| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| aunt boby |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 10:46:42 AM
Anybody else discouraged with the total lack of customer appreciation? Recently, after 10 years with the same satellite service I switched to one with lower rates, more channels and newer equipment. My old provider called multiple times promising the same deal only sweeter, just don't leave us they pleaded. I said for 10 years you've never offered me upgrades or discounts but now that you are losing my business you are offering me the world. I dumped them. Just the other day my father was talking about our local garbage service. It was 2 brothers that started it in the fifties with 2 trucks. If their elderly clients couldn't get their garbage out to the street they would go in the garage and dump it in the trucks and put the cans back for them. I long for a simpler time when people were just nicer. Anybody have any enlightening stories of a business putting the customer first?
POOR IS THE MAN WHO CANNOT ENJOY THE SIMPLE THINGS IN LIFE- anonymous |
| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| MagnoliaWhisper |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 06:37:43 AM
I've always had great customer service from Best Buy as well, always going the extra mile. Only one time, did I not. It was so upsetting, I bought our appliances from Best Buy because of my past good experiences with them and their warranties. Well, our fridge died literally just a few days before our warranty was up. However, it was the night before Xmas eve! ACK! I called, any way to get the quickest appointment. Of course they could not come till the day after Xmas. So that was 3 days with out a fridge. I totally understood and was not upset. However, when the repairman came to fix it, he said it needed a part he would have to order, because three days had already passed, and that is unusual for them, but of course this was a special situation because of xmas, any way he said since three days had already passed, if he ordered the part now, it would take too long according to the warranty for it to come. (mind you I had not even read the fine print, but apparently they only have 6 days to repair the fridge or replace it!) Any way, he said to go ahead and go to Best Buy and pick out a new fridge he would call ahead and let them know I was coming. Well.......that's when the "fun" began! I was never treated so badly in my life!
1. I was pregnant!
2. I go in, start looking at fridges, and pick the one I want (with in my warranty money).
3. Then I tell the lady, who I had waited on for about 3 hours, since sooooo many people were there the day after xmas! (many returns, and I guess with the return money were buying large appliances!) This, is the one I want. She goes to ring it up, and I say oh no, this is supposed to be free, I have a warranty......meanwhile she interupts me screaming that nothing is FREE!!!!!!!! I say, but I have a warranty....again more screaming, yeah then a repair man is supposed to fix it! Not you get a free fridge! I say, but the repair man sent me in....No he didn't!!!!!!!!! Yes, he said he was calling ahead and letting you know. Well you are NOT getting a free fridge. He will fix it! I said, no the warranty says it has to be fixed in 6 days. Yes, that's right, and he will fix it! I said, no he had to order a part that would take too long. NO part will take 6 days! No maam' I've already waited 3 days, and it will take 4 days to come. You have NOT waited 3 days! No one waits three days! That's not our policy! Well, it broke the day before xmas eve. WHAT did you expect some one to come on xmas eve!!!!!!!!!!!!! No maam. That's why I waited three days. NO you did not wait three days! That is not our policy! You need to leave the store!
I was in tears. I had never been yelled at like this by a store. It was insane. I however, am not a lame duck. So of course did not leave the store. (Sadly at that time you had to go back to the exact location you bought at to replace, now you don't). So I called the main head office, who I had originally called about the fridge being broke. They said, of course you are getting a new fridge it's in our computer system already, and yes you have waited 3 days maam. Don't worry this will be taken care of. We will be calling the store.
Long story short, the lady had to choke on her own words, and give me a FREE fridge. However...of course I bought another extended warranty (another story on that, I have used these more then once at Best Buy, and they have saved me literally hundreds of dollars! As they always go by them!). I was really heart sick though I had to buy it from the same store, and not another one..but now they have changed that policy. All other BB's I have ever been to have been the best ever. That lady was literally insane. I hope she was fired.
