Advice with a complaint, I mis-sold him juice that ruined his device apparently, perspective?

[meredith2k5]

Morning all
Genuinely curious to see what you guys think, and try and get another perspective on it as im not quite sure how to deal with it at the moment.
So I work at a vape store and am generally used to dealing with complaints. You have to be extremely thorough in this line of work as if anything isn't to a customers liking they will always point the finger at the person who sold them the device. With juice we offer a selection of 50/50 juice in 10mls, 50/50 10ml nic salts and 50-150ml 70/30 shortfills. Whenever someone asks me for 'juice' ill always ask them what liquids they generally buy and how thick it is and what device they are using and then recommend them from there.
So anyway I had a customer who came in last week and brought a 100ml juice, they came back yesterday to complain that it ruined their coil and device and that it was my fault as I mis sold him the juice - apparently I tried to sell him a larger bottle and said it would be better for his device (I would remember this, and you dont upsell in this line of work, you first and foremost look after your customers and they come back).
We have a new member of the team who is new to working in a vape shop and a novice vaper in general. I was able to spend 4 days with him before he had his first couple of shifts alone. Hes doing fantastic - unfortunately thats when said customer decided to come in though during a busy period and came across as very angry apparently and pressured him for a resolution. He explained we cant return it under policy as he has added nicotine and used some but he wasnt happy with this and asked to speak to a manager. The new guy, unsure what to do tried calling me at first (I wasnt able to answer) so asked him to leave a name and number and I would get back to him and might be able to offer him something free... big oof right? Totally not the new guys fault, I didn't expect him to be able to handle so much so quickly.
Anyway I have to ring this guy back, he will claim I upsold him a juice over a smaller bottle and said it was suitable for his device , I will listen in fairness and see if he or I misinterpreted something somewhere and try and avoid this happening in future.
To complicate things further, he brought a caliburn A2 and some nic salts as apparently his device is now unusable.

Sorry that was rather long, I'm probably overthinking it, I don't like people getting away with stuff like this though if it turns out he is just lying and didnt like the flavour. We are a small business also, each refund costs us personally, if I did offer him something it will be out of my pocket. I can accept he may have ruined a coil but ruining the device itself is an extreme long shot. I will of course hear him out and if we are at fault somewhere try and sort something. Id like to contact him armed with some options though, the main thing I want to avoid is the bad reviews as we are pretty new and dont have many. What do you guys think

 

[MrDJ]

what kit and coil does he claim is ruined. and what did he say was wrong with the kit.
what juice was sold to him and was it 50/50, 70vg or 80vg
was the question asked from employee to customer what style he vaped, mtl or dtl and what wattaged he usually used.
was it explained how to prime coil and start at a lower wattage (or was it a fixed kit which does not have variable wattage).
did he bring the kit back into shop for it to be checked.

the more info given will make it easier for others to give replies.

 

[Mr Ripple]

Ask him to come into the shop in person as its always easier face to face.
Let him have his say without interrupting as most people will calm down when their rant is out of their system.
Then do your best to fix whatever situation you're faced with.

 

[RichieRich]

I'd ask to see the damaged goods first, just incase they are trying to pull a fast one.

 

[MHL]

I don't really understand how you could mis-sell him juice. Other than recommending the wrong PG / VG ratio for MTL or DTL.

And even if you managed to do the above, I don't see how it could ruin his device.

Or am I just being unimaginative?

 

[dovpo_uk]

You certainly need to find out what the device is and what’s wrong with it as in all honesty I doubt the two are connected.

I get a lot is emails from customers claiming a fault but when I quote the warranty procedures, proof or purchase etc and that with some faults I need to inspect the device to confirm the the fault. The majority don’t email me back. Why ? Who knows.

Personally listen to the customers concerns and and find out what’s wrong with the device. If it’s 100% the shops fault then a refund / replacement.

if it’s difficult to confirm we’re fault lies then offer the customer a heavy discount and a new device stating that due to the nature of the fault and that it’s difficult to confirm if it’s the fault of the juice or user error your happy to met the customer half way.

obviously if the customer turns up with a 6 year old Alien held together with duck tape then give him a nice smile and show him the door.

while all this is going on get your new member of staff to watch and learn for future reference.

