Customer service

What the heck is wrong with people?

Yesterday I ordered flowers for my sister's birthday from one of the online biggies, and spent the day smug in the thought that "any minute now" she'd get her gift.

Once the clock ticked past 5 p.m., though, and I still hadn't heard from sis, I called her. No delivery. So I followed up with the website, then called the 800 number, and after a lot of jerkaround was told, "Oh, I see. The local florist canceled your order."

Of course. Why not. I received no notification, nothing at all, of this "cancelation" and of course found out too late to do anything for my sister's day. The website CSR did "offer" to give me a "full refund" on my credit card. Gee, thanks for not charging me for less than nothing.

This morning, still seething, I called both the florists in her tiny little town and learned that neither had received an order from 1-800-screwyou yesterday. I contacted "online chat/order followup" after that and was offered a $20 "savings voucher" off my next order. Again, gee, thanks. That's less than a 30% savings off another chance to get screwed. A computer-generated form letter followed assuring me, "Rest assured that your case has been logged and we will come back to it when striving for this to not happen again in the future." Great, NOW they know that lying's bad, mmkay?

Sorry, I'm just venting. But I'm still shocked whenever I run up against the form-letter, routinized unpleasantness that passes for big-company customer service.

(And on another note, anyone have any good ideas for a good belated birthday present that ships well?)

Margie

E30, P71, or Miata ?

Marjorie Suddard wrote: (And on another note, anyone have any good ideas for a good belated birthday present that ships well?)

Cash?

To quote my mom, it's easy to ship, easy to carry, something she'll use every day, comes in her color, always fits and something she doesn't have!!

-Rob

I told you you should have gone with Schwan's.

jg

JG Pasterjak wrote: I told you you should have gone with Schwan's. jg

I hate it when you're right. But it was a cake made of flowers! With chocolates! And candles! I couldn't resist.

Margie

I think I've found an example of excellent customer service. I called a magazine about an issue with my subscription renewal and my call was answered by the very pleasant office manager who put things right.

Long story short my t-shirt arrived yesterday. Thanks Margie.

In reply to Wayslow:

Oh, cool. But this wasn't just designed to get people to post a "yay team" for us. Everyone gets it wrong sometimes: I got a guy the other day who hadn't gotten his back issues, and not only did I give him the wrong answer at first (Gary's at an event, so I was trying to figure out where his issues were), but once I tried to transfer him to VM so Gary could sort him out Monday when he gets back, I dropped the call. I hate it when I suck.

Hey, I know what! When he calls back, I'll tell him it's not our fault, the local shop canceled his delivery, and offer him 30% off his next order. That'll make it all good again.

What will actually happen is that Gary will expedite another package since he didn't get that one, and include some extras as well as a handwritten note, because Gary does NOT suck. I love that about him.

I guess my point is that it actually bothers me when we screw something up. Not so much my flower friends.

Margie

Unfortunately, customer service in a lot of companies is the name of a department, not an attitude. These guys do a good job on very nice fruit baskets...Paul's

I think you ran into what passes for CS with most retail businesses these days... as for your Sis I've had great success with these folks

http://www.ediblearrangements.com/Default.aspx

When I moved I went online and reserved a U-haul truck. I got my confirmation info and everything. I had buddies lined up to help move and all was well. Now comes moving day (a Saturday) and I go to pick up the truck. I'm waiting in line behind someone who was none-too-happy with this u-haul place. So I am waiting a while. My wife calls to tell me that my friends are showing up. So I tell them that they can get things moved into the living room or something, or stand in a circle singing "Kumbaya" or something till I'm back with the truck. Anyway when it's my turn at the counter I say "Hi, my name is Dr. Boost. I have a reservation for a 24' truck." He says "no you don't." I'm stunned and not sure if he's joking or in a round about way asking my to jump the counter and staple his nut sack to his chin. So I calmly explain that I made a reservation over the net for a truck, and here's my paperwork. He says "yeah, you have a reservation for a truck I don't have. So did the lady before you and I bet the guy behind you. See, this is a self-storage facility. I own one U-haul truck for my customers. U-Haul sees that I am a 'rental facility' (the one truck) and make reservations here. Every Friday and Saturday I turn away 6 people who rented a truck I don't have." I've told U-Haul about this many times and they keep sending me customers." I'm standing there, just blinking like Dora the Explorer trying to take it all in, I have 10 guys at my house getting stuff ready to load into a truck I don't have. This guy is sooooper nice and get's on the computer and phone to try to get me a truck. The only possibility is a smaller truck that is 45 miles away and is only a possibility for a 1/2 day rental. So I go home, sans truck. We came us with a few pick-up trucks and Cherokees. It took ALL day and many, many trips but we got everything by the garage moved by cars. I even had boxes in the 74 mini. The next day I got a smaller truck and moved my garage.
Anyway, when I called U-Haul to 'splain what happened they didn't care at all. I explained about the storage facility and they were unfazed. They offered XX% off my next rental. I asked them what good that would do me since I will never rent from them again.

I am huge on customer service. If you take care of me I remember it and will do business with you every chance I get.

Our customer service is not the best at work. I work every day to try to change that. I will personally deliver packages, and I try to help customers as much as possible. (For a testimonial, ask Pigeon if I do an okay job...I hope he says yes.)

