The Pitiful State of Customer Service (1 Viewer)

[LeoF]

When I was a teenager back in the Stone Age, I learned that sending a letter to the Federal Trade Commission often helped to resolve problems like these.

 

[jmegas]

These sorts of Customer Service issues are quite a bit more frequent--and nearly impossible to resolve--than some of you seem to think. I tend to think of myself as an "amateur expert" in resolving Customer Service problems but I have become increasingly unsuccessful as companies have become increasingly better at not delivering what they promise.

I have also encountered that problem with Home Depot where they give you 48 hours to resolve all problems, whether you knew you had a problem or not, and then you have to deal directly with the manufacturer. I expect we will see more of this as well.

I have used the Comptroller of the Currency, which is supposed to regulate Banks but is actually provided *by* the Banks. I now call the the Bank Support Network. The Federal Trade Commission does nothing. I have *never* been successful writing CEOs, although I have attempted it. Recently I did succeed with a complaint against Ford Motor Company but it took more than 10 hours of my dedicated time on the phone.

My current pet peeve is the "auto hangup" feature of many telephone trees now. You think you are navigating a telephone tree finally to get close to what you actually want to accomplish and then suddenly you hear an automated voice which says, "I'm sorry we can't resolve your concern" and automatically hangs up on you!!! You have absolutely no recourse! You have been "bested" by a dumb machine which hangs up on you and doesn't even allow you to state your problem!!! I have experienced "auto hang up" with increasing frequency, so companies must think it is a good idea. I expect we will see even more of this in the future unless we pass increasingly strict laws against it.

 

[JohnRice]

These sorts of Customer Service issues are quite a bit more frequent--and nearly impossible to resolve--than some of you seem to think. I tend to think of myself as an "amateur expert" in resolving Customer Service problems but I have become increasingly unsuccessful as companies have become increasingly better at not delivering what they promise.

I tend to agree, and I've been thinking the same thing as I've been dealing with this stuff. It's almost impossible to get in contact with an actual person, and if you do, it tends to be someone one the other side of the world who is not able to do anything other than read the script. It's often not possible to elevate it from that by talking to a supervisor anymore.

Clearly I've learned from this thread that the main hurdle I need to overcome is the policy that the refrigerator can't be replaced until a repair has been attempted, which can't be done since the part isn't available. I thought I got progress a couple weeks ago, but it just put me into a new endless loop.

I think the route of a consumer advocate is the best route for the issue with my parents' flooring. That has the story that will appeal. I can imagine a report with my parents and their walkers and cats.

At least as of today I have a functioning refrigerator. Even if it's only 9.8 cubic feet, it works and is the least expensive frost-free model I found. Still, out $500 that I shouldn't be. I actually finally broke down and bought it as a type of "defy Muprhy's law" move. As in, once I finally break down and get a second fridge, the first one will probably be resolved. I can't be the only person who thinks that way. Even if it doesn't work out that way, at least I can start making my own meals after nearly two months. I'm no major chef or anything, but I love to make a really nice breakfast on my days off. That usually pretty much holds me for the rest of the day. I mean, crap, I can get a pizza and have somewhere for leftovers.

 

[John Dirk]

For something like that, I suspect they simply do not have a practical way/channel set up to handle sending you just the door in their business model. Such relatively inexpensive, small-ish appliances are probably all designed/meant to be cheaply built/assembled w/ all parts in another country at least as far as Mexico, if not literally overseas, and no such large-ish part (one might think should be easily replaceable) would be readily available here in this country -- they'd need a warehouse (w/ whatever minimal staff) somewhere here specifically for that and then incur whatever additional costs to ship, etc and deal w/ all the relevant customer service issues, and their business model probably just won't be able to handle all that while trying to make enough $ off the whole endeavor.

I'm guessing there might be some much smaller, fairly generic/universal parts commonly available for fixing certain other things in the fridge, but not something like the door or main body/chassis that's very specific to that fridge model.

Probably just an unfortunate reality of products being designed/engineered and built ever more cost-effectively (and globally) w/ greater "smarts"/complexities and often ever smaller (though not so much w/ a fridge of course) that are increasingly more "disposable" than readily fixable...

_Man_

Perhaps, but still their problem, not the customers. Good companies don't make excuses they just make it right.

 

[John Dirk]

I have also encountered that problem with Home Depot where they give you 48 hours to resolve all problems, whether you knew you had a problem or not, and then you have to deal directly with the manufacturer. I expect we will see more of this as well.

