Review: Secure Purse products. Just say no....

[Giggles]

Well, dunno what to tell you. Idk what SP said to SoonerDVM other than what was posted above... so I don't have a full picture. Anyways, I just saw that somebody had posted a link to this discussion on SP's facebook page, and I wanted to throw in my two cents. I've never had a negative experience with them and I've been very satisfied with their products (I have a couple of Roma holsters and other tactical gear). I also know a lot of folks who've tried out the Roma purses with great satisfaction. From my experience, they've always provided great customer service. I just don't think it's realistic to expect retail companies to accept broken items beyond the warranty. Especially not small companies. It's hard enough to stay in business with the way things are these days.

Anyhoo, not trying to be a s#*t disturber. :p

 

[vvvvvvv]

Any company that gives a hoot about their reputation would do something to help and/or appease the customer.

This.

It's an especially bad business practice to manage a social media account by deleting any evidence of complaints rather than showing other potential customers how you deal with issues with products that you sell. Customer Service 101, Business 101, and Marketing 101 all cover that. It would have left a positive message to customers by leaving the complaint as well as the response that a Customer Service Manager wanted to hear about it directly, while moderating the "troll war" comments. Instead, by deleting the comment thread completely, it sends a message to customers that complaints are unacceptable.

 

[Giggles]

It would have left a positive message to customers by leaving the complaint as well as the response that a Customer Service Manager wanted to hear about it directly, while moderating the "troll war" comments. Instead, by deleting the comment thread completely, it sends a message to customers that complaints are unacceptable.

I agree. But there's also a fine line.... I can understand them taking the whole post down if people were using it as an opportunity for a "troll war." if ur a business who runs a social media wing, how dyou deal with people ganging up on you or jumping on a complaint bandwagon about one negative complaint out of the hundreds or thousands of satisfied customers out there? I've followed them on Facebook for a long time, and for a couple of years, they didn't have any posts or any kind of presence at all... just a page they hadn't done anything with. It wasn't till recently that it looks like they started really becoming active. Maybe they'll learn from this one that hard way... either way, it doesn't make the taste in SoonerDVM's mouth any sweeter.

But I read their response to the guy who posted the link to this thread, asking what their opinion was... To my knowledge, that post is still up (i.e. they haven't taken it down) and it seemed like a well-thought out reply. They even said that they encourage and welcome all forms of feedback. I don't know if one customer service mistake should be enough to condemn them for eternity. just my opinion.

 

[RickN]

I will let my wife and daughter know to avoid Secure Purse. Does not sound like a company we want to deal with.

 

[vvvvvvv]

I agree. But there's also a fine line.... I can understand them taking the whole post down if people were using it as an opportunity for a "troll war." if ur a business who runs a social media wing, how dyou deal with people ganging up on you or jumping on a complaint bandwagon about one negative complaint out of the hundreds or thousands of satisfied customers out there? I've followed them on Facebook for a long time, and for a couple of years, they didn't have any posts or any kind of presence at all... just a page they hadn't done anything with. It wasn't till recently that it looks like they started really becoming active. Maybe they'll learn from this one that hard way... either way, it doesn't make the taste in SoonerDVM's mouth any sweeter.

But I read their response to the guy who posted the link to this thread, asking what their opinion was... To my knowledge, that post is still up (i.e. they haven't taken it down) and it seemed like a well-thought out reply. They even said that they encourage and welcome all forms of feedback. I don't know if one customer service mistake should be enough to condemn them for eternity. just my opinion.

It's not still up there.



Considering there's 63 Likes and 10 Talking About This on that page at this moment ("Talking About This" is a weekly average), I highly doubt the "troll war" story in my professional experience, but I'll assume that it's true. How would I, as a professional, deal with a "complaint bandwagon"? Let the legit ones stand and attempt to address them, and moderate the piling-on.

 

[Quick_Draw_McGraw]

Well since it looks like "they" are probably on the board, here is what "they" posted on Facebook.

Secure Purse Hey, Rob. Thanks for sharing this review with us. It's true that this customer had a negative experience that we attempted to correct and unfortunately were unable to. However, the review given by this customer is not entirely representative of the situation doesn't reflect the full scope of things.

Firstly, Secure Purse is a retailer, not a manufacturer; we do not yet make any purses of our own. We buy wholesale from several providers, who all have their own warranties and return policies. We have to abide by them, as our providers will not accept returns even from us if it is beyond their stated warranty period, and our company is too small to be able to eat those costs ourselves. When this customer brought their particular concern to us, we informed her that it was well beyond the manufacturer specified warranty period. If we had our own line of purses, manufactured by us, we could set return/warranty policies on them that we felt were more reflective of our desire to provide quality customer service.

