i will give Dell an honourable mention. One of their “service” employees actually hung up on me (I offended him by using “damn”), but mainly I never could speak to anyone who understood as much as I did about the machine and they replaced a keyboard on a laptop (paying the freight both ways) when I knew that it was inceivable that that was the problem and eventually took the machine back rather let me explain to a competent engineer.
But the laurels have to go Bell Canada for keeping their own tech people in the dark. One day when I could get to email account (or web addresses including theirs) only giving the actual IP address, I called to tell them that their name server was not working. The person I told this to replied, “What’s a name server?” and then denied it was a problem. A week later, their own connection out of their central office stopped working and they flatly denied there was a problem. The next day, with no action on my part, it was working. Clearly, their engineers knew there was a problem and fixed it, but their telephone help-people didn’t. Then there was Sun. Too long to tell the story here, but the head of our computer centre said that the difference between a Sun salesman and a used-car salesman is that the used-car saleman knows he’s lying.
Good experiences? Many. Probably the best was from a company called Bureau en Gros (Office Wholesale, I guess) which I believe is the Quebec arm of Staples. I had, by my own stupidity (and, to be sure, paucity of clear instructions) ruined the cartridge holder in my multifunction laser printer. The salesman must have realized it was my mistake, but he gave me a new one (it listed for about $200, not much less than the printer) and, when I looked surprised, just said “Merry Christmas”. I have been a loyal customer since.
Best Customer Service: Home Deopt, (at least the one I USED to work at)
I received 37 customer (The highest ever in Canada) service awards in 2 yrs, at the Home Depot I used to work at. Then the orginal guys that started the company retired and sold out to GE… Suddenly the emphasis on “Knowledgable, Friendly, Fast customer service” ended. Shortly there after so did I. My belief is a good business plan means that selling a 30 cent washer, and spending 45 minutes explaining how to install it to an elderly lady, may lose you some money, but that lady probably has friends and family. They may be about to insall a deck, a new roof, or a floor. When that customer “brag you up”, you have a customer that walks in, “presold” on something with potentially thousands of dollars profit.
Worst customer Service: Home Depot, (not the one I used to work at)
Went in, need some plywood cut. loaded it myself and wheeled it to the saw, asked 3 “associates (CS people)” to help me, or call some one who could. One of them sent a security guard over, who wanted to know why I was “loitering” around the saw. Asked to speak with manager. Gave him my former employee number, and explained my situation. He looked me square in the eye and said:“You were smart to get out when you did… but you are not smart enough to know that you are sh*t out of luck tonight, buddy!”
My email to internal email adresses went un answeredf, but I notice that GE’s Nardelli has recently gotten the “boot”, softened only by a $15,000,000 good by kiss.
Another vote for USAA - I’ve yet to encounter anyone who is less than impressed with this outfit.
I’d always assumed that it was completely hopeless to call Microsoft Tech Support. Then I had a problem upgrading Visual Studio, and was forced to. And they were really quite competent.
I formed a low opinion of Adelphia during several months of cable internet service. Now the local franchise has been taken over by Comcast, and Adelphia is looking good.
I have indeed experienced and heard tell of much bad service from Merck/Medco. However, I really did like what they had to offer–discount prescriptions 90 days at a time, by mail. Now I pay considerably more for a couple of regular prescriptions and have to make time to pick them up every month. Once you got it through the thick skull of their system, it was a pretty good deal.
Not necessarily hoodoo at all. Reversing the ends of the ethernet cable accomplishes two things: 1) it ensures it’s actually plugged in on both ends, and 2) there is a possibility of an electron hole (this is what I’ve been told; I’m no electrical engineer at all! But I’ve seen it work when nothing else we’ve done has worked.).
Not the worst, but the most recent - I just had the world’s surliest clerk at Hollywood Video yesterday - at the end, she threw my DVDs at me across the divider and snarled “Wednesday!”
Best - Zappos or Bluestone Perennials. Zappos you probably know - Internet shoe store famed for their service. They ship fast, their prices are fair, and if you ever have a problem they are totally there for you. Returns are as easy as possible, and once I had a problem after I’d already worn the shoes - technically they only accept unworn returns, but when I e-mailed them not only did they say, okay this one time send it back, but they sent the replacement immediately before they’d even gotten my pair!
Bluestone Perennials is an internet plant store - not only are they inexpensive, not only do they have an ironclad guarantee on their plants that they replace them even if YOU kill them, but when I e-mailed them for suggestions to replace the catmint that had taken over my garden that I’d gotten from them but certainly didn’t blame them for, not only did they send suggestions, they sent plants. And if you send them back your packing materials you get free shipping next time!
