(Some) Faith in Humanity is Being Restored
So often, all we do or hear is complaints about humankind. And really, can we be blamed? In an age of dogfighting, rudeness, poor customer service and road rage, some days we just wonder where the human race is headed.
And I personally, have had a lot of bad customer service coming my way lately. I’ve mentioned it on this blog. However, this week, things really turned around.
It all started when I bought a sewing magazine. I fell instantly in love with one the projects, its a wall hanging quilt for Halloween. It’s not really hard, and I wanted to make it, but I didn’t want to have to go and find different fabrics to make it. Call me lazy, but I wanted THOSE ones. Particularly the middle panel.
So I sent an e-mail to the magazine inquiring about the fabric. On many projects they state the name of the material and where to get it. But not this time. I didn’t expect a response. I thought maybe it might be a question in the letters section in next issue. To my astonishment, actually got a response. They gave me the “brand” of fabric and links to three stores that the manufacturer said ordered a lot. I check out the web sites and … not helpful. They were pretty much brick and mortar stores, with no option to buy online. One did have option to buy online, but didn’t have very many of the collection. The person who wrote me the letter actually called her local fabric store and asked them if they had any before sending me the link to that store, which unfortunately, did not have an internet store. To make a long story shorter, I did find everything I needed. Two of the patterns are in different colors than I wanted, but it will still look nice.
To think how many possible letters they get every day and they took the time out to help me. I was overjoyed.
For an encore, enter Sears Optical Online. You know how I hate the customer service in the Optical store at Ross Park? I’m not sure if I have mentioned it here, but in the past … well, lets just say that my contacts are usually sitting there and I never get called about them, or they get lost and I have to go back to the store after I was already there. They seriously are not organized there. Very unmotivated employees. The doctor himself though, he’s a good guy.
The last time I needed contacts, I decided to see if I could order them online, have them shipped here and not have to worry about the store not calling me or losing them again. I could! This time, however, my prescription had run out and I wasn’t happy with the brand I was using. I mentioned that to the doctor at my exam, and he gave me Ciba Vision to try and ordered trial pairs of two other pairs. I loved the Ciba Vision and wore them for nearly three weeks, before I went to the store to see if my others were there. The people working in front were all “Were you called?” “No, but, see, you NEVER call me and they are always here”. I am sure they called me some bad names in their head. So they looked for them and couldn’t find them. I said “I need new ones, I am going away for the weekend. Why weren’t these ordered?” I was promised that they would be ordered and overnighted to the store. By the time I got home, I get a call saying that they were there, they had been misfiled. SIGH!
So, after wearing contacts for the next few weeks and deciding on what brand I needed, I was up against another travel deadline. The pair I was wearing felt like I had pebbles underneath them. And well, you just read what I was working against. So I ordered them online, knowing that they would get the prescription. And they did, everything was going fine, and then the dreaded e-mail.
My toric (astigmatism) lenses were on backorder and they weren’t going to ship at all until they came in. I begged! I replied … ” I have two toric lenses here. I just need the sphericals. Please send them separately. I need them, I am going on vacation. I hate the ones I am wearing now”. So the ordering department called the distribution center. The DC said that everything is in, shipping Friday, when do I leave? I said “Monday. I’ll pay for overnight shipping (the post office will even deliver on Sunday)” and then I get an e-mail …. the DC is sending me two “trial” pairs and I should have them by Friday, to hold me over so that I can get through my trip. Those are FREE. And I think are both lenses, not just the sphericals. The next day after all of this, I received notice that my entire order shipped.
Today, Fed-Ex pulls up to the door and delivers me my new contacts. I have two toric lenses (those suckers are expensive) and two trial boxes of the regular ones … and each of those has three lenses in there, so that is SIX total. A WHOLE FREAKING BOX of contacts for free. All because I was in a tight spot. And I didn’t even mention the stupidity of the store!
Now THAT’S customer service!
On the tails of that, I am actually communicating with the handyman and Matt had a truly wonderful experience with the University of Pittsburgh Ticket Office today. We had ordered three tickets to Saturday’s football game, but someone else is going to join us, so he called to see if he could purchase another. Expected to not be able to do it and we would need a plan B … whether it was buying four new ones and reselling the three or moving back to unoccupied seats in the section. However, the lady working that day, was awesomely nice and managed to exchange our three tickets for four better ones.
I need to call USAirways tomorrow. I am afraid, very afraid. I don’t want my streak to end. 