Oh and BB also sent me a 500 dollar check to replace my lost food. Even though I lost much more then that, cause our freezer and fridge are always full to the brim, but better then nothing!
http://www.heathersprairie.blogspot.com |
| EastTXFarmgirl |
Posted - Sep 02 2009 : 05:54:49 AM
After reading most of your stories I'm pretty proud of our town. I live about 15 miles out of Tyler TX which is not a large city but is still pretty good sized. I'm not saying all customer service is great but I do run into those that go the extra mile quite frequently. Many of the businesses have tried to keep that small town feel. A few months ago my husband and I ventured to Best Buy to purchase a new LCD TV and sound system we had been saving for. This was a big thing for us. We are very careful buyers and don't usually spend large sums of money. The young man that helped us was unbelievable. He answered every question we had, spent more than 2 hours with us, allowed us time to discuss it amongst ourselves by stepping away for a short time and then answered more questions. He did not work on a commission just wanted to make sure we were satisfied. He smiled and spoke very professionally, did not laugh at any of our odd questions. Did not make us feel ignorant at all. And did not try to steer us to the most expensive setup. He got us what works best in our home. And another good customer service story... We have a great BarBQ place in Tyler, SpringCreek Bar B Que. You can eat in or take out. If you eat in the wait staff walks around to the tables with large baskets of fresh hot bread right out of the oven. You just get you a fresh loaf anytime you want. The other day I was running some errands in town and did not want to have to go home and cook so I stopped in to get take out. I got my order and as I was leaving I realized I had forgotten to ask for a little cup of extra sauce. I asked the checker if I could have a small container of sauce because my husband really likes to sop it up. The checker looked at me with a straight face and said "no you can not". I was mortified. No one had ever spoken out of the way at this place before. Then he broke out laughing and said "but you can have this" and handed me a whole quart jar of their own packed sauce. I told him he had me going for a minute. I think basically most people in own small part of the world still try to be nice.
Begin each morning with a song in your heart. |
| prariehawk |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 3:22:19 PM
I've found that mail-order businesses dealing in "fair trade" items will usually bend over backwards to please you. I ordered some items from a fair trade company based in England and one of the items wouldn't have cost very much to ship but the other item would have. So the company sent me an e-mail and asked if I still wanted the item that would have cost a lot to ship. After figuring out how much it would cost, I declined the second item. They could have just sent it anyway and charged it to my account, but they didn't. all the other fair trade companies I've ordered from are the same way. they are concerned with how their employees are treated so it only makes sense that they would care about their customers.
Cindy
"Dog is my co-pilot"
Visit my blog at http://www.farmerinthebelle.blogspot.com/ |
| 4HMom |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 2:00:47 PM
When my oldest daughter was just a few days old, my extra "job" for the day was to get the garbage can out to the road (we live where it's rural and used to have to pull the can about 50 yards to the main road). I had just awakened from a nap with her, when I heard the garbage truck go by. I hadn't gotten the garbage out yet, and being tired and hormonal, was really upset. They were earlier than usual that day. I called the garbage company and asked if they had changed their route times and explained why I was concerned. The gal on the phone (one of the owners), had the truck COME BACK to my house for the garbage, and they came all the way to the house! I didn't have to pull it out to the road...the owner had empathy for the new mom! :) I will never forget that. But, alas, it's no longer a small business as it was bought out by one of the mega-garbage haulers!
"Be the change you want to see in the world" -Gandhi |
| 1badmamawolf |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 1:51:57 PM
I remember all the Mom & Pop places there were when I was a kid growing up in Missouri, and there NEVER was a problem back then, the statement, "The customer is always right" was a rule lived by.
"Treat the earth well, it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children" |
| prairie_princess |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 12:03:11 PM
toby, i wonder if we had problems with the same satellite provider.... and my husband WORKS for them!!! he noticed awhile back our rates all of a sudden got sky high. so he called and turns out, because they don't offer the package we had anymore, they turned of my hubby's employee discount!!! so, we got rid of them. and, like you said, they called many, many times... sometimes twice in the same day! like they don't keep track of calling people. and they ask why we cancelled them... i don't want to say anything just in case it gets back to my hubby's bosses, if they get mad because we cancelled. we just don't have cable or satellite anymore... they both aren't worth it because the customer service is terrible. and they overcharge. too bad we can't recommend my husband's product because we are also so fed up with it!!!
one GOOD customer service place i've dealt with is Yankee Candle... they are the bomb when it comes to customer service and have been every single time i interact with them. it's happened a few times where they'll run out of a product i've ordered before they can get it to me. so if i call, they immediately deduct my money. sometimes they've sent me something wrong, like once they packed a set of candles wrong and sent me 2 instead of the 3 it came with... i called, they apoligized, shipped out the correct set and didn't make me send back the mistake and didn't charge me for it. and many times if something is wrong and i've already had it taken care of, a customer service person will call me again after the transaction and apoligize AGAIN and tell me how much they appreciate my service!!! thank you so much, yankee candle! oh, and they are ALWAYS helpful and friendly when talking to customer service on the phone...
