WARNING: This is an anger venting post and goes on a bit.

Of all the airports I have ever been through around the world, the London ones are all at the top of the worst list.  I don’t particularly care which one we’re talking about – Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Luton – take your pick, they all suck.  GRRRRrrrrr…. is the most articulate way of expressing how I feel about London airports.

My most recent experience occurred last Thursday when my boyfriend and I were leaving for Christmas with his family skiing in the Swiss Alps; noice.  We had a 7am departure so we skipped the hassle and booked a car to drive us out – this was the first and last thing to go well.

We queued for half an hour in the car just to get into the airport.  On arrival, we queued for nearly an hour just to drop off our bags (we checked in online).  We queued for 20 minutes to get through security.  We thought we were home free and on time when we discovered the snow in London had immobilised the mini-train to take us to our gate.  So we queued, no joke, for half an hour in each of 4 different spots as thousands of people were ferried to their planes on a tiny number of buses.  Half an hour outside the broken train.  Half an hour at the top of the escalator down to the buses.  Half an hour at the start of the hallway before going out to the buses.  Half an hour to get onto the plane after the bus.

And the worst bit?  NO ONE EXPLAINED ANYTHING.  We were all missing our flights because we were just standing there and no employee could say a word.  Worst customer service ever (except maybe BT).  Then of course we waited hours on the plane waiting to take off.  So, so so tense.

It’s always something at these airports, huh?  As if UK budget airlines haven’t made flying such a horrible experience anyway, the pollution is now contaminating the base camp – a positive London airport experience is now the exception.  To make matters worse, everyone who goes through a London airport presumably gets off at some other airport which, without a doubt, is going to be a better experience.  Just to emphasize the point.

But I have to admit, I have actually had a positive experience.  That one time.  And it may come to no surprise to those in the know, that it was at London City Airport; my diamond in the rough.  Located in Zone 3 with direct tube access, no queues, no red tape – but still all the proper precautions I am now contemplating just going to places I can get to from this airport.  Brussels and Amsterdam here I come… over and over and over again.

PS Priority Pass conducts one of the biggest polls of the World’s Best & Worst Airports and Heathrow was in fact crowned #1 WORST, but the others were not listed… I hazard a guess that this is because they are not the big internationals the poll focussed on.

Had (have) a Kindle – I thought it was great – one small device – lots of books – When I traveled I didn’t have to make a decision on which to pack.  BUT THEN….. The thing started locking up (Coincidently about a month after warranty was up) It kept getting worse until it became unworkable even with “HARD” resets. 

Amazon offered to replace it for $180.00

 But I thought… Will this leave me every year spending $180.00 to replace a defective machine?  Well once they got you,  YOU ARE STUCK!  You’ve bought books you can’t read – the stupid thing is broke. You can’t get them off your book shelf, they are stuck inside a dead unit never to be available again…. UNLESS you cough up more money to buy another one.

So look at the math…

Original purchase             $350.00

Books (about 8)                    $60.00

Replacement                     $180.00

Total Cost..                         590.00

Just to read 8 books??? Looks like the books cost me $75.00 each and worst of all, I CAN’T read them anymore.  What a deal!

Next time GO TO BORDERS and buy the books,  you will have them forever!!!  DO NOT BUY A KINDLE unless you want to have Amazon be your addiction forever………..

 Amazon – The worst customer service I have ever experienced – First all of their comments when I called were about what I DID to damage it.  I went through many reps at their technical support.  Several times it would reset and work for a few weeks, and then I would need to do a hard reset again. At one point they told me it was probably a bad battery, so I coughed up the money and (better yet) wasted the money and guess what NO CHANGE – IT WAS STILL THE SAME.  Then it happened more and more, until the last time there it is totally stuck.  Words on the screen, even with no battery (Not even the one I bought as directed by their technical support).  Just stuck forever.

Anyway – I was always careful – it was always in the case. It was never dropped. 

And then I found out through blogs on the internet that this was a KNOWN problem with these units.  Then I was really angry.  They know they have an issue with this one and they won’t stand behind it.  I called and talked to them. I questioned how this is any different then when I get a recall on an 8 year old microwave that has been out of warranty for 7 years, but guess what, since they KNOW it is a FACTORY defect in many of their units, they fix it.  
That is the difference between good quality companies and how they back what they sell and the lousy ones like AMAZON!

I wrote about United’s terrible customer service here, so to be fair, here’s a story about Northwest, which will soon disappear as it is absorbed by Delta.

Yesterday and today, I had one of those “I’ll never fly this damned airline again” experiences on Northwest.

Because Northwest was late out of one airport, by its own fault (mechanical problems), and even later into the gate at the next airport, again by its own fault, at least a dozen of us missed our connecting flight when it would not wait even five minutes for us to arrive. Instead, they stranded us overnight in Detroit.

Here’s what happened.

My Northwest flight out of Richmond, VA, was delayed by 40 minutes due to “equipment problems,”  not weather or some other act of God. According to the schedule, there was still plenty of time to make my connection in Detroit.

The pilot made up some time in the air. We arrived at Detroit with plenty of time to make our connections.

But there was another equipment problem, this time with the plane occupying our scheduled gate. We were left waiting on the tarmac for half an hour.

The flight attendant radioed the tower and told them of our situation. “The tower has made your connection flights aware that you’re being held on the runway,” she told us. “The tower said not to promise anything, but your connecting planes know you’re on your way.”