Best: Nordstrom’s, Amazon, and Dunsmuir Super-Save. ING Direct.
Worst: Cheap Tickets. (I tried to buy plane tickets; they were too busy to sell them to me. I left messages, and no one returned my calls. Or cared. Screw you.)
Best: State Farm Insurance. Every time we’ve had a claim (both auto and home), it has been settled quickly, easily, and always to our benefit. In particular we had severe rains that put two feet of water in our basement. There were so many claims going on, they essentially told us, “Do what you have to do, document as much as possible, and we’ll work out the details as soon as we can.” Adjuster got to us about three weeks later (it was a county-wide event, and we were far from the worst), cut us a check on the spot for half of the basement work that hadn’t even started, and over the subsequent weeks processed our claims quickly with no arguments. They got a customer for life on that one.
Circuit City (our local one). Everyone I’ve ever dealt with there has been knowledgeable in their area. On the rare occasions that I asked a question they couldn’t answer, they would seek out someone who could answer. They handle returns quickly, politely, and with no hassle.
Logitech. I’ve been a big fan of theirs for a while - I just think they’ve got some very well-deigned products, particularly the Harmony series universal remotes. I will admit that I have had an inordinate number of devices malfunction too soon in their life for my taste, but every time I’ve contacted them they’ve shipped replacements promptly, and in most cases without requiring a return shipment from me. They also don’t treat me like an idiot when I call tech support. If I tell them that I’ve already tried X, Y and Z to fix the problem, they don’t ask me to do them all over agin.
Worst: Regionally, Appliance Direct. Long story short, they didn’t deliver an order when they said they would, and then tried to send me a scratch-and-dent when the order specifically said, “NEW IN BOX.” Guy on the phone tried to tell me it was a mistake on the part of a new guy, but when I went in the store to get a refund, the guy I had spoken to on the phone was the same one who had written up the order in the first place. Will never deal with them again.
I have had the misfortune of having to call them a couple of times in the past 6 months due to malfunctioning computers and printers. My god it is hell. It takes a least an hour to talk to the person who you need to talk to and 4 or 5 transfers. You end up in US Support, Home support, wrong type of system support, and the people just don’t listen. Yes they are outsourced to India, and it is horrible. Barely speak english, don’t listen, transfer you willy nilly, lord it is horrible. I don’t understand why it is so horrible.
The rest of the major companies that I have had to call (Microsoft/Dell) have been wonderful. Microsoft in particular. Their Indians speak better english then most people I have talked to in Oshawa, and they are very helpful. No complaints about Dell either, they have always been good to me.
They are bad… I did have them drop my second radio last year. It was an excruciating phone call as far as explaining to them I just needed to pay for ONE radio, no I don’t need a new radio sent to me…etc etc. However, ever since then, I’ve been paying the “second radio” charge instead of the primary charge plus the extra for the second radio. I don’t think I’ll tell them.
Best
A little local bike shop which mostly does rentals, here in Santa Fe. I shipped my bike out to myself at school, and, as I don’t trust myself to reassemble anything I will then rely on for transportation at a pace faster than a slow creep, I shipped it via a bike shop at home to them. They called me as soon as they received it (literally within an hour; I’d just checked the online tracking). Reassembled it for something like $15 and did a basic tuneup (check the tires, lube that which needs lube, etc). When I got there, they said that one of the tubes was looking like it might have a slow leak, so they replaced it for free. Also, the front reflector had cracked, so they replaced it for free. Plus they tossed in a stack of maps of local trails. Awesome, friendly guys who know everything there is to know about bikes.
Southwest Airlines. Unlike most airlines, they employ real people, not hate-filled sacks of Botox’d skin. They have a fantastic on-time record and I like their leather seats.
Worst
Best Buy. Every time I’ve stupidly ventured into any Best Buy, every employee has been stunningly incompetent. Their return policies are horrid, they put huge amounts of pressure on you, trying to upsell “protection plans” and warranties and so-forth. And did I mention that their staff consists entirely of people whose brains have been replaced by the slimy secretions that snails leave behind? I once had a Best Buy employee try to convince me that I needed a specific brand of USB cable for something to properly work.
