The Customer Disservice Department

Are companies thinking?

In September I was offered a mailing machine on a 30 day trial basis.  The offer sounded attractive. I do a small number of mass mailings and at $19.95 a month, a chance to speed up the process seemed a good move.

The machine and scale arrived a few days later. It was a very large unit, - and there was no realistic place to put it in my small office. I decided to return it without even opening the boxes. There was a mailing address on the external shipping slip but no phone number.  But I had entered the customer service number in my digital contact list and called it.

That’s when the real fun began. “All our operators are assisting other customers”, I heard after pressing the fifth option.  Not wanting to waste time, I stayed on the line, donned a headset and proceeded with other work.  It was hard to concentrate with the interruption every three minutes to thank me for my patience but I hung in there. After only one hour, I got to talk to a human who transferred me to four other persons, the last of whom seemed to be able to help. He advised that I would receive a waybill with instructions for return including a credit for postage. I waited. The only thing I received was an invoice, - for $80 not $19.95.

I wrote the accounting department explaining the situation. The large boxes now seemed part of the office furniture. When the second invoice for $80 arrived, I called customer service again. After only one half hour this time, I reached a pleasant woman who was able to look me up in her records and find a name, address and telephone number but no record of any activity.  “I’ll have to speak to my supervisor”, she said.  The supervisor came on the line several minutes later and said that they would have to find an order spreadsheet from September.  “I’ll call you back soon”, she promised.

Nothing happened. I again mailed all the documentation to the accounting department but also redoubled my efforts.  There was a business office not too far away.  I visited and explained my problem to the receptionist.  “Why don’t you return it here and we'll ship it back”, she suggested.  Two days later I picked up the heavy boxes and brought them in. There was a new receptionist.  “I don’t see how we can accept anything”, she said.  An employee passing through suggested that I try the mail room. 

There I met the most helpful person of all, who not only gave me his business card with real contact information but the number of someone to call at the shipping office. “It’s a bit chaotic right now, he said.  “They are relocating us in two weeks and the shipping department is going to be moved as well”.  I hoped that everyone might end up under one roof. “Oh no”, he said. We’ll still all be in different cities, - in fact some of us will be in different countries”.

 A nice surprise awaited me a couple of days later.  Customer service actually got back with a message that they now could see that there was a problem and hoped that the big boxes were back at the shipping department. Would I please confirm. The voice left a phone number and an extension.  When I phoned the extension I got a dial tone.

It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I am still missing my postage rebate. I’m thinking of writing to a person higher up in the company so I went to the company website.  Here is an excerpt from the President’s Message:

“The best way to lead is by example. That’s why we’ve refined the way we work, becoming more customer-focused to meet the challenges of today’s business environment. Integrating our processes allows us to increase our efficiency, speed and agility, ultimately making us easier to do business with. These efforts directly support our mission of increasing shareholder and customer value.

 Should I tell him?

PS. I did actually get the final deposit back, - after six months.

© Norah Bolton 2003