Given that this year both my husband and I got raises at work, even though we're still burdened by our student loan and credit card debt, I felt better off than others in this economy. So I wanted to share some Christmas cheer.
Our neighbors, with whom we share a driveway, are retired and home almost all day. They get up early and when they go out to the front of the driveway to get their newspaper, they grab mine as well and place it on my backdoor step. The first few months we lived at the house, I didn't know they did that and I, believing it was great service from my newspaper delivery guy, sent him a nice Christmas tip with a letter saying "thanks for the door delivery." I bet he was confused. Now, knowing its not him, but my neighbors, I still send a tip, which I suppose at least keeps my papers coming to me dry (wrapped twice on rainy/snowy days), but no note.
Its nice that by the time I'm up, dressed, downstairs getting coffee, my newspaper is right on my backdoor step so I don't have to go outside to get it. A few times, I happen to be the first one outside, so I reciprocate for my neighbors, but its me 10%, them 90%.
Similarly, our neighbors help with the trashcans. Our trash is always picked up after both Stephane and I are gone to work. Instead of coming home and hoping our trash cans are still in the vicinity of our house (even if the trashmen leave them in the driveway, sometimes the wind can blow them away), my neighbors will grab my trash can and bring it back to our backyard when they get their own trashcan.
I really appreciate their help, so I wanted to buy them something for Christmas this year. Not really knowing their tastes, I thought to buy them something from a gift-food place. They used to have a local store at our mall (which I frequented every few months for cocoa, chocolate covered cherries and other items), but it closed a few months ago. So I had to use their online service.
I inadvertently got my neighbor's address incorrect. I only ever knew their first names, but I needed their last names for the delivery. So I went to look up their last name via whitepages.com since I knew the address. However, I put in the wrong number, I mixed it up with the address of the house on the other side of us (which is also a nice family, btw). Later than night, I realized I put in the wrong address on the order. I tried to call the place, but the "on-hold" time was more than a hour because "Christmas is busy." I didn't have that kind of time, so I sent an email, which promised to "get back to me within 24 hours."
The next day, I got an email saying they got my email and would respond "within 24 hours." Already slow. Another day passes and I get an email that said "Hey, you know it's Christmas and we're busy, so we'll respond to you as soon as we can." I'm thinking, ah oh, problem. I tried to call again. Now its "so busy" the customer service can't take more calls, try back later or go on our website for responses "within 24 hours."
Well, sure enough, the next day I get an email saying my order has been shipped. :p Great. Now my other neighbors are getting the gift. Now, they're nice people and all, and we've exchanged pleasantries, they have a boy just a little younger than Elise, so its entirely possible we'll eventually get to know them better. But still, I think they're going to be quite curious as to why out of the blue they're getting a fruit/chocolate/cookie box from us. Oh well, guess we're being extra generous this season. Of course, now I wonder if this is going to cause them to feel they have to reciprocate (at least for next year) and we start some fake gift exchange because we feel we 'have to for appearances sake, even if we don't really want to' all because I made a mistake.
I went out and bought something from a brick and mortar shop for my retired neighbors (these wonderful chocolate covered apple slices and strawberries from Edible Creations) and delivered it myself. I should have done that in the first place, I know, but the other place offered free delivery and hey, I'm a busy full time working mom.
Several days later, I finally get an email from the on-line place. "Oops, sorry about your order, but its Christmas and we're busy and didn't get to it in time to cancel/fix your order. Hope you accept our apologies and Merry Christmas." :p Gee thanks. Only took you a week to respond to my email. Quite a bit beyond your "24 hour" promise, you think?
Yeah, I get Christmas is busy. Perhaps one of the busiest of year. You think I don't know that? Don't they know that too? These companies know (or should know, seriously) that Christmas is busy. Why didn't they oh maybe take a stab at lowering the unemployment rate (even if just temporarily) and hire more people so they could fix orders, or get orders out on time, respond promptly to emails, etc.? I'm sorry, but 7 days to respond to an email that was promised a response in 1? You're that busy and backed-up on responding to customer service questions?? Perhaps you should have hired an additional person, which could have cut that response time to maybe 3 days, or hire 2 to cut it down to the promised 1? Oh, and hire more telephone operators too maybe, so I could get through the telephone lines without having to sit around on my butt for over an hour, or even just get told to "call back later."
I know this food company isn't the only one that is using the "Christmas is busy" excuse either. I've seen complaints on other consumer websites as well about problems with other on-line order places. Seriously, there is no excuse for the "we're too busy because its Christmas" line for on-line companies that can friggin hire people in India for pennies if they don't want to pay Americans living wages (though I think those that do that should be taxed to make up for it).
Maybe these companies will make nice big profits this year, because they've cut their labor force to the bare minimum, but they're losing a lot of future customer orders in the process. I know I'm not exactly itching to place another on-line order with this company, which means they could loose at least few more orders each year (I've used the on-line service in the past for deliveries in CA and other places in PA). I haven't tried out the Edible Creations delivery service, maybe I'll do that next year (although I think its just local delivery, but that will work for most of my orders, or I can actually pick up my order at a physical store).
With unemployment bouncing against 10%, there's no excuse for the "its Christmas, we're busy" ploy to excuse poor service. Hire people! Companies keep saying they can't hire people because they don't have the orders, but then when they do get inundated with orders, for *surprise* Christmas, they can't provide the service. Seriously, you knew Christmas was coming, its the same date every year. Plan for it. Hire a couple more people, heck, even temporarily. People will take a decent paying job, then go back on unemployment afterward, if necessary.
Maybe if more companies quit thinking about bonuses for executives and CEOs and more about their employees and customers, we'd have less unemployment and more happy customers.
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2 comments:
I can't help but wonder if there's something else coming into play here.
With a lot more laws and regulations on the books than there were ten years ago about hiring and firing, doing either one ain't as easy as it used to be. We had to let go of some folks earlier this year and it took corporate some six weeks to make it happen. Those who had the chore of walking the unfortunate out the door had strict instructions not to talk, as that anything they said could have been used against them in a lawsuit. Similarly, there is a lot of processing it takes to bring someone into the company outside.
That said, there really isn't any excuse for bad service, and I can't help but wonder if one reason why we get it is from someone who can't wait to sue their deep pockets employer should their employer do something.
Case in point: we've had occasions where secretaries have inflated expenses on travel reports in order to skim some dollars their way. Their manager signs the reports, not knowing then of the fraud. Sooner or later it's discovered and the secretary gets fired. The secretary then sues the company for "defamation of character" as that her manager signed the reports, so guess what? She gets her job back, with back pay, not to mention damages.
Me, the best I can do is not patronize those places with inferior customer service. Last year a neighborhood supermarket was so bad in their lack of service that people started going to the Safeway across the street, and that supermarket had to close that one store since it was "underperforming". May take a while before the chickens come home to roost, but they do.
I'm sure in your business, it does get tricky hiring and firing people. It shouldn't be the same for an ordinary retailer, however.
I'm surprised that secretaries that steal money could sue over being defamed. Truth is a defense.
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