A Vent about customer service

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 23 May 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Faerie Lin	23 May 2002
ok, we had gotten our sony dvd player at sears around January of this year. In March it just stopped working. So on MARCH 13th, my hubby took it to go get fixed for free. (Either that was part of the warranty already, or we had to pay extra for it, don't remember.) The shop isn't at Sears, its somewhere way across town. (I THINK they do their own business but also work with Sears also.) Anyways, it is now at the end of MAY. My hubby actually went down there a week after he took the dvd there (man said it would be fixed), but it wasn't fixed. All this time that place has been giving us stupid excuses. My hubby has called Sear's customer service lots of times, each time when the representative sees how long it has been they go "Oh my God! It sure has been a long time!" So this time, they said they would call back in a hour to see what was up, and if they don't call back, the situation was going to "NATIONAL" costumer service. lol wth is that? national. lol, I bet its the same people who answer the regular customer service. Oh yeah, they never called back. I am just so mad because I have been without my dvd player for SO LONG and we don't know what on earth is the problem with FIXING it!!! And we recently got our dvd's from amazon with that free $100 gift certificate Rent.com gives you for using and mentioning them on your lease. And I can't even watch my movies!!!!! I am just soooo PISSED! (and bored of cable). And also, we had put the dvd on our sears card. Makes me more pissed that we are paying monthly for something we can't use. Lin

Sam	23 May 2002
ooh! i know how you feel! last friday, i was getting a new pair of shoes. my dad loves baseball, and the store i was looking in was having a contest! so my dad filled out their frickin' little form, and then gets the guy at the counter to enter it in their little drawing box for him. but get this- the guy was too stupid and air headed to know what to do with the slip! i'm sorry, but i have to say this. DUH!

destinyawaitsme	23 May 2002
I for one know how annoying it can be to sit on the phone with someone in Timbuktu for hours trying to get something fixed at home...there are definately some quirks in the system. But to be a devil's advocate here....working with people is hard! I've worked in retail for 2 years and it's hard to do everything perfect, in fact it's damn near impossible. If I don't know all the answers it makes me dumb! Let's face it, we are all human. We all make mistakes fortunately not all of us have to deal with irate customers cussing you out for every mistake...mostly the mistakes aren't even your fault. Faerie: I feel for you, about 7 years ago my dad took a vcr to get fixed (I think this was like the first vcr to ever be made) and he never even got it back. I would make sure it doesn't happen to you...from experience...if you keep bitchin' someone will do something. :)

Liliana	23 May 2002
I know how you feel im having prolems myself Something odd happened with my WalMart ard and the bank says they got 100 dollar payment ut they said they didnt. This was February 19 andit STILL isnt resolved. We'e been refusing to pay until they find our 100 dollars, this weekend we're finally goingto pay them 32 dollars and thats it But every month they call me and badger me for a payment And (please dont take too much offense at this) EVERYONE in collections has a HEAVY middle eastern accent thats impossible to understand, especially with 2 screaming toddlers. I really wish they'd get someone who could speak plain English Both them and the bank are giving us the run around.If its not resolved soon we're going to have to sue, this is destroying my credit.

catlin	24 May 2002
Hm, I always thought that Germany is a wasteland concerning customer services (and everyone tells how different this is in the USA) but I see now that you also have these problems. Ok, I usually cannot complain about a lack of customer services as I stick to those companies where I get good service.

magicmadrigal	24 May 2002
I've worked in a customer service type job for almost 20 years. And I always meet my commitments or at the very least contact a person with the reason why the commitment can't be kept. It really, really irritates me when I get service that is less that what I give. Therefore I am a very demanding consumer :) I always take names - who I'm talking with and the date and time I spoke with them and if possible get their direct phone number - even if you just jot it down on the calendar. Always follow up if they say the will call you with in a week - clarify if that is a work week or calendar week, if possible push for an exact date and time. If they don't call back within that period, call with 24 hours of when they promised to call you and escalate to the next level of management. (Again, take names, dates, number the same routine). At this point I usual insist (adamently) that I get a response within 24 hours. If they blow me off then they I start cranking up the chain of command until I get satisfaction. I don't care if I have to sit on hold for the day - I will and I will also expect some type of compensation for my displeasure. Never blow it off because if you do, then the reps thinks it's not important enough to you and will tend to blow you off to If none of this works - then I write a letter to the CEO of the company, and the VP of Customer Service and I name names! You can usually get the names of these people right off the websites.