Costco. Worry free, every time.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Perhaps, but still their problem, not the customers. Good companies don't make excuses they just make it right.

Definitely. I can relate a very positive experience I had two summers ago as an example. We hired a local tree service to do some major trimming of a few of our trees. The crew arrived on time, along with the owner Jeff. After awhile, sitting in my home office, I heard a loud crash. I quickly went outside and discovered that a limb from the tree in front of our house had crashed through our bay window! The crew member was very apologetic. I asked where Jeff was, and he said he had left, but was called already and was on his way. As promised, Jeff showed up a couple of minutes later.

Jeff was also very apologetic, and promised to do whatever was needed to get the window fixed. He even offered to give me his credit card! I told him I would get in touch with the window company (they are a local company that manufactures, installs and services their own product). I had an estimate later that day, and called Jeff with the cost. He said he would have one of his employees drop off a check right away. Sure enough, a check was dropped off an hour or so later, for more than the amount I had told Jeff.

Last year, I called the company again, as a pear tree in our back yard had uprooted and fell down. It was small, but I didn't have time to cut it up, as we were dealing with a health issue with my mother at the time. Jeff answered the phone. He asked where our house was, and I told him it was the house his company had put a tree limb through the bay window the previous year. His reply was "oh, yeah, I remember where you are". We both had a good laugh.

 

[JohnRice]

Costco. Worry free, every time.

Well, I looked on their site and it wouldn't have helped me with this. My kitchen has extremely limited space for a fridge, and there are only a couple models made that really fit it OK. The only other options are ones that are rather small and would look like crap and/or would stick out too far. They sell the Haier 9.8 cf one I got today, except it says it's not available for almost four months.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Perhaps, but still their problem, not the customers. Good companies don't make excuses they just make it right.

Oh, not saying they shouldn't have done better and "make it right". Just suggesting a plausible reason they couldn't simply send him a replacement door.

They probably should've just immediately offered to replace the whole fridge instead (and not drag their feet on getting it resolved). And if they really didn't have stock readily available soon enough for that, offer a full refund (on return) or at least something close enough to that if Scott still wanted to keep the fridge "as is" despite the issue.

Not too clear though how the sale was done thru Amazon and whether Amazon shouldn't have actually been the one to make it right instead. I would think whoever's responsible (whether Amazon or Danby) should be able to arrange for the fridge to be picked up and not inconvenience Scott further (in terms of a return) -- I've had big bulky, hard to return, damaged items bought from Amazon picked up w/out a hassle for refund/replacement before, so not sure why this would be different (at least for a return). Under the circumstance (probably because of the pandemic impacting supply chain, etc), sounds like maybe they simply didn't have stock available to do replacement for Scott.

Sometimes, there simply isn't a good way to make things right to the full satisfaction of the customer -- these aren't normal times afterall -- though it does sound like Danby (or maybe Amazon) should've done better, much more promptly anyway...

_Man_

 

[John Dirk]

Sometimes, there simply isn't a good way to make things right to the full satisfaction of the customer -- these aren't normal times afterall -- though it does sound like Danby (or maybe Amazon) should've done better, much more promptly anyway...

That's true and, I suspect, in both John's and Scott's examples, a decent, empathetic representative taking the time to at least explain this would have gone a long way. We all know that sometimes "shit happens," but we still want to feel respected and heard.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Not too clear though how the sale was done thru Amazon and whether Amazon shouldn't have actually been the one to make it right instead. I would think whoever's responsible (whether Amazon or Danby) should be able to arrange for the fridge to be picked up and not inconvenience Scott further (in terms of a return) -- I've had big bulky, hard to return, damaged items bought from Amazon picked up w/out a hassle for refund/replacement before, so not sure why this would be different (at least for a return). Under the circumstance (probably because of the pandemic impacting supply chain, etc), sounds like maybe they simply didn't have stock available to do replacement for Scott.

Danby's answer was "return it to Amazon". However, during the height of the pandemic, finding any type of refrigerator in stock -- let alone the type we bought -- was extremely difficult. If I returned the item, it would have been many months before we would be sent a replacement. The appliance worked -- it just had a very large dent on the edge of the front door (which comes off so it can be reversed).

See on Amazon is the type of refrigerator we bought. Our price was much less than what's listed -- I think we spent about $400.

 

[DaveF]

#1 sounds like normal car buying the past 40 years. Nothing new there: caveat emptor and triply so when agreeing to their financing.

#3 sounds like global supply chain problems making repairs and spare parts in very short supply. It stinks you got hit by it.

