Advice on dealing with customer complaints

[Mandyj58]

Hi thanks for reading this.

We own a joinery workshop we make bespoke solid wood doors and frames. We've been in business for approx. 15 years and in all that time have never had as many complaints as we have this past couple of months. People are saying their doors are swelling even though we send everything out factory finished. I know the problems are due to the terrible weather we've had recently but customer's are refusing to accept that they seem to think we should replace. I appreciate they're paying a lot of money for these products but it costs us a lot of money to replace for something that isn't our fault. A couple of very nasty ones are threatening court action even though in both instances we have tried our best to help, one of them is in Gloucestershire where I know the weather has been particularly severe and another one is having problems due to ill fitting by his joiner but he's a solicitor and I'm worried that if it did get to court he'd win because he'd know how to handle it.

I think we could do with a company solicitor but don't really know where to start and how much would it cost?

Thanks again for reading.

Mandy

 

[cjd]

I would expect a new door to cope with bad weather wouldn't you? I don't mean floods and immersions, I mean occasional very heavy rain.

Perhaps there IS a problem with the doors - what exactly is happening and why?

 

[Mandyj58]

Yes I would definitely expect a new door to cope especially as our customers are paying close on £2000 for a doorset but the weather has been extremely bad. As I said we've been in business 15 years and never had as many issues, manufacturing procedures and finishing products have only got better. Maybe we're just getting bigger so more customers means more chance of issues. Anyway thanks for commenting

 

[cjd]

I don't think you have any choice - unless the doors where actually submerged, the doors that have failed aren't doing a job that could reasonably expected of them, particularly at that price. So you need to replace them gracefully and hope that the customers are so impressed with you that they tell all their friends what great service they got.

But I'm still worrying about why the doors couldn't cope with bad weather.

 

[fisicx]

We have a wooden door that has been battered by the rain for weeks and it hasn't swollen or jammed. So are you sure there isn't a problem with your doors?

I'm not even sure what factory finished means.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

Have you changed your timber supplier recently?

 

[noo81]

Have you changed materials or suppliers? Are your customers all fully informed before purchase, that these issues can occur? The least I would expect was for a door to be able to with stand some heavy rain. Are they not treated ?

 

[joiner]

Hi, I own a joinery contracting business and have been a joiner for nearly twenty years. With items that cost this much money I really think you need to get your top man out to find out exactly what the cause of this problem is, IF it is a manufacturing fault you need to rapidly rectify the problem in your manufacturing process and rectify your customers doors to an acceptable standard or replace at your cost. If it is a fitting issue (ie door edges not repainted after hanging etc) then maybe it is the installers fault. Either way doors THAT ARE FACTORY FINISHED should be able to stand the worst of the British weather but any submersion in water (floods) would in my opinion nil and void the warrantee. BTW do you provide customers/ fitters with written 'conditions of warrantee' leaflet (i.e doors must be painted immeditely after hanging etc etc?)
Yours Mark.

 

[The Byre]

Half our house is old and has old doors and half is just 12 years old. The weather here is dreadful. Everything is wet. The firewood in the shed is damp, I am damp, my wife is damp. Even the dogs are damp. The front, back and side doors in the new part of the house are just something a chippy knocked up on site and the interior doors are all simple £20 fire doors.

Nothing sticks.

Two possibilities. Either the doors are badly designed and built without internal bracing and/or there is something wrong with the wood and it is too young or the wrong type (e.g. cheap Tamarack Larch instead of slower growing and more expensive European Larch).

But I have to agree - for £2k I would expect a door to fit, regardless of the weather!

 

[deniser]

We have a wooden door that has been battered by the rain for weeks and it hasn't swollen or jammed. So are you sure there isn't a problem with your doors?

I'm not even sure what factory finished means.

Conversely, our shop door is so swollen that it has taken us 10 minutes to get it open from the inside in the last few days where there is only the latch to pull on. And we literally have to kick it hard to open it from the outside. We have been here since 2006 in all weathers and never had anywhere remotely like this type of problem with the door.

