Customer Service

There was a time many years ago when a problem with a product was corrected with an attitude of “the customer is right” and measures were taken to ensure that the customer would return to the place of purchase. That place of purchase would often be embarrassed at a product that was faulty or defective and would offer money back or an exchange. The place of purchase could be a small shop or a large department store. Often the customer would be satisfied because the problem was usually handled directly with a face to face meeting. Sometimes there would be problems that were mishandled, the Monty Python “Dead Parrot” sketch comes to mind, but usually a customer would be satisfied with an exchange or refund. There is a major department store that would stand behind it products and service without question, and still does, but in recent years the chances of face to face customer service for a problem is increasingly rare. This department store is replacing the large multi-floor shopping complex with small satellite depots that are basically a catalogue order desk and/or pick-up point especially in the smaller cities and towns where they are often a side business included with another. Liarton’s Marty-Mart is a good example as you can get gas for your car, gas from the chili in the deli and gas from the beer in the liquor store, as well as pick up a delivery from your Wish Book Catalogue order. With online and phone sales, the chances of a real person to handle a problem comes down to the guy running the depot, who in Marty-Mart’s case is limited in what can be done with some very old computer gear dedicated to the “Wish Book” store. They are just a pickup depot, so if there is a problem, it must be addressed by phoning a 1-800 customer service number. We had a problem with a Wish Book order and needed to do a simple exchange for a piece of clothing that was the wrong size. Easy peasy, even Marty can handle that, but this piece of clothing had been ordered along with a gift from a Maternity Registry and was to be shipped to a different location. When the package arrived at the Marty-Mart (the wrong location) the two orders had been packaged as one and the barcode had no indication of separate codes on the product. The barcode indicated one product, which was described as “gift.” That tied Marty’s hands as far as an exchange went. Marty did try to phone the 1-800 customer service number but got frustrated trying to explain the problem while running the till and pumping gas, so we offered to phone about the problem at home. We should have let Marty get frustrated. I dialed the 1-800 number and spoke with a man named “Dave” about how wrong this order had been right from the start by being delivered to the wrong address, which turned out to be a good thing or we would not have discovered the size error. Dave assured me in a thick un-Canadian accent that the Marty-Mart would be able to accept the exchange so we went back to have Marty try again but he was still unable to complete the simple task because of the bar code problem. Marty phoned the 1-800 number and tried to explain the bar code snag to a lady named “Linda” who also had a thick un-Canadian accent. She could not understand why there was a problem. Marty apologized to us after he hung up on Linda with an unrepeatable but colourful phrase about his mother’s trucker. I was beginning to see a common root in our inability to solve what should have been a simple exchange and that was a language barrier. Marty agreed and we offered to try again the next morning after we had cooled down. My plan was simple, have a fresh coffee, a charged up telephone battery, all our receipts, code/order numbers and then let Mrs. B handle the “negotiations.” This was a wise decision because the first thing she did after dialing the 1-800 number was ask for a Canadian customer service agent. In a few moments, she was connected to “Wendy” and within a mere 30-35 minutes had arranged for a pick-up from our door to initiate the exchange process. Mrs. B was able to do one thing that Marty and I could not do and that was to remain calm despite a communications problem. The calm and wise Mrs. B was also aware of a statute requiring the overseas call centers to transfer or give a contact number in their own country. We (Mrs. B, Marty and myself) all had a real good laugh when Mrs. B commented on the accents we had heard in the last few days, including the very thick Newfoundland/Canadian accent from Wendy. We just have to listen…