Issue a corrective action request to a customer? Never have but I have had many situations when a customer issued a CAR to us and I have jumped on a plane to Mexico, Toronto, even Rome once, only to discover that it wasn't our problem at all but the manner in which the customer was using our product. So, ever trying to find ways to improve things, I came up with a Customer Complaint Data form. The purpose of it is to capture detailed information about how the customer is experiencing the failure, and coincidentally, to help them do some basic investigation to determine if they are causing the problem. I ussualy ask the customer the questions over the phone, using the form as a script.
I have sent this form to customers when I suspected that they may be causing the problem and had them rescind the CAR. It works especially well when a customer calls to inform us of the issue prior to actually issuing the CAR.
My experience is that customers frequently do not analyze the cause of the problem. They stick my part in and if it doesn't work, or if it doesn't fit they assume it must be my problem. Boy, the stories I could tell. They never consider that it may be something else in the chain. This at least gets them to take the first couple of steps in the right direction.
Marc Richardson