The pilot eventually found an empty gate at the far side of the airport. We taxied there, but instead of getting off the plane, we had to wait for another 15 minutes while Northwest could provide a sky bridge from the plane to the jetway.

When I got off the plane, our connection was scheduled to leave in about 10 minutes. But they knew we were coming, didn’t they?  Surely they would hold the flight for a couple of minutes for a dozen ticket holders who were late only because of Northwest’s equipment. Or at least, the connecting flights would run a few minutes late as usual, right?

We ran, in our coats and with our bags. We sweated. We we felt the burn. But we got there, amazingly, just two minutes after the flight was scheduled to depart.

But the bastards didn’t wait.

They couldn’t even wait a couple of minutes for a dozen hard-luck passengers. There was the plane, at the end of the jetway, but the doors were locked.

Do you ever get so angry you’re not sure you can act responsibly? That’s how it felt. Northwest didn’t even have a mechanism to hold a flight for a few minutes at the most while passengers from a delayed flight could make their connection. Instead, they stranded us for a night in Detroit.

At this point, I’m not sure whether I’m happier that Northwest will disappear from the skies altogether, or if I’d prefer they’d stay around so I could do everything I can think of to help them ruin whatever is left of their reputation.

Thursday, December 3, 2009
Waning Moon
Uranus Retrograde
Rainy and cold

The movers are supposed to show up a 8:30 this morning and then we can get this furniture swapped out and back to a real life. I’ll be glad when today is over. The furniture swap itself isn’t such a big deal, but what surrounds it is.

I managed to purge a lot on Tuesday from years past — things I held on to that no longer support my life or my goals. Reminders of some poor decisions made in the mid-80’s and early 90’s that I’ve definitely atoned for, but kept reminders around. So I got rid of them. And felt better. My life is in a different direction, I paid up for those mistakes, let’s move on. It was difficult and somewhat emotional, but necessary, and I’m glad I did it.

Have you ever caught yourself getting pissy about something really stupid? I caught myself at least twice yesterday, pulled up and said, “WHY are you letting this get to you? It’s not a big deal, and it’s none of your business. Get over it!” Because it’s not like I don’t have enough relevant stuff to worry about!

And then there’s relevant stuff, like trying to order online and the site is cantankerous. I warned one vendor with whom I’ve done business for years that this is the last year I’ll be shopping at his store because I couldn’t check out — for a half hour, whenever I tried to check out, it went back to the site’s home page. I had to call it in — which I didn’t want to do, because that’s why I order online and I HATE using the phone. On top of that, because it was a phone order and not an online order, I couldn’t use any of the promotional codes. And yes, I did ask them to extend the promo codes to me even though I called instead of ordered online, because of the site problem. They refused. So that store has seen the last of me. I would have cancelled this year’s order, but I don’t have time to hunt down that speciality elsewhere in the current time frame. However, with a year’s lead time, I do. Another store, a first-time experience for me, lost my business completely because, when I tried to check out, the site kept insisting my phone number wasn’t valid. Now, I’d used the exact same information in the exact format on a sister site to place an order ten minutes earlier. So I cancelled the order and ordered from a different store. I let both stores know that they’ve lost my business and why. I am not going to waste my money on stores that don’t provide excellent customer service. Because there are plenty of stores out there who actually DO provide good customer service and a quality product at a fair price.

So, it was frustrating, but the online ordering is done, and I’ve just got a couple of gift cards to pick up and some stocking stuffers, and then all my shopping’s done.

I’ve also got to do my shopping for St. Nicholas Day, which is on Saturday night, going into Sunday.

Everything is stacked in the living room and the bathroom to give the movers access to what they’re getting out and the spots they’re putting the new stuff in. The cats are beside themselves. Now, we’re not swapping out all that much furniture, and yet everything that was around it has filled the other rooms to bursting. It simply doesn’t make sense. How could that much crap be stored in such a small space?

I’ll have more purging to do when I put things back.

I’m stressed, the cats are stressed, I don’t trust these movers — not only did they call after 6 PM with this morning’s time, the guy started giving me a hard time about not sending him a deposit — until I reminded him he never gave me the information and had told me I didn’t need to. Then he asked me what we were moving, even though I’d sent it to him TWICE in writing. I don’t have a lot of confidence in these guys, and I just want to get the job DONE.

I’m printing out the emails with the estimates, so there can’t be anymore hassle.

Think good thoughts for me.

Devon

Re-starting this blog after my AT&T U-Verse DVR box decided to take an early retirement.

On hold with a very nice woman from customer service who told me that for some reason my box was resetting/erasing itself, that it’d take about 30 minutes and she’d be happy to call me back.  I told her that I appreciated her happiness, but I’d prefer it if she wait on the phone with me, so she can feel my appreciation for their customer service.

AT&T is willing to send a tech out to to replace the box.  That’s great, because it’s been a few months since I’ve taken a morning off of work to sit with someone from AT&T for any length of time.

