It's one thing to fuck up. Not apologizing? That pisses me off

The BBQ Pit
1

My university contracted with a research company to provide a certain kind of student survey. Our contract included data entry, analysis, and some canned reports. We’ve had a few glitches working with them. Today I just found another big one–a pretty signficant error in their data analysis, necessitating that one of the 7 reports must be completely redone. Of course, we’ve already done of lot of work on this report, which is going to have to be redone at OUR end, damnit.

I call to politely inform them of the error. THEIR error. I’m annoyed, but I figure they’ll kowtow a bit, perhaps beg my forgiveness, kiss my ass, etc. I just have to nicely point this screwup out to them and the rest will just happen. No need for me to be Cranky about it!

So that’s my approach. First I get doubt. Then they check their syntax file and find that yes, they did it wrong. Big sigh.

Her: “I guess we’ll have to redo it”
Me: (silently) “No shit.”
Her: (utterly annoyed tone of voice) “This is going to take a while.” (huge sigh)
Me: (After a brief pause). Well, I am sure my boss will be wanting to know when we might expect it. So a while means…?"
Her: (Snappish) I’ll have it done this week.

[clipped petty details about mailing ir overnight, her sending me a fresh data file as backup]

Me: (Waiting for an apology, perhaps an offer to refund the $500 the report cost, or a huge discount if we do it again next year… long silence) “Well, okay then…”
Her: (extremely clipped and insincere) “Sorry.” (another deep sigh) CLICK.

Um. okay then. I was utterly taken aback by her reaction.

I’ll leave it up to my boss to see how much she wants to follow up with them about the error and any adjustment to our bill, but sheesh, I couldn’t believe this person’s phone demeanor. Heck, I feel like a dirtball when I goof up, but I have the presence of mind to stammer out some sort of effusive apology before hanging up and beating the receptionist as a stress reliever.

Later I get an email from her. I think, Hey! Here’s her apology! She’ll say she wasn’t her best self on the phone … But instead, it reads:

“Here is the corrected subfile for your fourth competitor. The mistake was that I had typed ‘1561’ to be matched, rather than ‘1565’. I will get the reports to you ASAP, but remember that I have to redo that section for the
two subgroups, also.”

That’s it.

Maybe she’ll send some nice fudge or gingerbread cookies with the report?

Here’s the real clincher: 15 minutes before I discovered this error, their marketing dept. called to see if they could get an quote from us endorsing their great service for their brochure next year. Heh heh heh. That’s some timing…

2

Hopefully your response to that first call was “sure, we’ll get back to you”, and not an instant glowing recommendation that you’d now of course like to retract.

What a maroon.

And yes, as much as it pisses me off to be wrong or to fuck up, I always beat MYSELF up, and not others.

Did I say always? I mean, of course, on the EXTREMELY RARE occasions when that happens. :smiley:

3

We had a supplier who provided us with machines that had bad code burned into ROM.

Five years, and one HUGE and EXTREMELY DISSATISFIED customer later, we stumble on the fact that the software was hosed.

Did they say, “hey, we’re sorry for dragging your reputation in the mud for five years”? or maybe “Gees, we’ll get that fixed chop chop and send you a nice check to help cover the expenses you’ve incurred trying to fix this (read OUR)problem”? Er, no.

They said “it’s good that you found that” and not another word.

Ah, well. Customer service may not be dead, but it’s sure on life support.

b.

4

Luckily, my colleague who fielded that call said she’d like to talk to our boss first. Heh heh. I have a feeling they’ll get nothing from us.

5

Part of the problem is that the company lawyers often advise against employees’ making any admission at all of error or wrongdoing on the part of the company. Ooopsie, lawsuit bait…