Monday, June 18, 2007

Customer Service

Today I had 2 significant customer service problems. This is my story:

Premier Heating & Cooling
Our A/C is broken, it won't cool down lower than 78. It was 94 degrees outside today and apparently my home is in such a location that it gathers all the heat like a stove, cooking whatever is inside. I don't think my dog likes it right now. Anyway, the maintenance people were going to show up from 1:00-3:00. Fair enough. They also were going to call.

Fast forward to 3:15 as I called the "home office". I was told they are still on their last job and will be over as soon as they can. They will call. And this time they did call...at 4:00...telling me they would get there in 30 minutes. For those keeping score at home, this is 1.5 hours late.

The guys came in to look at my stuff (they were very nice by the way). It was determined that my belt on my furnace is almost torn through and is loose. The belt was tightened down. A new belt was ordered. A check on the A/C unit itself showed all levels where they are supposed to be. I was told that fixing the belt most likely fixed the problem but they will "bring out a new one" just to make sure. We turned the A/C back on and they left. I watched the temperature drop!! All the way to 78, where it hovered, eventually creeping back up to 81. So it is still broken. I have no idea when the new magic belt will be here. I can't wait. I'm sure it will totally fix the temperature problem. In the meantime...my house is HOT. I think I might shave my dog.

Target
After the A/C debacle I was obviously not very happy. I figured this would be a good time to give Target a call. You see, after we got married we came back home and took a trip to Target to buy all the things from our registry that we did not get. No problem. We go in, make our purchases, and get out.

Two weeks later we get a card from Target saying "Congratulations! Here is a 10% off coupon for you to use to complete your registry!" oh man...I chuckled...that's bad timing!! We already did that. We'll just call them up and have them give us a gift card for the 10% back. No problem. WRONG.

I called today and was told (after I finally got to the right person), "sorry, that coupon is for the day of the purchase only. I can't make any past adjustments." "WHAT?!?! I exclaimed! You send me this card 2 weeks after the wedding and now you won't give me my money back? I don't get it." She said, "Well, Mr. Wilson, that is our policy and I can't do anything about it."

I then told her, "We have personally spent quite a bit of money at Target in the past year. We bought all of our household things there. We registered at Target for almost every item we wanted. We had 3 bridal showers and a wedding. We are directly responsible for well over $1000 of purchases at Target." Then she interrupted, "blah blah blah". But I cut her off, "Let Me Finish", I thundered. {editors note: that was fun to say!}. I then continued, "And now you are telling me that after we spent ALL that money, you won't refund me $25? Is that right?"

To make a long story longer - she talked to her supervisoer and we went over to Target and Andrea gave us a $22 gift card.

Honestly, it shouldn't have been that hard. They were almost willing to lose a steady customer like us over $22. $22!!

All in all, a rather frustrating day. Let's hope a furnace drive belt is sitting on my porch tomorrow. Wanna make some bets?

Labels: Customer Service, Target

Posted by Adam Wilson :: 11:04 PM :: 0 comments

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