When Company Values Meet Reality: A Lesson from a Missing Package
- Eduard Lopez
- Nov 27, 2025
- 5 min read
Values look beautiful on walls. They sound inspiring on websites and in annual reports.But as customers, we don’t experience values in PowerPoint slides.We experience them at the counter, on the phone, and in the moments when things go wrong.
Recently, I had a very concrete reminder of this gap between stated values and lived behaviors, in an interaction with Fan Courier. I’m not sharing this story to attack a company, but to invite leaders and managers to reflect:
What values do you proudly promote?
And what values do your customers actually experience?
Because those are often not the same.
The Incident: Medicines, Missed Calls, and Missed Opportunities
I ordered medicines online from a pharmacy in the Netherlands. They used Fan Courier for delivery in Romania.
By the time the package arrived, I was away on a business trip and missed their call. Two days later, I received an SMS telling me the package was at their warehouse and that I could pick it up myself.
That SMS came on a Thursday.
Friday: I was traveling back home.
Saturday & Sunday: the warehouse was closed.
Monday morning: I went to their warehouse.
Their own procedure (unbeknownst to me) says they return goods after seven days they arrived in their local warehouse). In my case, it had been less than seven days since they first notified me that the parcel was available.
At the counter, the lady told me the package had just been returned.I asked, “What can we do?”Her answer: “Nothing.”
I made it very clear:
I was willing to pay any extra charges.
I only wanted them to send the package back to me instead of to the supplier.
These were medicines, not something I could easily reorder quickly.
Still: zero empathy. Zero initiative. Zero effort to help.
After leaving the office, I called their customer support line. I spoke with three different people, repeating my story again and again. Finally, I was told they could intercept the package at their hub in Bucharest and send it back to me with extra charges. I accepted immediately.
The next day, I received this message:
“Buna ziua, Va mentionam ca expeditia se afla in curs de returnare si nu avem posibilitatea sa procesam solicitarea dumneavoastra.”
Translation: The shipment is being returned and we are not able to process your request.
That was it.No empathy. No alternative. No flexibility.
It didn’t matter that:
It was about medicines.
I was open to pay extra.
I had followed what I understood to be their timing.
The message I received as a customer was clear: “Your problem is not our problem.”
Their Values vs. My Experience.
Here are some of Fan Courier’s stated core values I found online (their wording):
Community and relationships
Excellence
Customer commitment – “Anywhere, with pleasure”
Innovation and investment
Courage and responsibility – focus on finding solutions
Adaptability – an adaptable “living organism”
Pride
On paper, this is strong. But what did I actually experience?
Community and Relationships
If you value relationships, your people act like they care about the human in front of them.
In my case:
No concern that it was about medicines.
No “I understand this is important; let me see what I can do.”
It felt transactional and distant, not relational.
Excellence
Excellence is proven in the exceptions, not in the marketing.
Where was excellence in:
Returning a parcel earlier than 7 days after they communicated to me?
Making the customer chase multiple people for a half-promise?
Ending with a generic “we cannot process your request”?
Excellence would have sounded like:“We are sorry about the incoveniences. Here’s what we can do to try to fix it.”
Courage, Responsibility, and Adaptability
They say they focus on finding solutions and are adaptable.
In reality:
Nobody took ownership.
“We cannot” came before “Let’s see what’s possible.”
The process won over common sense, even in a health-related case.
Courage and adaptability would have meant:
Escalating the case.
Allowing an exception.
Coordinating internally to intercept the parcel.
Values on paper: courage, responsibility, adaptability.Values in practice: rigidity and avoidance.
The Real Outcome: A Lost Customer
With their behavior, they achieved one thing very clearly:They pushed me away as a customer.
Not because something went wrong with the package. Mistakes and delays happen.
They lost me because of:
A lack of empathy.
A lack of ownership.
A gap between what they say they stand for and how they behave when it’s inconvenient.
Customers don’t leave because of your slogans.They leave because of that one moment when your people and processes fail to live up to your declared values.
Dear Leaders: What Values Are You Really Delivering?
Let’s take this beyond Fan Courier. This is not just “their” problem. It’s a mirror for all of us.
Think of your own organization:
Which values do you proudly show on the walls, in presentations, and on your website?
Which of those are consistently felt by your customers in real interactions?
And which exist mostly in branding and HR documents?
A few uncomfortable questions:
When a customer faces an exception, do your people have the freedom to act in line with your values, or are they trapped by procedures?
Do you reward employees more for “following the process” than for “doing the right thing for the customer”?
When something goes wrong, is your first instinct to protect the system or protect the relationship?
If a customer told a story like mine about your company, would your values be visible in the way your people responded?
Values are not what you declare.Values are what your people do when it’s inconvenient.
Turning Values from Posters into Practice
If you’re a manager or leader, here are some practical steps you can take:
Translate values into behaviors.
Don’t stop at words like “customer-centric” or “excellence.” Define what that looks like:
“We explore at least two options before telling a customer something cannot be done.”
“We escalate health- or safety-related issues immediately.”
Empower the frontline.
The people at the counter, in the warehouse, in the call center are the ones who deliver your values.
Do they have authority to make exceptions?
Do they feel safe to say, “Let me try something different for you”?
Ask for “value moments.”
In meetings, ask:
“Where did we really live our values for a customer last week?”
“Where did we fail, and what got in the way?”
This moves values from decoration to daily practice.
In the End, Values Are a Choice
Every organization will face situations like mine:
Timing issues.
Miscommunications.
System constraints.
What defines you is not whether problems happen.What defines you is your response.
Fan Courier says:
“Anywhere, with pleasure.”
“We focus on solutions.”
“We are adaptable and responsible.”
What I experienced was:
“Only within our process, with indifference.”
“We focus on closing the ticket, not solving the problem.”
“We are rigid and not accountable for impact.”
As leaders, we all have a choice:
Do we want values that look good in a presentation?
Or values that our customers can actually feel in real situations?
If you are serious about the second option, your next step is not another internal campaign, but an honest conversation with your teams:
“These are the values we claim. Where are we not living them? And what must we change so our customers can truly experience them?”
Because in the end, your real values are not what you print on the wall.Your real values are what your customers experience at the counter, on the phone, and especially when something goes wrong.
Eduard.
PS: After this article was written, I got the following message from the online pharmacy in the Netherlands:
“Thank you for your email. We hereby inform you that we will resend your order to the address below as soon as we receive it. We will not charge you any extra costs for this return. We hope this information is sufficient and wish you a pleasant day.”
What a difference in treating customers!
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