This is a warning! Avoid Sleek Medspa Boston like it is the plague! I signed up for a laser hair removal package here for 6 treatments with a lifetime guarantee, was billed $1,600. I financed payments with the loan company that works with Sleek Medspa. This Sleek Medspa will try and dupe you the minute you walk in the door. This is what has happened to me: I went for 2 treatments, and at the 2nd appointment, found gel from the previous client smeared on the technicians table, and used towels bunched up on the corner of the floor. I had to ask the technician for a clean towel to wipe off the table before I was treated. I was very uncomfortable and will not go back to Sleek Medspa offices. This type of environment in a treatment office is unsanitary and unsafe. Additionally, at my first appointment, the technician missed several spots as she hastily moved the laser around. I complained to the manager, and she offered to rewrite the contract package to include more areas for the laser hair removal. She suggested I consider offering the remainder of services I paid for to a friend or family member. This company has messy, unsanitary offices, the service delivery of laser hair removal is highly questionable in its effectiveness, and this Sleek Medspa has junky equipment. The customer service at this Newbury St. “spa” is extremely bad, and it is clear that the employees are strictly looking to make a buck; they do not truly care about the individual customer. It is apparent to me that Sleek Medspa trains their employees to take the money from the each person who walks in the building. They really do not care about you as their customer. When I called to complain and asked to speak to a manager, and I was told she was on vacation, when I asked to speak with her supervisor, she was also on vacation the next week; these two weeks pushed me back even farther from the date I initiated business with the company. I went in person to their office to express my dissatisfaction with their services.
Here is what I am doing, and suggest to every person who is as deeply dissatisfied with the Boston Sleek Medspa to do the same:
File an official dispute, 2) mail a letter CERTIFIED THROUGH THE US POSTAL SERVICE of complaint and dispute (this is called a 30-Day Demand Letter), 3) Send a report of complaint to the Massachusetts Board of Health, 4) Report this to the Cosmetology Association of Massachusetts, 5) File a complaint with The Better Business Bureau, 6) File a dispute with the finance company, 7) I explained my situation to an attorney, who gave legal advice, I am prepared to take Sleek Medspa Boston to court and to defend my position.
My dispute is still current, and as of now, Sleek is processing a refund of one third (1/3) of the cost of the package. I had two treatments, that is one third (1/3) of the package I paid for with financing. The Sleek Medspa is charging me two thirds (2/3) of the package cost: this is the individual treatment rate ($500.00) per treatment all for the reason that I wish to end this laser hair removal package. This is so upsetting to me I had paid $500. back to the finance company already for the two lousy treatments, the second which made me so uncomfortable, and the remaining balance was $1,070.00. They want me to pay $500.00 more, for those two treatments I had. I cancelled the two appointments that I had scheduled in October and in November. Consider this, as no one should have to go through a situation like this: I had two laser hair removal treatments and pay $1,100.00 for the discomfort, unsanitary environment it was performed in, for the highly questionable, ineffective service, and the extremely bad customer service that Sleek Medspa responds with.
Posting ablog is one way I am trying to help prevent other potential customers at Sleek MedSpa Boston from experiencing what I am going through.

I have to spend 6 hours on the train today and just to be on the safe side I checked their website to see what the arrangements are for connecting to the net while on the train, free or pay. I cannot believe what I discovered in their FAQ’s  on their website.

Q. Is there Wi-Fi technology onboard IÉ trains so I can access the internet?

A. Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) feels that it wouldn’t be in the public or the company’s best interest to install the current wireless technologies on its fleet for customer use due to the limited lifespan of said technologies.  Anything we install now is likely to be completely redundant within five years.

We feel customers would be better supported by obtaining their own wireless solutions, such as those provided by the mobile providers 3G & GPRS/EDGE.

IÉ is hoping that near-future new technologies such as WiMax and other long range wireless tech will make the idea of onboard solutions redundant.  We will continue to monitor the speed of advance of such technologies and if we deem that change is not occurring quickly enough we may reconsider the situation.

Today, I went to a fabric/craft store to look for fabric.

I seldom patronize this store, prefering their competitor instead. It’s not that the price or choice is better. They have better customer service.  I have yet to experience a cheery person in the fabric department of this store. Unfortunately, fewer people sew these days so my choices are limited.

When I get there, they’re having a huge sale that includes the fabric.  There are about 30 people in the checkout line and 10 or 15 waiting at the fabric counter. I’m tempted to leave.  But it’s 4:00 on Sunday afternoon, I have only a week until the birthday party for which I’m buying fabric, and my daughters are with me to select it.  I decide to tough it out.

After making our selections, we wait online.  And wait. And wait.

When it’s our turn, I realize our fabric counter clerk must have been here for hours and she’s not amused.  She’s downright cranky. She clearly shows her annoyance that I haven’t heard her call to me in line.  I try to make friendly small talk, thinking she must have had a grumpy prior customer.  She doesn’t respond.  I ask if they expected such a busy day.

“Of course. It’s only our biggest sale of the year,” she answers testily.

The fabric has been cut crookedly by a prior clerk and she grumbles under her breath….and accidentally knocks the bolt of fabric onto the floor.  Instead of picking it up, she yanks fabric from the bolt that now lays on the floor.

“Sweety, why don’t you go pick up the fabric for her?” I say to one of my daughters, who willingly complies.

As my daughter stands there holding the bolt, not quite sure where to put it, the woman yanks it from her nands and puts it on the table without a smile or a thank you. The tone does not change for the rest of the transaction.

Walking around the store, I get more upset.  I compare this experience with my most recent at their competitor.  I’d been selecting flowers for a floral arrangement.  When I got to the counter, the young man asked about the arrangement, commented on how well the flowers would look in the vase and noted that they worked well together because they were complementary colors.  I asked if he was an artist and his whole face lit up, delighted to share that he was.

