My Review of Water For Life USA the company
This was my terrible experience when I reached out to Water For Life USA which is the US sales division of the KYK Harmony Water Ionizer and KYK Genesis Water Ionizer. This is probably the worst experience I’ve ever had in pre-sales.
The US site is http://www.waterforlifeusa.com 1.877.255.3713
The company in Korea is http://eng.kykok.com/
I was in the market for a new water filtration system, and I had heard of the Japanese version of this water ionizer called Kangen. I had my assistant search online to find any reviews, because it’s a very expensive machine.
In the process of looking, he found Kangen’s Korean competitor The KYK series of water ionizer units – the KYK Harmony Water Ionizer and KYK Genesis Water Ionizer.
I was excited to learn that it was a lot more reasonably priced, and I proceeded to call the US distributor at http://www.waterforlifeusa.com – Water For Life US.
I ended up speaking to Alderin Ordell, and the conversation immediately went downhill.
I had several questions to ask him. Who buys a $1,300 machine without asking questions? Every time I’d ask him a question, he either rhymed off things that were too technical for me to understand (like I really know all the ins and outs of filters, I expected him to put it into laymen’s terms for me), or he sounded like my questions were an imposition for him.
In the beginning I told him I was going to want to taste the water first.
I learned early on that water does taste different and there are certain waters I like, and others that dry my tongue out, or have a bitter taste to it that’s hard for me to describe.
I told him I didn’t live in a big city any longer, but I was thinking he could send me a bottle or something.
When it came to the part about how I was going to install this thing since I didn’t want to hire someone to do it for me, it took WAY longer than I expected to get a straight answer from him. I FINALLY got him to tell me that it could be run through the sprayer or soap area of the kitchen sink, but he didn’t even ask if I had those things because not all houses do.
Fine, I think after discussing the pricing, payment plans, warranty, how to install it, etc. that we are almost finished. I bring up the fact that I want to taste the water, and he starts avoiding the topic. Then he says he knows that because it’s not going to be easy to find someone in my area who has a unit (I told him I live near Detroit, that’s a large city in my opinion), he isn’t looking forward to it, or something like that. I don’t remember the exact wording, but that was the gist of it.
I told him no way am I going to buy such an expensive unit without even knowing if I like the water or not.
The next thing I know, he’s TYPING AWAY on his computer barely saying a word.
I say, “am I keeping you from something?”
He says YES, you are.
Oh my god, LOL, I couldn’t believe he was talking to me this way.
He tells me he’s trying to finish up other orders because it’s almost 5 pm
WHO TALKS TO A POTENTIAL CLIENT THAT WAY????
I had to tell him that’s NOT what you do when you are trying to make a sale, and he says he doesn’t care about money. Who says that to a client???
I said well then you should care about helping people. I mean what other reason is this moron selling units for, if it’s not for the money and not to help people drink good clean water???
I’m an entrepreneur as you all know, and I’d NEVER talk to someone like that or make them feel like they are keeping me from something or that the questions they are asking are stupid.
That’s terrible.
If I was that busy, I’d ask to call the person back, but it was clear he just wanted to get out of there.
During the entire 20 minute conversation I felt like he didn’t care about anything I was asking. He said something to the affect that I should just take his word for it, that this is the best water unit from Korea.
His royal highness didn’t want to be BOTHERED by a potential client.
I told him I don’t care if he thinks the unit is sooooo great, it isn’t just about the unit, I don’t do business with people who aren’t nice, and who don’t care about their clients, so you know what he says? LOL
Then maybe this isn’t the best fit between you and I. Something those lines. He tells me I should go somewhere else.
While I agree 100% that a company has the right to tell a potential client to go away if they are mean spirited, or they cause tons of problems etc., this was NOT the situation at all.
I was in shock again. I’ve dealt with some doozy companies in my time as you can see, but I’ve NEVER had a company like Water For Life USA tell me to take my money elsewhere just because I ask questions and want to try out the product before buying it.
I told him I’m putting him on my blog so others should be forewarned, and I hung up the phone.
I then wrote to the Korean company http://eng.kykok.com/ to tell them what happened, and I never heard back from them.
Figures, the apple never falls far from the tree in a company.
Michelle
I was going to ignore this e-mail from Alderin Ordell at Water For Life USA, but felt the need to address it since he lies so much in his e-mail, it’s clear once again that he has some serious issues.
Just so you know, I already bought another ionizer unit from another water company.
I’ll address my comments with Alderin Ordell by putting asterisks beside my comments and of course quotes around what he says.
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From……: Alderin Ordell
Email…..: info@waterforlifeusa.com
Url…….: http://www.waterforlifeusa.com
“I don’t think it is fair for you to allow a post that smears my character without contacting me and giving me the chance to respond. You can see below that he thinks he’s posting to the site when really he’s e-mailng me.”
***Why would I give him a chance to respond to anything? He treated me like garbage the first time around, there’s nothing to address. You can’t back peddle treating someone with such disrespect. If it had been one thing he said fine, ok, I never would have written this post, but the ENTIRE conversation was shocking.
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“Briefly, this lady called me up after hours, I spent more than 30 minutes on the phone with her trying to answer all her questions before politely letting her know that I needed to get home to my wife, which apparently very much offended her.”
***Lie after lie after lie.
He NEVER told me he had to pick up his wife. I’m only hearing he has a wife NOW!
