Did I miss the funeral?
I'm wondering, because all of my experiences in the past week indicate that customer service is dead. Toes up, six feet under, cold as ice--dead. Instead of actually helping you, company reps seem intent on responsibility-shifting...sending you from one person to the next person to the next, and oddly, none of them seem to know what to do to make the situation better. This week, I have heard myself say more than once "I need you to make this right for me," which everyone knows is the very polite way of saying, "Look, you flaming idiot, you've got less than two seconds to work this out in my favor, or else I'm gonna put down this phone, drive to your office, and beat you senseless with my left shoe."
So what's the end response that I've gotten? "I'm sorry." And I can imagine them saying it while shrugging their shoulders and giving a little half smile to the phone receiver. I'm sorry? That's it? I mean, thank you, Home Depot, but "sorry" doesn't exactly help the fact that your mistake probably effected my credit report...nor does it remedy the fact that a bunch of people are showing up tomorrow morning to build a fence, and we still don't have all the lumber you promised us. And, Leaderpromos, "sorry" still leaves me SOL and looking like a very unprepared alumni relations director when I don't have anything to give the seniors as a gift next week when they graduate.
Am I venting? Yes. So don't even get me started on the automated answering services. I am convinced that in the seventh level of hell, you are forced to sit on a phone with an automated answering service that never gets you anywhere, and no matter how many buttons you push, or how many times you scream "representative!" in the phone, you never get to speak to a live person. Ever.
Sigh. I feel a little better now. Although, if the security guards at HD or LP headquarters see a woman with crazy eyes approaching the building, carrying one of her shoes in her hand, they better watch out.
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Musings on what amuses--or confuses--me.
2 comments:
I don't know if you ever read consumerist.com, but it's one of the best resources for CSR problems. Here's a Home Depot article from today: http://consumerist.com/tag/executive-email-carpet-bomb/?i=5010913&t=home-depots-extraordinary-service-leads-to-free-800-appliance-upgrade
It includes contact information for one good CSR and the president's email address (frank_blake@homedepot.com). Evidently, if you send a reasonable but firm email to Mr. Blake, an executive CSR will call you. Sounds like just the right solution to a potentially damaging credit problem.
Consumerist also has information about what they call executive email carpet bombing, a potentially effective strategy when all else fails.
Leaderpromo is a little harder to tackle. You probably have all of the numbers (877-677-9988, 614-475-9520, 614-416-6565). Maybe call and ask for Stephanie Leader directly? Or Marty Schmayer, the marketing manager, might be able to help. His email seems to be m@leaderpromo.com. I wonder, then, if her email might be s@leaderpromo.com.
At any rate, good luck!
K- Thanks for the tips. Another friend also directed me to consumerist.com, and it looks to be an extremely helpful site.
(Although, after reading the site, I have to say that I'm a little worried about having a wedding registry at Target!)
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