Lesson learned

I shoot HS sports. After I take the T&I at the beginning of a season, I package the orders and give them to a team parent ,who gets the to the players. In this case, I have been dealing with the same football mom for 6 years (parent club president) This year, I took the shots in September and just this week, I had a parent come up to me at a basketball game and say he never received his son's print's. (This parent has been a repeat customer over the years, and has always ordered more than my largest package.) He really didn't have a reason as to why he waited so long to tell me. I asked the team parent if this kids pictures were delivered and she said that she was 99% sure they were. I looked at my Zenfolio orders and saw what I ordered. My feeling is that the kid got the prints and they never made it home. I doubt the parent is lying although the kid might be when he says he never got the package to bring home.

I'm going to reprint them. I would rather be wrong that way than not print them and be wrong. Going forward, I will have the parent that I deliver the packages to, sign a list of the orders delivered then they will be responsible.

Mike R wrote in post #16546171
Going forward, I will have the parent that I deliver the packages to, sign a list of the orders delivered then they will be responsible.

Also, have the person who the prints are delivered to sign and date that they received their prints.

Old Coot wrote in post #16546736
Also, have the person who the prints are delivered to sign and date that they received their prints.

Good idea. It's sad that it has come to this.

If this is the first 'lost' order in 6 years of doing this I would be less worried about who is 'lying'. You have an opportunity to provide great customer service to one of your large repeat customers.

So adjust your policy going forward, but I wouldn't really lose sleep over it. You provided the pictures, client should be happy. It's only too bad they waited so long to let you know. I would be happy they did, rather than blabbing to their friends that you stood them up on the order.

In this case, the cost value of prints is small, compared to the value of a satisfied customer.

It's still worth trying to track down where those prints went, if only to improve your process in the future.

I agree with Collin: If this is your first lost order or reprint in 6 years, then you're doing pretty well.

They're probably still in the kid's backpack...

CMfromIL wrote in post #16547215
If this is the first 'lost' order in 6 years of doing this I would be less worried about who is 'lying'. You have an opportunity to provide great customer service to one of your large repeat customers.

So adjust your policy going forward, but I wouldn't really lose sleep over it. You provided the pictures, client should be happy. It's only too bad they waited so long to let you know. I would be happy they did, rather than blabbing to their friends that you stood them up on the order.

In a total of 7 years, I have had one bad Credit Card, one Check and 2 unhappy customers who became repeat customers when I satisfied their complaints. This one surprised me because he didn't call me at the beginning of September when the prints were delivered to the team but waited until now. Guess it's not too bad a record.

I'm a teacher. in all likelyhood the kid lost them. Happens all the time. You'd be surprised about all the notices, letters, and papers that never make it home. I'm sure in the grand scheme of things the prints are miniscule compared to the good customer service reprinting them is.

the OP did say High School, I know when I was in High School 90% of the stuff I received ended up stuffed in my locker, so it is in all likely hood in the students locker or backpack. Either way a reprint to a repeat customer is a good idea. Also having them sign for them seals the deal.