You call this customer service?

‘Tis this season, friends. Hope it’s wonderful for you and yours!

 

And as far as I’m concerned, it’s a great time to talk about customer service, the good, the bad, the indifferent, the avoidable, and so forth.  We’re all cornered by it, whether we like it or not!

 

Here’s my first and worst bad example.  Some of our family lives out of state, so we conscientiously shop for them early, so that we can ship their gifts out well in advance of Christmas.  We did exactly that this year, and my wife shipped the box on December 9.  Since that time we have not received any tracking updates from the United States Postal Service, the tracking site only states that the parcel is “in the possession of the USPS.”

 

Since then my wife visited the post office from which she shipped it, and the employee there complained that they hired no seasonal help, they don’t have enough people to handle mail and parcels and that she wasn’t about to ship anything through the Postal Service.

 

I went through the process of initiating a search for what the USPS calls “missing mail,” which includes parcels.  No response despite having requested that search last Friday.  I expect that we will have to file a claim against the insurance we bought and simply send the money to our family members.  Not ideal.

 

Here’s another one……wanted to buy a particular item from an online merchant.  Found it on their website and were delighted to see that we were eligible for a substantial discount.  Placed the order and then received NO updates beyond the order confirmation.  Sent an e-mail through their customer service portal, no response, so called and the agent advised that the item was backordered to late February and offered to cancel the order.  I agreed and she assured me that we would receive notification of the cancellation.

 

Then another agent responded to my original e-mail, saying they were going to have that soon, and that I should just be patient.  Responded with the info about my call, and then did a chat with someone who said they would cancel the order but never did.

 

Finally a followup e-mail arrived, mentioning that the order would be cancelled as I requested.  As I write this is still has not been processed.

 

Now some good stuff.  Let’s give Amazon a hand, as they have flawlessly delivered every item we have ordered on the date they projected.  Same with Apple, on a smaller scale, items ordered from them have arrived on time or early!

 

And I am in need of some black dress shoes for work and tried an online show company called Amberjack. Great reviews and nice shoes.  I was very impressed that they were so well-made and of quality materials.  Unfortunately the fit wasn’t what I need, so I initiated a return and back they went, and I received a refund as soon as the shipper processed the return.  That’s how to do it!

 

That’s a small cross-section of what we’ve bought and experienced.  As they say, your mileage will vary!