OT Now this is customer service

[Leon]

I had forgotten when but some time last year I ordered a replacement battery for my UPS from Apex Battery.

I just got an e-mail from them with the following comments

Time to check your warranty

It has been 11 months since your order with Apex Battery.

Nothing is more important to us than treating our customers with the best quality service. This is why we wanted to send you a reminder to check your battery today before your warranty expires. We also wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to a few of our other new sites, iCables, Ink & Toner and Marine Battery. Check em out!

If you are having any problem with your battery please contact us before your warranty period has expired so we can remedy your situation.

[Ed Pawlowski]

"Leon" wrote

[Robatoy]

Good customer service _is_ smart marketing.

[Larry Jaques]

And/or excellent customer service.

-- In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. -- Albert Camus

[HeyBub]

Went to ship a package yesterday via FedEx. "Thirty-four dollars" the clerk said. I gave him my debit card.

"Declined," he said. I gave him another debit card on the same bank (different account) which was accepted. When I got home, I called the bank.

"Both cards were accepted," said the friendly attendant. "What company was this?" she asked. "Oh," she responded when I told her, "this happens about twice a week. FedEx is particularily awful about double charging."

Returning to the FedEx storefront, I explained the confusion to the store manager. His advice was to bring in both bank statements and they'd cheerfully refund the mistake(!). I reminded him of the significant and severe penalties for credit card fraud and theft. I also informed him that I was armed.

He called some factotum at the FedEx headquarters (located next to a very large chicken processing facility somewhere in Nebraska) where the helpful lady said the charge is not actually MADE until the package is delivered.

Since the package was sent overnight, I should know soon. Whether a mushroom-shaped cloud arises over my town is still an open question.

[-MIKE-]

That's a good way to get arrested.

[HeyBub]

Not in my state.

They wanted to see some identification - I chose my concealed handgun license.

[Leon]

And how did that make you feel?

[HeyBub]

Later that night, my wife said she hadn't been so satisfied since the wedding night with her second husband.

[Max]

Powerful. Sometimes the "plopping" of a weapon has more effect than any amount of words.

Max (just kidding, Leon)

[-MIKE-]

Yeah, because that's what you said.

[Dave Balderstone]

Same thing, C-less.

Case in point: I was canned at the end of January and while the wooddorking is picking up, I decided to go after a "Master Gardener" certification at the university. I grew up on a market garden and have always enjoyed planting, harvesting, eating, etc.

Local greenhouse operation, very well known, advertise that they're looking for PT help.

"Hmm." think I. With my years of experience dealing with customers, and their garden/landscape/botany expertise, there could be a mutually beneficial relationship here. I send in a job app. Get called for an interview. "Can you be here at 2 PM?"

I arrive at 1:50, and am directed to what can best be described as a "holding area". There are already a half-dozen 20-something surly punks in t-shirts and jeans. I'm wearing pressed slacks and shirt, not looking too shabby, if I do say so myself.

10 minutes after the time I was asked to attend, nobody has even bothered to say hello.

I got up, walked to the font counter, left my card and asked the young woman to please pass it along and tell her employer that I was insulted at being treated so rudely.

Got home and sent an email explaining my feelings, and that while I had spent somewere between $4 and $6K with them over the past 10 years, they would never get another dime from me.

If they treat POTENTIAL employees like that, what the hell's their attitude to customers?

[Leon]

The world in general has become rude and inconsiderate. That said I wonder if you may have been expecting a little too much out of what you may have been actually showing up for.

Here in Houston those positions are generally held by undocumented laborers that are looking for any work not a PT regular job. Most often none can speak English and they sit in a holding area until some one comes along and picks a couple to go to do a particular task of job. From one day to the next there will be a different group of workers and job applications/employment forms are not even bothered with.

[Leon]

So you got a hard on when you got an opportunity to flash you concealed hand gun license? ;~0

[Leon]

LOL, Judging from his response and his wife's satisfaction I understood that he got a hard on that lasted for the rest of the day and or night.

[HeyBub]

Not exactly. The first thought that crossed my mind was starting a new religion.

Next I considered running for public office. Then I thought this might be the first listing in my new company: "The Bad Business Bureau."

Ultimately I discarded all those ideas, went home, and tormented the cat.

[Leon]

LOL....Thank goodness for pets.

[Robatoy]

You manage the cat with fear (aka terror) as well?

[Robatoy]

[snipped for brevitization]

When we went to look for a long term care home for my parents, one thing I made sure to ask the people working there how long they had been there. One home in particular, I found a regular response was 15, 20, 25 years. Another home: 2 years, 6 months, 1 year..... and the places showed it too.... and even smelled differently as well. The nicest place, where mom ended up, was by far the cleanest. The nicest people. All long-term employees...and it was the only one operated by the county. IOW, no private penny-squeezing slum bastards.

r

[Swingman]

Mom, afflicted with an advanced case of dementia, is in a Lutheran sponsored home in Brenham, TX that fits the good part of the above. Always impressed when I walk in ... the place smells clean no matter when you go, is always spotless, and the employees responsive. A tough job taking care dementia patients, and they do it well.

When Linda's Dad was in his final year a few years back, things were so bad at the local old folks warehouses in Hot Springs that we opted for her to basically move to AR for the duration and care for him at home. The girl was bound and determined that her Dad die at home, surrounded by family and the familiar. She stuck it out until the last day before making the decision to move him into hospice ... he was in hospice less than 24 hours before passing.