Having made it through the holidays and after buying untold amounts of goodies I am amazed at the short-sightedness of individuals and organizations in a recessive economy where every dollar earned counts. Customer service should always be important and most companies should make it their number one priority because a lack of it can cost them significant revenue.
First Customer Service Example:
Up until a few months ago my company used Telus exclusively for our corporate telecommunications. After a number of service related issues last year and higher than necessary costs we decided to switch over to AllStream for our telephone and data services.
Noticing a recurring charge on my Telus statement for $9.95 since we cut off service in October I called to simply have the transactions reversed since this obviously was an oversight. This reversal would have cost Telus about $30 +/-
Yesterday, after trying to use their AVR and talking with 3 ‘service professionals’ I finally got to a person who had the ‘authority’ to reverse these minor charges. This service manager informed me that it was my responsibility to cancel this ‘extra’ service and that there was no reason why Telus should reimburse me for my lack of understanding of my subscribed services on my statement. I politely informed her that I had already spoken to 2 representatives who could not find any reason for the charge or what it represented on our account.
After 20 minutes of her refusal to even consider any compensation I asked for her supervisor to call me back regarding this issue.
I have yet to be called back 16 hours later.
What did this cost Telus and was saving $30.00 worth it for them?
- I will no longer use Telus
- My 2 home phone lines will now be switched over to Shaw at the end of January ($85 per month). I’ve been using Telus for about 20 years for my home phone along with long distance.
- My Daughter was going to use Telus for her first cell phone and since I need to sign the contract for her it will now go to Fido or Rogers. ($40 per month – 3 year contract).
Telus’s service professional cost them conservatively about $3,o00.00 over the next 2 to 3 years. All for a $30.00 charge that should have been a non-issue considering our account was effectively closed more than 3 months ago.
Second Customer Service Example:
Best Buy does not mean Best Service! My 12 y.o. son bought me a beard trimmer for Christmas. One of the attachments was broken out of the box so I stood in line to get a replacement a couple of days after Christmas. I also had to swap an iTouch case for my Better Half and I also was finalizing researching for some new audio visual equipment.
The service agent at Best Buy in Coquitlam, Jade, was exeplary! She was fast, helpful and remarkably perky for someone dealing with consumer electronics returns after the big day.
The iTouch case refund was imediate. An identical replacement shaver however was not to be found anywhere in Western Canada. I went and got another model that was $20 more expensive. Jade asked the Store Manager over to see about a price compromise for the more expensive model which again would have cost Best Buy about $10.
I explained that my son’s disappointment as well as the inconvenience of having to stand in line and return a defective item had to be worth at least $10 to keep me happy. I was after all also going to be buying a Samsung Blu-Ray player ($400) as well as a Samsung 52″ – 55″ TV within the week ($2,500 – $3,500).
Nope. Can’t and Won’t do it.
In a nutshell I left the store with a broken beard trimmer and went to a competitor where I purchased the Samsung Blu-Ray for $400. I am still researching the TV since Samsung also has a 72″ behemoth that would look sexy as all hell in place of that piddly 55″ that had caught my eye the week before.
I was ready to buy and knew what I wanted. If they would have propositioned me to buy the Blu-Ray and the TV to get the $10 off the replacement beard trimmer they would have sold me about $3,000 – $4,000 worth of Audio-Visual equipment.
All they got from me that day and all they will ever get from me in the future is contempt.
$10 for both issues and about $3,000 – $4,000 each for poor customer service.
Dai Manuel
3 years ago
Great post, Kyle! I won’t even begin to tell you some the poor customer service experiences I have had in the past 3 weeks.
But your post rings true that when we have a positive experience, we tell a couple people; but when we have a poor experience and we tell EVERYONE!
Excellion
3 years ago
This is a good post. I can’t stand poor customer service as well. The thing I realized is that for a lot of companies you don’t have too many options. 10 years down the road, Rogers may piss you off, and then who will you change to? Bell? Unfortunately, for every 10 people that Telus piss off, 10 people are pissed off by Rogers and swap so in the end it’s net zero – in the grand scheme of things.
Also a lot of the time the customer service reps don’t have the authority to do what they need to do to keep customers happy.
I do have really good experiences with Rogers though – they always seem willing to do what it takes to make it up to you. When they screwed up my order for a new Curve a year ago, they gave it to me for free. They always seem to screw things up, but if you spend the time talking to them, they always seem to give you something in the end.
Anonymous
3 years ago
Good post, Kyle. And this kind of stuff is so frustrating – and so shortsighted. You’ll probably appreciate Dave Fleet’s post “Customer Service is Public Realtions” http://bit.ly/Rnjq
Chris Haddad
1 year ago
Hey bud – I do have a question about the Best Buy thing. Did you put your future purchases in perspective when talking with the manager? IE: “I plan on buying a blu-ray player and a new HDTV over the new month. If I buy the blu-ray player today, will you meet me on the beard trimmer exchange?”
With the store manager, it probably comes down to an under-powered individual in a position of semi-authority. In theory, he should be responsible for the top-line sales and bottom-line revenue for his store, but corporate will question “why did you authorize this $10 discount?” – and thus its “cheaper” for him to lose business instead of justifying himself to corporate.
Honestly, this is why I shop online :/