Why is that companies feel they should have my business without earning it? Unfortunately, "service" providers (ironic, isn't it?) have little to no regulation which permits them to treat customers as they wish. I'm a customer service, or I prefer to call it guest service, snob. It's the least expensive thing a company can do and goes a long way, especially with big-named companies. For instance, if you stay at a chain hotel in Anytown, USA and have a bad experience, you'll associate that chain hotel with bad experiences anywhere in the country (or world, for that matter).
I specifically don't eat in certain chain restaurants, rent from specific car rental companies or utilize particular banks because of past bad experiences. These companies lost my trust and didn't do anything to correct the situation, nor, did they acknowledge their wrong doing. I don't necessarily believe in "the customer is always right," but I believe in integrity and doing the right thing. At places where I have had a bad experience and it was acknowledged and/or corrected, I do return, because that business regained my trust.
This rant's ignited by my recent dealings with two "service" providers. (Note: The company names have been changed to protect anonymity). The phone company "Spirit" was supposed to hook my phone line to a high speed line. Bottom line, this did not happen how or when they said it would so I decided I could live with AOL dial-up (plus Barnes & Noble is around the corner) and asked the representative to cancel the high speed service. Mind you, I never had the service, I received the modem yesterday and they could not correct the situation within a week. I had to give my reason as to why I wanted to discontinue the service I never had to FIVE "customer service" representatives before they finally said "OK."
Yesterday it was waiting five hours for the "Comthrow" cable guy to show up. After calling "customer service" I learned that he was never scheduled. How can I get back five hours? Maybe I'll invoice them for my time...
I specifically don't eat in certain chain restaurants, rent from specific car rental companies or utilize particular banks because of past bad experiences. These companies lost my trust and didn't do anything to correct the situation, nor, did they acknowledge their wrong doing. I don't necessarily believe in "the customer is always right," but I believe in integrity and doing the right thing. At places where I have had a bad experience and it was acknowledged and/or corrected, I do return, because that business regained my trust.
This rant's ignited by my recent dealings with two "service" providers. (Note: The company names have been changed to protect anonymity). The phone company "Spirit" was supposed to hook my phone line to a high speed line. Bottom line, this did not happen how or when they said it would so I decided I could live with AOL dial-up (plus Barnes & Noble is around the corner) and asked the representative to cancel the high speed service. Mind you, I never had the service, I received the modem yesterday and they could not correct the situation within a week. I had to give my reason as to why I wanted to discontinue the service I never had to FIVE "customer service" representatives before they finally said "OK."
Yesterday it was waiting five hours for the "Comthrow" cable guy to show up. After calling "customer service" I learned that he was never scheduled. How can I get back five hours? Maybe I'll invoice them for my time...
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