We screwed up. Period. Full stop.
However, as we have already said before (in reply to Adam’s review on our Facebook page), Adam was able to apply the 20% discount on a printer which is ineligible for that discount because of an error on our part.
This was not our attempt to bait-and-switch our customers.
When he contacted us on July 31st, I called him back to ask how he was able to apply a 20% discount. I agreed that there were errors in our system that allowed him to apply the discount, and that we needed to fix our site. I also informed him that we are not able to offer the price created by the error.
It’s true that we could have done a better job of dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s in maintaining our site. However, the limited resources available to us (my regular job, my wife being busy with her family and our kids, and us having lost our assistant at the start of summer), we’re a bit busy with meeting more immediate obligations, and could not react as quickly as Adam wanted. Fixing the problems went on our to-do list, but the problems with the automated coupons being issued was not fixed before Adam received another automated email.
The day after he initially contacted us, we e-mailed a quote to Adam for the printer with a much smaller discount. Minutes after we sent that quote, he responded that another vendor “just offered me a much MUCH better deal- I appreciate your time but it’s simply a much more advantageous proposition. Thank you though.”
Since then, he has contacted us a few more times demanding that we should absorb the large losses caused by our mistake. In light of the escalating tone of his demands and accusations, I have largely demurred on making any further concessions on this issue. While we strive to give all of our customers, established or new, excellent customer service, our interactions with Adam suggested that we would be best served by not trying to retain him as a customer. (Moreover, for the record, we are not aware of any past purchases from him of any equipment or supplies before July 2016 - I invite him to document his claim that he has been a long time customer of ours.)
Some comments and questions raised about unfair business practices, errors on pricing and coupons, and about willful intent to mislead customers. I can categorically state that we have not engaged in any deliberate attempt to “turn a quick buck”. (If anything, my passion in supporting enabling technologies, and 3D printing in particular, has been a labor of love and certainly not to grab money from the 3D printing gold-rush.) I am not a lawyer, but I suggest anyone interested in the issue look at opinions, briefs and case laws that distinguish between errors and unfair practices. I believe we are in the right on this matter.
