Another post not about Peace Corps

I am sure that all of you are expecting more posts about Peace Corps, Nicaragua, Guatemala, how everything is coming along, etc but right now I am too stressed with buying and organizing everything to write about it. So…I will now follow up my ode to public transportation with a short ode to customer service. Customer service, in my opinion, is where it is at, it is where good companies become great, and where companies with no business competing in the marketplace end up competing. It is also something that most businesses perform very poorly. I could rant and rave all day about the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad service that cell phone companies provide but instead I am going to give a few shout outs to specific people and companies that have given me exceptional service in the past week. The list may surprise you…it surely surprised me.

The shoe salesman: I went to a shoe store in NYC to buy shoes and probably looked like a lost puppy as I generally do when I am shopping. This guy took me under his wing, did all the measurements on my foot, picked out shoes for me, and then wrote down the names of all the shoes that fit so I could go home and “think” about it or look on the internet for better prices. Turns out that the shoes were just too expensive but now that I am still looking for shoes one week later, I really wish I would have just bought them. Anyways, here to you shoe salesman.

Verizon, Jacksonville, FL: I HATE cell phone companies. They offer terrible service, rope you into pointless contracts, and generally try to screw you out of money in every way possible. If anyone is looking to open a profitable business, I highly recommend going into the telecommunications industry and if you offer good customer service, you will probably win the market quickly. Anyways, my phone’s camera stopped working so I took it into the store and the guy just told me to put it on his desk and come back in an hour and I would have a new phone with all my numbers transferred. Amazing. The guy was really busy so probably did not want to take a long time talking to me about the problem, but he did exactly what I wanted with no skin off his back.

Wachovia Bank, Jacksonville, FL: So I made a tiny mistake and overdrew my checking account. This is the first time it has ever happened in my life and the mistake just involved clicking on the wrong account to pay my credit card bill. I immediately put money into my checking account once I learned of my mistake and then called Wachovia. I talked to a woman who offered to refund 25 percent of the charge (6 dollars on a 22 dollar charge) because that was the percentage for which my account was eligible. I politely explained that I was looking for a complete refund and she said there was nothing she could do so I asked her to transfer me to someone who could do something. <<This is the effing problem with telephone customer service. They hire retards to answer the phones and give them absolute no authority to do anything except “help” customers by frustrating them to the point that they stop caring anymore and just accept their defeat. I am certain that this strategy as well as long wait times is employed in order to get people to hang up in disgust and just move on with their lives.>> So the woman transfered me to the refunds dept and I waited on hold for 45 minutes!!! 45 minutes! No one should ever wait on the phone for 45 minutes unless they are trying to get Gator football tickets. So I hung up and then went to the Wachovia branch nearby my house the next day. I calmly explained the situation and the very nice, attractive young woman brought me into her office and gave me a complete refund of the 22 dollars. She first looked at my file and remarked that I had declined the 6 dollar refund over the phone and said I would rather receive nothing than 6 dollars on an easy 22 dollar refund. Anyways, long story short, I have been a Wachovia customer for 4 years, made an honest mistake that was quickly fixed, had never overdrawn an account previously, and thankfully a reasonable, nice person saw the situation as it is and just refunded my money. So props to you, young, attractive woman at Wachovia.

Gazuza Bar, Washington DC: I realized just tonight that I had a charge of 34 dollars on my credit card when I was almost positive that I only charged 30 dollars to my credit card. Even though, I had a few drinks that night, it is pretty easy to remember when you charge an even amount to the card. I was sure of myself so called the bar, asked to speak to a manager, and let him know that I was charged 34 dollars when it should have been 30, and I knew it was a very small amount but just wanted to inform him that I believe the waitress may have tampered with the check. I actually dont think this has ever happened to me before but I have heard that servers change numbers on the tip in order to get more money. Anyways, the manager, Hector, told me that he was sorry and offered to buy me a drink next time I come into the bar. He then proceeded to look into the situation and called me back twice on my cell in the span of 30 minutes; the first time to let me know that the charge was for 34 dollars and the second time to let me know that they accidentally charged the other credit card 30 dollars and mine 34 dollars that night. Turns out there was no server tampering and just an honest mistake. Hector, this bud is for you!

As you can see, there are many great examples of good customer service, actually great customer service, but unfortunately they are surrounded by thousands of examples of piss poor customer service. Really it comes down to the employee being intelligent, reasonable, and a good listener, the company knowing how to train its employees to make the customer happy, and the customer treating the employee with respect and kindness. I firmly believe that the customer service industry is suffering in the States and needs to be repaired.

Thanks for reading my post not about the Peace Corps that I wrote when I should have been organizing my list of things I still need to purchase. I need some serious help with organization.