Kelly Bloom, to be clear: I do not "know" Candice any more than I know you. I *would* like to give my perspective as a person that shops for soap supplies though.
YES the soaper/consumer does have an element of responsibility in using products they purchase. If Candace wanted to super-scent her M&P and overused it, thus ruining her 2# of soap, that is TOTALLY her fault, and she should take her lumps. What she described was not that...it was a failed cap, thus ruining her 2# of soap. Additionally, the hot soap on her probably gave her a bad day. Not a bad burn, but a bad day. And it was directly from the cap popping off into her soap base. The cap from colorant that she purchased from your company.
And Candice clearly states "I squeezed too hard". She also stated she had experienced the problem with the couple other similar colors from us. She should have emailed or called. Candice has called in the past and we immediately reshipped 20 lbs of an order that our crew goofed on. 20 lbs shipped the same day she called. We have also refunded returns from her that we normally never accept returns on. We are not hearing about that today from Candice though.
I see now that in the listing for colorant you give instructions on what to do if the colorant does not flow freely. I can only assume that the info came out of this situation (which is something positive!). If it was there before, well then Candice should take her lumps. I suspect it wasn't though, since you chided her in her email for it being "common knowledge" to fiddle with the cap.
The instructions for the thick gel colorants have been on the website since we released them last year. We use these bottles exclusively to cut down on leakage in shipping. It is a trade-off. Let customers snip the tips to get faster flow on the colorants they need this with, or have a high percentage of product leak in shipping. These bottles have the least leakage rate of any we have worked with in the last 18 mos. So, yes.. it was there.
Finally, while Candice came to the forum with a problem, I'm not sure it's your place (on behalf of the company) to put a laundry list of what transpired between you, the company, and she, the consumer. At the very least it's poor form, but the reason why it concerns me is that it seems to be a breech of trust. She went to the source to alert the company to the problem, the company says "You should know better", and then when she comes to fellow soapers in disbelief, the company comes in and airs the dirty laundry? And as an aside, it seems you did so in a bit of a tizzy to not notice that she HAD mentioned the $5 credit. Her story does not differ from what she told us, and what you've cut and pasted here.
In reading what has transpired, SS only stands behind it's products as far as the purchase happens. Then, you're on your own. Hiding behind "Our policy clearly states...." would be inflammatory to me as a customer.
Southern Soapers stands behind our products. There was not a product failure here, there was an operator failure. Customers are expected to read how to use a product, or at the very least call or email if they have a problem or questions. Southern Soapers not only offers customer service on our products, but we often do for other products sold to our customers by other suppliers.
Customer service goes along way. Treating people with courtesy and concern goes a long way. Wanting to make sure everything is a-ok goes a long way. Along with good packaging, speedy service and all the automated type things too.
Yes, this is true.. That is why we shipped the corrected order of 20 lbs of product within 30 mins of her phone call to us. That is why we also refunded a product that she just simply did not *like*, when we do not normally do this. It is also why we issued her a $5 credit even though the colorant fiasco she had was purely operator error.
So hard that the cap completely shot off into my bowl of HOT m&p base, splattering base all over my chest and arms (believe me, it hurt, and I have the red marks to prove it). Not to mention my 1 pound of m&p base is wasted b/c there's .5 ounces of colorant in it.
