The Classic Bait and Switch
This July I am taking my wife, myself, and my four wonderful children (the exorcisms worked wonders) to Norway on vacation. I am working with someone who has a business based around planning, and executing trips to Norway. The issue is this: I was given a price quote about a month ago on all of the items. Today he tallied everything up, and it is $1000 more than what he had quoted me.
As soon as I saw this I was upset to say the least. I fired back an email telling him I expect him to honor the previous quote. Not only that, I am sure he will be upset now, because he really is a nice old man, and probably just made a mistake… but now I am being difficult, and he has to deal with a difficult customer. I am upset, and likely will be regardless of the outcome… If he drops the price, I will still be upset that he was so disorganized that it almost cost me more money, and if he doesn’t drop the price I feel like I got shafted.
The funny part of all of this? If the original price had been $1000 more, I probably would have been fine with it.
The Marketing lesson for the day? Don’t promise what you can’t deliver, and you had better deliver what you promised. Especially in the current day and age with bloggers… one really upset customer can be very visible.