People can be such Jackasses
12 Dec2008
For every 20-30 emails we get at iBegin asking that we fix an issue, 1 of them always has the veiled threat of a lawsuit. “Fix my # or I will sue you!” “We have moved – fix it or I will have my lawyer deal with this!” etc etc. Of those threats, 1 out of 10 are just downright unstable. Capital letters. Abusive language. Even the occasional threat of bodily harm.
What boggles my mind is how these people stay in business. Yes bad information sucks. It can be annoying. But what is the harm in asking nicely? I can understand if you have emailed us before and we didn’t reply – but that doesn’t happen 
Sadly enough – another reminder of the recession. The threatening tone in emails has increased – the more stress you put on the business owners, the more likely they are to pass it on.
I should note that while I can be crass here (and in other areas), all emails are always civil. Even with the random person who replies to me with mentions on how I must be working with the terrorists because of my Islamist name (true story).
7 Responses to People can be such Jackasses
Dave
December 12th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
And of course there’s the inevitable “Yeah, I may have entered the wrong information for my listing, but YOU should have figured out what I really meant!” people… And instead of “listing,” you can substitute “product” or “reservation” for other industries.
Hmmm, a local search company gathering local business names/addresses for the purpose of terrorist activities and all their “customers” are really terrorist cells. Sounds like a good spy novel.
Andre Marcelo-Tanner
December 12th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
this is why we hire people to read emails for us
Drew
December 12th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
You like that word don’t ya mate.
Hany
December 13th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
It’s sad, but as webmasters, all we can do is accommodate all our visitors, regardless of whether they are rude or appreciative.
If only they knew the amount of work we put in and appreciated that, at least once in awhile.
Who am I? - Tech Soapbox
December 15th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
[...] and in how small business owners treat and operate with the internet (clearly exemplified in my last post on people being jackasses). Right now, I feel like local search is a swimming pool. We were on the edge with our feet [...]
Ahmed
December 15th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I don’t fully agree with you Hany. I do not fully believe in the adage ‘the customer is always right’ – there is a gigantic collection of customers, and making them all happy is damn near impossible. I would rather focus on the 90% of nice people
dan
December 31st, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Ive found that being stern with those types of customers usually works best. you can’t let them walk all over you otherwise the trend continues and by the time you realize whats going on, your customers are running your business for you.