How to Tell If Your Service is Broken

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Jodi Kaplan

Image by laffy4k via Flickr

Warning, rant ahead!

A weeks ago, I asked “When Will It Come?” I’d ordered a hard drive (for backup). Then I waited. And waited. And waited. After three weeks, I contacted the company. They said they’d look into it.

Then they said the card was declined.

What?!

I called Amex. No decline. Not even any record of the request.

Contacted the company again. I was told that they’d contacted me (nope). Then, while I was on the line, they cancelled my order! (Probably because the price was now considerably higher). More back and forth. I told them I wanted it reinstated, a discount, an apology…

What did I get? A $15 gift certificate.

Sorry, not good enough.

I’m never buying from Buy.com again. Ever.

I finally bought a bigger drive from Amazon instead. I ordered it on a Saturday, and it arrived on Tuesday. Now, that’s service!

Things go wrong. It’s a fact of life and business. But if something does go wrong, don’t keep it to yourself, or try to hide the problem. And if the customer complains (legitimately), be respectful. Even better, help them. Fix whatever is broken. If you promise to get back to them, do it. Make them feel better about you, your company, your service, and the whole experience.

Got any stories of horrible service? Or, even better, a bad experience that got turned around? I’d love to read them.

Hair, Glue, and Customer Service

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Jodi Kaplan

Image by Evil Erin via Flickr

While browsing through the online TV schedule Sunday, my TV froze. Then it went black and turned off. I rebooted the box.

Nothing.

I did it again. Nothing. So, I called the cable company. They tried to reboot it.

Nothing (it got stuck halfway through).

After about 40 minutes of this, the rep decided I needed a tech visit. OK. But the first available visit was for March 7 (?!?). No worries, he said. Just call early Monday morning and ask for same-day service. Give them your confirmation number and you’ll be all set.

Monday arrives, and I call. The new rep says no appointments, wait until next Monday. But… but… Sorry, nothing she can do. But?!? BUT!!?!! What the??!! Grrr.

So, I’m getting more and more annoyed. But, I decide not to blow my stack. I ask if there’s a “level 2” person (like in tech). No. There’s nothing she can do. How about a supervisor? She grudgingly transfers me. I talk to the supervisor. He checks around, then calls me back. Nothing that day, but I can have an appointment Tuesday afternoon). Hooray!

Now, why did that have to be so hard? And does anyone know how I can glue back the clump of hair I tore out?

An Easy Way to Screw Up Customer Service

Posted on January 11, 2010 by Jodi Kaplan

New York City’s streets are full of fruit stands. Bananas for 25 cents each or a pound of grapes for $1.50. The prices are much lower than the markets and the fruit is fresh.

Free soup! Or was it?

There was one particular stand I used to buy from a lot. He’d often put in an extra piece of fruit; an apricot or an apple. I’d walk away feeling happy, thinking he was using a “free soup strategy” and being nice.

Then, one day, I bought fruit for prices that I could easily add up in my head: 5 bananas for $1, a box of strawberries for $2. He added an apple and told me the total was $3.50… I then realized what he’d really been doing. He was giving me extra fruit all right, but it wasn’t free! He was selling me bananas, and then figuratively throwing the peels on the sidewalk so I could slip on them.

I felt ripped off, and I’ve never bought fruit from him again. Heck, I don’t even like apricots! I just didn’t want to seem rude by turning down what I thought was a gift.

The big business version

Slate/The Big Money reported on November 25, 2009 that Best Buy sells a $40 optimization service for both Macs and PCs. According to the article, for $40 the buyer gets his/her name entered into the computer, a network connection check, a scan of the hard drive, and an anti-virus program installed.

There’s no reason for any of this. If you plan to use a computer, you probably can type your own name. The network in the store isn’t the network in your home or office, where the computer will actually be used. The drives are brand-new, so there’s nothing bad on them. Anti-virus software might be useful, but more so for PCs than Macs.

The author of the article talked with Ezra Gottheil (who works for an independent research firm called Technology Business Research). Said Gottheil, ” ‘There’s nothing of that sort that any brand-new PC needs, and Macs less so’ ”

[I personally set my Mac up by myself in about 10 minutes, and I’m not a geek.]

Helping? Or pushing?

Slapstick is funny when the other guy slips on a banana peel. It’s not so funny when you invite your clients to fall down and hurt themselves.

If you’re offering an extra free service, offer one that has real value, and is really free. If you have an upgrade, it ought to be worth more to the client than the standard version.

Tag Archives: bad customer service