What is up with Omaha Steaks?

[Tab]

I've ordered from them maybe 8 times over the last 20 years - not a lot, but every once in a while.

I was given a $75 gift card for Christmas, and remembered it and decided to place an order.

I got back an email that said the following:
-----------------------------------
Thank you for considering OmahaSteaks.com, INC. for your gourmet food
purchases. We strive to please our customers with exceptional products
and service.

Our objective is 100% satisfaction. In researching our files, we find
that you have been less than satisfied with the majority of your
purchases.

Based on our concern for your satisfaction, we feel it is in your best
interest to locate a new supplier for gourmet foods.

We deeply regret our inability to meet your needs. Thank you for your
past patronage.

Sincerely,

OmahaSteaks.com, INC.
--------------------------------------

To my knowledge, I only complained once. Everything else has always been great. A little overpriced, but great. Perhaps they don't know about my other orders (different addresses and different emails over the years), but to place one order and have an issue with it and they were gracious enough to fix it, but now I can't order from them any more?

I wrote them back relatively nicely, explained I have ordered far more than they have thought, and certainly not complained on a "majority" of the orders - only one to my knowledge - and asked them to either kindly ship the order, or refund the money to the person who gave us the gift card. They're happy to accept the money, but apparently you can only take advantage of their 100% satisfaction guarantee only once. I guess that's how they keep it at 100%.

We'll see what they say.

[Phentex]

1. Wow! That's pretty shocking...

especially now when you'd think they'd really need the business. I don't think I've ever heard of anyone being refused based on past history. I like your response, though, and I'm curious as to how they respond.

We had trouble with a gift order from Harry & David. They did not stand by their guarantee in any way. It was suprising since they tout it all the time.

[Tab]

2. They just wrote back

They said that under the circumstances they will ship my order, however they cannot guarantee it in any way.

I don't remember what I originally complained about but it was a legitimate complaint (I'm not a complainer by nature, so it needs to be a real problem) and I've ordered many times from them and as far as I can recall only had one complaint. I wrote them back and said thanks, but I was curious how many complaints they thought I had put in. To my knowledge it's only the one.

Personally I've thought they always tried to have a top-end customer service record. Apparently they do that only by discarding anyone who has a complaint.

Not a problem - there are many other places to order from.

[Tab]

3. Now they wrote back again

I thanked them for sending the product (trying to hold back any snarky comments) but said, just out of curiousity, how many complaints have they received from me? Because in 20 years of ordering - occasionally, grant you - not constantly - I could think of only one occasion when I complained (and I don't complain lightly).

They wrote back and said it wasn't the number of complaints, but that last time I was unhappy with everything in the order. Remember the original time they said I complained about the "majority" of my orders. Now it's just one order they mucked up.

Well, I did honestly complain. For the premium price they charge, I should be happy when I receive the order. Apparently you can only take them up on their satisfaction guarantee once in a lifetime.

I don't know if the company is hard-pressed for cash or what, but they're rewriting the rules on what I understood customer satisfaction should be. It's not like I abuse it and complain about every order. It was one single order, it was a well-deserved complaint, the only complaint in 20 years and apparently it's my fault.

Anyway, I'll get my food and shop elsewhere for gourmet stuff from this point forward.

[hippywife]

4. America's Test Kitchens

gave them a "not recommended" so I wouldn't be too concerned about it. If you're gonna spend that much money on meat local, grassfed and finished is a highly superior product anyway. :hi:

[eridani]

10. I agree--these are popping up all over the place

This trend is helping a lot of family farmers make a decent living.

[sandnsea]

5. I complained to both my local grocery stores

Holy criminy, I better shut up or I might get banned.

I had heard of this with phone companies, just telling people to hit the highway rather than work to fix problems. But when this flippant attitude gets to Omaha Steaks, yikes!

:wow:

[midnight armadillo]

6. It's a profit-margin increasing strategy

It is starting to become common for large retailers to refuse problem customers. For example, if you routinely buy 10 shirts at Big Box R Us and return 9-10 of them the next week, they may refuse to sell to you anymore. Basically, someone noticed that a relatively small number of customers cause a disproportionate # of returns, refunds, etc. which costs the stores money.

In this case I would guess that Omaha Steaks is pursuing such a strategy, but they screwed up when they refused to sell to you, and then didn't have the grace to admit to it. Or the problem order cost them enough money that they calculated your order frequency, profits from your orders, and the returned food cost and decided that dealing with you had too long a payoff point when the relationship would once again become profitable to OS. Either way, fuck them and their stupid computer algorithms.

Go buy some real meat: http://www.eatwild.com/
and live happy :-)

[hvn_nbr_2]

7. They have to keep the margin up to pay for the 75 ad mailings I get ...

for every order I place. That's probably a conservative number. Once recently I got two different mailings from them on the same day.

[orleans]

8. wow--they seem like real assholes. if you complain they won't sell to you?

and you had a GIFT CARD?
they could have been $75 bucks ahead if they stuck to their "guns" and refused your order.
what a bunch of dickwads.

[NJCher]

9. midnight armadillo nailed it

I've been working on some marketing campaigns and now, with all the information companies can gather out of their database, they can see who their most profitable customers are, who's the least profitable, etc. They can do all this with a couple keystrokes.

So yes, what they do is run a report on who's least profitable and I would guess that based on the fact that not all your orders were under your name, they figured they had lost money on you because they backed out the cost of the replacement merchandise and shipping on your one complaint.

That probably wouldn't have been the case if the total of all your orders had been included in the database but these systems are relatively new. There isn't that much of a database they are working on--at most a couple years' worth.

And yes--that is a business strategy. Kiss off any customers where the profit margin is low or nonexistent.

Boy, if you think this is bad, try some of the financial institutions. They want to hit you up with all kinds of fees for maintaining something simple like an IRA and if you protest and take your business elsewhere, just to get your own money away from them costs you plenty. I went through that earlier this spring and it was a nightmare. Note to everybody reading: stay away from H&R Block Financial. They suck.



Cher

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Since their beef is the shits, and overpriced, you aren't losing anything.

I tried them a couple times and thought their beef was substandard, especially considering the price. I could get much better beef from my local grocers, both in NYC and from butchers in Wisconsin.

Fuck Omaha.