Tales of Lousy Customer Service

Today the number one business goal is keep your current clients happy and maybe market and get more!

Sounds simple, and it should be the number one thing on every company's list, right? Well, this week I thought I would tell a story about a man named Greg and his misadventure into customer service hell.

It started with my cell phone (which is less than 10 months old) taking a vacation from working. I was like any customer, unhappy, and took it to a service center to get it repaired. They looked it over and said, "It’s a bad battery, and here is a new one." Now thinking, "Cool, that was an easy fix," I jumped in the car and headed to a client for a meeting.

Well, about halfway there, the battery and phone got hot to the touch, so I had to remove the new battery and live without the cell until I got home.

Upon returning, I called the cell phone company to see what they could do, and they were nice and said, "We will send you a replacement via UPS and you will have it in two days." Great, that’s good.

So two days pass, and the new phone arrives. I program everything back in and make a call to them to turn it on, but soon find out they can’t hear me, but I can hear them. Okay, over to the land line and we connect up again, but after 30 minutes of trying, that phone was dead also. So two phones dead, no way to conduct business from the road, so I got a little upset when the person said, “We’ll send you another, but it will be two more days."

Now, I’m a nice guy to a point, but I don’t want the same phone brand because frankly I have lost my confidence in the quality control they have. I asked nicely that I be upgraded and I would pay the cost difference and was told no. What the heck are you saying here? You are going to stick me with the same phone after all this? And they said it was just a fluke, and they assured me a replacement would work fine.

So, being the great business person I am, I said, "Let us make this deal."

1. You will credit me $50.00 for all the lost time.
2.  If the new phone doesn’t work 100% you will upgrade me free to any phone.

Well, they said fine after I had to talk to three different managers. I’m waiting for the new phone's arrival to see if it’s 100% working. If not, they will be paying big to keep me as a client. 

Has this happened to you? Have you been run around the "let me see what I can do" loop? If so, make the loop work in your favor, because there are always more cell companies that would love your business. Just remember to hold to your guns, and you may get a credit—or better yet, a new phone.

Oh and hey, cell phone companies, you know who you are. Get with the program. We require gray matter to be used when we call.