Did anybody get the letter from the CEO of Highland Woodworking?

[Steve Turner]

I'll post it here (along with the links) in case you didn't:

A message from the CEO of Highland Woodworking

While we make every effort to please every customer who chooses to do business with us, unfortunately we don't always succeed, even though pleasing our customers has been our greatest source of satisfaction for over 30 years.

The Internet has dramatically changed the way people shop, and the way merchants peddle their wares. Information can now travel at the speed of light.

So why am I bringing this up now?

It's in response to the frustration I feel when we don't click with a customer, and then for some reason, nothing we're able to do seems to rectify the situation to everyone's satisfaction. That happened to us this week. You can read it about it here in the Google Places review dated August 10, 2011.

reviews of businesses and their products are a truly great resource for helping people choose what to buy and where to buy it. Sometimes though the picture gets distorted because it's often only the unhappy customer who takes the time to express their feelings and describe their experience in a review.

We're particularly troubled by the impression people may get when they first read that August 10 review, even though I have placed a response to it online. We would love for our reviews on Google Places (and elsewhere) to actually reflect how most people feel about Highland Woodworking.

If you would care to weigh in with your own impressions of the quality of our tools and the helpfulness of our sales staff, I invite you to click here and take a moment to write a short review based on your own experience.

know that we appreciate the support of all the customers who have enabled us to continually grow our business since 1978, and we always welcome and appreciate your feedback.

Sincerely,

Chris Bagby, owner and founder Highland Hardware, Inc.

highlandwoodworking.com

[-MIKE-]

I was just going to post about this. There are useless troll is the real world, too, not just in this group. Looks like one is effecting this guy's business.

["<<<]

I used to make an occasional trip to Atlanta just to wander around Highland (Hardware) Woodworking. Fuel costs have pretty much eliminated that as a pastime. Years back, I do think the atmosphere was a bit more friendly and they had a sales force that really took the time to talk with customers ... but in recent years, they do seem to have become just a little bit snobby ... not enough that I avoid them or anything ... just a less relaxed & friendly atmosphere.

I've never been mistreated or neglected in any way while in the store ... it's just a feel that is different. I've never bought anything there that I was dissatisfied with in any way, and I really do like their inventory ... much more product than Woodcraft or Rockler,, and at about the same prices.

They used to have Saturday & Sunday classes that were pretty affordable, and gave you the chance to meet up with folks that had a tool or topic in common, but again, the economy has forced the price out of reason for me, considering the travel time & expense.

All in all, I have to say Highland is a very well stocked store where you can actually touch & feel most items before purchasing, and most of the time you can ask a question about an item and get a reasonable answer. I don't understand where this guy is coming from with his somewhat incoherent rant about mistreatment, but hey ... you couldn't please some people if you hung them with a brand new rope. He certainly wouldn't sway me from an occasional trip down there just to look around & kill some time ... in fact, I'll probably be there sometime next week ... gotta make a trip to pick up some computer stuff, and I'll have to make my obligatory trek to Highland just to browse.

[RicodJour]

I doubt it. Probably the review just got under the CEO's skin for whatever reason. Do you worry about what people do WHEN THEY SHOUT IN ALL CAPS? I just tune the idjit out. The CEO did certainly elicit a helluva response from his faithful, though. Everyone is giving HWW five stars now.

R

[krw]

We go up to Atlanta once every couple of months (we're going up the 27th and I'll be up there on business next week). Highland is the toy store my wife even enjoys going looking around (she'll tolerate Rockler, I drop her off at the mall when I go to Woodcraft, and she sits in the car and reads at Peach Tree). I haven't noticed any snobbery. They have been busy when I've been there so maybe not as attentive as others. I'd rather just poke around anyway.

A higher class of products, IMO. They seem to carry more Festools than anyone else in Atlanta, too. ;-)

[Larry Kraus]

Interesting that the link gives the address for Highland, but with a note "Reported to not exist". Possibly the result of retaliation by the original complainer?

[krw]

Which address?

The links in the article just worked for me. Do you have a line-wrap problem?

Or the one at the end? That works too. Try this:

[Eric]

I'll post it here (along with the links) in case you didn't:

A message from the CEO of Highland Woodworking

While we make every effort to please every customer who chooses to do business with us, unfortunately we don't always succeed, even though pleasing our

customers has been our greatest source of satisfaction for over 30 years.