The only truth in all of this, is that he did 20-30 minutes with me. He makes it seem like that’s a HUGE deal. And he wasted a LOT of time describing technical things to me that I didn’t understand. So if he felt delayed, he should have looked to how he handled the conversation. If you read my post above, you will see how confused I was about the filters and how to set up the machine.
I don’t know people, when you are ready to buy an item that will range from $1,300-1,500, don’t you expect the sales person to spend some time with you while you ask questions???
He answered the phone and it was DEFINITELY before 5 pm. If he had to go, all he had to to was tell me he had to go. I don’t even need an explanation why; that’s NONE of my business. You apologize that you can’t talk, tell the person you will call them back on such and such a date and I’m sure any reasonable person would be fine with that. I know I would have been.
If he closes before 5 pm, why didn’t he say he was closed? Why did he even answer the phone? You can see through his lies by what he says. I can’t read his mind and NO ONE should have to read someone else’s mind. Again, poor communication skills.
If he was in that big a rush, he should have let it go to voice mail. I can’t believe I have to direct this guy on how to run his business.
He was not polite about anything, I love polite people & have no reason to strong arm anyone. I’ll stand by my original post in how he treated me.
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“She also demanded to get samples of the water in Canada which I told her was not possible because Canada was a new market for us and we didn’t have enough distributors set up.”
***Again another lie, I didn’t demand anything and if he KNEW that he wasn’t going to send me a sample of water, then why did he waste my time on the phone when that was the FIRST thing I mentioned to him. I had clearly stated that I wouldn’t buy his unit until I had tasted the water, so I asked him if he could ship me a sample of the water. I mean how bloody hard is that?
The other company I purchased from did that for me.
Once again, had he sympathetically told me that he couldn’t do that and then told me he doesn’t have distributors in Canada (I could have still purchased it in Detroit), that would have been the end of it, but that’s not how the conversation played out.
I was even willing to drive across the border to Detroit to taste the water, but if memory serves me we never got that far because of how nasty he was to me on the phone.
Also I don’t think he ever stated absolutely that he couldn’t ship it to me, he said he’d have to look into it.
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“During our conversation she was very short and demanding with me, and honestly I did not appreciate the way she was addressing me and let her know that I wasn’t interested in doing business with her, at which point she responded that she was going to retaliate by writing this blog.”
***Again, I was not short and demanding, that’s how Alderin Ordell acted towards me.
Anyone who knows human behaviour knows that people who react in a certain manner blame others for acting in that same manner because they feel everyone is like that.
I am by nature a very friendly person, and I like getting to know the people I may potentially do business with. I remember the conversation as clear as day because I posted my experience shortly thereafter.
I didn’t retaliate because Alderin Ordell didn’t want to do business with me. After how he treated me, I wasn’t about to spend my hard earned money with him anyway.
I felt the need to let other potential consumers know what I experienced with Water for Life USA.
If a company treats others in a rude disgraceful manner like Alderin did, I would want to know about it and decide if I’m still going to contact that company.
I’ll repeat again, based on how he’s responded to my post (NOT EVEN AN APOLOGY OR ADMISSION THAT HE DID ANYTHING WRONG) I stand by my post. And how he’s addressed this only further proves my point about his character.
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“So… I don’t think your site is accomplishing what it is supposed to accomplish. This post was written in retaliation by a lady who was offended that I didn’t want to do business with her. Neither myself or my company has done anything wrong to be smeared in this way.”
***It’s not a smear, it’s called a REVIEW and I don’t lie or exaggerate. Your company isn’t to blame Alderin Ordell, the way you talked to me and treated me is what I got upset about. I had no intentions of giving you my money after you treated me in such a demeaning way, so we both agreed on that part.
Now that I understand you are the owner of the company, I recommend you get someone else to do sales for you. Someone who actually tells the truth and doesn’t treat potential customers like garbage. well… I feel sorry for your company and any staff that has to put up with you.
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“What can we learn from all of this? For me, even if you are a customer you still have to be nice to the person you are talking to on the other end of the phone. They are people, too, with families, and they don’t deserve to be treated rudely just because you have taken an interest in their product.
We, as a business, have the right to refuse service to anyone and we don’t deserve to have our hard earned reputations dragged through the mud like this.”
***You are 100% right Alderin Ordell, you have every right to refuse a customer. I agree with you, but as a potential consumer I ALSO deserve to be treated with respect and kindness. Even if you weren’t kind, but you had at least been respectful towards me, that would have sufficed. I NEVER EVER treated you badly, and your lies that I did to deflect on what really hapened will get you nowhere. I can’t be the only person you treat this way.
The ONLY time I become nasty or mean spirited, is when I’m treated that way first. I feel the public has the right to know what I went through.
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“We have sold thousands of KYK water ionizers to this date and are usually touted for our excellent customer service and high quality product.
Please post my response or remove her posting.”
***If you are that great at customer service, then there should be no worries, no one will take my post to heart. But, I highly doubt you are being truthful here since you lied throughtout your entire e-mail. I’m sure I’m NOT the first person you have treated this way. You don’t just treat one person with such disdain and everyone else nicely. That’s not how humans behave.
Because of my post I hope you start treating people much better for their sake.
I also noted in my post that the company in Korea ignored my e-mail about the incident, so it’s clear to me that there is an issue here across the board.