More Customer Service Blunders

I've written about it before, but one of my biggest pet peeves besides extremely poor table manners, are poor customer service "manners."

Just this week I've experienced, not one,not two, but three negative experiences that make me cringe:

Experience numero uno:
Tball Pictures for my dear Jackson were taken towards the end of April, on a bright sunny Saturday morning. Roughly two weeks after that, they called advising me that my credit card that I had listed was coming back declined. Declined? I know my balances and limits..and it was my debit card, so how was it declined? In prodding more with the lady on the other end, it was determined that she had misread the card's numbers. Problem solved.
Yea, right.
On Monday I received a package from the company put in charge of the pictures. I was so elated to see how my little guy looked on his first "baseball card." Ripping open the manila package, I was astonished and taken back when I pulled out the first picture, the team photo. You couldn't see a single person in the picture. The pixels had definitely been altered, and there was a smear of squares in the place of their shirts. Bummed, I moved onto the next page of photos. The individual shots. The pictures that I had paid for, had a young girl in place of my son. Holding her pink mitt, posed perfectly for her baseball card photograph, it listed my son's stats and name with her face and body and pink mitt.

The call started off with my advising "Nikki" of the errors.

"Oh, I'm so sorry for this. Let me grab our copy of the group photo so we can determine which one is your son, and I'll send out his pictures right away." -Nikki

"Um, if your group picture is as good as mine, you won't have any luck." -crusty

"Let's take a looksee (I CAN'T STAND IT WHEN PEOPLE SAY THAT!!)anyways, could I call you back in a few minutes?-Nikki

"sure."-crusty

Sure enough, when she finally called me back (about an hour later) she advised me that the group picture was so dark that she wasn't able to see any of the faces of the children. Which, had she listened to me, she'd have already known that.

Thus began the many email attempts at sending out pictures of different children hoping that one of them would be Jackson.
I received 10different emails from her, with 10 different photo's, and not one of them was Jackson.

Yesterday I received a message from her in my voicemail:
"Hi Crusty, It's Nikki from BLANKBLANKBLANK,..Unfortunately those are the only pictures that we have that are unaccounted for. Now, the day the pictures were taken, apparently one of them came back corrupted. I have a feeling that the corrupted one, is your son's picture. I feel horrible and if you'd like I'd be happy to provide you with a credit to use at a later time for our services. Or, if you'd like, we can arrange a retake, and you could bring Jackson up to our offices in Schaumburg, Il to retake. Please call me back and let me know when you have time."

So, I'm supposed to drive 35minutes north, with two other children, to have a picture retaken of my son in his baseball uniform? I don't think so.They should get into their car and drive down to my town, to my house, and take the picture of my son.
And why use them for future pictures with my "credit?" If they screwed up once, odds are, they'll mess up again.
Figures the typical crustyluck, the ONE picture that comes back corrupted, is ours.
What annoys me is how the entire situation unfolded. They screwed up reading my debit card number on our sign up sheet, firsthand. Charging us for pictures that they already knew were jacked up. Then, they sent out the group team picture even though you couldn't see jackcrap. Not to disrespect anyone, but do they have a blind person stuffing their envelopes?

I finished this situation with just requesting a full refund, with a free team picture once they've corrected it-I could have asked for more, and usually I would, but the effort of it all made me feel like I was dealing with a health insurance company over extra charges of $10 Kleenex Boxes. It just wasn't worth my time.

Situation #2: Two weeks ago, I called our insurance company requesting a new card as they didn't send out the updated one when our policy renewed. Apologizing, the agent on the other line advised me that I would receive the card within 2 business days. But if for some reason in between that time I was pulled over, I would just have to appear in court later on, showing them my updated current insurance card. Sure, like I have all this time on my hands to take out to go to court-with my three little ones. So, it'd be MY time and MY effort to correct the mistake that they did because for some reason a police officer mistakenly pulled me over because my car was driving too slow raising suspicion, thus the discovery of my expired insurance card.
I received the new insurance card this past Monday-opened up the RUSH (?)Stamped envelope,and discovered that they had sent me a Canadian insurance card-even though my address clearly reads, ILLINOIS, USA. Great, I've always wanted to drive to Ontario-at least I'm covered up there. (WHAT?)

Situation3: Just another serious typo of my hyphenated last name, an invoice that arrived after work was done over two months ago to repair a broken window on our side door of our home. Demanding payment immediately,although the work was done two months ago! So, they butchered my last name, I mean not even close, and then demanded payment(which I will pay it's not that expensive)right away regardless of the time that it took them to finally send out my bill. How come they can take over two+ months to send me the bill, but expect me to pay it right away? They can charge 1.25% late fees if the bill isn't received by the middle of June, but I can't charge a deduction percentage due to the length of time it took them to send me my invoice?

+++++

Interesting enough, every agent I dealt with, were located here,within the USA. There wasn't any out of country agents with poor English skills that I had to deal with, yet I still experienced poor service.

Welcome To crustybeef~
Did you hear that Paris Hilton has already been released from Prison after only serving three days,due to medical reasons? She's being confined to her home with an ankle bracelet. I wonder how pissed off Martha Stewart is right now? I wonder why the prison wouldn't just give her the necessary Valtrex pills to prevent a GH flair up due to the stress that prison has caused? Who isn't under direst when they have to go to prison for the first time?
"That girl gets out of more things than David Copperfield does in his magic shows." (Joy Behar,THE VIEW)
Now that's, UNREAL!