 
Now when I’m impressed by customer service, I write a note of thanks. It’s good manners and it reinforces great customer service.

When I’m unhappy, I don’t normally say anything – Mom’sf training - ”If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”  I talk with my feet.  And my wallet.  This was the last time this store will receive my business, even if I have to go out of my way for fabric. 

What truly confounds  me is why, especially in this employers’ market,  any company would hire employees for customer service roles who don’t truly enjoy people.

Sadly, this company doesn’t appear to care.  They don’t do customer surveys.  I’d be surprised if they have secret shoppers. They simply assume that since they’re the only game in town for some products, people will return because of their coupons and sales.

Well, not this person.  I’m talking with my feet.

An elderly lady went to Harveys furniture store and bought a chair that helps with her disability; it’s one of these chairs that helps her stand up with a fancy spring thingy system. She ordered it on 24th August and they promised delivery within two weeks.
She paid the deposit and heard nothing.
Now a salesman says “hard luck, we never deliver that quick. We’ll deliver in late October.” He then said “We’ve got seven weeks to deliver anyway – it says it in the small print somewhere”. Seven weeks will be up long before the date they are now promising to deliver.
I figure that it would be a good idea if nobody buys anything from Harveys furniture for a while so they can catch up with their backlog.
There is a recession on so I assume that they are reasonably quiet – here’s hoping they get a little bit quieter

Yesterday Dipsikha, Prikanku (Golu), Shiju and me landed up at Central at Raghuleela Mall in Vashi to buy Golu a wallet. Since we had a about 1 hour till 6 PM to kill before watching “What’s your Raashee?” we shopped at ease, we browsed through lots of wallet and finally decided on one. I shopped for a few accessories. Finally after about 20 mins we were at the billing counter. Guess what…. Only two execs to bill the entire lot of customers. The lady who was at the counter where I was standing had swiped a guy’s ( a gentleman in his late 40’s, he had come with his wife) card about 10 times and was still not able to make the card read. Probably the card was bad but she took her sweet time to scan the entire lot of cloths the guy had in his hands!

I knew it wasn’t going anywhere, so I moved to the other queue where two guys had already handed over their stuff to the exec at the counter and our exec was opening every pack of whatever was being billed and checking it! Phew! That was the height of it.

We “strategically” decided that Dipsikha will stand in one Queue and Golu n Me in the other… Our strategy was no good since making the billing guys work faster wasn’t in our hands. I finally decided that I am gonna keep my accessories (3 briefs ) back to the rack and exit out of there. Oh forgot to mention that when the lady at billing was sorting out the bill she was also trying to push him to shop for a few more bucks so that he was eligible for an offer which could make him win a dinner set and some other shit that was displayed in front of the billing counter. Damn it! I went and placed my undies back in the rack.

Golu who was still hopeful that his turn will arrive shortly was still in the queue. There was this lady behind Golu who was assisted by a Central sales guy for billing her Trolley Bag, the sales guy passed on his receipt the moment the cust in front of Golu had paid up.

Thats it! Ridiculous staff and service that sucks… It all takes one moment to tarnish the picture that you had painted for yourself over the years. We decided not to buy anything more and wanted to talk to the Manager but he was at the other floor and we had better things to do. Damn it! I am sure Future Group wouldn’t want do business this way.

This week my son became a Police Explorer with our local Police department. He and a group of new recruits will now set out on their three month probationary period before they are issued their uniform shirts. 

My son is excited to be involved with the Police Department and Explorers as he has his career path already set into place. He is a sophomore in high school and once he graduates, his plan is to join the Air Force, join their law enforcement program and train K-9 officers.  When his time is up in the Air Force he then wants to join the St. Paul Police department in their K-9 training program. This past year he also completed a career training day with local law enforcement and first responders. Only 25 kids from the whole county were accepted, judged on their essays written by students from all schools within the county, my son was one of those 25.   Not bad for a 15 year old, wouldn’t you say? To say the least I am very proud of my son, and his focused commitment to his future career aspirations. 

To continue as an Explorer he will need to actively participate in community programs, helping the police department during city events and family oriented community activities. This Saturday he will be volunteering with the Explorers at a “kid’s day” event at a local chiropractor.  He also has to keep up his GPA at school, and keep out of trouble. Neither of which, has ever been much of a problem for my son. 

The next step was getting him his gear. He needs a leather “duty” belt, boots, cargo utility pants, hand cuffs, training gun and holster. I thought this was going to be the easy part since I have a “friend” in the business of selling tactical gear and equipment, I thought I would go to him for some advice and maybe throw some business his companies’ way since there are quite a few kids in the program. 

Now my relationship with this “friend” has run hot and cold for the past 5 years. I try to keep myself at arm’s length from him, since within his personal life, he has no real ethical or moral compass and has been through too many wife’s and girlfriends (usually at the same time) than I care to acknowledge. But the one thing he always said to me was “if you ever need anything, I will be there for you.”  I never thought I would need him for anything, and have taken care of my life dutifully on my own. But this was his area of expertise, and being a single mother, I didn’t want to go through the same debacle I had to go through, trying to figure out,  how to buy my son “athletic” protection the year before. 

