Customer dis-Service
How May I Help You?
Trina L.C. Sonnenberg
We are a world comprised of consumers. We spend millions of dollars every year on products that huge corporations tell us we need. Why do we need them? Because, they will make our lives easier. At least, that's what we are told. 'Buy our widget and your life will be so much better for it!' But are our lives better? The product may make life grand, while it is working, but what about when it isn't working?
How much stress do we experience when our miracle item is on the fritz? It's bad enough that it is not working, but then... when you attempt to resolve your issue, by calling that wonderful 800 number, how often do you feel the urge to scream, pull your hair out, and go 'postal'?
You explain your trouble to this person, and they put you on hold again...! This usually leads to being transferred to someone else, to whom you must repeat your story to. At this point, it's a crap shoot. Either the person you're on the line with will work with you to resolve your issue, hand you off to another person, or they will read from some cue card, that there is nothing they can do to help you. Have a nice day.
How stressed out are you after spending an hour on the phone, getting absolutely nothing accomplished? You bought their product to make life easier, at least that what you thought. More stress is what you really bought.
How important is customer service, really?
It should be right up there with having the best product available, but sadly, with many corporations it is not. If you want to keep your customers coming back for more, you'd think that keeping them happy, in between purchases, would be a top priority.
These million dollar companies seem to have no problem spending their money telling you how great they are, why you can't live without their stuff, and taking your hard earned money, but once your wallet is closed... transaction complete, they seem to fall miserably short on the follow through.
Recently, a friend of mine, decided to bite the bullet, and buy a Mac. He'd been a PC user for years, but was told that Apple has a superior product, so he switched.
However, he had trouble with the machine. It wouldn't work right. He spent hours and hours, trying to fix it... to make it do what it was supposed to do... Work! To no avail. It just wasn't going to happen.
Next step, contact Apple and return it, right? Wrong! They wouldn't take it back! He spent a horrific amount of time getting the run-around from the customer service department. First they said that since he added a GB of memory to it, it was customized, and in the super fine print, on some obscure web page, it says that customized machines are not returnable. That's just dandy. He spent a lot of money on something that won't work right, and they won't take it back. That doesn't sound like a company that stands behind their product very well.
My friend went round-and-round with Apple Customer dis-Service for a very long time. This was his end result, in his own words:
"To be fair, I'm sure it's in the small gray print somewhere but really -- bumping the memory from 1 GB to 2 GB makes the computer non-returnable?! The engraving on the iPod is more understandable, but it's something Apple pushes, it's free, and they do _not_ have any warning along with the offer saying that it will be non-returnable.
I expressed my 'disappointment' with the situation, and Stephen decided that he could waive the rule against returns of customized items, but just when I thought everything was OK, he informed me that he must charge a "restocking fee" of 10% on the MacBook and the iPod (10% of about $1800 = $180).
Stephen then offers me free return shipping and asks if that 'works' for me!
Ummm...nope.
...Stephen decided that they don't need the restocking fee after all, but then refused to pay for shipping (his original offer).
So we're stuck paying return shipping and I could not get him to refund the cost of the .Mac service (which apparently an be used with any computer, PC or Mac).
BOTTOM LINE: Apple is an amoral corporation. Their policies are about as short-sighted and sleazy as any other. In order to get to where I just have to pay return shipping (and for the .Mac service) I had to endure over an hour on the phone and be jerked around and aggravated. It would be a lot better if they would just treat people right to begin with. Now, I'm unlikely to buy anything from them ever again."
Apple has not just lost a return customer, but they have lost potential future customers as well, because... NEGATIVE PRESS SPREADS, and a lot faster than positive press.
Companies that provide the best customer service will always be the most profitable. Even if the product itself is mediocre, customers will return if they've been satisfied by customer support and service. Not all big corporations, or even small businesses, provide shoddy service; not by any means. However, none of them should. It doesn't matter if the company sells ebooks, electronics, vacuum cleaners, or vitamins... Customer service should be top priority.
Representatives should be polite and courteous, knowledgeable and helpful.
The customer pays to have something shipped to them, and if it needs repair or replacement, the customer should not have to pay to ship it back. That is adding insult to injury.
There should be no such thing as a restocking fee; that is just ridiculous. For one thing, if the item is defective, it shouldn't be restocked in the first place. Are they going to sell defective merchandise (knowingly) to another customer?
Response time should be expedient. They took your money quick enough, they should respond to you in the same manner when you've got an issue.
If you are in business, put yourself in your customers' shoes. Treat them the way you'd expect to be treated. Every customer service issue is important to the person calling; make it important to you, and your customers will be loyal. Customer loyalty is money in the bank. Perhaps big corporations think they have enough of that.
Nah... Otherwise they wouldn't keep telling us how much we need to buy their stuff.
Copyright © 2007
The Trii-Zine Ezine
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About the Author:
Trina L.C. Sonnenberg
Publisher - The Trii-Zine Ezine - Your Trusted Source for Internet Business and Marketing Information. Serving online professionals since 2001. ISSN# 1555-2276
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Keywords: customer service, customer support, apple, mac
Dear Trina,
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