The Internet has dramatically changed the way people shop, and the way merchants peddle their wares. Information can now travel at the speed of light.

So why am I bringing this up now?

It's in response to the frustration I feel when we don't click with a customer, and then for some reason, nothing we're able to do seems to rectify the situation to everyone's satisfaction. That happened to us this week. You can read it about it here in the Google Places review dated August 10, 2011.

reviews of businesses and their products are a truly great resource for helping people choose what to buy and where to buy it. Sometimes though the picture gets distorted because it's often only the unhappy customer who takes the time to express their feelings and describe their experience in a review.

We're particularly troubled by the impression people may get when they first read that August 10 review, even though I have placed a response to it online. We would love for our reviews on Google Places (and elsewhere) to actually reflect how most people feel about Highland Woodworking.

If you would care to weigh in with your own impressions of the quality of our tools and the helpfulness of our sales staff, I invite you to click here and take a moment to write a short review based on your own experience.

know that we appreciate the support of all the customers who have enabled us to continually grow our business since 1978, and we always welcome and appreciate your feedback.

Sincerely,

Chris Bagby, owner and founder Highland Hardware, Inc.

highlandwoodworking.com

=====================

Looks like the owner hurt himself real bad with this little scam!

Attempting to fudge ratings and begging do not display professionalism to the customers.

The response to the angry individual was just a display of guilt and insecurity.

In some statistics the outliers are discarded. When this is applied the 1 star and 5 star radical reviews are discarded and the real ratings are uncovered. Using this technique leaves honest reviews that show the store is average and most are disgusted with the owner`s childish responses. This further indicates that **HE** was probably the clerk in question with the bad haircut, having a bad day and could use some meds to handle life`s hardships in a more professional manner.

Thanks for drawing our attention to this spam technique.

[m II]

Your time clock is mismatched with your time zone, George Watson.

R

[willshak]

Steve Turner wrote the following:

Hmmm. Asking for good reviews from past customers who have not made any reviews previously. Where does one ask to get bad reviews from people who have had a bad experience, but didn't bother to give a bad review?

In the next bad review by "disappointed" under above mentioned CAPS FILLED review, I wonder if disappointed's complaint about "the very slender older man with a very bad haircut working on 2/12/11 at around

12:30 pm" was describing Chris Bagby himself.

[Eric]

In the next bad review by "disappointed" under above mentioned CAPS FILLED review, I wonder if disappointed's complaint about "the very slender older man with a very bad haircut working on 2/12/11 at around

12:30 pm" was describing Chris Bagby himself.

====================

hmmmm.... Must be an echo in here.

That would be my guess too. This guy has done himself some damage as an anal whiner at the cost of bad advertising.

[RicodJour]

I don't think the request for reviews is going to hurt business - it'll help it. Most people don't know or care that much about the actual people involved. Potential customers will look at the ratings and be more likely to buy stuff from a higher rated business, and most people don't get into review back story analysis.

R

[Puckdropper]

RicodJour wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Too many reviews in a short period of time looks suspicious. It's not enough to be a turn off, but just another point in the "don't do it" category.

If the reviews are good quality, though, they'll more than offset the negative point from having too many in a short time.

Puckdropper

[RicodJour]

Agreed.

Right. And most people won't bother going too far back in time to check when the reviews were coming in - they're just interested in the overall rating.

R

[Ed Pawlowski]

"RicodJour" wrote

The owner probably should have just left things alone. Sure, the one review was nasty, but smart people put that in context with real life. No matter how good a business is, there is always the crackpot customer that just cannot be satisfied. When I see a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews and 1 really nasty 1 star or no star, I just figure either the store clerk, customer, or both, did not get laid the night before. Ignore it. You can be sure it is exaggerated too.

[Larry Kraus]

It's back to normal now. When I used the original link last night, there was a notation at the top of the page, just under the 1045 N Highland Ave address. After the "Reported not to exist" statement, there was a button to confirm the report. That line is missing this morning.

[-MIKE-]

Bingo. My buddy sells retail on Ebay and he had over 10,000 positive feedback ratings until he got his first negative. The negative bothered him and he stressed over it, until I told him that he was just beating the odds for too long. It doesn't matter what you do for some customers short of a BJ, they simply are not satisfied with service.

I am suspect of any feedback system on google or any merchant website that doesn't have a certain percentage of negative feedbacks and at least one nutjob. When someone has thousands of transactions and zero negative feedback from customers... someone is cooking the books.