Posts Tagged ‘Ex Am’

Over the past couple of months, I have just been amazed at the poor customer service and lack of care I’ve received at several businesses. So much so, that I just have to write about it here.

Case 1: I love my bank and have been a member for 12 years. The tellers there know me by name and I feel like I’m getting personal attention. Recently they hired a younger girl to help at the drive-through window. On all four occasions that she attended to my needs, she screwed up. Usually she gives me cash back when I wanted it deposited in my savings. The last time was more egregious. I had my deposits and my husband’s deposits paper clipped separately when I placed them in the tube. She completely ignored my husband’s deposit! When I called her attention to it, she picked my stack back up and said she didn’t notice there were two separate transactions. Does that mean she didn’t even check to see if my totals were right and assumed all the checks were there?

Case 2: I was shopping at Ross in the downtown Seattle store. When I was checking out, the bubble gum chewing cashier, who didn’t look a day over 20, asked me if I wanted the Senior Citizen discount. I asked her what age I had to be in order to get it and she said 60. WTF? I know I’m pushing 50, but I know I don’t look even close to 60! I wanted to pop her bubble gum bubble in her face! I believe that anyone that qualifies for a senior citizen discount knows it and won’t hesitate to ask about it. A cashier shouldn’t assume she/he can tell a person’s age based on their own reality.

Case 3: I was recently given an American Express gift card for $25. I went to use it and it was declined. So I called AmEx to find out why. It was because my card only had $23 on it. Huh? I just activated it and hadn’t used it before. It turns out that AmEx has this policy…if a gift card is over a year old, they start charging a $2 service fee per month. WTF? So, they’re telling me that in another 11 months, my card is worth zero? Will they start sending me a bill when the card is two years old and and in the negative? What kind of policy is that? I have yet to find a store or restaurant that I frequent that even accepts AmEx and I’m now down to a $12 balance on my gift card with never using it. I tried going to my bank to see if I could cash it in, but their card reader doesn’t work with AmEx cards. At least I didn’t buy the card for myself, so I’m not really losing anything. But geeze!

Case 4: I ordered some wine online. The distributor chose to send it via FedEx and it would require a signature since it was alcohol. Ordinarily I work from home and this wouldn’t have been a problem, but it happened that I was working at a client site the week when the package arrived. FedEx left a door tag…I called them up to make arrangements to have it delivered on a day I would be home. I was told that I couldn’t tell them a day to redeliver…they would come back the next day and the next and if I wasn’t home, I would have to drive to Auburn to pick it up with three days or they would send it back to the sender. But wait…I won’t be home those days. Why try to redeliver it and waste gas when you can just make a note not to until such and such day? We can’t do that, was their explanation. I was used to UPS…if they missed me the first day and I called, they would redeliver on the day I specified. But not FedEx. So after the third delivery attempt, I call to plead with them to bring it the next day because I would be home…honest. The manager said he would put a note on the box and have the driver bring it. Yippee! I could relax now. The next day, no package. So I call FedEx back up and talk to the same manager. He explains that the driver ripped the note off the package and refused to bring it…and he had the right to refuse. WTF? What kind of policy is that? Aren’t they getting paid to do their job? Well, yes and no, the manager explains. The drivers are under contract. They only get paid if the package is delivered during the first three attempts. If it’s delivered after that, they don’t get paid, so they don’t have to do it. Well, of course they would refuse…I would, too with a policy like that! Wouldn’t it make more sense to hold the package and the driver brings it on a specified date? After all, most people work during the day and can’t be home. The manager just shrugs and says it’s FedEx policy to do it that way. So, I have made up my mind that I will not patronage any online shop that only offers FedEx as a means of delivery! After a two hour drive in traffic and 60 miles later, that wine better be darn good!

All these examples of poor customer service and policies got me to thinking about my own way of doing business with my customers. Rather than tell a client I can’t do something, I vow to give them options!