Law enforcement gear is something I had no clue about and with my son’s future goals in mind, I tried a little research on my own and got nowhere fast. Finally, at my son’s request, he asked me, very politely, if I would please ask my friend, where to go, and what to do in regards to his gear. I swallowed my pride and sent him a quick and vague email. No response. I waited almost a week and composed an email stressing that this wasn’t for me, it was for my son, and that he asked for his advice personally, and if he could please point me in the right direction.  Still, no response, now this not only upset me, but it also hurt my son’s and my own feelings, then I was a little angry.  Wasn’t this man a business man? Wasn’t this man in this business of sales for this type of equipment and gear?  Yes, he was. 

Now I am not sure how they do business over there at Blackhawk!. (The exclamation point is part of the actual title.) But I thought they were in the business of supplying law enforcement gear to those in law enforcement and those training to be in law enforcement.  I know my friend lives in Indiana and I am in Minnesota, but in the name of business at least he could have pointed me or my son in the right direction or given me the name of a dealer in my area. 

Finally, I just left him a text that basically said, “My son needs the above mentioned items along with about a dozen other kids, I guess I will go to a more reputable dealer.”  You know one who actually thinks that even teenage kids with an interest in law enforcement are important. I mean, hello, they are the future of law enforcement, aren’t they?  But did he care. Hell NO! 

Then I came home and went to his company’s web site. When the big banner with their slogan came across the top, I choked on my Diet Coke, swallowed, and let out a loud HAH! Get this; their slogan is “HONOR As a Way of Life.”  Well if that isn’t the largest piece of irony I have ever laid my eyes on I don’t know what is, of all the companies this man could work for, he works for a company with this as their tag line?  If this company actually believes this, and expects this from their employees, they have clearly hired the wrong man for the job. For over all the years I have known him, he has been many things, but honorable is not one of them.  But I used to think he was at least a savvy business man, but now I don’t even think that of him. 

I know one thing for sure. I will not be sending my business Blackhawk’s way, and I will not be spending my money on any of their branding either.  This Saturday morning my son has his first Police Explorer community event. After the event some of the other Explorers parents and myself will be getting together to figure out a plan on buying gear for the kids (they hate it when we call them that) and I will make sure to mention my discontent with Blackhawk and its hiring and business practices. I have already called this “friends” ex-employer, Galls and spoke to one of their customer service reps, Brenda, who was quite helpful answered all my questioned and was very patient with my unfamiliarity with all the law enforcement equipment and their proper names and descriptions. 

In a downturned economy, one would think anyone in sales would at least reply to a simple email, or have the courtesy to help out kids, (or as some of us like to call them, “future consumers,”) to project a positive view about their products or services out into the community, but I guess not in this case. I guess his business is doing well enough in this economy that they don’t need our business now or in the future. 

Therefore, I will take my business elsewhere and I will strongly urge all the parents of the Explorers to do the same, many of these kids will continue on into law enforcement as their careers, as I hope my son will, and I will definitely remember the negative experience we had with this Blackhawk representative for years to come, and I will never buy products from a company that has him in their employ. 

If you are a supplier from another company, who supplies this type of gear, and come across this blog, feel free to leave me a message with your website or customer service information as I would be interested in hearing from any of you.  Thank you.

As someone who believes she has worked in customer service her whole life, it disappoints me when folks get it wrong. This is the easiest thing someone can do and the cheapest.  Yes, sometimes my title was customer service, sometimes not. But my belief is, if you have customers, internal or external, then you should be customer service focused.

I said should be. The sad fact is, many people are not. I have been having a variety of experiences lately and for the most part, I have just been an observer of them. I have been patient and forgiving, but sometimes that just doesn’t work.  My TomTom gps thingie does not work. It hasn’t now for a few months. It was a gift from my dad and despite my very frequent desire to throw it out the window, I know that would not be nice to him.  Plus, whenever he would come to visit, he would ask where it was when we were driving around in my car.  I hate that thing, really.  And the fact that it can’t ever retrieve the GPS signal renders it useless, only makes me hate it more.  My gosh, I don’t mind checking Google maps when I need to go someplace new.  And in fact, I am back to this all over again. I digress.

I tried to contact Office Depot, where my dad purchased it and an extended warranty. They told me that the warranty doesn’t kick in until the manufacturer’s warranty ends.  They sounded like they didn’t care and I could here her flipping pages as she read a script (ack, that just irks me – personalize and engage). Then she transferred me to TomTom, didn’t stay on the line and dumped me off.  I guess it was the wrong place because after holding for 5 minutes, i was disconnected.  I tried their IT chat online and was told I had to pay $9 for the service. Really? My dad already paid $249 for a paperweight and if I want troubleshooting support, I have to pay more?  Nope.  I found the number to call online.  I was on hold for another 10 minutes then told that all the lines were busy and promptly disconnected. Really? This is how they do business? They sure make it hard to do business with them or give you a reason to share anything nice about their product. Oh that’s right, I’m not.  My dad is equally frustrated with all of us this as I share the latest and wants me to send the thing back to him so he can get his money back.  I will try that but am skeptical Office Depot will do this for a paperweight he bought in February.  Yes, that is it’s only function lately.

This is just one example in a string I could share. I won’t even get started on the lack of service and actually the harassment I have been feeling at the hands of school. I actually feel hassled and harassed by them lately instead of feeling like a valued member of the student community. I won’t tell you how much I spend per credit hour but I guess they do not value me as student or customer.  It may be another factor in why I am taking a leave of absence from the program for the remainder of this year.