In summer is is so loose that it slams shut.

I therefore totally understand where the OP is coming from.

I think you need to consider whether timber doors should be fitted in these kind of weather conditions at all or if you do, that they come with very strong warnings as to fit.

Also, we have water coming through the front of the building, under the window sills, through the brickwork and into the shopfront - this has never happened before but because of the wind, the rain is coming sideways straight at the front of the building. Normally the rain comes straight downwards and water comes in at the back but the back is dry now. So the wind direction does have a lot to do with it. Our front door is north-west facing.

 

[REVIDIUM]

Firstly @Mandyj58 congratulations for being in business for 15 years.

Whilst we are not a joiner and have no technical experience in joinery, what we have experience and expertise in is helping customers/clients deal with customer/client problems / complaints.

Customer problems are actually a good thing as you can turn them into an opportunity to improve your business processes.

For example, you mention that you believe it is the weather. Is there a way to empirically prove this? Is it worth getting a expert round to survey and provide a written report? This way you have something documented such that if:

(a) You need to go to court, you have a professional report to support your case
(b) It is something that you can make all clients/customers aware at the point of purchase
(c) Find a solution to the problem and rectify it.

Embrace the complaints and let them work to your advantage rather than against you.

 

[Newchodge]

It is possible to buy a door and frame for £20. You are selling a quality product for 100 times that. You need to find out what is wrong, because something obviously is - I would expect the £20 version to withstand the first few years' weather, whatever the conditions. If I had paid £2,000 I would expect immediate apology, replacement and an explanation.

Blaming the customers and hiring a solicitor should be the last thing on your mind.

 

[Vectis]

It may not be your fault, as you say, but it's definitely your responsibility. Surely a new door and frame costing £2000 should be sealed well enough so it doesn't swell up in the rain. Ok, we've had more rain than usual but, in my view, unless the door is perhaps submerged (i.e. in a flood) it shouldn't be swelling. Wouldn't every wooden door in the country be affected if that were the case?

I'd hazard a guess that something has gone wrong either in the manufacture or fitting and I think you should be focusing on putting that right.

Are you fitting these doors yourselves or is it subcontracted or does the customer get this done? Have you gone out and inspected the doors to see what the problem is? If you haven't, it might be worth putting aside a few days to do this. And, in the short term, I don't see you have any option but to replace them - at £2000 that's the least I'd expect as a customer.

 

[Ashley_Price]

I do feel I am in agreement with the others here. However, again with doors that are this expensive I would suggest you do get an expert to inspect them. They maybe a long way from you, but if the doors have got this problem then they need to be inspected in situ.

Whether the problem is your fault or not, as a customer, having just spent £2000 I would expect a little more customer service.

If you can prove that it's due to their joiner fitting them poorly, then the customer being a solicitor is probably chancing his arm. He is scaring you precisely because you feel he will win.

 

[Ashley_Price]

I'm not even sure what factory finished means.

Basically, all the customer has to do is fit and decorate them.

 

[Spearmint]

I strongly suspect that the problem here is associated with the timber rather than its fitting.

Irrespective of whether the wood is hardwood or softwood, timber is no longer seasoned like it used to be, where it was left outside to dry out naturally for years. Speed and cost is of the essence nowadays but it comes with a price (a durability one). To achieve the fast drying, its invariably kiln dried or perhaps not left long enough to dry, and consequently, the timber doesn't last as long as it used to, irrespective of how its assembled and manufactured. I've had experience of seeing new timbers (even as skirting boards) last only a few months, where they were used to mask a rising damp problem.

Personally, I feel that one will need to remedy the matter with the customers as you and others that offer a joinery service should be the experts in this particular field, and what they've asked you do doesn't cut the mustard!

To remedy this, one would have to seriously consider where your timber is being sourced from, and how it is seasoned, but its not easy to do, for you can easily get fobbed off with bull???? in order to acquire orders.

Regrettably, its also difficult to prove that the timber is at fault, so you can't pass the additional costs on to the timber suppliers.