We had an experience with our long-distance carrier in the TMI office this past week. For some reason, when we attempted to call a client, we kept hearing a recordedmessage that we did not have to dial a "one" in front of the client's 10 digit telephone number. This was strange unto itself, as the number we were dialing was on the East Coast. When we attempted to dial the number without the "one" we received another recorded telephone message saying that the number had been disconnected or was out of order.

So, we called our long distance carrier, who TOLD US that the thing to do was to call the telephone company in that area code. How, we asked, could we do this if we couldn't get through to this particular area code, with or without dialing a "one" in front of the number? He TOLD US to just dial the number. Sometimes, customers follow stupid orders, and we did. Of course, we couldn't get through to the local telephone company in that area code.

We called customer service back and asked to speak to a customer service manager. There we reached someone who had a better idea. We should wait and a customer service representative would call us back within the hour with an update to the problem. 

We asked what we should do if no one called us back in an hour. He assured us that someone would call back. We said, "What if a train accident occurred, if a fire occurred, if someone were called home sick, and no one was able to get back to us, what should we do?" "You will be called back," he asserted. We pushed and pushed on the possibility of no one calling us back, and the agent was clearly upset with us. "You will be called back. I guarantee it," he finally promised.

After two hours of hearing nothing from our long distance carrier, we called back again. The end result? We talked to a total of eight people, spent several hours and never got the problem resolved.

We ended up taking matters into our own hands. We faxed the critical document that needed to get to our customer to a colleague who lived in a different area code from us, but who could get through to the customer's area code.

Do companies have any idea how appropriately cynical their customer base is? If you are assuring your customers that you will call back, please don't be affronted if they get a little cynical about your promises. They undoubtedly have been through dozens of experiences such as the one described above, and they are more than wary of promises and assurances.

Really, we aren't nasty customers. We are educated customers who have learned that promises from a single individual in a huge company can be just a waste of time for consumers.
 

Janelle Barlow, Coauthor
A Complaint Is a Gift
 
 
 

Previous "Complaint Is A Gift Corner" pages: 
 

#1	Overselling Service
#2	Not Listening to Complaints
#3	Plastic Chicken
#4	Complaints You Can Do Nothing About
#5	A+ Complaint Handling
#6	Beware! Others are Watching You
#7	At Least Keep Talking!
#8	Let Customers Know You'll Tell Someone
#9	If You're Going to Apologize, Then Mean It
#10	Keep Front-life Staff Well Informed
#11	Don't Set Goals to Reduce Complaints
#12	Products Used During Special Events
#13	Best Practices of Complaint-friendly Organizations
#14	Complaints About Mother Nature!
#15	Socially Offensive Situations
#16	A Complaint Is a Gift in Action
#17	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, I
#18	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, II
#19	Creating an Internal Service Culture
#20	When Your Customers are Industrial Buyers
#21	Customers Who are Poor Complainers
#22	Complaints That are Difficult to Talk About
#23	Do You Mistreat Your Customers?
#24	Fairness: Treatment of Staff
#25	Expectations and Complaints
#26	Successful Toll-free Experiences
#27	Small Companies and Service
#28	A Banking Customer Strikes Back
#29	Complaints in the Hospitality Business

We invite you to submit your "best" examples by fax or e-mail. We won't print any company names with the "poor" examples, because we believe that every organization fails from time to time. We will give credit to companies delighting their customers. In the case of the "poor" examples, we'll comment on how we think this situation could have been handled better. If you want us to list your name, please tell us that is what you want to do.

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Training Program 

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Book

Note: We have been getting e-mail from our readers asking us to list the names of the companies who get complaints. Our policy is to never list names. The reason for this is because every company fails from time to time, and we wouldn't want to tar some company's name just because of one bad example. Furthermore, we are dependant upon the writer's side of the story. We don't know for sure what happened, and in the name of fairness, we will not post names. Furthermore, the purpose of this corner is not to pass complaints along to corporations. This Complaint Is a Gift corner is designed to look at examples of good and bad complaint handling so we can learn from these experiences. Please, if you have a direct complaint you want a company to learn about, contact them directly. In many cases, we have never heard of the company in question and have no idea how to reach them. Janelle Barlow

tel: 702 939-1800

fax: 702 939-1804

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