{"id":49,"date":"2008-07-10T18:41:32","date_gmt":"2008-07-11T02:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/?p=49"},"modified":"2022-02-19T13:17:44","modified_gmt":"2022-02-19T19:17:44","slug":"adventures-in-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/adventures-in-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in Customer Service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning I woke up to an email from Coverville’s Brian Ibbott<\/a> pointing me to a blog post that referenced Timely Persuasion:<\/p>\n

Customer Service – Compare and Contrast<\/a> (Most of the relevant content is crossed out – a good thing I’ll get to in a minute…)<\/em><\/p>\n

The owner of the blog had heard about the book on Coverville<\/a> and purchased it. \u00a0But when the book arrived, it had the correct cover but the incorrect interior. \u00a0The pages were for a different book altogether!<\/p>\n

The paperbacks are printed on demand via Lulu<\/a>, so these things happen on occasion. \u00a0I’ve heard of one other instance where this happened with my book, and that time it was resolved quickly and painlessly by Lulu.<\/p>\n

But not this time. \u00a0As the blog post details, Lulu demanded visual evidence of the defect by either scanning or photographing portions of the book. \u00a0They also promised a followup from someone and a week had passed with no further contact. \u00a0All the poor guy wants to do is read my $15 time travel novel and it suddenly turns into a huge ordeal.<\/p>\n

Upon reading this I immediately jumped into customer service mode by posting a reply comment letting him know I’d file a complaint on his behalf and in the meantime I’d be happy to send him a free autographed copy for the trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 Although technically I know that as the author I shouldn’t need to dole out compensation for Lulu’s mistakes, my past (and likely future) work experience kicked in and said “Take care of the customer first, figure out what went wrong and prevent it from recurring second.” And although the error was Lulu’s and not mine, I feel I do bear some responsibility for selecting Lulu as a partner. \u00a0But above everything else for me at that moment was not losing a reader over the snafu, and I figured I could sort out my own reimbursement with Lulu if necessary. \u00a0Fortunately it didn’t come to that.<\/p>\n

I posted the problem to the Lulu support forum; 90 minutes later I had an email from Angela Hooper, an assistant manager saying this was certainly not the policy and assuring me it was an isolated incident that she’d address after making things right for the customer. \u00a0She kept me in the loop during her contacts with him, compensated me for the trouble as well, and later in the day the blogger struck-through his first post and added this new entry:<\/p>\n

Way to Go Lulu.com!!! – Making Things Right<\/a><\/p>\n

I find it most interesting how the resolution was a team effort all around. \u00a0Thanks to Brian for the heads up that got the ball rolling, Angela for stepping up to the plate to set everything right (with both the customer and myself), and Scott for being such a good sport about the whole mishap.<\/p>\n

All’s well that ends well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning I woke up to an email from Coverville’s Brian Ibbott pointing me to a blog post that referenced Timely Persuasion: Customer Service – Compare and Contrast (Most of the relevant content is crossed out – a good thing I’ll get to in a minute…) The owner of the blog had heard about the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3pfx3-N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":96,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/paperback-writer\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":0},"title":"Paperback Writer","author":"LBDG","date":"August 12, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Timely Persuasion is now available at Paperback Junction at 669 Washington Street in Easton, MA. Paperback Junction is probably the first book store I ever frequented as a child. Bought all of my summer reading books there every year, hung out in the used book corner while my Mom ran\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paperback Junction","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/pjsign-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/and-were-launched\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":1},"title":"And we’re launched!","author":"LBDG","date":"February 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Maybe I'll write a book.\" 1,697 days ago that was my reply to my friend Jon Mack after iNetNow folded and he asked what I was going to do. Famous first words I suppose... Welcome to the official Timely Persuasion blog. Now that the book is finally for sale, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/and-were-launched\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=timelpersu-20&l=ur2&o=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3089,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/lbdg-commentary-8-the-big-break-in\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":2},"title":"LBDG Commentary 8: The Big Break-In","author":"LBDG","date":"July 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Local Boy bailed on his previous big break to take the redhead\u2019s ride in a tan van. This break-in is even bigger\u2014directly revisiting a scene from the previous book. I keep calling Local Boy Done Gone a standalone sequel, but in these commentary posts I also keep pointing out places\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Behind the Scenes"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Scenes","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/behind-the-scenes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/chance_go_to_jail_card_by_jdwinkerman_d7kx1q4-375w-2x-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/chance_go_to_jail_card_by_jdwinkerman_d7kx1q4-375w-2x-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/chance_go_to_jail_card_by_jdwinkerman_d7kx1q4-375w-2x-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/reviewed-by-mrs-giggles\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":3},"title":"Reviewed by Mrs. Giggles","author":"LBDG","date":"April 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Another review, this time courtesy of Mrs. Giggles. My two favorite excerpts: \"Some of the first person narration is beautifully written, I find, which makes Timely Persuasion a book to read for the sake of reading as well for the story, if I am making any sense here. There are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2083,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/new-novel-l-extreme\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":4},"title":"New Novel: L Extreme","author":"LBDG","date":"April 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been awhile but we're back with style... Announcing the new novel by JL Civi: L Extreme! Readers of this blog know I've been a huge fan of Benji Hughes for years. Somewhere along the line I decided to write a novel based on his album\u00a0A Love Extreme. For a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"L Extreme Book Cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/LX-Space-Painting-Cover-FINAL-188x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":242,"url":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/arghhh\/","url_meta":{"origin":49,"position":5},"title":"ARG(hhh!)","author":"LBDG","date":"November 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a big fan of the TV show LOST. \u00a0I'm also a bit of an Internet geek. So when they pulled these two concepts together in their nearly annual Alternate Reality Game (ARG) between seasons I was quite excited -- especially when they hinted at more time travel in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Misc Debris"","block_context":{"text":"Misc Debris","link":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/category\/misc-debris\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2748,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/2748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.timelypersuasion.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}