Customer Service is dead

[Pittenger5]

Call me old fashioned, but I just dont get it.

[rant]
Example 1. Order a desk from Office Depot, told its on backordered, say thats fine, Ill wait. Get a call 2 days later saying its to be delivered the day after ... to Massachusetts, they apparently input my billing address. Call and correct them (which was an hour long process itself). Ask if the desk will still be delivered the day they said, only in Texas this time. Told no, its on backorder. Well cant you ship the one I was supposed to get in Mass? No, cant do that. Hmm ... ok

Example 2. Need a 40'x20' concrete slab removed. Simple work, just a lot of labor, post on craigslist, a guy responds, owns a concrete business, times are tough, basically begs us for the job. We dont dick him around and try to low ball him, take the asking price. Come gets all the concrete out, wait 2 days, call him to get out the rest of the debris. He takes a truck load, says he'll be back tuesday to get the rest (MAYBE 2 more pickup truck full) cause the dump is closed for the weekend/holiday. Thank him for the work, pay him the money (mistake on my part). Tell him I know business is tough and all that, and if theres anything I can do, give a reference, maybe have some more work for him down the road, whatever I can do to help, he did a good job. Friday rolls around, still nothing from the guy, manage the clean up of the rest of the stuff myself. Only ended up with 2 trash bag full, couple hours and some posts on craigslist and all the stuff is gone. So basically this guy, who openly admit business is slow, and I said I will do whatever I can to help him, screwed himself out of a good reference and maybe future work for 2 trips to the dump. No wonder business is slow buddy.

I just dont get it anymore
[/rant]

[SteveM]

You were taught the "wrong" lessons in a business that tried to treat the customer well.

Giving a contractor you haven't dealt with before money before the job was done is a mistake everyone makes, hopefully only once.

Good luck with the house, it looks beautiful.

[BLACK SQUIRREL]

You were taught the "wrong" lessons in a business that tried to treat the customer well.

Giving a contractor you haven't dealt with before money before the job was done is a mistake everyone makes, hopefully only once.

Good luck with the house, it looks beautiful.

+1

[danny86]

I never understand when I hear

" Press 1 for English" that after I pres 1 I'll invariably get connected to someone who doesn't speak English.

[SteveM]

Press 1 for Spanish
Press 2 for Hindi
Press 3 for Farsi
Press 4 for mandarin Chinese
Press 5 for cantonese Chinese
Press 6 for arabic
Press 7 for portugese
Press 8 for Vietnamese
Press 9 for creole
Press 0 for Russian

If you are a native english speaker and would like to talk to someone fluent in your language, we must inform you that we cannot accommodate your request because there are not enough calls to justify keeping an English speaking person on staff.

[Mike Qube]

You were taught the "wrong" lessons in a business that tried to treat the customer well.

Giving a contractor you haven't dealt with before money before the job was done is a mistake everyone makes, hopefully only once.

Good luck with the house, it looks beautiful.

My mom made that mistake about 10 years ago. She paid a contractor $7500, up front for some windows. Guy doesn't show up when he's supposed to, about a month later he drops two replacement windows in in front of her garage and never comes back. She gets a lawyer to sue him and he files for bankruptcy in the meantime. She never saw a dime of her money again. Her lawyer files something with the licensing board and it seems he did this to a bunch of people right before he filed bankruptcy. Not too long after that, he had a new Escalade and his wife had a new Navigator. She saw him getting out of it at the supermarket one day and in her words "I keyed the fuck out of his caddy".

[R1]

You can thank the internet....

[Pittenger5]

You were taught the "wrong" lessons in a business that tried to treat the customer well.

Sarcasm? Or am I missing something?

And yah, normally I wouldnt have given him the money, but with the small amount left, and how much he needed work I didnt think he'd screw up a reference that bad.

[SteveM]

...yes sarcasm.

If memory serves your family has a business in which you worked. By teaching you to treat the customer "right" they taught you the "wrong" lesson about business today.

Without sarcasm... having learned to treat customers right, you were less than fully prepared to get screwed by someone who operates on the other theory.

[R1]

...yes sarcasm.

If memory serves your family has a business in which you worked. By teaching you to treat the customer "right" they taught you the "wrong" lesson about business today.

Without sarcasm... having learned to treat customers right, you were less than fully prepared to get screwed by someone who operates on the other theory.

see thats whats "Wrong" with business today. its not that he learned the wrong lessons its that business today has no moral standpoint aside from "if i can screw someone over to make money, I will"

its made worse by the hordes of students going to get their "business degree" because they learned a new way to screw people over....

again

thank you internet....

[obsolete]

see thats whats "Wrong" with business today. its not that he learned the wrong lessons its that business today has no moral standpoint aside from "if i can screw someone over to make money, I will"

its made worse by the hordes of students going to get their "business degree" because they learned a new way to screw people over....

again

thank you internet....

I never learned to "screw people over" while getting my degree in accounting.

I very much dislike the carte blanche business are given to do shady shit cause "well, business is business".

[R1]

I never learned to "screw people over" while getting my degree in accounting.

I very much dislike the carte blanche business are given to do shady shit cause "well, business is business".

No i meant that they went for their business degree becuase they figured out the way to "make easy money"...

typically by what you said "business is business" it opens up a completely new rule book of unethical imoral dealings that qulaify as sound business decisions to make money....

[gadget]

I think that there are just assholes in all walks of life.
There are the busdrivers that slam the door shut and floor it even though he sees someone running for the bus, there are contractors that cut corners and screw customers and there are bank investors that illegally foreclose on a widow with children.

