HELLO Matt…
I purchased your Prism cover from you last year and had a great experience dealing with you…First, I would like to thank you for your service to our country… Secondly. I would like to let people know that you treated me with respect even though I tried to get you to lower your price. by the way, my son flies an F-18 off the Eisenhour and is currently in the Persian Gulf( having just got there). You guys are my heros… Any chance you got to watch the closing ceremonies of the Olympics? Being a product of the 70’s, John Lennons’ “imagine” was a fitting prose to how this world should be…
I am not saying it is impossible
I never said nor meant to imply that. Just the opposite. I am saying you have a number of people saying that they had positive experiences with the dealer/outfitter, and only 1 person saying they had a negative experience. So we have an idea of what the “baseline” is, and have to go from their. Either the incident is as Bowler described it, and Tom would agree, or Tom might disagree and give another account of the events (e.g. we might find out that Bowler unintensionally did something that antagonized Tom in the beginning, and he reacted). The first fallacy in logic is to not consider alternatives. Far from narrowing it down to one option, I am saying just the opposite: We don’t know what happened, and all we have is one side’s account of the events. To sort things out, we need more evidence. But even in the worst case scenario, I think we can all agree that even if Bowler’s account is right, it sounds like it is atypical of Tom.
As for “nit picking”, I wasn’t the one who openned this referendum on Tom. But if you’re going to do so, you need to be fair about it and not draw unwarranted conclusions. How can anyone seriously be content with only one side of the story? Especially when person after person has come forward and say to that they have had nothing but positive experiences dealing with the person in question. I have experienced this before. Sloppy thinkers don’t like to be corrected. Well, tough luck. You throw some mud, sometimes some of it lands on you.
notice that I am not saying that he
is lying either. If it came across that way, I apologize, that is not what I meant. Rather I think that if he in any way triggered it, it was something that he did not notice. But it may be that his account of events is fully correct. I’m just saying that all of the evidence is not in.
that’s fair
That’s certainly fair. And I hope I’m not coming across as aggressive either.
to reply…
With respect, you do seem to be nitpicking the OP. And this is after he’s pretty much said he was done with the thread.
Far as what the majority has to say, they likely are, just like Bowler, recounting what happened to them… but most of them may never have been in a return situation with Tom.
I’ve certainly encountered retailers who were pleasant as pie when you were buying something from them, but who turned a bit ornery when you had a return. You can almost see the ‘this is an inconvenience/this is going to cost me $$$’ -sign flashing on their foreheads. Hey, it’s still a tough economy out there, and many small businesses are fighting to get by.
Again, all we have on either side are assumptions… the majority must be right on one side, and sh#t sometimes happens on the other. IME, you could toss a coin, either or both are just as likely to be correct.
FWIW
over half my replies here are to you
"One last jab"
That’d do it for me. Bad experience to start doesn’t necessarily doom the transaction. Let’s say that maybe you were about to apologize for the inconvenience (even if it wasn’t your fault), just to try to take the edge off–but then he didn’t give you a chance to offer an olive branch.
Besides having a bad day or week, it’s possible that he is getting jaded.
As do I
It’s very useful to have feedback about people’s experiences with the quality of products and services. Doing that in a public forum holds people accountable. Of course, accountability is necessary on both sides, by the retailer and the customer.
In the pre-internet age you took your chances and bought a product or a service sight unseen. Today you can review lots of reviews and feedback before making a decision. That is a good thing.