When did companies stop caring about
good customer service?
It seems like in the past few months, D
and I have dealt with a surprising number of companies that just
don't seem to understand the concept of good customer service. My
biggest complaint by far has been that the representatives we speak
with say they'll follow up with us but then never do. When did it
become okay to not return phone calls?
I. PODS
When I first moved from California to
Illinois, back in May of 2011, I used
PODS to transport our household
belongings. It seemed like the best option at the time. I had to
remove all of our stuff from our house, as we had tenants moving in
immediately after I left, and I didn't yet have an apartment in
Illinois for our stuff to be sent to.
My experience was great. It was a
little pricey, but the box was dropped off at my house on time,
picked up once I had it filled, and then delivered to our apartment
in Illinois within three days of my move-in. Overall, I was very
happy with the service PODS provided.
So when it came time to move to San
Diego, again without a dwelling lined up ahead of time, it seemed
only natural that we go back to PODS again.
Next time we move, I'll be going with a
different moving company.
To start off, due to a minor
misunderstanding with the paperwork, we did not receive our container
until two days after we were supposed to. (Keep in mind that we only
had two weeks total to get our belongings packed and on their way
before we, too, were on our way.) Consequently, we had to request
that they leave the box there an extra day before pick up; they
basically wanted to drop it off one day and pick it up a little over
a day later.
After arriving in San Diego and
securing a new apartment, we had to wait over a week for our
belongings to show up. Our container showed up on a Monday morning,
thankfully after D was home from base for the day. Since this was a
military move, we had paid extra for PODS to weigh the container,
both empty before it was dropped off in Illinois and full before it
was delivered to us in San Diego. Thankfully, D thought to ask about
the weight ticket before we started unloading; the driver had NOT, in
fact, had it weighed, and we had to wait an hour for him to go
perform this task.
Our belongings were unloaded without a
hitch, by the heroic efforts of D and with a little help from some
friends of ours who had moved to California about a month or so
before we did.
The issue with the full weight ticket
brought up another question: why had we not received an empty weight
ticket? Because PODS had not weighed the container in Illinois
either, of course! Mind you, this was our first “real” military
move together, and the military WOULD NOT reimburse us for the costs
of the do-it-yourself move without these weight tickets. D put a
call in to PODS to try to rectify this situation. After several
calls on his part (because no one bothered to call him back), he
found someone who would get a weight ticket put together, and would
scan and email it to us. After a few more follow-up calls, D
actually received this email.
The weight ticket we received had the
date it was made, rather than the date we had received the container.
It also was from San Diego, rather than our point of origin in
Illinois.
Thankfully, this did not seem to be a
problem for the Navy. (Maybe they didn't notice?) We sent it in
anyway, since we were running out of time to get our paperwork
together, and they came back asking for a different contract but with
no questions regarding the weight tickets.
Next time we move, I think we'll try
one of PODS' competitors.
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| Say what? |
II. Carmax
In April, after we had received verbal
orders for our move but before D had hard copies in his hand, we
decided it was time to purchase a new car. Our POS Volvo, bought at
a car auction shortly after I arrived in Illinois, had served us
well, but there was simply no way it would be able to handle a drive
across the country.
As with PODS, D and I had previously
had a good experience with buying a car from
Carmax. We bought a VW
Golf from the Carmax dealership in Roseville, California, a number of
years ago. (This car is currently living out a quiet retirement in
the possession of one of my besties back up in the Bay Area.) The
car worked great; we had no major problems with it so long as D
continued to perform the routine maintenance on it. We financed it
through Carmax (probably for too high of an interest rate) and paid
it off on schedule.
So we thought it seemed like a good
idea to look to Carmax for our next purchase. After all, we wanted
something reliable that could handle our road trip. Something roomy,
since we would be traveling with a baby and a cat. And, my biggest
caveat, something with a manual transmission; I hate driving
automatic, and after a year of the Volvo with its automatic
transmission, I was ready to get back to stick.
Beyond that, I pretty much left the
decision to D; after all, he is an ASE master technician, and he
certainly knows cars better than I ever want to. He settled on a
small SUV, a Mazda Tribute, which we had shipped to the Carmax in
Kenosha, Wisconsin. The purchase went off without a hitch. It took
a little longer than I might have liked, but we eventually headed
home sans Volvo in our shiny new Mazda.
A little under a month later, on the
first day of our road trip, the power window regulator went out. For
the rest of the trip, I was unable to roll my window down (unless I
wanted it all the way down), and we had folded maps jammed into the
window frame to keep it closed. After getting settled into our
apartment in San Diego, I contacted the
Carmax in Kearny Mesa to see
about repairs. Naturally, they wouldn't accept my husband's
diagnosis of the problem; I had to first take the car in for them to
figure it out on their own. (I don't blame them for this. They
didn't know D probably knows more about cars than whatever poor tech
they assigned to the task.) After a few hours of waiting, the
service manager announced that, shockingly, was indeed the power
window regulator that was out. No, they did not have the part in
stock. It would arrive later that afternoon or on the next business
day. Yes, someone would call me once it arrived to schedule a
follow-up appointment.
About a week later, after no follow-up
call was received, I called back on my own. I was informed that the
part had arrived a few days ago. No explanation was offered for why
no one had called me. I made the appointment and the part was
installed with no further problems. To Carmax's credit, they
accepted my explanation of the part being covered under the 30 Day
Limited Warranty without question, and they did not try to charge me
for any of it.
But this was only one of the problems
we had with Carmax. The other concerned the license plate and
vehicle registration. When we were originally discussing the
purchase with our sales representative, it had been determined that
we would transfer the plates from our Volvo to the Mazda. Then for
whatever reason, after the paperwork was printed out but before we
signed, that decision was changed: we would be receiving new license
plates for the Mazda, and would be refunded the $25 transfer fee at
some point in the near future. The representative wrote a note on
the contract, we were given the old license plates for posterity, and
we were told that once Carmax received the new plates they would be
sent to us via FedEx.
Fast forward to a week before we left
Illinois. No new plates had been received yet, so I called Carmax to
find out what was going on. I was told that someone would “look
into it,” and that I would receive a follow-up call shortly. Two
days later, after no such call was received, I called again. After
looking through the paperwork, the representative I spoke with
announced that paperwork had been filed with the DMV for a transfer
after all. Instead of new plates, Carmax was waiting on new
registration stickers, which would be sent to us upon receipt. I was
told to put the plates from the Volvo on the car for the time being.
We still had heard nothing by our move,
and so I had to call again. Again I was told someone would “look
into it,” and again no one bothered to call me back. My next call
netted me a new set of temporary license plates, as it had apparently
become unclear what paperwork had actually been submitted to the DMV.
After a few more days without a return phone call, I had truly had
enough. When I called back the next time, I requested a manager, who
was thankfully able to get something done. Within three days, I had
new plates for the Mazda, with registration stickers to match.
Of course, the registration we received
was completely blank except for the license plate number.
One more phone call, directly to the
manager this time (she had given me her extension), and I eventually
learned that this was what the DMV sent when they were behind on
paperwork. Still, D and I were reasonably sure the Navy would not
accept this explanation when we went to get our window decals to
access base. The manager agreed to try to send us something to help
our cause. The scanned forms we received a few days later thankfully
were sufficient for D to get permanent access to base.
We bought this car in early April.
Three months later, I still have not received an updated registration
paper. I suppose I should call again to ask about that...
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