That’s so nice of you Amaury. We’re still ashamed that you got a piece of !!##! , sorry, a non working unit, from us.
And Steve, the customer who gave us our first negative review, says:
Henk, My apologizes. I was frustrated at how quickly the devise broke, and my rating was a reaction. If you had not responded so quickly and completely, that rating may have been deserved, but it is clearly not. Please hold back if not too late in the second part of the refund, and we will see how the replacement works out, but for now, I will try to figure out how to fix the rating.
Steve did fix the rating: the negative review is gone.
Lawrence wrote:
I am beginning to think that you SHOULD be a millionaire. I think you have a winner.
And Joel says:
Thank you… I will tell a friend about this great customer service.
Thank you Joel, Lawrence, Steve], Christian, Dough and Amaury for your very friendly response. I hope you enjoy your new battery.
Dough refuses to take our refund and p&p payment.
Just part of the joy and pain of being an early adopter. Don’t bother sending me any money.
So all our customers are happy, even after we sent six of them a wrong battery? No. We live in a real world, not in a marketing world. We still have one unhappy customer, Roger L.M from Switzerland. He finds our service ‘extremely bad’. He was very disappointed in the long wait for his battery. So we gave him his money back and 10% extra and a free battery. He is still angry:
Do NOT send me any of your products anymore. They will not be accepted and be returned to you at your cost.
I just ordered a battery BECAUSE of the way you talk about your own errors. WTG! I would love to see Microsoft talk like that about Vista.
To be honest, it’s refreshing to see accountability in a start-up company. So many companies these days just can’t seem to bring themselves to say “Hey, we messed up. Our bad, but we’ll make it right!”. I got a personal response from Henk within hours of my emailing him. Compare and contrast that to the behavior of companies like Apple and Microsoft. Most notably, you don’t see Apple publicly admitting their snafus, and those are biggies. Look at the problem with the MacBook Air’s dreaded Core Shutdown. I’m an Air user, and I went through two laptop replacements and STILL Apple would not acknowledge the problem. They quietly released a patch a couple of weeks ago that they very diplomatically said “addressed processor core idling issues”. And let’s not even get started with Micro$oft and Vista…
I have to say that even though the unit did not work, or rather worked briefly then died, I was also impressed by the look, feel, and packaging of the product. This is obviously a well planned and executed venture, but as it often happens in real life, there are startup and growing pains that you have to be willing to share and assume if you are an early adopter. I’m just glad that Henk and 3GJuice are willing to go the extra mile in easing my pain. This bodes well for the company, and I am confident that when I get my new battery it will exceed my expectations. Way to go, people!
Amaury
wow!!!
I just wanted to say: BRAVO!
I'll be ordering one of your unit soon since it might keep me away from selling back my iPhone (as soon as i get it back from servicing)!…and i'll post info about this rpoduct on my blog since it will interest most professional iPhone3G users.
You just took away the major issue out of this beautiful hardware (and i am a Microsofteer!!!).
By the way if Doughr refuses the battery, i'm willing to accept it
..okay, i'm out!
But still, you just impress me for the way you handled your customers, and publically aknowledge your mistakes,…Way to go, and long life to your business.
Best regards,
PierrE.
Thanks Pierre. Doughr never returned the battery, so he must have
found a purpose for it
This is refreshing. I just ordered a battery off Amazon and sent your link and the order link at Amazon to a friend. I LOVE my 3G iphone, but I do go through battery life quickly. It was wonderful to read all the reviews on Amazon about your product. And, nice to read your little story here.
Thanks, I love my customers because they seem like me
You probably did not know this but much the watch making switzerland clothing companies early on were originated in Switzerland and sooner or later got involved with German parent companies to create an engineering masterpiece with a decisive marketing push behind it.
These 6 individuals are not the only ones who received a faulty product. I purchased one for my husband, who is active duty military and deploys quite frequently for exercises, back in July 2009. He was able to initially charge the battery, but when he attached it to his phone, it failed to charge the phone. He sent an email to the customer support link, and he was told to return the battery for a replacement one, because the condensator probably went dead, according to the email he received from Mr. Van Ess. So, on July 15, 2009, we mailed our faulty battery back to the company and we have yet to receive our replacment one. My husband has emailed Mr. Van Ess multiple times to follow-up, and has never received a response. We are incredibly disgusted with this company right now — we no longer have the faulty battery to return to Amazon to get our money back, we don't have a replacement battery that works, and we're also out the money we spent to ship the faulty back. VERY DISGUSTED with your company right now, and demand a response!!!
What a terrible experience did you have with us! Can't figure out right now
what has happened – well I guess, I can. We both know that NOTHING happened
for months.. thats inexcusable!
We will make this up to you a.s.a.p. You will get your battery & a little
surprise as compensation for the ridiculous long wait. . I contacted you
through mail to get this done.
Henk van Ess
ceo 3gjuice.com
UPDATE: found out what happened. We did send the replacement, but it was
returned because the address was wrong. And that was not your fault, but
ours. So sorry!
Henk — we just received the replacement battery, and I would like to wholeheartedly thank you for making sure that the situation was made right!
Glad I could help and sorry for the failing unit!
Henk
Unfortunately those things happen! I'm just glad that we were able to resolve the situation!! I truly want to thank you for all your help — my husband and I appreciate it!!!
I have also faced this problem. I just ordered a battery BECAUSE of the way you talk about your own errors.
I was frustrated at how quickly the devise broke, and my rating was a reaction. If you had not responded so quickly and completely, that rating may have been deserved, but it is clearly not. Please hold back if not too late in the second part of the refund, and we will see how the replacement works out, but for now, I will try to figure out how to fix the rating.
we just received the replacement battery, and I would like to wholeheartedly thank you for making sure that the situation was made right!
I just ordered a battery off Amazon and sent your link and the order link at Amazon to a friend. I LOVE my 3G iphone, but I do go through battery life quickly. It was wonderful to read all the reviews on Amazon about your product. And, nice to read your little story here.
I'm an Air user, and I went through two laptop replacements and STILL Apple would not acknowledge the problem.
Well, customer satisfaction is very much essential for today's world. The company must work on it.
Hi! I just wanted to follow up on my experience- I’m Amaury Diaz, one of the persons talked about in the above post. As of today, three years later, my original 3gJuice is STILL working as hard as ever, still charges my iPhone 4 to 100%. Amazing performance for a device I use several times a week…
Buy one. you won’t be disappointed!