Customer Connection

Archive for the ‘Customer Service Horror Stories’ Category

Customer Service has the potential for many major screw ups – but this takes the cake!!   We’ve all heard stories about customer service reps doing their nails on the job, and this is a serious grooming “no – no.” But, even my jaw dropped when I saw this one.   Read on for the rest of the story. . .

I was walking into my favorite gym – and I say “favorite” because they seemingly do everything right.  They have pictures with a little bio of their trainers on the wall, they have the manager’s name prominently displayed, they recognize me (even when I haven’t washed my hair for 2 days and wear no make-up and dark sunglasses), greet me by name and wave goodbye when I leave.  I’m really sensitive to good customer service, and I like this experience.

So, imagine my shock and awe when I swung open the double doors expecting the usual “Hi Verena”, and see my friendly gym rep, hovering over the check-in counter, with an eyebrow tweezers and a mirror in her hand.  Okay, I want to give her every benefit of the doubt, so I say to myself, “Self, she must need those tweezers to perform some helpful, technical maneuver on me that requires a teensy, very sharp, needle-nosed implement.”  (Yikes!) Or perhaps she’s just giving me a hint that I need to watch the “How to tweeze your eyebrows” video on You Tube.

Nuh uh.   There’s no doubt what is going on here.  This girl assumed the tweezing posture.  And if you don’t know what that is, imagine chin in the air, whilst gazing into a magnifying mirror held approximately three inches from your nose, arm gracefully arched above the head like a ballerina, with tweezers grasped firmly between the thumb and forefinger, poised to pluck the offending – whatever!

And as she continued her grooming ritual – totally ignoring me, (but continuing her conversation with another gym employee!) I punched in my ID number, scanned my fingerprint, and got the “Enjoy your workout!” message.  I scurried away, flip flops flapping, and couldn’t wait to tell everyone in my Yoga class what I had just seen.

I expected an “Oh my gosh!” reaction from my gym rat compadres, but they were not at all shocked.  It’s sad to think that when it comes to customer service, they expect nothing.

So the moral of the story here is simple – never, ever, think you’ve got this customer service “thing” nailed down.  You can check and re-check, observe frequently, but you have to talk to the staff about what is and is not appropriate in your work place. Don’t assume that they know what you expect – or when your back is turned, your front desk can turn into a beauty parlor!

Ooooh. . . we all have a service story that has left us spitting and sputtering. I’ll bet that at one time or another, every one of us has left an establishment saying, “How in the world do they stay in business?”

I know you’ve got some customer service horror stories that you’d love to tell me, but here’s one of my own. In fact, by the time I’d finished with this ordeal, I was so mad my chin quivered! 

Several years ago, I needed a new microwave. . .

(to get the rest of the story and meet Rox”E” the doxie go to http://theserviceadvisors.com/The-Problem.html

Customer Service Horror Story – Can You Relate?

I was on the phone the other day trying to get support from a company I have patronized for many years.

1. First, I had to press “1″ for English.
2. Then I had to listen to 8 menu choices and guess which was the one that could help me. I couldn’t figure out the correct option, so I pressed “#” to listen again before I could make a good guess.
3. Then I was transferred to an automated system that told me what I already knew about my account. There was nobody on the line to help me. After several frustrating minutes I hung up and tried again.
4. I tried pressing “0″ (always a good option), in a desperate attempt to get a real person.
5. I had to press “1″ for English again.
6. Then I tried pressing “0″ to see if that would work this time.
7. I heard a recording apologizing for the brief wait, but that a real person would be with me shortly.
8. For the next 42 minutes I heard a repeated recording saying, “Your call is very important to us.” Give me a break. I don’t believe that lie.
9. Finally I got a real live person. “Halo, mee I hulp you.” I asked if I could speak to someone who spoke English. “I um spiking Englush,” was the reply.
10. From the time I made my first attempt, it took a total of 65 minutes to get the answer to a 3-minute question. And, oh, did I tell you? I was burning up these minutes on my cell phone!

I decided to find another company to do business with. I will never go through that ordeal with this company again.