 

[dovpo_uk]

You certainly need to find out what the device is and what’s wrong with it as in all honesty I doubt the two are connected.

I get a lot is emails from customers claiming a fault but when I quote the warranty procedures, proof or purchase etc and that with some faults I need to inspect the device to confirm the the fault. The majority don’t email me back. Why ? Who knows.

Personally listen to the customers concerns and and find out what’s wrong with the device. If it’s 100% the shops fault then a refund / replacement.

if it’s difficult to confirm we’re fault lies then offer the customer a heavy discount and a new device stating that due to the nature of the fault and that it’s difficult to confirm if it’s the fault of the juice or user error your happy to met the customer half way.

obviously if the customer turns up with a 6 year old Alien held together with duck tape then give him a nice smile and show him the door.

while all this is going on get your new member of staff to watch and learn for future reference.

Just to add , if it’s a Dovpo device give me a shout and I’ll help if I can.

 

[meredith2k5]

@MrDJ I dont have alot of the information sadly, he said he forgot to bring the device, the juice or the receipt and cant remember what they were. He had just come in angrily demanding a refund with my new guy, as it was busy he took as much info as he could but im left with alot of blanks - just that he wants me to ring back and resolve it.

Ask him to come into the shop in person as its always easier face to face.
Let him have his say without interrupting as most people will calm down when their rant is out of their system.
Then do your best to fix whatever situation you're faced with.

I'm with you 100% on that, sometimes you know exactly what someone's going to say and how to resolve it but often the customer just wants you to listen to what they are saying, and many people miss that. I often take a seat with someone, maintain eye contact, listen and empathise before trying to resolve and then your halfway there already
Thank you for this suggestion, I don't know why I hadn't thought to ask him in. I can gauge the situation far better then, its apparent to me now as well that I don't have a full picture of what's going on. As @richierich has suggested too, ill ask him to bring it all in. It seems suspicious that he had none of these items on him but wanted a refund.

I'm pretty terrible on the phone, in person you can use body launguage and eye contact to your advantage. By telephone its almost seems more immediate and impersonal. I'm still unsure what I can offer him in return, his device may be perfectly fine and a new coil could sort it.

@MHL I've never experienced a job like this where your constantly on guard against complaints, similar scenarios happen quite often. I think part of it is a lot of customers are new to vaping and don't really know much about what they are doing and buying so they rely heavily on what you recommend and sell to them. When it doesn't suit them then you are partially to blame which is understandable. I'm always very thorough now and go over pretty much any questions or queries customers have, suggest appropriate devices and set them up. If you are busy with several customers at once and someone asks for a specific item though (which I believe is what may have happened here) you don't really have time to question what device they are using and how thick there regular liquid is etc

 

[meredith2k5]

Just to add , if it’s a Dovpo device give me a shout and I’ll help if I can.

Oh wow, a real Dovpo rep!
It wont be a Dovpo product as it sounds like he's using a started pen type device . I should get commission though as we get a lot of builders in, some of them advanced vapers who want a durable 2 battery mod. The Odin 200 is pretty much my go to Going to try stocking the Blotto RTA soon too as the build deck looks pretty large!
Anyway pretty sound advice, thank you! I'm looking at it as a potentially useful scenario for our new guy to learn how to deal with such complaints, and whatever was said to make him think we purposefully upsold him thicker juice I can potentially avoid in the future.

A bit of an update, my new team member gave me a ring and explained a bit more, he was using a pen style device that goes up to 30 watts apparently, its now faulty as the autodraw feature no longer works. The customer couldn't remember the name of the device as he brought it from a petrol station If im lucky it might be a Tecc device and I have a spare coil to try.
It turns out he brought a decent pod style starter device along with some juices from us after leaving his contact details so I don't think he's just after a freebie. As a genuine new customer id rather keep him happy if at all possible even if the device issue isn't our fault (I don't know much about autodraw devices. Im sure its just the coil at fault though) - I have a few spare nic salts and other 10ml 50/50s I can offer.

 

[LordOdin]

I am of the same opinion as @MHL , i must also be unimaginably gifted, unless it's an Abyss (sorry @dovpo_uk not a dig) i would tell him to sod off, he hasn't shown proof of what's occured or a receipt of said purchase then you have nothing to go on.