Practical Tips

It was the best of vendors, it was the worst of vendors, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness (apologies to Charles Dickens).

It’s not often that I’m left speechless by intransigent stupidity (well, actually, I’d gone beyond speechless - to frothing at the mouth).

Let me elaborate…

As some of you would have read, my almost 17 year old son, Zahan came back to live with us after having spent 5 years in Chicago.

In the process of setting him up for life (and no it’s not a sentence) in Oz, we said we’d buy him a mobile phone here. And let’s face it, which teenager can be without, these days.

So we hunted the phone shops in Chatswood and found a phone he fell in love with. (It’s really cool - has a swivel keyboard so he can text with a QWERTY keyboard).

Problem was that the Vendor in Chatswood didn’t have one in stock and had to order one in. This was the Thursday a week before Easter.

We paid a deposit on the phone and “Yes Sir, the phone will be in within a few days and we’ll give you a call as soon as it comes in”.

Of course you know what’s coming next don’t you! No call!

Youngster was getting agitated - he called and the Vendor said there was a problem with delivery. He called again in a few days - and same deal. Then, “Yes, we’ll definitely have it in today” - which was Thursday before Good Friday.

So he went into the store on Thursday night only to find that the phone had not arrived. Disappointed, he came home.

On Saturday, he called and they still couldn’t give him an answer.

Enough was enough, so I intervened - and called the manager. He couldn’t find details in their system so promised that his department manager would call me in 5 to 10 minutes. No call!

So I called back that afternoon - and was told that the phone had to come in from another store. Which one? Well, as it happened one I’d been in that morning in my local suburb!

So I said I’d go there again and pick the phone up personally.

So far so good.

The phone was there (they had lots in stock), but when I wanted to pay the balance (remember I’d put a deposit down with the order), I was told I had to pay for the phone in full in this store and go back to the original store to claim my refund. This is the same store chain fully owned by one of the biggest retailers in the country.

No amount of reasoning (okay, arguing and subsequent frothing at the mouth) would convince them to just let me pay the difference.

So I was forced to go all the way back to Chatswood - and claim my refund. The only good part of this was that I arranged for a $30 voucher as a sign of goodwill from the Chatswood manager for the inconvenience.

By their intransigent stupidity and attitude they totally pissed this customer off! And guess what, I’m telling thousands of you via this email!

Now contrast this experience with another yesterday.

We’d bought an office chair for Zahan at another national retailer, Office Works (owned by Coles who are in direct and fierce competition to the other mob (and if you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned their name - I just got a phone call from them asking me to remove it as the matter had been resolved - and as it has, to be fair, I did).

Within a couple of days, the back of the chair snapped.

We’d bought the chair in one Office Works, but thought we’d try and replace it at another one in a more convenient location.

“Sure Sir, no problem whatsoever.” We had a delightful experience - the chair was returned at a totally different location and we got our money back.

So which store are we more likely to buy more stuff from? I’m sure you can figure it out!

(Quick update) - We did actually buy another chair from Office Works and it’s proved to be great!

Now my question for you is…

Do you really provide the sort of customer service that would make your customers come flocking back to your door, or do you make it hard to do business with you because you want to “do it your way” and not what your clients really want?

This is one case where Frank’s singing “I did it my way” definitely isn’t worth it!

Find out what your customers really want from you - engage us to survey them on your behalf - you may be shocked at what you find out.

Surveys can be done live or via the web - call me on +61-2-9499-7958 to discuss options - and I promise it won’t break your bank!

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