You will find honorable people working right next to the assholes too. It is the luck of the draw on who you end up working with so you must be careful and protect yourself .

[ThisBitch]

Yelp, ftw.

[obsolete]

No i meant that they went for their business degree becuase they figured out the way to "make easy money"...

typically by what you said "business is business" it opens up a completely new rule book of unethical imoral dealings that qulaify as sound business decisions to make money....

So they figured out a shady business plan and then got a degree? i'm not tracking.

[R1]

So they figured out a shady business plan and then got a degree? i'm not tracking.

yes and no...

some of the students i talked to already had/have this idea that business is business meaning that "making tough decisions" is all that the degree is about. and those tough decisions are the ones that are borderline legal/moral/profitable/etc...

one kid in my econ group started making shirts and used his shirts as an example in a project. basically the profitablity hinged on him being able to find a mfg out of the US to produce these shirts so that his profit margin increased. all the numbers revolved around this decision. his idea of customer service was emails and he was sure it would be the "get rich quick plan" the degree would give credibility to. sadly his second year he shut it down. shirts werent selling he couldnt recover his investment and he never kept up with customer complaints/issues/requests.

he basically said the problem wasnt that people werent buying the shirts, but that he couldnt produce enough of them affordably to sell them all. pointing to cheap mfg'ing as the solution.

My understanding was that he was silkscreening some shirts and embroiding the others and could not afford to continue.

We argued and i pointed out that his plan to basically sit back and do nothing but outcource the jobs is as immoral as it gets. instead of actively trying to grow a product and company with local labor he was just trying to figure out a way to make money and do nothing.

he agreed.

but his goal of the business degree was out of his "Great Idea" for making shirts....

one example, but he was not the only one with this mentality, but one of the few to actually give it a try. There are plenty in our group that agreed that modal can be applied to all business and they would then discuss how to go about it. the degree was the validation of their ideas, not so much a learning process for how to conduct good business.

[obsolete]

Well I would have to think they have a misunderstanding of what a business degree is and, in my experience at school, it would do the exact opposite and I don't really understand how someone could misconstrue it as that validation. But then again all schools are different.

[R1]

Well I would have to think they have a misunderstanding of what a business degree is and, in my experience at school, it would do the exact opposite and I don't really understand how someone could misconstrue it as that validation. But then again all schools are different.

i guess its just expensive brain washing then.

I bet we could get a better cheaper job done in Russia, but then everyone would speak russian. What use is that?

[obsolete]

i guess its just expensive brain washing then.

I bet we could get a better cheaper job done in Russia, but then everyone would speak russian. What use is that?

Moose and Squirrel?

[SteveM]

yes and no...

some of the students i talked to already had/have this idea that business is business meaning that "making tough decisions" is all that the degree is about. and those tough decisions are the ones that are borderline legal/moral/profitable/etc...

one kid in my econ group started making shirts and used his shirts as an example in a project. basically the profitablity hinged on him being able to find a mfg out of the US to produce these shirts so that his profit margin increased. all the numbers revolved around this decision. his idea of customer service was emails and he was sure it would be the "get rich quick plan" the degree would give credibility to. sadly his second year he shut it down. shirts werent selling he couldnt recover his investment and he never kept up with customer complaints/issues/requests.

he basically said the problem wasnt that people werent buying the shirts, but that he couldnt produce enough of them affordably to sell them all. pointing to cheap mfg'ing as the solution.

My understanding was that he was silkscreening some shirts and embroiding the others and could not afford to continue.

We argued and i pointed out that his plan to basically sit back and do nothing but outcource the jobs is as immoral as it gets. instead of actively trying to grow a product and company with local labor he was just trying to figure out a way to make money and do nothing.

he agreed.

but his goal of the business degree was out of his "Great Idea" for making shirts....

one example, but he was not the only one with this mentality, but one of the few to actually give it a try. There are plenty in our group that agreed that modal can be applied to all business and they would then discuss how to go about it. the degree was the validation of their ideas, not so much a learning process for how to conduct good business.

Just imagine how much "fun" the students who want a degree to validate their pre-existing ideas are when you are their professor.

A college sophomore coming up to a professor with 25 years of real business experience and telling the professor that they are already a successful entrepreneur is just like that xtranormal video of the guy who wants instant access to the "fast" group an a track day because he owns a desmosedici.

see link...

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/6967...irst-track-day

[Pittenger5]

i guess its just expensive brain washing then.

I bet we could get a better cheaper job done in Russia, but then everyone would speak russian. What use is that?

I know more Russian than spanish nowadays. Might benefit me

Oh and good luck getting cheaper labor in Russia nowadays as well.

[jwm2k3]

Russian hotties are great mail order brides...

[Garandman]

And you did not name the contractor because.....?

[ThisBitch]

And you did not name the contractor because.....?

Its in TX and no one gives a fuck?

[DucDave]

Called the Apple 800 number for some help with my new iPod2. Voice recognition routing system asks for the Product Name I'm calling about.

me: "iPad"
avrs: "Did you say 'Snow Leopard Operating System?"
me: "No"
avrs: "I'm sorry. Please repeat the name of the product you are calling about"
me - extra clearly: "i pad"
avrs: "Did you say 'Snow Leopard Operating System?"
me: "No"
avrs: "let me connect your to someone who can help"

Once I got a real person they were reasonably helpful...but, how the fack could you mistake 'iPad' for 'snow leopard operating system'?