Secondly, at the time, Secure Purse only sold purses made by Chinese-based Roma Leathers. These purses provided affordable alternatives to gun concealment in the form of purses with locking concealment pouches, but didn't have the steel reinforced cables that Gun Tote'n Mamas sells. For that reason, we later became a retailer of these GTM purses and they are among our best selling models to this day.

Thirdly, the customer claims that only one person commented other than her, and that was simply not true. A couple of other people commented on it and Secure Purse took down the comment, preferring to avoid a troll war on the thread. This form of moderation happens on Internet forums, discussion boards, etc., on a daily basis. It is true that in taking the comment down, we also took down our response to the comment, in which we offered to attempt to correct the customer's dissatisfaction. Our response directed her to call the owner, Anita, at our business line. Understanding that our customer service line was very prominently featured on our website, www.mygunpurses.com, and in the "About" section of our Facebook page, we did not anticipate that this was going to cause a problem.

Finally, we do stand behind our products and we understand that our selection of concealment purses is constantly improving. For many years, we only carried the more affordable, but arguably lower-quality Roma handbags. Now, we carry affordable Roma bags, and the very high quality, slash-resistant GTM bags. We can assure our customers that this particular customer's experience was not typical when compared to the experiences of our thousands of other customers who have had excellent reviews for their Roma and GTM purses. Our owner, Anita, has carried a Roma handbag for 6 years and has had no problems. We offered to correct the situation and this customer, unfortunately, wanted more from us than we were able to offer. We simply cannot accept returns, particularly damaged items, past the manufacturer warranty.

If you have questions about anything mentioned above, we'd love the chance to speak to you directly; I find that talking by phone is the best way to resolve issues. Please feel free to check out the "About" section of our Facebook page, or look on the top of our website, for our customer service phone number and Anita would be pleased to speak to you and/or answer any questions.

Thanks again for your input.

Regards,
Secure Purse

It's just really sad to see that so many companies have zero idea about how social media works. They think that having a Facebook page is having "free marketing" but it couldn't be further from the truth. It's making an investment and committing to not just "talk" to consumers, but listen to them as well. The problem is that they don't actually want to listen. Sad, sad simple minded companies.

 

[Giggles]

I was talking about the post that they posted with the link to this discussion; that link is still up. I don't know much about the other one.

 

[Giggles]

It's just really sad to see that so many companies have zero idea about how social media works. They think that having a Facebook page is having "free marketing" but it couldn't be further from the truth. It's making an investment and committing to not just "talk" to consumers, but listen to them as well. The problem is that they don't actually want to listen. Sad, sad simple minded companies.

Idk. Like I said before, maybe they had to learn the hard way. I remember when I first started working in the customer service industry. I didn't always handle every situation perfectly. Not that that was ever an excuse I used for myself, and not that I'm making any excuses for SP's handling.

 

[SoonerDVM]

Giggles, just because we're from Oklahoma doesn't mean we're all stupid. You're in Chico, CA, and.. oh... look, Secure Purse is in Chico, CA. And someone from Chico, CA just happened to join Oklahoma Shooters on the same day a member of Oklahoma Shooters made a bad review of a company based in Chico, CA, and just happens to have "heard" good things about "hundreds of thousands" of happy customers and only one unhappy customer, ever?

 

[Giggles]

Well, I never said I've personally heard from hundreds of thousands of customers, I said I've heard from a lot of folks. And that I'm assuming SP has at least hundreds, maybe thousands of customers, not all of which have been fully satisfied. I don't think I've ever heard of a company that didn't have some unsatisfied customers somewhere. Anyways, I'm sure there've been plenty of people over the years who've had bad experiences. Like I also said before, I'm not trying to be a disturber of the peace. You've clearly got your reasons for not liking SP, and I haven't said anything to indicate that I think they're invalid reasons. And yes, I'm from Chico, where Secure Purse was founded. Yes, I know the owner and her family personally. Yes, my family, including myself, as well as many of my friends both here in Chico and around the country, have purchased from SP. I've been very supportive of her and her business over the years, so I've taken a lot of interest in finding out what people think. She's told me stressful stories about unsatisfied customers who she has tried to help out. Not saying this as an excuse, but it's really hard to please everybody.

One finally thing, my dad was born and raised in Oklahoma, so I actually really like the state. I'm from a real rural part of California, where folks wear jeans and cowboy boots to work and get made fun of by people who come up here from the bigger cities for school at the University. So please don't think I consider you guys stupid just for being from Oklahoma. That said, I'm going to politely leave this thread and leave you with one final comment: Regardless of how you feel towards SP, I hope you find a purse that suits you.