When the Customer Isn't Always Right

One common saying in business is that the customer is always right$-$except that sometimes the customer is wrong. Your ability to deny a customer's request using solid business problem solving is essential to your success. Perhaps even more essential to your success is your ability to communicate your decision in a way that retains the customer's goodwill and respect. Your job in this exercise is to use what you know about adjustment refusals to evaluate the effectiveness of a message to a customer.

Specifically, you will have to apply what you know about making your case, refusing the request politely, and ending on a positive note.

Read the case and answer the questions that follow.

You are the customer service manager for Navigate, the country's leading producer of global positioning systems $($GPS$)$ and other navigation devices. Ms$.$ Camille Franzen wrote to you requesting that you replace her Mountaineer $500($M$500)-$ a hand$-$held device used by hikers, hunters, and geocachers$-$with a new one. She enclosed the broken M$500$ with her letter to you.

She explained that as she was biking on a trail she dropped her Mountaineer $500$ and then biked over it because she could not stop in time. Your service technicians have confirmed that it is beyond repair.

Because her M$500$ is still under warranty with Navigate, she wants you to replace the device. Unfortunately, Camille has the basic warranty, which does not cover damage that results from accidents. It covers only product defects.

If only Camille had purchased the extended warranty at the time she purchased the Mountaineer $500,$ you would be able to replace the device. Regrettably, she did not. It's too bad, because the extended warranty allows for a $"$no questions asked" return policy in the first $90$ days of purchasing any Navigate product.

Here is what you have so far, but you know you will need to revise the document before you send it$.$

Dear Ms$.$ Franzen: