Merchants: What To Do With Nasty Emails

If you’ve been in business on the Internet for any length of time, you’ll get the occasional nasty email. I don’t care if you’re selling bibles and donating 100% of the proceeds to feed starving children; eventually someone will take issue with what you’re doing.

Sometimes people just up and decide that because you’re on the Internet, or because you charge money for your product/service, you must be ripping people off. Often, they’re not afraid to send you an email and say things in it that they’d never have the courage to say, face-to-face.

For instance, I sell a product on how to make your own CDs. It’s called “How to Make Your Own Audio Products on a Shoestring Budget.” One day, I got an email from D***.

All it said was…”How to Make Your Own Audio Products on a Shoestring Budget and sell them on a site like this at tremendous prices to people who want to be ripped of or not?”

Here was my response…

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Hello,
I don’t really understand your email. It’s phrased in the form of a question but may be more of an opinion, I’m not sure.

I sell high-quality products that teach people extremely valuable skills. Some of my products take weeks or even months to produce. There’s planning, writing, recording and post-production involved. I believe my time and knowledge are valuable and I charge commensurate. The product you mentioned, “How to Make Your Own Audio Products on a Shoestring Budget,” can save people who are interested in making their own CDs, weeks of time and lots of frustration. That’s worth something.

For those who can not afford my prices, I often offer free email courses about the same subjects, that have lots of good information in them.

There are those that do not see the value in what I’ve created. That’s OK. It might seem obvious, but my focus is those who find what I do useful and valuable.

The overwhelming majority of folks who buy my products feel that they’ve gotten good value for their money. I offer a generous return policy, my return rate is extremely low.

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He replied…

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$200+ dollars for a course like that is a rip of in my model of the world. But that is my opinion. Wheter that is ecological. Well that is another question

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Nasty Emailers=Idiots

Idiots like D*** almost always are incredibly sloppy thinkers (as well as poor spellers). Usually, they’ve gotten the facts all wrong (for instance, the course is not even close to $200). Secondly, if you question them as to how, specifically, you are ripping people off, they’ll tell you you’re charging too much.

So, you’ve got a product, you tell people what’s in it, you tell them the price and they decide to buy it. How does that rip them off? D*** apparently believes he is in charge of what other people should think!

What do you do if you’re accused of ripping people off?

In the early years of my business, I used to reply to these people in a polite manner and ask them for more specific information. Rarely did I get any worthwhile reply. So, my number one advice is to ignore their email.

• Ignore their email
• Make sure they are deleted from any of your mailing lists
• Keep a copy of the offending email–it may come in handy later

Your Internet business is there to attract qualified customers. These people are not your customers. Get rid of them as quickly as possible. Replying to idiots will take time away from serving those people who are honestly interested in what you have to offer.

Remember, the word “customer” is in the phrase “customer service.” Part of your job, as a business person, is to cater to those customers and potential customers. What is not often said is that it is also advantageous to filter out those who are not potential customers.