A call to arms!
Weather report: chance of rant: 100% with occasional lightning flashes.
Customer service in this country is practically dead. Everywhere I go retailers seem to be trying their best to make shopping as much of a hassle as possible. I'll skip the generalities like those moronic electronic signature capturing devices that have become all the rage for credit card transations and skip directly to today's example:
I went to Office Depot to make some copies. Several years ago an Office Depot opened near my house and they issued promotional cards that were good for 2-for-1 copies in their copy center. These cards had no expiration date, but they did have little tabs for each month, so when you used one in April, you couldn't use it in April again. As far as I was concerned they would expire when all the tabs were punched. I don't make many copies, so these cards sat in my wallet most of the time, but whenever I had major copies to make I'd pull one out. The last time they gave me a funny look, but honored it. They also couldn't figure out how to redeem them properly...they were supposed to be good for the first 50 copies (buy 50 get 50) but they kept redeeming them as 2-for-1 no matter how many copies I'd made.
Today they refused to honor it. They said the promotion was over. I pointed out that there was no expiration date. They didn't care. So I played my trump card: if they didn't honor the card, I would never come into their store again and I would tell everyone I knew how they had given me a hassle. The eventual compromise was that they gave me 50% off my copies today, but confiscated both of my cards. I wasn't happy about that, but I knew I wasn't going to get a better deal. The kicker? Some of the copies I was making was for a letter I was writing the Sprint corporate office to complain about something else.
See, when I signed up with Sprint I signed a 1-year contract. I'm still with them, but haven't been under contract for 2 years now. They keep sending me mailings offering me 10% off my bill for a year or two in exchange for signing a new one or two year contract. They tried to tie my phone upgrade to me signing a new contract and called it a "loyalty" reward. Contracts aren't examples of loyalty...they're enforced patronage. So I've been writing them letters every time I get a mailing from them. So far I've gotten my phone upgrade and 50% off one month's bill.
But that's not what I want, and this is where the call to arms comes in. The reason why customer service is dead in this country is because when stupid things like this happen, people complain about it to their friends...and that's it. Write letters. Make calls. Take a few minutes out of your day to let retailers and service providers know that they're making your life difficult and unpleasant and that you want them to stop. This isn't a negative attitude, this is voting with your wallet and making sure the people responsible for making these asinine decisions know that you're not satisfied.
I've written three letters to Sprint in the last year, and later this week I'm going to write one to Office Depot. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Let's all squeak a little more.
Customer service in this country is practically dead. Everywhere I go retailers seem to be trying their best to make shopping as much of a hassle as possible. I'll skip the generalities like those moronic electronic signature capturing devices that have become all the rage for credit card transations and skip directly to today's example:
I went to Office Depot to make some copies. Several years ago an Office Depot opened near my house and they issued promotional cards that were good for 2-for-1 copies in their copy center. These cards had no expiration date, but they did have little tabs for each month, so when you used one in April, you couldn't use it in April again. As far as I was concerned they would expire when all the tabs were punched. I don't make many copies, so these cards sat in my wallet most of the time, but whenever I had major copies to make I'd pull one out. The last time they gave me a funny look, but honored it. They also couldn't figure out how to redeem them properly...they were supposed to be good for the first 50 copies (buy 50 get 50) but they kept redeeming them as 2-for-1 no matter how many copies I'd made.
Today they refused to honor it. They said the promotion was over. I pointed out that there was no expiration date. They didn't care. So I played my trump card: if they didn't honor the card, I would never come into their store again and I would tell everyone I knew how they had given me a hassle. The eventual compromise was that they gave me 50% off my copies today, but confiscated both of my cards. I wasn't happy about that, but I knew I wasn't going to get a better deal. The kicker? Some of the copies I was making was for a letter I was writing the Sprint corporate office to complain about something else.
See, when I signed up with Sprint I signed a 1-year contract. I'm still with them, but haven't been under contract for 2 years now. They keep sending me mailings offering me 10% off my bill for a year or two in exchange for signing a new one or two year contract. They tried to tie my phone upgrade to me signing a new contract and called it a "loyalty" reward. Contracts aren't examples of loyalty...they're enforced patronage. So I've been writing them letters every time I get a mailing from them. So far I've gotten my phone upgrade and 50% off one month's bill.
But that's not what I want, and this is where the call to arms comes in. The reason why customer service is dead in this country is because when stupid things like this happen, people complain about it to their friends...and that's it. Write letters. Make calls. Take a few minutes out of your day to let retailers and service providers know that they're making your life difficult and unpleasant and that you want them to stop. This isn't a negative attitude, this is voting with your wallet and making sure the people responsible for making these asinine decisions know that you're not satisfied.
I've written three letters to Sprint in the last year, and later this week I'm going to write one to Office Depot. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Let's all squeak a little more.