'I am not sorry our employees were enjoying the holidays, that's not your exclusive right': Company founder's elegant take-down of ranting Thanksgiving customer leads to record sales boost

  • Liberty Bottle co-founder responded to rant by saying weekends should be spent with loved ones
  • Response to negative review has nearly doubled sales

By Jessica Jerreat

PUBLISHED: 22:51 EST, 13 December 2013 | UPDATED: 06:25 EST, 14 December 2013

The owners of a Washington state drinks bottle company have turned an irate customer's rant into rave reviews.

When Liberty Bottleworks co-founder Ryan Clark saw an angry review from a customer who complained she was unable to speak to anyone over a weekend, he responded straight away.

But instead of using the customer is always right line, Mr Clark defended his staff's right to uninterrupted family time over the weekends and at holidays.

'People over profit': Liberty Bottle founders Ryan Clark and Tim Andis have been praised for standing up for their employees

'People over profit': Liberty Bottle founders Ryan Clark and Tim Andis have been praised for standing up for their employees

'We pride ourselves on doing things the American way,' Mr Clark wrote to the unnamed customer.

'Not the instant gratification 24-hour shopping on Thanksgiving kind of American way, but family and country kind of American way.'

The response clearly hit a chord with customers and fans of Liberty Bottle, an all-American produced product that hires Vets to help with its work.

 

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Liberty's Facebook page received more than 10,000 new likes and orders nearly doubled from the previous month.

'You can't give up your people for profit. You can't give up your ethics, beliefs or your core principals simply for another bottle sale,' Mr Clark told KIMA TV.

A screenshot of the polite response to the negative review, which had been written in capital letters, has since been removed but not before it went viral.

Negative: A customer who had trouble with her order ranted about the company online

Negative: A customer who had trouble with her order ranted about the company online

Company policy: Ryan Clark responded to the complaint, saying he was sorry the customer was upset but adding that staff were entitled to family time

Company policy: Ryan Clark responded to the complaint, saying he was sorry the customer was upset but adding that staff were entitled to family time

A few days after posting the response, the company was inundated with so many orders that it had to post a message on its Facebook page asking customers to be patient and understanding.

The angry customer had complained about a lost payment and, in her review, advised others that 'If they have a deadline - like Christmas - forget about it', Gawker reported.

She complained that instead of being able to prepare for the holidays she had wasted her weekend trying to deal with her complaint.

In response, Mr Clark politely suggested that the customer should try embracing the holiday spirit herself, adding that his staff had been 'home with their families, doing their cards, baking cookies etc'.

And, although he gave her his personal cell number in case she wanted to discuss the matter further, he also reiterated his company policy of 'Family first, product second'.

Co-founder Tim Andis defended his company's customer service hours. 'You're competing against people like Google who have live support 24 hours a day. Being a small manufacturer we're not going to have live support 24 hours a day.'

The company have tried to learn from the experience and have taken note of suggestions customers made for improvements since the story went viral.

All American: Liberty Bottle was founded as a green company that uses U.S. products and hires Vets

All American: Liberty Bottle was founded as a green company that uses U.S. products and hires Vets

Mr Clark was pleasantly shocked by the interest in his company after the response, telling Yakima Herald: 'You can’t trade that for a bottle. You can’t trade that for 100 bottles. You can’t trade that at all.'

He added: 'We have this silly belief that you can do well by doing good. To see the number of people reaffirm [the idea] is kind of a neat thing.'

However, Mr Clark was uncomfortable with some of the negative and nasty comments made about his lost customer, saying his message had been 'Be nice ... not to say mean things'.

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She is a classic example of the spoiled, pampered, self-indulgent American woman. They have such unrealistic expectations. as well as the mistaken belief the world owes them something.

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As I read the comments, it doesn't seem to be exclusively an American issue

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There's much more to this story that the media has left out. It's very one sided. I have a social media link to the customer in question. The COO has lied in his response, and berated the customer publicly. They LOST her order! She ordered the product Nov. 30. They emailed her a week later saying there was a problem, and to contact them asap. That's all it said in the email, they did not post any store/business hours. At that time, there was also no business hours posted on the website. She was not trying to call on a holiday like the COO stated. The company did not access the funds in the window frame paypal allows. The company created the problem! All she was trying to do was contact the company like they asked. Instead, she (the customer) got cyber bullied and death threats because Ryan Clark posted a very unprofessional response to handle a customer complaint that was his companies fault.

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A company I would be proud to work for if I lived closer. The whole "i gotta have it NOW' and the "me, me, me' mentality is really getting old. Believe it or not, Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus, not about how much crap you can accumulate (or buy). I applaud this company for treating it's employees like humans, and not machines

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If you go back far enough on their company's Facebook page (before this all happened), it's clear that their company had poor customer service skills. However, if a customer is frustrated they don't need to become so irate! I'm glad they stood up for themselves. This company looks really cool, I may order from them.

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Unless I see something on a store website that tells me they have weekend customer service or will answer emails on the weekend or the holidays, I assume that no one is working. I fail to see why the irate customer could not have emailed her complaint, then waited until a weekday to follow up. There was certainly no reason to put off other holiday preparations and make such a fuss. Kudos to the business owner for the way he handled this situation.

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Anonymous Coward, there's a reason for that. I spent almost two decades in retail and the simple fact is that the overwhelming majority of "itchy" customers are female, although there are many men who act that way. I'm just glad I never have to work in the service industry with these horrible people again!

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Thank goodness there is at least one company out there who 'gets it'. He stood up for family and it wasn't just lip service. Good going

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They may be good employers, but the product is overpriced and poorly made. The 'locking' bottles are $18 each and do not securely close. Several of my friends have had the same problem so clearly not a user issue. They should redesign the seal style for the lid.

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If you don't like the product, don't buy it. No one was wanting to read a comment about you bitching about the product when that wasn't even the sole purpose of this article. Thanks for the info Negative Nancy.

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Obviously you didn't read the article. This has nothing to do with the product. No one wants a troll leaving comments about something unrelated. If you and your friends don't enjoy the product than don't invest in it. No one has forced you into buying the product. Plus, ythis story was about a holiday grinch and the response from the company in regard to the complaint. In fact it was all over a paypal issue and nothing to do with the product. Lets stick to what the articles about and not just throw out random BS. Have a Merry Christmas Negative Nancy.

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This company also supports their community by donating items for nonprofits, like mine (Outdoor Women's Alliance) for raffles and community events. We whole-heartedly applaud Liberty Bottleworks, their team, their product and their values. Thank you for being upstanding and supporting families and community causes!

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This company also supports their community by donating items for nonprofits, like mine (Outdoor Women's Alliance) for raffles and community events. We whole-heartedly applaud Liberty Bottleworks, their team, their product and their values. Thank you for being upstanding and supporting families and community causes!

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