I hate it when customer service based businesses mess up and don’t take responsibility.
Yesterday, at noon, I made an appointment at The Pointe Day Spa, the spa at our club, for a pre-natal massage. This is not my first time being pregnant and I KNOW you have to be “trained” to give pre-natal massage so I specifically asked for it. They assured me it was a pre-natal massage.
The receptionist made my appointment at 4:30pm that day.
AWESOME!
At 4pm, I drag my tired, screaming child into the club childcare room, spend 20 minutes with him in pursuit of soothing him in some way or another. That’s a no-go. So I leave him… crying big crocodile tears (this is not normal for him, btw.)
I walk up the stairs to the spa to check in, hoping the massage will help work out some of the guilt along with my sore aching preggo muscles.
Lady at the front desk:
“I’m sorry, Ms. Clayville. The gal that set up your appointment didn’t know the masseuse we have working right now is not trained to do pre-natal massage. We tried to call you but none of your numbers are up to date and work.”
You’ve got to be kidding me!
I asked her to pull up the numbers they had for me in the system. Surprise, surprise… they’re ALL current and accurate. I ask her to hold on while I pull out my cell phone and check messages or missed calls.
None.
I call my home phone.
No messages or missed calls.
I ask if I can use her phone. She says “yes”. I call my cell AND home with it… and they both ring through.
I call her bluff on trying to contact me at all. She insists they tried every number.
Believe it or not, I did NOT jump over the counter and strangle her. Instead, I told her I’d like to speak to her manager.
They call her up.
I patiently, but firmly explain my disappointment.
She apologizes and does a great job at agreeing with me. She sets me up with a gift card for a FREE hour massage PLUS childcare costs.
NICE!
Customer Service Rating for Manager: A++
Customer Service Rating for Front Desk: Boo You! You SUCK!
I guess great managers/leaders are great because they are willing to work twice as hard to make right what their employees have lied about, been lazy about, tried to blame on other people made wrong.
Too bad it didn’t stop me from blogging about it.
I think I have two or three stories each for Verizon and Comcast. Doesn’t everyone?
My favorite, though, was Marie Callenders on Cornell. After a late night at the church, we headed over for a nice, warm, comfort foodie meal. Ethan was maybe 2?
Yeah…I should have known it was going to go badly as the hostess said, “Hi…three? Okay right this (phone rings)”. She picked up the phone and proceeded to read the menu to the customer on the other end. We just stood there, shell shocked.
About five minutes in, the Manager comes out and seats us. Then we see nobody for a solid ten minutes. Then we get water. Then we wait another five minutes or so before we can order. Then it takes ungodly-long to get the food.
I think we must have spent two hours there. Did we get our meal comped? Noop.
That was a zero-tip night. With a note added. I think we’ve been back once, but just for dessert.
Okay, ready? Ready?
I’m in Beijing. I’m at the clothes market where people measure you and make you clothes. I repeat: I am PAYING people to correctly measure me and make me clothes the way I want it.
I come back for my first fitting. Awesome. Things look great.
I come back for my second fitting. Still good.
I come back to pick up the final product. It doesn’t fit. What?! I say, “Excuse me. This doesn’t fit. It’s too tight. And since I’m paying you a lot to make this, will you please re-do it?”
The response: “Why should we re-do it? You should just lose 10 lbs.”
And that, my friends, is why China can’t call itself a world power.
Those are AWESOME!
I haven’t been to Marie Callenders for a long time. I think my last time there was very similar to what you just posted, Seth.
Helen… did you punch them in the nose?
I think we all know that the Miller’s are magnets for bad service. I have too many too count or post…
Jenni – I’ll tell you the long versions next time I see you (when is THAT going to be?), but I have 2, and they end thusly:
1) So it’s, “Thank you for choosing Spaghetti Factory and goodnight?”
2) “If I were Filipino this wouldn’t be happening!”