FedEx. They’ve lost or delayed the past three packages I’ve shipped through them. Most recently:
Me: “Hi, I just have a question about the status of a package that was supposed to be delivered today. It says that delivery was attempted but there was a weather delay. It’s currently about forty degrees and sunny here, and I’d like to know the real reason for the delay and when I can expect it.” <I give them my name, the tracking number, etc>
FedEx: Right, I’m seeing the same delay. If you hold for a moment I’ll try to get in touch with the local depot. <disconnected>
Me: <calls back, same spiel>
FedEx: <Same thing; puts me on hold for 20 minutes.> Sorry, right now all I can do is start a trace. Call back tomorrow.
Me: <obscenities; calls back in 24 hours, same spiel>
FedEx: <10 minutes on hold>Right. Uh, according to the local depot, the roads were icy so the driver of the truck was in an accident. So now they’re delivering out of a smaller 4WD vehicle with limited capacity.
me: I really don’t care; I paid for five-day shipping and it’s now been seven days, when will I get my package?
FedEx: I really don’t know and there’s nothing I can do about it.
Best: DishNetwork. I’ve never waited more than three rings to get a person or a useful automated debugger, and they have always been on the money. This last time, when my new DVR seemed to have died, the automated message system led me through some reasonable, though not the problem, suggestions, then told me how to reboot it. Not only did this work, while I was waiting for the stuff to download, still on the line, a person came on because I seemed to be taking a long time.
State Farm. I have not had too many contacts with them, happily, but all have been good. It’s the reason I don’t look around for cutrate insurance.
Worse:
Sirius. When I was setting up my f-i-ls radio, the wait was eternal. Since we gave him a gift coupon, we couldn’t do it on the net. I waited forever, decided to try it on the net, found I couldn’t (after filling out a zillion forms) then waited another forty minutes, all the time being reminded how I could really do this on the net.
My local mechanic; Tony has been servicing my car for ten years, he’ll push me to the front of the queue and it’s generally done on time. The few times it hasn’t been on the day, it’s due to unforeseen factors - late delivery of parts or newly discovered problems. He also knows me well enough that he doesn’t charge me, he knows my dad will come around later that day and cover it.
Naughtycorner.com.au - cheap sex toys, express postage that literally arrives within three days. Their website isn’t overly flashy like others but it’s easy to navigate and their stuff is damn good quality. On that note, Dvice.com has a wide range of quality stuff but is a good deal more expensive. They also do express postage but it can take about a week before the stuff is actually posted. That said, they notify you by email when they send it.
Gallery Serpentine; if you want a good quality corset, go there. It’s a NSW, Australia, based company but they have payment plans and great service. I bought a Spanish Bolero from there and not a week later, the frog frayed loose. I took it in and had it repaired for free, got it back in less than a week.
The most recent offense inflicted by these guys is sending me a notice from a collection agency last month for a bill that was paid in September, and was marked on their books that it was paid then, but they don’t have the competence to talk through their own internal divisions.
Previous to that they had the gall to charge me $40 in brokerage fees for the ‘privilege’ of paying $2 in duties * on a duty-free item*. It only took two weeks to work that mess out.
Sounds just like my mechanic…Tony’s Service Center, Mt. Olive, NC.
Best: L.L. Bean!!! They’ve got a really nice retail store in Freeport…last year I took in a bookbag I had purchased in the early '90s. The seam had failed on one side, resulting in a good-sized hole and some zipper problems. I took it to the return counter, along with a new bag I had picked out. Because of the age of the original bag, it was no longer in the system; but of course they did a full exchange for the new bag. They even covered the monogramming, since the original bag had been monogrammed. And during another trip, I happened to mention to a lady working in the shoe department that the laces on my Bean boots weren’t long enough…she went to the back and found longer laces, which were given to me for free.
Runner-up Best: Rhino Home Video. I emailed them about a damaged disc in a DVD set, and they sent me a new disc.
Somewhere in between: Dell. Their script-readers are less than helpful; I typically find the solution on my own by accident while listening to them. One person even suggested formatting the hard drive as a solution to my problem…which turned out to be a defective memory chip. Two times, however, my call has been answered by what sounds like a native English speaker; in both cases, the problem was solved within a few minutes.
Worst: This one’s a tie. First – Wachovia, for the time they put a total of $14,000 (across multiple transactions) into my account instead of my mother’s. Also, the “personal banker” my family has dealt with for years has turned into an obnoxious twit; she’s always calling my mom trying to pressure her into using Wachovia’s investment services. Second – the City of Raleigh, for demanding $50 to change the name on the water bill account. The fact that the original account holder is dead made no difference to them. (I refused to pay, so the account name was never changed.)
