The Tub Story - Part 3

And here's the response that eventually came from the tub manufacturer about a month after we sent the letter. The following is the actual voicemail message I received (with just a couple of omissions for privacy's sake).

"Hello. I'm calling back on behalf of MAAX Canada. I'm just phoning to let you know we did receive your letter regarding an issue you had with your tub. Unfortunately at this time we are not prepared to offer any compensation as we do not offer compensation just for loss of use on a unit. And unfortunately that is probably our final stance on this. If you would like to call me back and discuss it further you can..."

So there we go.
Here are the key lessons I would want to learn from this, as a marketer:

1. Timing counts. By the time I received this message, I had already been contacted by the retailer and given the response outlined in the previous post.

2. Tone matters. It's certainly not hostile, but not exactly friendly. Basically, it's dismissive, with a "tough luck" attitude right from the beginning.

3. "Any" is a strong word. They're not prepared to offer any compensation? Not even a bit of money back? Not a coupon towards another purchase? Not a set of towels? Nothing?

4. Don't belittle the complaints. "...just for the loss of use..." Just? Just? First of all, "loss of use" is pretty important. Second, either they didn't bother to read the whole letter or they didn't take the (many) other issues very seriously.

5. Don't start off in your ending position. It's not very good form, in any context, to start a discussion with your "final stance". It comes across as uncooperative, and implies to me that they're not even interested in hearing anything further. Even if it really is the case, and it's the best they can do (which is just sad), common etiquette would be to at least say something like "Unfortunately, our policies are fairly specific in this regard, but let's discuss your situation to make sure everything is clear."

Overall, it's the attitude that bugged me the most. The attitude of this response just reinforced all the negative thoughts I had about this company after months and months of dealing with screw-ups, costs, and inconveniences of all types.

And this was emphasized even more because it was such a contrast to the response from Home Depot I had received a few weeks prior. I suppose it's possible that the retailer was the true cause of most of the problems, but I can't help but assume that MAAX was the really issue.