My dad and I visited Olive Garden recently, lunch before his flight home to San Diego.  We ate in the bar area and truly had a fantastic waiter.  He was always there at the right time, anticipated needs, and brought good cheer to the interactions.  It was a wonderful thing.  Even though we only ordered soup and salad, he made it seem like we were the only one’s in the restaurant. It was a great experience.

Customer service, or service of any kind, is just so easy. So inexpensive. And provides such a bounty of riches in terms of customer loyalty, customer testimonials, and subsequently, profit. I just don’t get it.  Why don’t companies do a better job of this?  Why don’t they realize that this could be the missing ingredient to their success and the reason for their decline in revenues? If you lose your most diehard customers, don’t have repeat business of any kind, and have little new business, how do you expect to stay in business?  Word of mouth is a real killer to the bottom line.  Southwest gets it, why don’t the other airlines? SAS gets it, why don’t other companies?

Come on….give it to us!  We are strong and can take it!  Seriously, how can you fix something that you don’t know is broke?

We want to hear from you.  Whether you are a current customer, a past customer, or just someone passing by……

Thanks in advance for your honesty!

I was visiting home last week. On Friday night decided I would head out with my brother to the mall. I knew that this was already going to be a problem because it’s a Friday night in a city that doesn’t have much else ever going on (I think of the mall on the weekends as kind of like a day care center for teens). Yeah, I know it’s the epidemic in all major cities with a mall but it just bothers me (damn, have I turned into the grumpy old man saying,‘those damn kids’?) but I digress…

The only reason I’m in the mall is because my brother is trying to grab a case for his BlackBerry. First spot we hit has a sign on the cash register that says “back in ten minutes” (side bar: these signs annoy the hell out of me because it never lets you know when the time started. Did it just start, started 8 minutes ago and I should hang or what?). A ‘back in ten minutes’ sign doesn’t seem like the smart thing to do for a kiosk. Maybe I’m wrong and this is common practice but in no way was dude’s merchandise protected and it was in a spot in the mall that was kind of out of eyesight, and someone could have just snatched things up (folks that have worked in the mall please fill me in on this practice).

So, I tell my brother there is a spot a little further down in the mall. At the second cell accessory kiosk we run into a similar situation with no one around. Then a dude approaches who is handling some chicken wings and Spanish rice. With a chicken wing in hand and a half mouth full of chicken and rice, dude mumbles out ‘can I help you playa?’ We’re initially confused by the situation. Then we’re like, ‘oh dude must work here’. My brother tells him he’s looking for a case for his phone. The dude hit him with a head nod, and said ‘cool’ (and then proceeds to handling the next two pieces of chicken and finishing off the rice).

See, this is a problem for me. Dude was like 17-years-old, maybe 18 and had no concept of quality customer service. Hey, I get that you need to eat. You work at a kiosk and some times it’s just you. But you can’t think to put the food down and not waste a customer’s time while you handle the rest of your food? It’s definitely questionable.

But the story continues…

After he’s done with the chicken, he grabs a phone case and gives it to my brother. Then proceeds to talk to a girl that’s hanging around the kiosk (hey, not a cock blocker but damn this dude specializes in wasting time). ‘What’s up?! Soooo, where you going? Nah, stay here.’

She seemed to have some common sense because she responds with, ‘I’ll be back, you’re at work and have a customer.’

‘Nah, it’s cool… what’s up,’ he responds.

Now, if this was me and I was preparing to spend my money I would have been out after dude picked up that second chicken wing but my brother is a grown man, makes his own decisions and wanted a case for his phone.

Then while he’s having this conversation with the girl, I kid you not, another dude comes along and smacks her ass.

I looked around to see if this was one of those hidden camera shows. Too many things were happening and I was like, ‘oh, they got me on The Boiling Point on MTV or something.’

No camera found.

‘You gonna play be out like that, papi?’ dude said. ‘Word, that’s how it is?’ He throws arms in the air.

Girl is trying to calm him down but he is understandably upset. But, time and place were never a factor in his mind. Finally he comes back over to my brother who is patiently waiting (he’s better than me for that). Proceeds to start handling his cell phone with his greasy hands. ‘Oh, oh… my bad… let me clean my hands. Damn, handling your phone with my greasy shits.’

Now this is the part that gets me, here is my brother, 6′6″ black man wearing a pair of Jordans, baggy shorts and a fitted … does that mean that he’s automatically cool and should understand the situation? Does that mean you can say “greasy shits”? Does that mean you can fool around while you have a job to do?

After a painful ten minutes, the process was complete and dude concluded the sale with a ‘God bless’ and dap.

As I walked away it left me wondering, was he ever trained one second on proper customer service? Did this young man even understand the concept of being professional? Did he think any part of those ten minutes were inappropriate? Hey, yeah I enjoy when someone is friendly and cool with me but there is a line and dude was well past that point. We had to endure him eating, talking to a girl and his greasy shits.

It’s just frustrating to see these young’ns sometimes with no common sense and no real understanding yet we’re forced to interact with them on a daily basis in various customer service capacities.

When will the madness end?

