Well I guess it’s a good thing that I followed up on the status of some tickets I ordered online months ago for an event the first weekend of February. I was going through saved emails and noticed the order confirmation stated I’d receive actual tickets in the mail 3-4 weeks in advance of the event. Wow, that’s like NOW! So, I emailed them a few days ago regarding status…geee imagine, no response via email. Then today, decided to do something I very rarely do for my personal stuff and that was pick up a phone and call to find out the status.
Now, this is where it gets a bit “touchy” because, it’s a Christian company I’m calling for a Christian event. Now, granted we Christians are regular people and do make mistakes and do cop attitudes, etc. (just ask anyone who knows me!) What I received on the other end of the phone though was far from what I’ had expected. I had a woman with a major nasty ‘tude telling me that the tickets were sent. She repeated the address and that was the problem…they mailed them to a wrong address.
She goes into this whole thing with a “tone” about how “you entered this order online in November so YOU made the mistake”.
Hmmmm, funny I have my email confirmation that clearly states my correct address!!!!
I explain all this and she keeps on telling me it’s my fault somehow!
Sure, ok whatever….
my next question to her is “can you remail the tickets so they get here before the event”
her response: big sigh then “please hold”
ok holding holding holding holding
comes back and asks me: “is your phone number 954-549-3393”
me: “yes”
her: “oh well your tickets were returned last week for incorrect address and my supervisor was waiting for you to call to find out about them”.
me: “WHAT?, you mean you had the tickets come back wrong address, you have my correct phone number and email address and were waiting for ME to call”
her: “yes”
me: “and someone there couldn’t have called me to find out why the address was wrong, or why tickets were returned..yea ok…can we get those mailed out ASAP to me at the right address”
She then had to go and check with supervisor who then said yes they’d resend.
Now this is my problem…granted perhaps I should’ve been aware that the mailing deadline was approaching and that I ‘should’ have already received my tickets BUT, they got them back and they had all my correct contact phone numbers and emails…shouldn’t they have picked up the phone and called ME?! Perhaps also since it’s a Christian event I expected a little better customer service and not an ‘attitude’ from the woman helping me. Perhaps, I also thought since if we get an order at Affordable Mineral Makeup and if there’s missing information or a problem, we email and/or call the client, so I figured a ‘big’ place like what I was dealing with (and Christian company nonetheless) well that they’d pick up the phone and make sure I got my tickets on time.
Am I wrong in thinking, they “should’ve” called me to follow up rather than their response of “we were waiting for you to call”. Sometimes I overreact, expect more than I should, and I just need to see others viewpoints on this.
Please comment as to what you think would be the appropriate response by this company. Am I expecting too much to think that they should have called me to follow up and find out what the problem was with the address (which also remember was their screw up since my email confirmation has the correct address).
You are absolutely right to expect a higher standard of customer service. The error was theri and they did not take ownership of it. They obviously have the wrong people in a cust svc rep position!
Wow I’m stunned that even happened. How could they not have picked up a phone. You paid for the tickets. I’d be writing that company a letter. They better be overnighting them things after all that. Sorry this has happened to you.
Well Tara, I use to work for a catalog fulfillment company years ago, before e-mail was widely used and I’ve made many a call to a customer when we’ve received a package back due to incorrect shipping information.
We got more orders for this type of customer service!
So no you weren’t in the wrong!
Wow…as the owner of a fulfillment company myself, there were so many things wrong with that customer service response, I hardly know where to begin.
When anything, tickets or merchandise, are returned as undeliverable, the #1 priority is always to quickly get the returned item turned around and on its way to the correct address — it isn’t important whose fault it was, the ONLY priority is to fix the problem.
As we all know know in the world of marketing, the customer acquisition cost vs. the lifetime value of a customer are the numbers to keep an eye on, not some trivial extra postage.
In my experience, the key to success with effective customer service is full empowerment of the front line. I wonder how that customer service rep would have responded to you if she had full authority to fix any problem, right on the spot, and without risk of being checkmated?
Please don’t let that crummy experience sour you on all fulfillment companies. The vast majority of the people in this industry have their priorities straight and know what they are doing.
John Lindberg – President
EFULFILLMENT SERVICE INC