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Comment by billswift | Hacker News Reader

There is a difference between "doing the right thing" because it is the right thing and doing it because the victim screamed loud enough. Some people will no doubt go back to using them, and more probably will if they are consistent about doing the right thing.

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There is. But sometimes it's infinitely more important that the right thing got done than that the right thing happened in exactly the way we wanted it to.

Edit: we're not talking about romantic relationships here, we're just talking about corporations. Most of the time it's a-ok to coerce the correct behavior out of a corporation, they don't have to be our soul mates.

Doing the wrong thing (completely ignoring Norma) < doing the right thing for the wrong reason (RMA because of the bad publicity) < doing the right thing for the right reason (RMA because someone at NE screwed up) < doing the right thing in the first place (RMA when it was originally asked for)

Clearly Newegg is in one of the middle categories. Personally, I think as long as customers are taken care of it doesn't so much matter what the decision making behind it is.

I agree that the main point is customer service, not some abstract right thing, but waiting until they scream loud enough is not properly taking care of customers.

But what if that customer HAD to scream loud in order to to get things put right? If the customer rep truly believed that was the policy (whether is was or not) and you keep batting emails back and forth to them... they will not budge. So you have to go above their heads... I don't know the whole/original story but if it was me then I would have kicked up a fuss with Newegg and demanded a telephone call from a manager.

However, it (hopefully) means that everyone at Newegg is now aware of the correct policy and that we will not have this issue again. It also hopefully means that if there are similar issues in the future then clarification is sought before refusing a customer OR it is dealt with by someone more senior.

I don't think a one off incident where they put right should be looked upon so negatively... imagine someone judging humans in the same manner!

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