Follow the madness: www.twitter.com/throatchopu

In the new world of the internet and e-commerce their is a disturbing trend that is starting to emerge. Big web companies don’t want to talk to you. Have you ever signed up with a website or purchased some type of product or service only to find that something went wrong and there is little to no contact information for that company. It’s a growing trend amongst the big web companies. Allow me to share a couple of experiences. I from time to time like to sell things on eBay when I am cleaning out my junk or just have no use for a particular gadget. The last time I offered up some items there was an issue with the bill it seemed eBay had miscalculated my charges and was actually charging me for more items then I actually sold. Well I thought no problem I will just give them a call and get it straightened out. Well several hours went by as I searched their entire site for any type of phone number I could use to get my problem resolved. I had no success, eBay does not list any numbers at all and a google search only brought back disconnected numbers. I guess I will have to use their email system, and after several attempts I quickly realized that wasn’t going to work either I was constantly forced to read through all of their FAQ’s to see if my question could be answered. No matter how many times I read through it I never found a section for eBay screw ups. It had taken most of the day to finally finagle the site to allow me to send an email. So now I am waiting and waiting a finally a week later I got a response which said “Thank you for contacting eBay, we have reviewed your recent contact and suggest you read our FAQ which you can  get to by clicking on the link below. Thank you for using eBay.” What! Are they serious? I also had  a very similar issue with Skype (which is currently owned by eBay.), they kept charging my credit card for services I didn’t order and once again no contact other than a email form. In the end I eventually was able to sort out all the issues but not without going through a lot of grief for really simple issues. Google has also had quite a few complaints on the subject, although I have never experienced any myself but take a look here for some interesting information on it.

I think we can all agree customer service is pretty poor with a lot of companies, especially those who hire customer service reps in India and other countries. It’s difficult to understand them, or get them to understand the issue you are having and this is after you waited on hold for 30 minutes or more, but at least you were talking to a human being and chances are by the time your call was over you would be somewhat satisfied that issue was corrected. But what happens when you deal with a online company who has no human element at all, also those live chat options don’t count, that’s just sophisticated software pretending to be human. Why do companies want to treat their loyal customers this way? The problem is automation.

In a very competitive market where services are given away for free or small amount of money the only way to stay profitable is to automate the customer service experience. For companies like eBay or Skype or Google for that matter, it would cost  a lot of money to staff offices all over the world with customer service reps. And since these are global companies imagine the amount of the cs reps they would need to hire to service this request. You would have to hire a small country. So instead they automate the process which for me is  fine as long as they take into account that sometimes you need the human element, because software alone could never account for every single issue a user would encounter. Most automated systems are designed to handle the most generic and common issues a user has with a service and the rest is solved through rules and policies, yep in some cases your not allowed to have an issue the rules and policies don’t allow for it. This is starting to sound a lot like a science fiction story but sad to say this is real.

In other cases there is the human element and yet companies still handle the situation so poorly it makes you wonder how do they stay in business. Here’s a article that caught my eye, Kevin Mitnick, the world famous hacker (Actually ex-hacker, since he has done his time and has put his incredible skills to good use.) has an account with AT&T for his phone service and his account has been hacked many of times by little script kiddies (Google It!). He has spoken to AT&T about improving their security on many occasions yet this problem continued and finally with out notice AT&T just cancelled his account. Instead of AT&T trying to secure the accounts of their customers they decided to let the customer go and close the account. Imagine if that happened to you. Let’s say you deposited your paycheck at your local bank and when you called to see if it went through you were told your account has been closed because you are creating too much work for the bank! You may laugh but just wait, someday it’s going to happen.

The bottom line here is most companies customer service is pretty bad and looks like it’s only getting worse. On a personal note, I would like to see the government maybe require a level of customer service, that all companies that operate in the U.S. would have to adhere too. While in the short term this would raise the prices of products, in the long run competition would eventually drive these prices back down and would become simply the cost of doing business. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

1.   Not being listened to.    Good example is having to repeat my problem several times before getting someone how can do something about it. Some customer service teams at least take the details on the first conversation, and then do a hand-over before passing me over… thats acceptable.   Better still is getting the service navigation (via phone, email, website) setup to be more accurate and easier to use.

2.   Not being understood.    Customer Service reps who haven’t tried to use the products common don’t ‘get’ what I am saying or describing.   Surely a short training session (and reminders) on trying to use the products would help.

3.   Not getting what I want, or any alternative, or an apology.   I don’t think I am unreasonable however sometimes the customer service rep on the phone explains what needs to be done (e.g. take stuff back) but without any apology that their product was defective.   Manners maketh the Service.

4.   Being inconvenienced or left out-of-pocket because of the problem.    I especially don’t like it when a problem means I have to spend lots of time/effort (and sometimes cost) to get things put right.

5.   Slow response to my problem enquiry.   I appreciate some things might take some time to resolve, but there is no excuse for not at least giving me a response or status update.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Waning Moon
Pluto Retrograde
Jupiter Retrograde
Uranus Retrograde
Cloudy, hot, humid

Okay. I’m officially exhausted.

Got home yesterday — it was very temperate in the apartment. I turned on all the fans to get it as cool as possible while I was there, spent time on the internet downloading and sending out things that needed to be sent. I also did a back-up — which took longer than I hoped, because it was the first time Time Machine met the new hard disk, and they had to get acquainted. Still, it took less than an hour (an ounce of prevention, and all that), which is much better than the PC’s 56-hour back-up time!

