Can I vent? I'm so disappointed.......with a company

[Grumpy's Gal]

Can I vent?

I bought my first set of DJ Inkers this morning (clear rubber stamps) a clear alphabet set. The package said it would include a letter mount block.

When I got it home, it doesn't have it. So I called the company. And "Julie" told me that she couldn't send me one. I explained that this was the *only* set that Michael's had so I couldn't exchange it. Also, it's pretty far from home so I was hoping I could settle this directly with the company. I told her I have the receipts and I could scan it and email it to her or send it etc. I was willing to prove to her that I bought this hours ago. Nope - she didn't care. She said I would have to go buy one separately. When I explained that the pkg said it came inside this case, she said it didn't. I am reading from the package insert to her over the phone and she said it didn't! Amazing! I gave her the product number and then she said they don't have these. So they just put her company name on the package why????????

Rude! This woman was flat out rude. Every time I spoke, she cut me off. I explained how excited I was to have just bought these and she was just rude. I asked her if they don't stand behind their products and she just laughed. She said a lot of people “don’t like that set.” Guess not. I don't think I will be buying any more of their products.

There. I said it. I'm just amazed people in customer service jobs can be so rude. HIndsight......I should have asked to speak to her boss.

 

[mickeyboat]

I think we have all been spoiled by Disney's customer service. Things just haven't been the same since we got back from our cruise.

I had a beef last week with hotels.com, and was completely unsatisfied with the lack of resolution. The customer service person told me there was nothing he could do. I said "you understand this means you are losing me as a customer, and I will never use this service again, right?" He did not care.

So much for customer service.

Sorry you had this experience. Maybe you could contact Michaels and see if they would be willing to assist you.

Denae

 

[Breezy_Carol]

I think customer service is a thing of the past.

We were in Circuit City last week buying a boombox for DS's birthday. As we left, the kid at the door checking receipts (That is a whole other thread) was very rude to DH. The last thing he said was, "You don't have to shop here." We almost turned around and returned the boombox. If we hadn't been out of time shopping for DS, we would have.

I am sorry that you had a bad experience.

 

[Sleepy]

I gave her the product number and then she said they don't have these.

She said a lot of people “don’t like that set.”

What is more amazing is the fact that these wonderfully knowledgeable customer service people can never remember their lies.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

You know when I find people saying crap like that, I stop and have a conversation. It is very unnerving to have someone call you on it.

It happens alot now, it is so sad.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I think we have all been spoiled by Disney's customer service.

YES! YES! and that of Land's End. They have awesome customer service.

 

[bicker]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

I think we're getting the customer service we pay for, which in many cases is very little. Our consumer culture has so venerated low prices that even when it comes at the expense of service quality there are still people who buy buy buy.
To be fair, in this case, the company seemed to provide a viable avenue for customer service, through the retailer. A company marketing a consumer product, again, under strong pressure from customers to keep prices down, will sell exclusively through resellers so they don't need to incur the high cost of customer service. It is a not only a viable business model these days, but for consumer goods, perhaps the only viable business model. Even Microsoft uses it. So when you call these companies, there truly is nothing the customer service folks can do for you. That's an incredibly tough position to be in, and I don't doubt that they have a hard time keeping courteous people. (I think an overly sensitive person would end up offing themselves if they had a job like that.) The situation is exacerbated by the fact that when customers call asking for something and are told 'no' they tend to escalate their rhetoric, making an already-difficult conversation even more difficult.

We reap what we sow. If high quality customer service is important to you, find the retailers who provide it and use them, exclusively. That will almost surely mean paying a lot more for what you buy (as a matter of fact, that's often a good way of determining which retailers might provide great customer service), and even settling for not buying some things you want, because the only suppliers of those things are those trying to sell it at the lowest price possible.

 

[Sleepy]

To be fair, in this case, the company seemed to provide a viable avenue for customer service, through the retailer.

I disagree. The only option offered was for the OP to go back to the retailer and PURCHASE the letter mount which was supposed to be provided FREE in the package she originally bought! If nothing else, the OP was giving this company a heads up in order to correct this problem given the possibility it was a mistake at the manufacturer. As a consumer, we expect to get what the package details. Unless it is like a box of cereal that says FREE letter mount with 12 proofs of purchase, receipts and $5 shipping and handling, I would expect that item to be the box! This company just doesn't want to fork over something that was missing and does not want to pay for the shipping either. The viable avenue is to return the item to the retailer for a refund and write a nice letter to the company.....showing photocopy of purchase and refund receipt as well as the copy of the package showing where it said letter mount included. Whether they respond or not doesn't matter. You have stated you are dissatisfied with their "customer service".

 

[bicker]

The customer could return the product to the retailer as defective.