For my critics, you seem to have a double standard. If Mal can throw me out of his store (his place of business), I can write about him on my blog (my place of business). On top of that - If I behaved like Mal I would simply delete the comments I didn’t agree with and even more importantly block the IP Addresses from ever commenting on my blog again.

I have never been thrown out of anywhere. What irked Mal was me telling him I had in fact owned businesses, even coached them, and that he was wrong (to his statement about my naiveté about how business worked).

For my critics - let me ask you this… Have you ever been thrown out of a store?
If you have, then I question the type of person you are (since the owner was probably right just like you infer Mal was) and if you haven’t been thrown out of a store, I wonder what your reaction would be - I’m guessing you would most likely tell your friends, which is what I did.

And Anne (over at Aboon Books), I know you’ve been reading my blog and commenting with your squidoo links for a while, but I am rather surprised at you. I DID delete the post you labeled and reposted as an “eloquent post that made points poking holes in the logic of Rich’s original post” because it did come from a ghost ip address, left a phony email address, and her entrance page was this one (connect the dots - this page ranks high for only 2 keyword phrases ). Doesn’t it seem a little obvious to you that Anette was rather a little too emotional in her comment?

Since I didn’t like what you did Anne - Should I now behave like Mal? Delete all of your past comments on all of my posts, remove you from my email lists, and block your ip from ever commenting on the blog? I would never dare - but Mal did that to me and I had spent thousands of dollars with him in the past.

Anyway - I am done here. I am turning off comments on this post because I have never had to police my blog looking for phony posts before, and I am simply tired of it. In my entire blogging history I have never had to do that.

Thank you to all of you who commented.

Maybe all Rich is saying is to Acknowledge our customers better, not take them for granted so much and they wont feel the need to go somewhere else.

To be honest with you, you come across as a spoiled 5-year-old with a greatly over-inflated sense of self-importance. Maybe you don’t intend to sound that way, but you DO. I have found, through retail experience (running my own businesses) that people running around in pricey cars are some of the FIRST to back out on an expensive special-order. I have been stiffed in the tens of thousands of $$ for home decor items that were later just “not liked” anymore… by multiple VERY well-off clients… well News Flash, Rich! — wholesalers and suppliers DO NOT ACCEPT RETURNS, or if they do they carry a 15% restocking fee, which for many businesses (like the tire business) is in excess of what we were going to make in the first place.

Why should the business owner be the one taking the risk? Since when did he become the punching bag? Since when is he expendible? Quite frankly Rich, if you had lipped off the same way in any of my stores, I’d have booted your ass out the door too. *gasp* YES, REALLY. Like most independent retailers, I am very close to my businesses… people quickly forget they are GUESTS in my home. As your name is NOT on the mortgage nor the business license, you do NOT have the right to treat the owner (or his staff) with disrespect.

And that is the key: you were *DISRESPECTFUL*. It was entirely unnecessary, especially considering that this tire shop does nothing ANY DIFFERENTLY than any tire shop or auto mechanic literally from coast to coast. His request was not over the line, over the top, or even remotely unusual. The request was perfectly reasonable.

Hell, some of us actually carry ID and a CC when we work out. You never know when you might pull a muscle and need a cab. I call it “common sense,” but whatever………

And by the way Rich, just because one IP made two posts, doesn’t make BOTH posts “fraudulent.” Any halfwit could have figured out two posts in a row with the exact same grammar, spelling and structure was probably posted by the same person, regardless of what the name was. Their opinion is still very much valid. The only thing that can be accurately said about them is YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY. Well, that’s too bad. Not everybody sees things the way you do.

My company probably orders about $25K a year in tires from the same place. I would say we were *very* good customers. . .even after 10 years of doing business with this company, tires will not get ordered in without immediate payment. I have been in a position where, while trying to multitask and utilize dead drive time, I’ve called to order and didn’t have the credit card with me - even though they have it on file!! - and had to call back to physically read the number to them over the phone once back in the office. Yes, it’s a pain. What did I learn? **Memorize the American Express number** This is the nature of the parts business and sometimes it’s just easier to go with the flow.

I have also been in the position enough times where we have prepped a car for delivery to “someone we knew” (and taken no deposit because we “knew” them) and added things like tinted windows, XM radio, etc. because that’s what they wanted only to have them blow us off and buy a car from someplace else. We’ve made a policy that no aftermarket anything takes place until customer pays for it up front - predelivery. And we absolutely will not hold a car without a deposit. Perhaps we have a better way to explain this to customers than how Mal did, but we’ve had our share of ticked off folks who don’t like the policy. Quite honestly, I don’t want to do business with them if they have a problem with it. In their mind, if they’ve made no “commitment” to the transaction it’s no skin off their back if they walk.

Does that mean we are shirking our customer service duties? No, not at all. It means we have established acceptable boundries in what we will and will not do if it *could* negatively influence our bottom line - but we explain it sweetly Sometimes business decisions like this are made not because of the honest people who *do* show up later to pay for the service/product but because of the selfish slackers out there who could care less.

Mal (or any other tire store) could have ordered those tires in - and they’re specialty tires vs. a set of common Michelins for a Ford Exploder - Rich (or any other customer) could have gone home and found them on the Internet $10 cheaper and ordered online instead. Store owner is stuck with additional delivery costs, disposition and restocking charges. . .and lost money. Customer sits at home patting himself on the back that he saved $10 thinking ‘that darn store isn’t gonna get $10 over on ME!’

So, I guess what I am trying to say is that there are two sides to everything. Oh, and Rich…nice car Doesn’t it make you feel ten years younger when you put the top down?