Went to Verizon, Throwing the phones was definitely a viable option. They couldn’t/wouldn’t even test my mother’s phone to see what was wrong with it, because it was more than two years old. WTF?????? I had to BUY a new phone. Not happy, especially since, two weeks ago, on the phone they said I could simply trade it in for the one I got, which is specially featured for seniors, with large keys and displays. Heaven forbid anyone at the store is “able” (yeah, right) to confirm this promise with anyone at the call center — even though I have the person’s name who made the promise. Liars and thieves, the lot of them. And now I’m stuck in a new two year contract, or I couldn’t get a new phone, and my elderly mother would have been put into danger by not being able to call for help, should something go wrong. They also swore up, down, and sideways, when I tried to find a better-priced plan to meet my needs better (as in, add in text and email) that such a plan doesn’t exist — even though it does, according to billshrink.com. The only plans that include what I need, are, of course, quite a bit more expensive than what I pay now. Which is typical of Verizon. They charge you to breathe. Just because I’m saving money by getting away from Verizon for landline, cable, and internet — I’m not giving them all that savings for a new phone plan. The personnel are perfectly pleasant, but the company does not give them what they need to actually provide customer service.

I didn’t even bother to try to upgrade my phone. If my poor little old phone can limp along another two years, I’ll simply get iPhones, even it means switching to AT&T.

And now they want me to fill out a customer satisfaction survey. Are they serious? Face it, would YOU want to be the one reading that particular survey?

Never made it to Target, because I had to get back to work. Dropped off my mom’s phone, and had to go back later in the evening to set it up.

Worked, went over and set up my mom’s phone, and had to do an evening event for work. Totally wiped out. The heat and humidity don’t help, either.

Slept well, though, and had a good morning yoga session. A good, long yoga session in the morning helps my posture and helps keep me in alignment far into the day.

Did some work on both “Personal Revolution” and “Amends” this morning.

Heading out — hope to make it to Target this morning on my way to feed the cats, check a few things online at home, and then get back here EARLY this time for a productive day on site.

Devon

I love ELAL – I have had so many fine experiences flying ELAL.

But recently I had two very negative experiences – important to share with the world specifically because I care about the airline and I want them to improve.

1) My wife and I and our children boarded a flight to Paris a month ago. We had an infant in tow – who was to be sitting in a bassinet. Somehow we were told we were not getting a bassinet. So my wife asked if we could bring a car seat on board and seat the infant in an empty seat adjacent to ours. First they said we could not do so because the chair did not meet the safety requirements – except that the chair was certified for planes. Once we showed them that, they told us we couldn’t because there were no spots available adjacent to our seats – wrong again. Finally we gave up and had the seat taken under the plane. Turned out we *did* have a bassinet reserved and it worked out okay.

The issue was that the staff was very involved in preventing us from solving the problem - while they should have been helping us to do so. In this case a quick look at our tickets would have allowed them to assure us that our infant would have a comfortable place to sit. The goal of the staff should be to make us feel at home – that is not what happened.

2) about 3 weeks later, as reported on twitter @elalisrael, I had a very unpleasant experience on a flight from Tel Aviv to Barcelona with a certain Ziv Goshen who was apparently the most senior flight attendant available. I attempted to board the plane with a samsonite carry-on bag which was really on the large size – though it is the same one I use on all my flights. Mr. Goshen refused to allow me to board because the size was too big. Saving you the details – he actually refused based on no room on the plane. There was room enough for at least 3 bags like mine – but this did not matter to Ziv Goshen. When I told him I was a frequent flyer – he told me to show him my gold card – which I didnt have.

So if I had a card on me he would have treated me better? My ticket didn’t indicate that I was a frequent flyer – because I was actually flying on an Iberia Airlines ticket. But I was thinking about the missed opportunity – people flying on Code Share may not be familiar with ELAL – isn’t that an opportunity to attract them to the airline.

Unfortunately ELAL screwed up.

I think it boils down to having the staff connected to the mission.

If the mission is to make people feel comfortable - they failed.
If the mission is to make money - this is not something that will make them more money.

I think it’s time to review the mission – I suspect that being rude to customers is not part of that mission.

ELAL’s response to me so far – sorry you were not happy – hope you will be.

Another failure.

United Airlines careless attitude infuriorated Canadian musicican Dave Carroll when sitting in the plane he saw ground staff throwing his guitar around. When brought to the attention of one of the flight hostess his complaint was brushed aside.

With a weapon he knows well, Dave crafted a song complaining of the poor customer service and now Within 12 days of posting his song on YouTube it has become an international YouTube sensation.

The news item and song was aired on national television as far away as New Zealand on 24 July and for United Airlines has become a disaster in customer relations that has seen the share price drop. The hit on United Airlines could continue as Dave has 2 more songs ready to launch.

United Airlines are now in damage control and one can imagine the board will be asking some hard questions of management as they attempt manage the broadside the staff have caused.

This very real and current example shows the power of social media technology and in particular that the power has swung to the people. By spending zero dollars and just some song writing and filming time, one obscure Canadia songwriter is now being heard world wide with an international fan base. When once this fame might have been because of a love song and subject to the whim of a record executive, the song is being broadcast from free on TV networks world wide and broadcast free on Internet Video channel YouTube.

United Airline is now crawling to Dave Carroll with apologies and offers, but for an obscure Canadian musician, Dave’s experience with United Airline’s shoddy customer service attitude has propelled him into the world stage at the cost of their share price. Thanks United, now watch out for the next two songs I am going into music history all because of the terrible customer service of the ground crew and three of your hostess staff.
www.davecarrollmusic.com