Posts Tagged ‘customer service’
Why I’ll never ship with DHL
I order some software from Apple and they shipped it with DHL. It’s hard for me to say anything negative about Apple in general because they are so awesome. But this is one of those times.
I’ve been tracking the package via DHL’s online tracking system. It hit Topeka today and I was trying to work out with the courier a time to meet them since our office is closed. Here’s where the trouble began. I entered my tracking number and the package was gone. Not gone as in – we’ve already delivered it – but gone as in – it doesn’t exist.
I call. They only do international shipments, not domestic. The domestic service doesn’t take phone calls, only emails. The international only takes phone calls. Think about this for a moment and you will see the ridiculousness of this policy.
The email ‘service’ will respond within 24 hours.
That is so helpful. NOT.
So I get online to use the helpful chat service. They can’t find the package. Doesn’t exist. It does, I’m looking at the screen right now, how can you not see it? Let me send you the email with the screen shot AND the email I have from Apple. They can’t take email or phone calls – just the chat.
Then they ask if I would take a customer service survey. And I took said survey. They didn’t have numbers low enough.It just angers me deeply. I need help. I need their help, have paid for their help and then they act like it’s my fault that I’m not getting the help I need.
I thought about the church and this situation as well. How many times has that same mentality been communicated? A guest walks in not knowing where to go, where to take the kids, where to sit, where to get coffee and 15 people pass them before offering to help, offering to walk with them. Churches so set in their system of doing things, they now exist to serve themselves instead of the ‘customer.’
Last night, Stephen and I changed up the seating in our worship center/auditorium/theater/coffee shop place. We did it at first to be a bit more creative in our series but then as I walked around I realized our guests are probably going to like the new set up better than the old. Not because it’s different but because it’s more cozy, less formal, less threatening. It feels more akin to a theater in the round than just straight rows of chairs. I started thinking of the places I sit in straight rows of chairs…funeral homes, weddings, school board meetings…I’m sensing a pattern, here.
So the next time I meet a new church goer…I’m going to be the ANTI-DHL.
Buying Your Parents A TV
I think the last time my mom and dad bought a television was during the Reagan administration. Yesterday we went to Buckley AFB in Aurora to look at TVs at the Base Exchange.
Couple things you need to know about BXs or PXs. The prices on stuff is good but you make up for it in other areas…like…sanity.
We pick out the TV, go to pay for it and this is when you begin paying the difference on the price of the TV.
They had a 42″ plasma on sale for half the price you can find anywhere else plus you get a $150 gift card in return. Of course, you can’t use the gift card on the purchase. You can use the gift card on another purchase if you’d like. So buy the TV, get the gift card, then use gift card on all the other stuff you have in your cart that day since…you don’t live in the state. Right?
Cashier in the front didn’t have the authority to authorize a gift card. They did in Customer Service. We go to Customer Service. Pay for TV but then have to go to the next counter (the Cashier) for the gift card.
All of a sudden, I have a sudden desire to speak Croatian…if I knew any.
The Cashier gets a bag with special gift cards in them specifically for the ‘flyer deals.’ I know this because there are stacks and stacks of gift cards in every nook and cranny of the store but he has to go to the back room and look for the special ones. They are just like the ones in the nifty display case in front of me.
Instead of one gift card with $150 on it, we are to get 2 gifts cards, one with $50 and the other with $100. The $50 one will not read. He can’t get it to read. He pages his supervisor. Supervisor doesn’t answer. He calls someone else. No, he can’t get one of the gift cards in front of it and put $150 on it. He has to use these but these don’t work.
He keeps calling and paging. 30 minutes later, his boss shows up. She is “serious.” She doesn’t believe the man and repeats what he’s been doing for 30 minutes.
“You know, John…these $50 cards don’t work.”
We all look at each other…speechless.
“Can you come back tomorrow?”
They live in Kansas. No.
“Well, you can always use your cards online.”
???????? We’re going to use the cards today. We have other shopping.
“They won’t work today, it takes 24 to 48 hours for the cards to activate.”
Let me get this straight…every store that has electricity has the technology to issue a gift card and be used that minute and this store on an Air Force Base can’t do that?
Right.
Eventually we get the General Manager of the store and THIS is where I have to leave the scene because I can’t take the stupidity anymore.
We’ve done this song and dance for over an hour now and the GM walks up, grabs a card, puts $50 on it (we already had the $100) and says – “There you go, you can use this today.”
!@#$#%%$#@Q%@#$!Q@!$@#$R!@#$!@#$RQ
Do they know how much grief that would avoid if they would empower their clerks and cashiers to take care of customers instead of following rules?
So…my parents have a new TV for an incredible deal and I promised to never, ever under any circumstances buy anything from Buckley AFB ever again.