marlyse.comme, myself and my life
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Service
Yesterday was an introverting and frustrating day. It began just fine but turned sour in the afternoon. And today I’m having a headache, I’ve withdrawn and introverted THAT much into myself, no crab or turtle could beat that. What ever happened to customer service and care for the public?
It started off with going to the bank. I went to do our quarterly wire-transfer to Switzerland and it took the lady 40 minutes to fill out a form - with data I have all neatly typed and prepared, as this is a reoccurring action - and to call-in the transfer. Now if anyone does this process from A to B it will take maybe 10 minutes. So what took so long? She would answer phones, do another wire-transfer while doing mine, get involved in about 5 other cycles all while I, the CUSTOMER, was sitting in front of her, waiting. Unfortunately I go through this every 3 months with her - dreading each time to go - she is the person to do wire-transfers at that bank. She is a really nice lady, but boy, I can’t take that anymore. Finally when I left I had a head thick as wool. Next time I will have to change franchise and go to another bank which SERVES the customer.
Even though I felt side-wise after leaving the bank and 3 PM traffic was beginning to build, I drove to SEARS to exchange a gift I had received from my dad. This was a beautiful cashmere pullover from LandsEnd but unfortunately in a color that doesn’t suit me and too small for me feeling comfortable in it.
So I had called in the morning, telling the lady on the phone (who wanted to make the exchange via phone and wanted my credit card number) that I did NOT want a refund (as that would go back onto the visa of the giver and then I, the receiver, would have to pay for the new item - how screwy is THAT?), but that I just wanted to exchange to a fitting item. So she told me very nicely that I could either send the parcel back myself of go to Sears who would do that for me, I just would have to make sure the exchange part of the paper form would be fully filled out.
I do NOT like shopping at Sears, Sam’s or at any the like stores. It’s big and after the Xmas rush it looks cheap and messy with all the after Xmas special deals spread all over the place (Sam’s always looks like that but then again is always cheap). But I bit the bullet and boy, was Sears busy. I stood with many other customers in the really slow line and finally it was my turn. And that lady treated me like I’ve just escaped a mental home for retarded people. She REFUSED at first to take the form, just telling me they’d send it to LandsEnd for me and that was all what she could do. I had told her that I was just exchanging, not refunding, and that the lady on the phone had told me to send that exchange form along but she still didn’t want to put it into the box, told me that part of the form is for ME to keep (what good does now THAT do, if LandsEnd never receives my exchange request?), and she got angry because I insisted that it needs to go along and turned her eyes up and looked with that disgusted look of “what an idiot” to all the other people waiting restless in cue behind me. Made me feel REAL good. I KNOW now that I will never go shopping at Sears if there is any way in preventing it.
Finally she gave in and took the form from me (basically tore it from my hands) and added it to the box with the pullover (basically flung it into the box and smashing the lid on top of it) and prepared the receipt for me. Happy that she had gotten rid of me she already turned to the next customer when I - expecting just a receipt that it had been received and ‘forwarded’ to LandsEnd on my behalf - noticed that it was a REFUND receipt. I had TOLD the lady I did not want a refund, just an exchange. So I said so. She said that is all that they can do. So I said, NO, why in gods name would I refund the GIVER of the gift to me? So I said, “well, then I want that box back, I DO NOT WANT A REFUND!”.
You can imagine how pissed the lady was NOW and how upset I was at this point (I did NOT want to let my dad know that what he got me was not perfect, because usually he just gives me money and this was a change and an effort, giving Bear and me a personal gift [Bear’s pullover fitted perfectly] - I really did not want to thwart this gesture in any way and now she had done it, she had made a REFUND to the visa which had been EXACTLY what I was avoiding to happen!). Next to make ME look like an idiot and icky customer in front of other people. NO WAY that I will ever go shopping on my own and free will at Sears. Yes, the behavior of ONE employe can have such an effect on me (but there had been an other, very non-customer-helpful person before that, answering my question where I find customer service only barely while rushing away from me, so this already adds up to 2 non-service-oriented people in less than 30 minutes, and I DO NOT CARE that this is in the time after the Xmas rush, this is no excuse I accept). If in the beginning she just would have clearly said, “I am sorry, we can only REFUND items and then send the item back to LandsEnd”, then everything would had been clear and I’d just had been upset with the lady in the morning not telling me that in the first place and thus making me drive in busy traffic and wait forever in line and waste a good hour of my day, next to being insulted instead of cared for. But nope, she only said that they“will send it for me to LandsEnd”.
And this whole episode still leaves me with the gift I need to send and get exchanged with the stigma already clinging on the pullover to come, which can not be washed away, reminding me in all future of this horrible, horrible day.
created just before lunchtime - it was 11:36 am to be exact | trackback |
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