#2…that’s truly awful and perhaps exacerbated by everything happening in 2021. It’s also why I won’t contract major work like flooring through a big-box store. I saw how bad their lowest-bid contractors are getting my garage door opener installed ten years ago. And that was small $100 job. Not trusting them for anything significant. I don’t have any advice on what to do. But it’s dismaying your local store’s management is so terrible.

 

[DaveF]

And a friend has opinions waiting 12 months for Tesla SolarCity to repair his solar panels after a lightning strike damaged the system. And then another month with an inoperable system because the replacement inverter failed and needed some attention.

 

[BobO'Link]

#1 sounds like normal car buying the past 40 years. Nothing new there: caveat emptor and triply so when agreeing to their financing.

I almost had an issue with my last car purchase for that very reason. I'd worked out a deal - basically had researched and knew up front the absolute minimum they'd take, making that as my first and final offer - so they asked if I'd use their financing if they could match the rate/offer. Sure! I don't care *who* finances it just as long as it's the same. So I'm about to sign but look at the final monthly payment to see it's higher than what I'd be paying with the original finance company. I ask why. Turns out the original company included "upside down" protection while the dealership was charging more for that option. Sorry dealership... no sale - I'll just use my original, and did (it was 1.5%). They were a bit miffed but understood ("Oh, wow! There's no way I can include that, too!") as it wasn't true "apples to apples" like I'd agreed.

I've had many sales people get annoyed as I fully read all contract details and verify it's what was agreed upon before signing.

In spite of that - I wound up with minor flooring issues from a local flooring company (though, thankfully, nothing like John's). Unknown to me they employ several "carpet layers and flooring installers" who are independent and don't work for the owner directly. One of them messed up the door thresholds when installing new flooring and refused to replace them (we discovered 6 months later they also didn't leave 2 boxes of unopened flooring for possible future repairs that was in the contract). The owner of the company also refused to have them replaced. Wouldn't have been too bad but my wife didn't listen to my instructions "Make sure *everything* is OK before writing the final check." and paid them before I got home so I had little to no recourse to get them to do the right thing. In my case it was just easier to purchase and install new thresholds myself than fight them over it.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Wouldn't have been too bad but my wife didn't listen to my instructions "Make sure *everything* is OK before writing the final check." and paid them before I got home so I had little to no recourse to get them to do the right thing. In my case it was just easier to purchase and install new thresholds myself than fight them over it.

Yeah, been there, done that as well... including the wife (or whoever else) not following thru (all that well) on such, LOL. What can yah do about that? Probably don't ask @JohnRice though...

And yeah, sometimes, you just gotta suck it up, pick up the pieces and move on, instead of keep fighting w/ them over such...

_Man_

 

[JohnRice]

I think I finally, maybe, made some progress on the fridge. I kept trying new avenues with Frigidaire, and eventually got to someone new through a different avenue. Basically, we've started all over again, and this time I think it's going to be an actual Frigidaire tech coming to the house on Friday.

Putting the pieces together, my impression is the original tech who came to the house a month ago never ordered the part, and since then, has never responded to inquiries from Frigidaire. Also, when I've called Frigidaire, they could never find an order for any parts, a backorder, or anything. Frigidaire has contacted them repeatedly and never gotten any kind of answer to the phone or response. Until now, what I've gotten back from Frigidaire for a month is "We're waiting for a reply from the servicer..." and that's it.

Today I finally got to someone who basically gave up on that service company and scheduled a service call from what appears to be an actual Frigidaire technician. We'll see.

The pieces seem to have fallen together, maybe. All this time Frigidaire has stated that the compressor IS available.

Of course, I keep getting my hopes up.

 

[John Dirk]

All this time Frigidaire has stated that the compressor IS available.

Yea, I wondered about that from the onset as this same compressor is probably used across multiple models [even some outside of the Electrolux family of brands] and should be fairly easy to source.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I wonder if that same tech also works on TVs…

 

[DaveF]

I got the compressor add-on for my projector so i can watch all content correctly.

 

[JohnRice]

...geek humor...

 

[StephenKS]

If all else fails in the pursuit of customer satisfaction, I can recommend using the Better Business Bureau. While I would never have imagined that organization to be an advocate for the consumer (any more than a Chamber of Commerce might), I was very pleasantly surprised when my request for assistance for relief in an on-line service dispute, with an essentially non-responsive business, resulted in an aggressive, and successful, effort to assist me. Perhaps, I just lucked out. I can't vouch for the organization today, some five or six years later, but, once....they really helped me. Good luck!