what do you say!!??

[Follow]

What do you say a costumer who brings 10+ load and says to you one of your machine is not working??!!but he/she knows machine is working, he/she does NOT put the money and trying to get a free wash!!???

[pete f]

Unless you watched them load laundry then come over and say it took thier money your best bet is to start the machine for them. Just today I was approached by a lady who told me she lost 1.25 ( about 2 weeks ago) in a top loader, (1.75) it took all her money and gave .50 back. the machine is about 6 months old, I have not had any problems. I took a handfull of quarter, put a few in the machine, told her it seems to be working fine and left her a few extra qtrs. Why piss someone off over a buck? I rarely question refunds.

[Anonymous]

Assuming she has not pulled this crap before, just start the machine for her - effectively you are giving a good customer a 10% discount. But make sure she does not do this again.

[buddy]

I have pretty much same philosophy as Pete. If someone says " I put in three quarters and the clothes are still not dry" I walk up to the Dryer and put one quarter in. It keeps them happy.

Laundromat is a business with repeat customers. 90% of the revenue in the Laundromat is derived from basically the same set of customers. Many of them spend $20-$50 a week in your Laundromat and once in a while if they want to take advantage for a buck or two it's not worth arguing with them.

[Fred50]

I would chalk this up to marketing expense, as long as it doesn't get out of hand.

[CharlieS]

Yep, these are the tough calls. My attendant gave $20 last night to a lady who told him the bill to bill changer took her money. I had just emptied the changer. Guess what, no 20 in it when I checked this morning.

The best part was that she left her name and number because she would like to apply for a job as an attendant. I think she may want to look elsewhere.

We have a lot of kids use the snack machine. 2 or 3 routinely say they got ripped off. We cut them off this week, just those 3. I already had a call from one of their mothers, saying we are required by law to give a refund. I say, show me the code.

Still, for the most part, like last night, I still tell my attendants not to question refund request. We average about $20 a week in refunds that are questionable. Its peanuts. The good will engendered by not questioning, and the relief it provides to your attendants who don't really want to challenge a customer, is worth it. All I need to do is make two genuine customers angry and send them to other mats, and I will lose more than I give up in refunds in a year.

Charlie

[Gary C]

Seems everyone thinks on the same line here. I agree, start the machine. There is a lot to be lost by not starting it and a There is a lot to be gained in good will by starting it. I have found 99% the people really think they put the money in they really don't pay attention to what they are doing.

Good will is way better than advertizing any day.
(in a local market place)

Gary

[Lar Hylobates]

I don't think I have ever turned down a request.

Why?? Store grosses thousands and you are going to mess with a quarter?

[Beverly]

When a customer makes an obvious error, I use my card offering a freebie (and chide them ever so gently). My "FREE START" is at my cost, not the customer's vend price; consequently, it's not worth antagonizing someone over a $1.00 when she's "lost" $6.75. However, like Kirby, I'm constantly on the outlook for the scammers out there.....

[Follow]

thanks guys...I gave a free wash.. it is no Problem for me...as long as they spend $10-20...i ask this, because same costumers are doing it... I will see if there will be other costumers(his/her friends-you know what I mean) who will ask for it..

[Todd]

I usually don't question the refunds either. Like everybody else it seems I think the goodwill is more important. A couple weeks ago a customer left me a note saying they won a toy in the crane game. Indeed the did, it hung up on the claw, so I had my vendor leave me a toy next time I saw him and mailed them the toy. It's a 1.06 well worth it. One thing I do always do though is audit the changer. I've only had one person try to pull a fast one, said he lost a $10, but my counter was on the money. In a case like this I think it's better to not follow up with a dishonest customer. If you do and call them on their lie it might just piss em off, where is if you know they lied they will probably just say to themselve"well, it was worth a shot". Plus, if someone says they had a bill ate in the changer, I want to know about it for sure so I can take it apart and clean it.