Some of my beautiful customers

Posted by: Karen Sunday, September 9th, 2012

Today a customer nearly made me cry. I’m not an emotional person, and never has a customer made me feel that way.  Why? Because he gave me advice. Not many people give me advice, so I appreciated it more than he would ever realise.

This led me to think about my customers, and the interesting characters I have met over the years.  Here I give you an insight into some of them.

– There was the guy that wanted me to write a shipping extension which used buses in Africa. Basically the price of the package varied based on the bus stop it was picked up at and the one it got off at.  He didnt take up my offer

– Another chap from an island off Africa (I cant recall its name) who told me he was opening the first e-commerce shop there, and in Magento.  He showed me pictures of his baby

– The chap from Brooklyn I met at Imagine 2011, we were both fed up of networking and talking shop so he told me about his young family and I told him about mine. He later become a customer

– The really annoying woman who pestered me forever and nearly closed my business because she kept stretching my extensions til they would work from here to the moon. I ended up writing her a completely custom one. She became one of my best friends

– The guy from San Diego who was an ‘entrepreneur’ and thought we could do great things together until I gave him the quote

– The many men from Dallas, Houston way who charm me with their drawling voices and great character

– The ‘older’ merchants, I spoke to one last week, a guy who had built his shop ‘offline’ and was now joining the world of e-commerce. He invited me to his house to meet his family and showed me a great restaurant we should visit

– The man on chat who lived with lots of dogs, all alone. He kept coming in for support, I think he liked me

– The woman with the whirlpools, she was scary

– The coffee guy, you know who you are. Interesting, articulate, helpful and honest. Someone I aspire to be like

– The chap who first asked me to fix tablerates, and left me with the problem for the weekend. Then it was solved and Matrixrate was born

– Dave, the guy that kept hasselling me whilst I was in a hut in Yellowstone in 2009 with my family, I ended up writing an extension that I’ve never had to reproduce since, god it was complicated

– The man who said he wouldnt pay $40 for an extension, then proceeded to go on getafreelancer.com and ask people to build it for less. He came back 6 weeks later

Whoever said working in technology was boring….

2 Responses to “Some of my beautiful customers”

  1. Karen, I love this post! The relationships we never expect to form and the funny stories built alongside are one of my favorite parts of this industry, and life in general. I totally love that someone wanted you to write a shipping extension for delivering by African busses! Also, pretty sure I know this coffee guy of which you speak. 😉

  2. Neil A. says:

    Karen,
    You’re a legend!
    I totally agree that it’s the relationships we take part in that are so special – even more so as business is conducted online and remotely.
    I’ve gots lots of contacts in Africa and other remote and developing places, and knowing something of the struggles of everyday life for them, I admire that person’s creativity in using the bus for e-commerce deliveries!

    So glad you see the special-ness of the people you meet, as indeed you are a rare and special individual in this crazy online world. 🙂
    (and how you going Sherrie?)

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