RE: How to start up ecommerce site

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Simple: politely as possable...  

Customer Service Rules: 
Rule #1 Always be politle - even if you feal like going over to his/her house and choking the sh-t out of them....
Rule #2 What you say goes.  
Rule #3 Customer is alway right unless over ridden by rule #2. 

I don't get many problems (with my product).... mind you hardly ever.  People are quite taken with our product.  The only recent problems I have was VISA requested, a few time now, some data on certain transactions (but never revoke the payment).  I guess people look at there statement and say hey - I don't remember buying any thing from that company or [b]PLACE[/b] (being mail/phone/internet - the transaction come from a place there offten not - physically -  been to) .....  some people must have a short memory (or used there spouce credit card?).   I just did a BIG custom order - private label - with a new company - anything that could go wrong it did (not our fault - mostly theres) and we orginally told them a min of 3 - 6 weeks.   Just over a month later they finally placed the order and said "we should have it in 2 weeks at our door for our store opening..." (Smile - OKAY - but in our head we swear alot - called them every name in the book and then some.) We almost kille
 d our selves  but we got it out in just over a week and got it there a day before they really needed it.  Now we are looking at an order for twice that amount (and more to come) - they already know that THIS time we will NOT be doing that turnaround time again.
 
I have been working for or in bussiness for 15+ years (doing nearly everthing from cleaing the floors to selling to manufacturing to purchasing to accounting to customer service - call me "Jack of all trades - master of NONE").  In any business you will have problems(sooner or later).  If you want to say in business and have a GOOD customer base then GOOD customer serivice is MANITORY (not optional).  Some times you have to bend over backwards - even if you make little or no money.  You have to find the cutoff point where you can't bend over backwards anymore.  Normally that is the point where it is costing you more money than it is worth.