How 50 cent could lose you a customer

Do you think just 50 cent could lose you a customer? You better believe it.
And no I am NOT talking about that very good rapper, entrepreneur, investor, and actor who rose to fame with the release of his albums “Get Rich Or Die Tryin’” and “The Massacre”.

My girlfriend said her car tires might be low on air pressure and asked if I would take the car to the gas station to fill the tires for her so of course I agreed. I drove to the 76 gas station that was near by our house and put the 50 cent into the air pump machine. When the machine revved up and the generator was going full blast I began to attempt to put air in her tires. But I noticed that there was a big gash in the airline on the machine. The air was blowing out of the line and was not going to have enough pressure to put air in her tires. I went into the store to ask the clerk for a refund of my 50 cent. He informed me that he could not give me a refund because his drawer would be short and the air pumps are maintained by an outside company and not by the 76 station itself. This is completely understandable and I get that. I suggested to the clerk that you go out and put a sign on the machine to tell future customers that the machine was broken and not to put their 50 cents into the machine for they would just get ripped off as well. He said he could not because she was the only person there. He said I should go back outside to the pump and call the number on the sticker on the pump and they would issue me a refund. I returned to the pump and found no such sticker or identifying marks. So who knows how many other people are going to put the money in the machine and not get the service that they were promised by the unwritten contract between me and the air machine and its representatives.

But the thing is I will think twice about going back to that particular gas station whenever I need anything whether it be gas or delicious Red Bull or anything. Me and how many other people that have been wronged by a non functioning air pump machine?

Years ago Marshall Sylver said to me, “If your spending an hour to negotiate down the price of a conference room, the amount of money you save better be worth more than your normal hourly rate. For instance if you only save $100 what you’re basically saying is that your only worth $100 an hour.”

Even having learned that lesson I am fascinated by social media and how companies do business so I called 76 customer service line from the number I got off of their website. I wanted to see how they were going to deal with this. So I called them and the woman I spoke to was very kind and helpful. She took down all the information and I could hear her typing it in on her end of the line. She informed me that even though today 76 is owned by Phillips 66 Company with more than 1,800 retail fuel sites in the United States, this particular station, known as ‘S&K 2’, was independently owned and operated so there’s nothing she could personally do. She said that she would have one of the representatives contact the owner of that gas station and have them take appropriate action. She then told me that I should hear back from 76 within the next 10 days. If I did not hear back from them within 10 days I was free to call them back in inquire about my situation.

So we will see what happens. We will see if they actually call me back within the next 10 days. We’ll see if they actually send me a check for 50 cent. We will see how important I am to them as a future and repeat customer. Nobody wants to pull a ‘Richard Sherman‘.

What are you doing to treat your customers right and make sure they return to you and not jump ship to your competition?
Let me know in the comments. Would love to hear from you.