Tuesday, February 14, 2006

why customer service has gone the way of hymns in a church service

it has become increasingly clear to me as i deal with issues that one must deal with in 'the real world' that customer service is becoming rather non-existent in our culture.

case A:
last weekend when i traded in my 'normal' dvr for one that is 'HD ready'. first note that they did NOT deliver it, nor OFFER it to me, though it is standard service. once i uncovered this dirty little trick, that i was indeed paying for something that i was not currently enjoying, i drove over to pick up a new cable box. never mind that i had to wait in line for a long time, then drove home to realize they had not given me the correct box at all, but rather the same box i'd just 'traded in.' i called the customer service. let me clarify that i tried to call customer service from the very phone they bill me for and it could only get a busy signal. i got through on my cell phone and waited on hold for 45 min before being told...yeah we gave you the wrong box. with no apology. so again i DROVE back over and waited in line for 1 HOUR, and got the new box. i was alarmed that they were not in the least bit surprised they'd given me the wrong box. again, no apology. when i complained they offered me 10 dollars. i explained to them that they'd wasted over 3hrs of my time, and that i was accustomed to making more than $3.33 an hour. 'thats the best we can do.' yes....but are you SORRY?!


case B:
tonite i broke my rule of eating out for dinner during the week by ordering a pizza. it was valentines day after all, cut some slack. i went online to order, which they encourage you to do. then i proceeded to wait 30 min. then i got a call that my order had been placed at the wrong store. never mind that the internet chooses the store. also disregard that i've ordered from the same store in the past. not only does he not apologize that it will take 30 more minutes because the 'internet sometimes thinks one store is actually closer', it is going to cost more at this store. i cancelled that puppy. (that was for you, team awesome)


these are 2 minor cases of poor customer service that i've experienced this week and not really a big deal. but i am convinced this is an epidemic in our society. they teach that business is all about the consumer so the customer is always right. this is no longer practiced. i think it has to do with our self-service driven economy because of enabling technology and high cost of labor. i also think it has to do with, again, technology that makes it possible to say...dont like us? fine, go somewhere else. see if we care.

1 comment:

Will said...

You should tell Manu to stop doing ads for TW. And it sounds like Team Awesome LLC needs to fix the pizza website. Wrong store... unacceptable!