"Only two things that money can't buy, that's true love and homegrown tomatoes."
- Guy Clark
"The man who has planted a garden feels he has done something for the good of the world."
- Charles Dudley Warner |
| KayB |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 11:30:10 AM
I think we're going to change shortly. We got a new TV that is HD equipped and when we asked our provider about it, they wanted $100 deposit for us to have HD. We said that's crap since we've been good customers for years, never paid late once, and all of our goodies - TV, phone, cell phone and computer - are through them. When we had the TV installed, the installer said that most other places will give you the HD free if you go with them, so we're going to check it out.
KayB
Life's a dance you learn as you go |
| dutchy |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 10:59:56 AM
I might have one :)
I live is a very small village of not even 1000 people. We have one pop and mom grocery store. The now owner is the son of the previous owner (IF I have that correct mind you)
He is a great man. When my neighbor isn't capable to go to the store, he bring her groceries, takes her bankcard (he knows her ID number for that card!!) and then goes to his store, withdraws the amount she is due, then brings back the card.
Another neighbor. She is not able to go either, he brings her whatever she needs, sometimes she forgets something so he brings it again later the same day. That happens almost every day, she calls him numerous times for a forgotten item :) and he just brings it straight away. She often has her key in the door, so he can just walk in without her having to open the door.
She has her key in the door other times too, no problem.
If you go to that store and the bankcard machine happens to be broken, he writes down the amount and you can take the groceries home and pay later. Also when you are out of money at that moment (happens to me sometimes duh) I can just take a few necessities and pay later :)
MY neighbor (an elderly man) always puts many garbage bins behind the gardens so people only have to put them away without having to walk far. He does mine too, and I never ever asked him to, he just does it :)
I know the neighbor doesn't have a business, just thought to add :)
Hugs from Marian/Dutchy, a farmgirl from the Netherlands :)
My personal blog:
http://just-me-a-dutch-girl.blogspot.com/
Almost daily updates on me and mine :)
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| FebruaryViolet |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 10:58:39 AM
I'm trying to think, but nothing really comes to mind. That's what happens when you live just outside of a big city in the suburbs. Things have TOTALLY changed around here over the years--more and more big box stores, more and more unfriendly people, and less customer service. Our postman cussed at me a couple of days ago--I kindly hollered across the street as I got out of the car to see if I could bring him two letters and he replied, "you can bring them here because I'm not walking all the way over there!!!" I misheard him and thought he said, "I'm coming over there" so I turned back around to walk toward the box. Then he said, "I TOLD you to bring them on because I'd already been over there, and you get p**sed off at me!!!" And I corrected him, he said, "Oh, sorry..." But I thought, really, you're a government employee who gets paid a lot of money to be a complete jerk. So I told him he should learn to be less defensive. So, I'm with you--where's the customer service?
Musings from our family in the Bluegrass http://sweetvioletmae.blogspot.com/ |
| Alee |
Posted - Sep 01 2009 : 10:52:38 AM
I really like my Fed-Ex store. I had to go in the other day to print some things for college. Nora was with me and first the guy there gave her two HUGE sheets of paper (like 4 foot by 3 foot pieces) to draw on. Then I found out my self-serve printing was going to be close to $40! YIKES, so I was looking at the ink cartridges to buy and replace the used up ones in my printer. When the guy heard why I was looking at the ink, he let me use his flash drive, a "free" card to re-log onto the self serve to save my document to the flash drive, and he printed it off his computer for $6. He could have let me buy $20 in ink and earned more money for his store. He could have let Nora be bored while she waited for me, and he could have made me pay on my card for the second session on the Self Serve computer. He was awesome! And he has given me discounts and printing deals once before so I know he really is trying to take care of the customer all the time. Last time he was so helpful I was back in the store a few days later and his boss was there (The regional manager) and I told her how nice and considerate he was. I hope he got a raise!
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.awarmheart.com
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com
www.allergyjourneys.blogspot.com
Put your pin on the farmgirl map! www.farmgirlmap.blogspot.com |
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