I know this is already
a tired subject for the list (it is for me, at least), but my scruples tell me I owe it to all involved to finish
the story.
After my frankly
unsatisfying phonecall with Vinny at Summit, my wife told me it wasn't just
once, or twice, but 6 times she's called there and gotten less-than-friendly
service. I decided I'd send Summit an e-mail - practically a
cut & paste of what I've sent to this list - explaining my grievances.
The next morning, I got
an e-mail response from John, a Sr. Supervisor in Summit's customer service
dept. (I may have the name incorrect, I'll have to hunt down the e-mail). In
it, he asked for more details. I told him I'd rather talk on the phone.
In my opinion, you can tell far more about what a person means by how they say
it. Anyone can write the words "I'm sorry" in an e-mail, but you can usually
tell if they mean it if you hear them say it.
The conversation went
extremely well. John disputed Vinny's claim that there's no way to track
down who a customer talked to. John stated that their phone system keeps
records of which CSR talked to a customer based on phone #. Vinny said
that wasn't possible (I knew it was because we did exactly that, with similar
software, at my previous job). John stated - rather vehemently -
that he was going to track down who the people were and deal with them
accordingly. Naturally he couldn't say what that was, because he
needed to gather all the facts first, but I did leave the phone call believing
that certain heads were gonna roll around there.
John and I ended up
shooting the shit for another 10 mins or so and he told me that the next time
my wife calls, if anyone gives her trouble, that she should ask specifically
for him.
Ladies & gentlemen,
this is how to keep customers. Mistakes happen. People have bad days.
I've had them, we've all had them. But when a customer complains, they do it
because they care. How many of us have simply just walked out of a store
or restaurant, or paid our bill somewhere and never come back? But
when a customer complains, they're saying "I want to give you my
business, but you gotta fix something first". John knew this
and knew how to deal with the situation. Kudos to him.
Will I send more
business to Summit? Probably. And I damn sure will escalate my call to
John if/ when I get someone I don't like on the phone.
Will I send more
business to OPG? Probably, as long as I don't run into the shipping/
backorder issues others have mentioned.
Anyway, just thought
I'd finish the story. Thanks for reading.
Karl Groves
Master Certified CIW
http://www.karlgroves.com
Grayscale
Content Management System:
http://www.grayscalecms.com
First, I want to
thank everyone who responded.
At first, I
contemplated calling Summit immediately after my wife called and told me of
the rude treatment. I decided against it, as I'm trying to be the
"Kinder, gentler Karl". See, I'm normally a pretty hot headed guy as
it is.
Well, this morning
she told me this was actually the SECOND time she called and was treated
rudely. Well, I decided to call.
The call was answered
by a guy named Vinny who assured me he was a supervisor. To make a
long story short, I'm comfortable with my decision to send my business to
Jeg's from now on. Vinny wasn't helpful at all. Part of this is
obviously because my wife doesn't have a name to go along with the two times
she was treated rudely - which is understandable. At the same time, I
didn't really get the "warm fuzzies" that Vinnie even cared about the
problem anyway. The call was largely a waste of time.
But, on a positive
note, my wife did tell me of a positive experience she had. After she
had her bad experience with Summit, she called Original Parts Group and
talked with Craig, who was extremely helpful.
OPG got the money she
was planning on spending at Summit and will likely get much much more,
thanks to Craig's excellent customer service.
