I am going to take a break from politics today, to discuss a trend I find happening more and more...crappy customer service. It started a couple of years after I got my cell phone, in college. I began to notice that cell phones sucked unless hugging a metal pole, and customer care reps could care less if your phone call got dropped 36 times in a span of 3 minutes. I still hate cell phone companies, and AT&T's stupid commercial about dropped calls (I cancelled them because of dropped calls, which they said didn't happen). Now, its affecting every type of company, which is scary, because America is becoming a service based country.
The reason I am writing this now, is because over the past few months, I have encountered really crappy customer service, which at first seemed plausible or okay, but upon reflection, just sucks. So here is my list of crappy customer service:
1. Pulte Homes. I bought a Pulte townhouse within the last year and I thought everything was going fine. Then I noticed my floors were starting to buckle. Well, wood floors are not perfect, but I figured that we needed to get them fixed, because they did not look normal. Now, 2 1/2 months later, our floors still have not been fixed correctly. They have been completely ripped out, we had to move out for a week, yet some how they still didn't fix them correctly. While, this is not the customer service departments fault (the company's fault for hiring crappy sub contractors), we have experience glitches with customer service the entire time. We were allowed to move back in, yet the house was covered in construction dust, the floors were laid wrong and our kitchen island wasn't even re-attached. Our plumbing was not reattached, and there was urine from the workers fermenting in the toilet. We waited hours for the cleaning people to finally come, and they didn't even clean much of the house. Then, when the flooring guys came back out, unannounced, they got in an argument with my wife that the floors were fine (even though they weren't glued down by the stairs, they said the moving of the wood was normal). These things should have never happened, but even if they did, Pulte's customer care people should have noticed it first and fixed it before we came back. But, they never catch anything. Everything is always done half assed in hopes that we won't find out. Then customer service always plays dumb. After months of dealing with them...they officially suck.
2. American Express. I finally joined the Amex crowd. I was proud when I got my Delta SkyMiles card, and couldn't wait for all those points to come flowing into my sky miles account. I would be flying free, first class to Thailand in no time (Sorry Veronica, we can only afford the crying baby section for you this time). But, Amex decided not to read my Detla SkyMiles number I provided them on my application and opened up another sky miles account for me instead. Awesome, now I have two accounts with miles in them. Okay, no big deal. I called Amex to have it corrected. They put me on hold at least 30 times, said they figured it out (since it is hard to cancel one account and link up the other), a new card would be mailed and all the miles were now in my original account. I kept checking for 2 weeks and it never happened. I called them again...they said they were sorry, and said it was corrected. BUT, this time once it transferred, then I had to order a new card with the correct account number. They also gave me 3,000 BONUS miles for the ordeal. Great customer service, right? Well, it still hasn't happened yet, almost a week later. AND, there are no bonus miles in either one of my accounts. So, either Ryan Ruth keeps getting all of my miles or they aren't fixing the problem. Three weeks later, my account is still screwed up. How hard is this?
3. Brooks Brothers. I needed some new business shirts, since starting my new cool job as a lawyer. I went into every lawyer's essential clothing store, for some new shirts. The only problem? No one would acknowledge I was alive, let alone help me. It was awkward to say the least. Well, I did this three times. I would go in, my shirt size wasn't out, I would look for help, the sales associates would help old rich men throwing hundred dollar bills everywhere, while I was throwing shirts around the store. I felt invisible. Finally, after the third time I emailed Brooks Brothers about the incident, figuring nothing would happen. Well, they immediately emailed me back and the store manager called. Great customer service, right? Well I thought so, too. The manager said she was sorry, offered me 25% off (nothing too special, since they had that sale the weekend before) and tickets to a mall concert. Well, when I went in to finally get my shopping done (the manager said she would personally help me), guess what happened...No one would help me. After once again screaming around the store throwing merchandise, no one would even look at me. I finally went to the registers to get help. It took at least a minute before the one guy kind of made a "waking up" motion, and said "oh, do you need help?". By this time, I was naked and bleeding from my head after bashing it 800 times on the cash register to get his attention. I asked for the manager and she got my shirts. I am not going back to that Brooks Brothers.
4. Macy's. I bought new furniture. They lied about when it would be delivered several times and the ottoman did not match the chair. I called customer service and explained we had guest coming into town, that it was promised a week earlier and that their company lied to us. She said she was sorry, but couldn't do anything. There was not another sofa like the one we bought being delivered in the entire United States. Really? Well, I now have a very rare sofa, and may be selling it on e-bay. Come on, I know she was lying. Then, after I had to buy tailgating chairs and another chair so we could sit, and waiting months for our sofa to be delivered...they took off about 47 cents for the problems, from my credit card bill. I hate the sofa, on top of it all.
These are just four recent incidents in a long line. None of them too horrible (except Pulte), but its four different companies. Housing, Banks/Credit, furniture sales and clothing sales. All four of them never even solved the problem, while each saying they have GREAT customer service. They did at least acknowledge something was wrong and put a band aid on it...but they never did fix the actual problem.
I don't have much hope for America, if companies cant solve their problems. The private market is supposed to solve all problems. The market will work itself out, people say. Well, what if everyone in the market decides to suck? Where does that leave us? The entire airline industry and cell phone industry have taken this approach. It seems like others are following. All I can say, is either I am the most unlucky man alive, or American companies have some big time problems in customer relations that are only going to get worse.
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