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The Pitiful State of Customer Service (1 Viewer)

Josh Steinberg

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I have no idea if it’s still the same way but when I was working retail at chain stores 20 years ago, there was always intense pressure from corporate to take as few returns as possible - they would count a return as a loss and charge it to your specific store and possibly even on your own record as a manager. It didn’t matter if the return was 100% in compliance with the stated company policy and the customer was 100% in the right - you as the store manager are going to end up getting an earful from your district manager about it.

I can’t imagine that corporations have gotten nicer to retail workers in the time since. And those jobs don’t pay particularly well or provide good benefits (if any).

So I would imagine it’s one of those things where the manager isn’t getting paid enough or given enough latitude to address it on his own, that there’s little consequence to him from upsetting a customer, but a potentially major consequence from his boss.

I really think it’s one of those race to the bottom scenarios where the company isn’t paying people enough to retain them or make it worthwhile to properly train them or give them any real autonomy, and the amount of profit on an individual sale isn’t enough to justify the effort into providing customer service to retain the customer, and the scarcity of retail options puts the customer in the position of being stuck patronizing a limited number of vendors even if the service is bad.
 

Malcolm R

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The night manager said no problem and just come back tomorrow and they'll reimburse me.
Ah, yes, the famous "contact us later and we'll make it right" promise. Really just weasel words to get you to go away.

JetBlue did this to me last year when our first flight was delayed by some mechanical issue for over two hours and we missed our connection to the Caribbean by just a few minutes. They knew our arrival was imminent, but they still "closed the doors" minutes before we arrived at the gate just adjacent to the departing connection. The plane was still sitting at the gate but they wouldn't let us board.

Since the next flight wasn't until the next day, this necessitated us getting a hotel room overnight. I was assured by the JetBlue customer service rep that while they couldn't give me a direct voucher, if I contacted them after I returned from my trip I could get reimbursement of $190 toward the cost of the room. "I'm putting it in the computer right now," she assured me.

So when I get back, I contact JetBlue and they know nothing about it, there's nothing in the computer about it, and there's "nothing we can do". They suggested I file a claim with my travel insurance, but since the delay wasn't technically more than 24 hours, they also wouldn't do anything. I don't know what the length of the delay has to do with anything if you have to stay overnight and pay for a hotel, but that was their excuse.

Will not fly JetBlue again if I can avoid it.
 

ManW_TheUncool

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Will not fly JetBlue again if I can avoid it.

Not sure, but they probably all suck in (roughly) that kind of way though.

Don't know if you could possibly have avoided it, but I would never want to have to make connecting flights if I don't absolutely have to... and then, if unavoidable, also plan for some contingency in case of missed connection -- I'm sure there are plenty of cases where all that are simply unavoidable/untenable though (at least w/out paying thru the nose and/or commit to some other major inconveniences, etc anyway... and even then...).

_Man_
 

Clinton McClure

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Not with corporate/education support. It call only.
Gotcha. I’ve never had to use it for corporate/edu support. Now that I think of it, I’ve never had to use it for home support either. One of my best friends from school works for Apple and was a senior support tech for several years before getting bored with it and moving to a retail store. I remember he was issued the largest, maxed out iMac at the time and worked from home. When he decided to change roles and work in the local store, he had to send back the iMac but that thing was a beast.
 

Clinton McClure

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I have another friend who is senior IT / network admin for a local school that is 100% Mac. Sometime I’ll talk to him and see what his frustration level is with Mac support.
 

BobO'Link

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I have another friend who is senior IT / network admin for a local school that is 100% Mac. Sometime I’ll talk to him and see what his frustration level is with Mac support.
Once you get someone on the line they're pleasant and generally easy to work with. It's the whole phone thing I have issue with. I hate phones, always have, and chat is just so much easier. I can do a chat with Dell and have a repair scheduled or part sent before an Apple rep ever gets on the line almost every time.
 

JohnRice

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I have to admit, despite the extensive hate thread on this forum, in general Amazon has some of the best customer service I've encountered. Their "We'll call you back" feature has always worked great and been very fast for me. I click the button, and within about 15-30 seconds the phone rings and I'm talking to someone... who can actually fix the problem.
 

BobO'Link

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I have to admit, despite the extensive hate thread on this forum, in general Amazon has some of the best customer service I've encountered. Their "We'll call you back" feature has always worked great and been very fast for me. I click the button, and within about 15-30 seconds the phone rings and I'm talking to someone... who can actually fix the problem.
Absolutely! They're not as good as they once were but are still far ahead of most other companies. I'm not a fan of their "AI" bot thing you have to start with but it *does* "solve" issues to my satisfaction ~8/10 times.
 