wavebreaker	24 May 2002
I find that writing a formal letter to customer service often works a lot better than talking to someone in the shop or just calling customer service, because putting it on paper makes it more "official". A recent example: in January I ordered a new bed and they told me it would be delivered 9 weeks later. After those 9 weeks, I hadn't heard anything from them. I called customer service and they said they would find out for me what was happening. A week later I received a letter from them saying it would take another 8 weeks for the bed to be delivered. I was not pleased with that at all, but there was not much I could do; I could have cancelled the order, but ordering another bed would have taken just as long. In the end, the bed arrived 17 weeks after I had ordered it. I wrote a letter to customer service to complain about this. Yesterday, I received an answer: a very nice letter in which they apologized about the whole thing and which included a 50 euro gift certificate as compensation for the inconvenience caused. I don't think they would have given me that if I had simply gone back to the shop to complain.

jade	24 May 2002
i always right letters rather than talking to someone. you get better service and you even get some perks occasionally!!! i would insist that the interest is removed from your purchase since it's been in their shop for so long. in light, best of luck with this, jade

Geenius at Wrok	24 May 2002
I usually go through a process of escalation: polite phone call, polite follow-up phone call, pissed-off follow-up phone call . . . and then the letters begin. It's a bad sign when I have to resort to letters. I pull out all the stops and carbon-copy everyone under the sun. I've gotten pretty good at it—on one occasion the president of my HMO actually sent me a letter of apology, which has gotta be the high point of my customer service jihad.

Faerie Lin	24 May 2002
Wow!!!!! Alright!!! reading all of those posts made me so hyped up to get !@#$ done! I guess you really do sometimes have to be demanding and dedicated to making them do things right when it comes to a certain point. Okay, so my hubby called again and kept on asking for someone higher, the next level, because they kept on saying the same thing. He had to keep on telling the next person for someone HIGHER, still the same excuses. He got bumped up about 4 or 5 times. The last lady was like "Bless your heart! Its been so long!" She told him she was gonna call back a certain day and he responded with "Are you SURE you're gonna call back, because ya'll told me ya'll would before, and no one did" lol. Supposedly she is gonna get things done. Oh! we got her name too. :) Such a great idea about writing a letter you guys!!!!!! That letter is going out tomorrow!!!! Thankyou you guys! I will write about the interest on the card also. Again thankyou, and also thankyou for listening to me rant and complain lol. Lin

purplelady	24 May 2002
Some very good suggestions here. Namely 1) insist on talking to a manager, if the manager isn't in, keep calling back, if you have to ,get the manager's manager! 2) get their names , ID numbers , whatever 3)There have been occasions where there is a Really long wait on the phone ( Can be Very annoying!) 4) Here's one that may be unpopular but also may get results- Walk into wherever the physical place IS (sears or their service center, where ever the DVD player is or you dropped it off) and when they don't produce your dvd player , make a LOUD stink!!! You don't have to go Totally ballistic! Just state so that ALL the other customers there can HEAR that you've been waiting for 2 months to have your dvd player fixed , that they keep lying to you telling you it would be ready, that you're worried they may have lost it etc! NO Business wants this! It could potentially be very very bad for their business , and I would BET a manager or owner would get to finding your dvd player FAST!! :D :D !

Faerie Lin	24 May 2002
hehehe I like your style purplelady!

Emily	26 May 2002
I'm with purplelady, go in at their busiest time, make sure everyone knows what their service is like, ask for the manager, stay in full view of the shop until he appears, kick up as much fuss as you can, comments like' I thought you people were supposed to be professionals', 'I'd never recommend you to my friends', 'why doesn't your service department return calls' lol you'll be amazed at how fast they'll try to help you if they think their business and reputation is going to suffer. :)

Faerie Lin	07 Jun 2002
So my husband got permission to go back in Sears and tell them to give us a new dvd player.... And they had the nerve to try to give him one that was $129, and the one we had cost $229. The one they were trying to give us wasn't even the brand name we had before. Anyways, this guy was giving him the long story of how technology changes like everyday(which is true), and that dvd was just as good as the one we had blah blah blah. And that the one we had isn't even the price anymore of what we paid, and that the one they were trying to give him was just as good as the one we had. So my husband says, "Oh really? Then why does that dvd player over there, the one on display, the exact same one I had, have the same price that I paid for it?" The guy looked dumbbfounded.... My husband also had to call customer service in the store too, and he waited for a manager (over the phone) to get out of a meeting. Just makes sense to me to just get the exact same dvd player we had regardless of what price it is now. Anyhow we were able to get the "display" model, hopefully there isn't anything wrong with it, been working okay so far. This happened, after a long wait, and plenty of cussing. Lin PS. Thanx again for all of your advice!

Zhritza	07 Jun 2002
This is repulsive. Those people make commission, too. What a bunch of a-holes. purplelady, I work in retail (hopefully not for the rest of my life!) and you're absolutely right, based on my experience that would be extremely effective. ;)

The A Vent about customer service thread was originally posted on 23 May 2002 in the Chat board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Chat, or read more archived threads.