This Says it All
I know it’s Saturday and everyone would like to take a step back from all the emails and texts and information we are bombarded with. If you feel that way and want to ignore this Substack, I will respect that. This is more about bitching and complaining than about any concept or idea that will make you think.
What has gotten me so worked up that I am sitting by a computer on a very pleasant fall afternoon? It’s pretty simple and it is more of a culmination of things that I have been dealing with (and I am sure everyone else out there is as well). It’s about how businesses really could care less about their customers.
Stay with me and you will see why I am at a boiling point.
The story starts two weeks ago, I ordered a product from MadIn. I love their quality and I love their price point. I received shipping information that my item would be delivered by UPS on October 1st. I set up notifications and as October 1st came and went, no mention of my product. I received something else in the afternoon from UPS, just not this product. OK, Covid supply/delivery issues. I will give them another day or so to sort it out. Nothing. I go onto my MadeIn account and it says that recipient (that would be me) declined delivery. Huh? What delivery? Then after emailing MadeIn, I found out that the recipient (again, thats me) turned away the package because it was damaged. Interesting, since I never had a chance to even see the package and UPS says I turned it away. That is out and out lying to cover something or someone. MadeIn was apologetic and agreed to send me a replacement item and gave me all kinds of refunds and what not but…But, it is now backordered and supply chains being what they are, God only knows when I will get this product. I get that the people that make this product only have a limited capacity and MadeIn really has no control over that so while I am frustrated, I think MadeIn did the right thing and the only thing they could do. I emailed the rep and suggested finding another carrier because UPS obviously doesn’t care all that much.
Ok, I would not be writing this on a Saturday if that was it. It’s not. I am on a subscription service of grass fed meats from a company called Crowd Cow. Delicious products, not cheap but worth every penny. Was informed that my delivery would be today via UPS. UPS delivers on Saturday? News to me but I think they started a while ago. Anyway. I receive an email from Crowd Cow stating that my delivery will be delayed because of weather issues. Huh, again? What weather issues? 76 and sunny must not be ideal delivery conditions for, you guessed it, UPS. I checked with UPS to try and get a better handle of this since this box contains perishables. Nice try. No humans at that place. Maybe there are but they don’t make it easy to talk to them.
I am sure if the meat is ruined, Crowd Cow will do what they need to do to make it right. Thats not the point here. The point is that there are more and more companies putting customer service and satisfaction at the lower end of their business plan.
I know I wrote about poor customer service before. In May of last year, yeah, I could see Covid and figuring out how to man the phones and ship our stuff out there would be a challenge. However, we are 20 months into this and I think using Covid as an excuse or supply chain issues should stop. Companies should have already figured most of this out. If they haven’t, they should have processes in place to deal with customer dissatisfaction quickly and efficiently.
As everyone has experienced, many companies make it next to impossible to talk to a human. Every chat feature on almost every site has a bot to try and handle problems, and yet I don’t know of anyone that actually was truly satisfied with their “Bot” interaction.
I know, some companies lay this off to call centers in India and other english speaking Third World countries and to be honest, it is a little frustrating sometimes but I normally have my questions answered and I go on my way. Unfortunately, many companies have cut back on any kind of customer support hoping that they get so frustrated they just hang up or log off. The disdain that companies have for their customers is appalling and at some point, consumers will just migrate to companies that actually care.
I may have a million issues with Apple and the ginormity of their reach but if I have an issue or want an answer, they have the means and the drive to get that answer. You go in one of their stores, you walk out with the product or the service you went looking for. They have people who can answer questions and get things done correctly. Call them, the same thing. It might take five or ten minutes to get someone on the line but when you do, you know they will get to the bottom of it. Granted, Apple does not give away anything except very sound advice and information and really, isn’t that what you expect from any company you deal with?
Cable companies? The worst offenders on Earth and we all know, they could care less if you are happy or not. Even when their customers torch them on Twitter or other social media, they just don’t care. UPS, same thing. The list unfortunately is expanding day by day.
I don’t really have an answer as our total economic system is being stretched in ways it was never intended and if a company has a chance to use that as an excuse it will instead of actually paying to get things done to the customers satisfaction on a consistent basis. I think looking a little deeper it is more about maintain those artificially high earnings numbers for shareholders instead of paying for competence and success.