John Dirk

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I was actually ready to simply punt and eat the cost of the fridge, and buy another one for the same location and have this one hauled away.

Or buy an identical model and then swap the compressors. Joking as I know that's not practical but they certainly deserved no better.


Now everything is run by Fight Club rules. (There was a scene in that film where Edward Norton explains that his job is to determine when a car has a defect or design flaw if it’s cheaper to do a recall or to pay off the families of victims who perish in accidents.)

Love that film. Love that scene. Norton really sold it.

At the risk of extreme redundancy, this is why I try my best to buy major items from Costco. They do zero advertising and must therefore rely totally on word-of mouth to sustain their reputation.
 

Malcolm R

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Costco is not an option for everyone, I don't think. They're kinda, sorta nationwide, but my closest Costco is nearly an hour drive, and the second closest would be about two hours in the opposite direction. I guess you could shop exclusively online, but that may not make the annual membership worth it to some.
 

JohnRice

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At the risk of extreme redundancy, this is why I try my best to buy major items from Costco. They do zero advertising and must therefore rely totally on word-of mouth to sustain their reputation.
I looked into that, after the fact. It wouldn't have made a difference for me. The space available in my house for the fridge is extremely constricted and this is the only model I've found that genuinely fits. Costco doesn't have any that really fit. There are a few that would be tolerable, but not ideal, and they don't have any of those either. The ones Costco has would stick out further than I care for, but most of all there wouldn't be room to open the doors all the way. Yes, there are side-by-side models, which I hate, but they are really too deep and would stick out far too much.

The total depth for the doors to open is 60". There are some 28" wide models that would fit but are really narrow for the space and would look like crap. There's one or two that need 58.5", which is a squeeze, but could just barely work. This one needs 57" and the fridge is 30" wide, which is as good as I could find.
 

John Dirk

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Costco is not an option for everyone, I don't think. They're kinda, sorta nationwide, but my closest Costco is nearly an hour drive, and the second closest would be about two hours in the opposite direction. I guess you could shop exclusively online, but that may not make the annual membership worth it to some.
I agree it's not for everyone but the annual membership fee is negligible [to me] in exchange for guaranteed excellent customer service.
 

David Norman

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I live 45 minutes from 2 different stores and 60 from 2 others, but generally have been able to make a Costco membership worth it making 2-4 trips/year mostly on non-perishables and bulk items -- just have to plan to go on the correct trip when I'm going to be there anyway.

Just on Gas Savings alone it would be close even using it on a couple Vacation Trips. Probably saved $35 this summer on a single nearly 2500 mile trip to multiple reunions in multiple states. 10-20 cents per gallon seems common, but there have been times where it was over 50-70 cents (the early pandemic shortages and when the big Pipelines were hacked and I absolutely had to travel due to family emergencies 2 states away)
 

JohnRice

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Well, I have a functioning refrigerator. Actually, I have two now, since I bought a second one when I lost hope that the first one would be repaired in the foreseeable future.

...and now there is a second compressor being delivered today. All I can figure is that six weeks after the first tech came out, they actually, finally ordered the compressor.

So, stay tuned, the drama might not be over. :rock:
:drum::banana:
 

John Dirk

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Well, I have a functioning refrigerator. Actually, I have two now, since I bought a second one when I lost hope that the first one would be repaired in the foreseeable future.

...and now there is a second compressor being delivered today. All I can figure is that six weeks after the first tech came out, they actually, finally ordered the compressor.

So, stay tuned, the drama might not be over. :rock:
:drum::banana:
John. Your temperament throughout this ordeal has been commendable. Respect!
 

JohnRice

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John. Your temperament throughout this ordeal has been commendable. Respect!
I do have a tendency toward anxiety and always have. Fortunately, I live in Colorado and we have these special stores. I'd never been to one until last year. You have to show your ID to get in and they only accept cash. But they have these gummies, and when the world is getting to me, if I slice off a sliver of one and chew it, twenty minutes later the world doesn't bother me so much anymore. I can go to one of these stores and for $60 I'm stocked for an entire year.

🤪
 

Malcolm R

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I do have a tendency toward anxiety and always have. Fortunately, I live in Colorado and we have these special stores. I'd never been to one until last year. You have to show your ID to get in and they only accept cash. But they have these gummies, and when the world is getting to me, if I slice off a sliver of one and chew it, twenty minutes later the world doesn't bother me so much anymore. I can go to one of these stores and for $60 I'm stocked for an entire year.

🤪
I think we have some of these stores opening in Vermont next month. I'll have to check them out.
 

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