Oh...Yay team! GRM customer service is awesome.

I worked for an ISP where good customer service was far from the norm. We would do all that we could do given our system we had to work with, and techs would close out tickets left and right because they just didn't feel like going to that part of town.

Good customer service has gone away from most of this world.

You guys have it easy over there, at least businesses still think they're obligated to give you a toll-free number and an email address if you need to contact them. The standard over here is that the "customer service" hotline is a PAY NUMBER and you still have to wait 20 minutes on hold to have your turn with the robot.

I'm currently at war with my (former) land line and DSL provider, whose name I will not VODAFONE IS A TERRIBLE COMPANY DON'T EVER DO BUSINESS WITH THEM EVER mention except to say they sponsor some motorsports. They cut off my service for no reason and then expect ME to pay 51c/min to call their 0180 pay number from my cell in order to find out what their problem is? Nuh-uh. It's my own berkeleying telephone provider!

I've been sending them letters, seriously, like old school snail mail, in the post, with stamps on it. The last one was addressed to "Dear numbskulls".

I steal most of my customers due to the competitions piss poor customer service. The only way to get customer service is to deal with the little companies who actually want your business. You can tell you have the right company when you call and ask for the owner he/she actually answers the phone.

I have dealt with the 800-you might get it someday places just once. That was one time too many. Not to mention the 12 million emails they send you for the next ten years.

What does your sister like, hobbies that kind of thing?

Flowers die in a week, nice thought though. Gift Cards are good, but that says "I give up" to me; however....

M&Ms sell 1lb. bags with personalized messages on them, shipped in dry ice in a styrofoam cooler.

Gift Card from a local Day Spa, get her an oily rub down by Hans the body builder.

Hire someone to come to her home or apartment and cook a meal. Candles, music and they clean up.

Hot air baloon ride?

Dan

Hmmm. I currently have a 'running gun battle' going with SCCA's membership service. Nice folks but the problem's still there. I might have to kick it up a notch.

I ordered flowers for a wonderful girlfriend's birthday from a florist 2 miles from where she worked. Did it via the 'net. It arrived three days late from Tennessee!!!! We live in CT! They probably still remember my face from when I let them have it at the local Rotary Club meeting the owner of said franchise attended.

So, Marjorie, I feel for you when you have a big event, and it all goes gown the dumpers because of an idiot.

We had a problem with our DSL line and ATT. Setting up a service call was impossible to do and finally they told us that the tech would appear on a Saturday nite. We laughed at them then and when no one appeared they told us that he was just running late. When no one ever appeared, I called again and got a supervisor and he admitted that there was no one to do the service call. We got a service call by a tech on Sunday morning! I then had to argue with them over getting credit for their lack of service and lying to us. Unfortunately I dont want to do business with Charter which is the alternative because they turned off all service to my house when I cancelled their internet service which I had to cure standing on the berm at our beach condo so that my house sitter would have some entertainment. Customer service is just a concept to most companies IMO.

In reply to DrBoost:

U-Haul is the devil.

A tail of two parts stores:

I picked up my 9C1 in June of 2000. I do the usual tune up with parts from Vato-Zone. Plugs, wires, oil, brake pads, the works. Pony up the extra for lifetime pads and wires. I ask how this works. They record your purchase in the (magic) computer and all you have to do is bring in the cores. Awesome.

Well my car was flooding, long story, but I pull the plugs thinking raw fuel can't be all that good for them. I decide to do the wires at the same time.

8 years after the initial purchase: "Sorry, we can't find that in the computer." Huh? I paid extra for the guarantee. They try to tell me the wires are from Trak Auto, a place that closed down a year before I bought my car. Apparently I can time travel. Berkley you. This winter I need to replace my starter. I had done it once before and I used NAPA. They have a starter, one with a two year warranty, and a lifetime one. I'm broke as hell and I can't remember which one I bought. I think I have the two year one. Of course, this is two years and two months later. The NAPA guy says that's OK, if its 2-3 over we can cut you some slack and use the warranty. Fantastic. The dude just saved me $220.00!

Guess which one I won't set foot in?

In reply to Appleseed:

Napa rocks.

AT&T charged me for a long distance call I didn't make. When I called the 800 number and asked them who the call was to, they said I should call the number (and get charged again) and find out, myself. When I asked, not in my nicey, nice voice to speak to a supervisor, I was "reminded" that bad language will not be tolerated and that I would have my call transferred to accounts.

Some companies not only DON"T have the concept of customer service in mind, they apparently want to punish THE CUSTOMER for getting mad at the non-existent customer service.

One of my banks is almost as bad.

914Driver wrote: What does your sister like, hobbies that kind of thing? Flowers die in a week, nice thought though. Dan

Doesn't matter. Always a winner. That and a little blue box.

I placed an online order for some car parts, and i recieved an e-mail saying that the parts listen below were backordered. I called the number listed for customer service a number of times, and of course there was no answer even after leaving several messages. I then got the idea of calling the phone order number, and the phone was answered on the first ring, and i was able to find out which part they didnt have. That was still enough that i will no longer be shopping there again though.

Jensenman wrote: Hmmm. I currently have a 'running gun battle' going with SCCA's membership service. Nice folks but the problem's still there. I might have to kick it up a notch.

NASA's service has always been excellent. And they send me GRM for free.