The Ying and the Yang of Customer Service

Scenario 1:

Driving through Mcdonalds as your typical mom in her blue Minivan with three children, it was a quick surprise to appease the young budding palates of my youngsters. Yes, I've read the history of McDonald's, and I've heard quips about that movie, "SUPERSIZE ME." But, we were heading out on a journey that would mean at least 45+ minutes in the car. Big deal, right? Try taking over my role for just one day, and perhaps you'll say otherwise.

As I pulled up to the drivethru window, my children earnestly belting out their meals of choice, which usually begins with, "I want the green toy." I advised both of them that they were only getting fries. Nothing more, nothing less.

Now even though I knew what I was going to order, I always tend to look at the Menu Board, don't know why that is, but there's something about the vibrant colors and mouth watering faux fillet pictures that makes me yearn for the days when I used to devour the tastes of the arches.

Scanning across the menu I noticed that under the area labeled DESSERTS they had FRENCH FRIES listed; .95small 1.15medium 1.30large. But what was confusing me is that just above that area they had the $1 Menu listed. The first choice was Small fries, $1.

hmmm,....now why would I order a small $1 fry, when I can have it for 5cents less under the desserts?

Yes, it's only a matter of .05cents, but it's the principal of it.

After ordering my two small fries and a small coffee 6creams one sweetener I pulled up to the first window. Music being wastefully belted from their outdoor speakers, I rolled down my window and asked the employee if she had charged me for the $1 fries or the .95cent fries. She said that they don't sell .95cent fries.

Me: "okay."

Me: "well, than why is it that your menu shows .95cent fries under the dessert area?"

Her: "that's a mistake."

Me: "Fair enough, but you should honor what it says regardless, it's called customer service."

Her: "I can't, the COMPUTER won't let me." "It's programmed for the $1 fries as the smallest price.

Oh come on!

Now for those of you that DON'T know this, many years ago I used to work at a McDonald's in a quaint town called New Lenox. Unless they changed their policy and have backpedaled their views, I remember exclusively being told that if the customer complains, they're always right. You honor their request. You override the register.

I wasn't even complaining over the 5cents, I was mainly making them aware of the fact that there's an apparent error. Maybe I should have asked for some free cookies. But I didn't.

I drove up to the pick up window for the fries that they call fresh but are always just doused in so much salt that if you didn't order a drink with your order, you've screwed your tongue for the night.

After receiving my order, I did ask to speak with a manager. Eventually the manager approached my window and I began to tell her my discovery.

Me:"I was charged a $1 per these fries, but on your menu board in the drive up it says fries are .95cent under the dessert section.

Her, in broken English: "that's wrong.It's $1. I will go see what it says."

With that she walked away from the window without even offering a thank you.

I waited to see if she was going to return, but she never did-and those fries were getting colder by the second.

Quite obviously that was the end of that situation. I drove off in a bit of a humph not because I wasn't given a refund of .10cents, (Good Gosh the horrors of balancing out that register at close time!!) but because of the way the situation was handled.

That will be the LAST Time I visit that particular McDonald's.

Definitely not "lovin it" right now!

There's absolutely no point in trying to analyze what happened. It could go so many ways. Being that we live in a rather overpriced town, maybe she didn't feel I was owed the difference. Maybe she felt that I'm the typical town minivan driving mom yuppie with money coming out of my ass that I don't deserve to get a break. (funny, didn't that used to be their slogan, "Take a break?")

She labeled me without giving me a chance. I'm not your typical minivan driving cell phone gabbing bitchy broad that this town has their share of.

I'm not even one to be materialistic either. I don't care to have the biggest house, the biggest SUV, or most fanciful purse. I could care less about that sort of thing. I think life is much easier when you simplify it.

But, I'm analyzing as I said I wouldn't, so I'll move onto scenario 2.

Scenario 2:

Her:"Thank you for calling Physician's group, How may I help you?"

Me: "Hi, I need to see if Dr. P is available to see me today, I've hurt my back and am in some nasty pain."

Her: "Could you please provide me with your date of birth please?"

Me: "blahblahblah- 1975."

Her: "Oh Hi, crusty! How are you doing? How are those adorable boys? How's your husband doing? Did the medication work out for him?"

Me: "why yes it did, thank you for asking!!"

Her: "You are welcome. I just felt so bad when I heard what he had to go through for so long, that's just awful." "How's he enjoying his TV?"

Me: "oh he's in love with that thing. He's only been talking about getting one since I first met him 7years ago."

Her: "that's wonderful!" "and your boys, are they well? How's the baby?.........."

The conversation went on like that for a good 10minutes.

This isn't your small one doctor type office either. It's a huge center with at least 6 or 7 doctors and a physician's assistant. Located in the main hub of our town, they see a lot of patients every day. For her to remember me, whether it's due to being smart and capturing personal notes about their patients in their system, or because she just cares, made a huge difference.

It brought a bit of hope to my outlook on the decline of customer service.

This office has seen me at my worst and at my best. Has seen my children behave like larks, AND, act like turds. It's refreshing to know that positive human interaction is still possible. It sure makes teaching my children the art of customer service entirely easier when they're able to witness the positive outcome that comes from someone that just stops and takes the time to care.

Welcome to crustybeef~
Who needs the golden arches of crap when I have a doctors office that actually cares about my family!!!