Saturday, September 6, 2008
Good customer service Vs bad customer service
Good service Vs bad service.
Names withheld.
So, place a work order (fairly small, but in the tens of thousands ballpark) for some kit. It arrives missing one (important) part of the order. Supplier contacted, and a few days later new part is shipped.
Good service. No problem, no query. Warm fuzzy feeling, and I can get on with the necessary work.
Personal order made to company. 4 items, dispatched in 3 lots. 1 “tracking link” which goes to 1 courier. 2 of the 3 lots arrive. Via different couriers. 1 hasn’t arrived. Actually the most expensive component.
Firm contacted via their e-messaging system (their preferred option). No e-mail acknowledgement or record of your submission. Just an on-screen “thanks, we’ll be in touch shortly”.
3 attempts. Not a single reply.
Telephone 3 times. Each time told someone will contact me by phone, by the end of the day. Never received any response.
On 3rd conversation, it was said someone started to look into it the day before. All well and good. But this was 2 weeks after it was initially reported.
4th telephone conversation, I’m told the item had never been dispatched by them. I’ve worked around the need for the component now so, arrange a refund.
Over a week later, no refund received. Contact by phone again. After an interminable wait, get told the item hasn’t been dispatched, and invoice department will need to sort it out.
I await…
The firm in question, I’ve done business with before, with no problems. I’d like to use them again. But it would appear if things don’t go smoothly (and let’s face it, that’s going to happen now and then), then the customer service has been absolutely dreadful, and I couldn’t recommend them to anyone without warning of what it’s like. I certainly wouldn’t use them in my work.
[Update 13/09/08].
So, a further week passes. Still no refund. More telephone conversation. Now, I’m told that they only ever thought it had not been dispatched, and that I hadn’t been promised a refund, that they were looking into it. I’m assured the item will be dispatched, and it’s going to be requested to be delievered on the Tuesday. When asked why no-one had EVER contacted me to update on status, I’m given flannel about internal investigation and maybe we don’t have your correct e-mail address. Even though they managed to send invoice details to it, and I’ve received promo e-mails from them subsequently. At the very least, you INFORM customers. Otherwise you end up in a situation like today, where the customer is getting very irate on the telephone, when being given pittiful excuses.
[Update 24/09/08].
So, I have it. Not entirely as promised. I told them I would be available on the Tuesday to receive the delivery, and was told it would be arranged for that morning. So it didn’t turn up. It did arrive Wednesday when I wasn’t available, and so the courier, rather than the normal take it back to the depot to collect, took it to a postoffice, that I had to look up on the Internet for the details. So, I collected it on the Thursday - 5 weeks after it was due to have arrived. After 9 attempts to contact - with NO reply or status update ever. So, I now have the SATA controller that I worked around the need for. It’s a good job, on a 5 week wait, that it wasn’t a mission critical part (yes, you’d never let it reach this point). Still, congratulations to s__v__s d__e_t on eventually managing to deliver a part.