Customer Service Rants – I’ve had more than my share of bad customer experiences in the past 2 months and want to document some of them. Trust me, this is like therapy for me at this point!
I’m not in retail management, but my finance and econ classes (or just good old plain common sense) tell me that if you can increase revenues by implementing a low cost idea, then your bottom line will benefit. One way I could think of that is a no-brainer would be to improve on Customer Service. Maybe I’m a bit old-fashioned, but I find myself going back to the establishments that treat me right. Who wants to go to the store with all the frowns, rude attitudes, no help in sight?
By “occurrences” I mean huge errors on a store’s behalf. I am going to share a few of my recent customer service “occurrences” and will try to keep my rants short without taking away from the utter anguish of the experience. Please feel free to share some of your stories as well.
Customer Service Rants
Customer Service Rants Story 1 – Let’s start with the most forgiveable… I called a pizza place recently to order their special – medium pizza with two toppings for $5. I was planning on getting two, one with two toppings and one with cheese. The guy who answered the phone said the best he could do for the cheese only pizza was $6.99 because it’s all computerized. So, I had to get two toppings or I would be charged more. It took me only a second to realize this guy wasn’t going to “pretend” that he was putting two toppings on my pizza. The gentleman was not rude, just clueless.
Customer Service Rants Story 2 – This is a continuation of Story 1. After striking out at the first pizza place, I went to another that had a special offer. I walked in and after not being greeted, I decided to go ahead and ask if they had any cheese pizzas ready. The woman, who appeared to have a permanent frown, sighed and said she thinks one just came out of the oven. She strolled around somewhat frantically to make it look like I was asking her for the world, only to stop two feet away at the table where a cheese pizza had been sitting on the cutting board the whole time. What’s up with the drama?
Customer Service Rants Story 3 – I went to a local “splash park”. My husband and I paid the entry fee for us and our 2 children. The kids were chomping at the bit to try out the water slide. Not 2 minutes (literally) after we entered the gate it was announced over the loudspeaker that the pool had a “contamination issue” (IE: someone pooped in the pool) and the park was to close. Because it was after 4p, they would not be re-opening for the rest of the day. When my disappointed family went for a refund, we were told by the same person who accepted our money 2 minutes earlier there was a “no refund” policy and no manager on duty. They wouldn’t refund our money! I blew a gasket and was told there was no one I could speak to regarding the situation. It was as if every single shred of “common sense” in that park flew out the window. We had to drive home and ream the manager out via/phone the next day to receive our refund and apologies.
Customer Service Rants Story 4 – This one’s a doozy and close to unbelievable. I have a high end, top of the line lawnmower – you know, the kind that starts on the first pull and lasts 10-15 years. It’s less than a year old and still under warranty. Well, my husband was having trouble with it as it would not start. Took it to place #1 which completely refused to do any work on it and told us to leave because the manufacturer was not going to pay for the warranty work and they wanted nothing to do with it. Ok. Next stop – I go back to the store where I purchased it. They swapped out the spark plug, it started, and we took it home and cut the grass. A week rolls around and it won’t start again. We go back to the store where we bought it, they try again with another spark plug, it starts, we go home and cut the grass. A week rolls around and it won’t start again. (NOTE: I did not accidentally copy and paste the same thing over and over again, this honestly happened). This repeated four times before we finally said “Hello, maybe it’s not the spark plug???” The store, which finally believed me after a great deal of unnecessary debate, offered to send it out for repairs but said it would take 4-6 weeks and suggested we go to a very well know lawn equipment service company. I took the mower there and told them the whole story and specifically begged that they just not change out the spark plug and give it back. A few days later, I get the call. Your mower works fine, we changed out the spark plug and it starts now. Again, no matter how hard I tried, they would not do anything different because they said they got it to work and that is all they have to do. I phoned the manufacturer and told them the whole story. They assigned it to a case manager who said she would look into it. She calls me back and says the same thing. Your mower works, go pick it up. At this point, I admit, I lost it. This woman got an earful. We fought (very loudly) for a good 15 minutes. She would not answer my question as to why a mower needed a new spark plug after each use, and she refused to have the repairman look into it any further. This led me to calling her useless and hanging up the phone. I called back, spoke to her boss, told him the whole story, he got to the bottom of it; they found the mower needed a new carburetor and thermostat, and finally got it working again. Was that so difficult??? And, the person who got to break the news to me was the case manager herself. After a 6 week ordeal, this women had to explain to me I was right all along. But, there were no apologies whatsoever! And, to top if off, when I went to go pick it up from the repair shop, I mentioned what a disastrous experience it was and all they could say was “Well, we got it working for you.” Wow.
All of these stories have happened within the last month. It’s almost feel like I’m jinxed and have to hold my breath every time I make a purchase lately. It’s a shame that customers have to fight to be heard.
Do you have any Customer Service Rants stories.
