Friday, March 9, 2018

CUSTOMER SERVICE

    Now I'm usually a mild mannered laid back sort of guy. I'm patient and give people the benefit of the doubt.

    This week I had an opportunity to complain vigorously.

     Let me back up a bit. It's income tax time. I do my own income tax. I had gone through all tax slips and decided that I was ready to roll. Well the day's mail brought one more tax slip. Now the slip was a week late but more than that a very important figure was missing on the slip.

     The micro manager phoned the company responsible for the slip. She hung up on the first person she tried to talk to. Well, I told her to hang up and she hung up gracefully like, "Thank you very much but we're not accomplishing anything!"

     The next guy was awesome and told us the company had not put the figure on the slips for the last two years. He also told us to contact the local bank and they could print the statement and it would include the missing number.

     Okay , all we have to do is phone the local branch. So first call we get an answering machine. .Well, try one of the extension numbers. Leave a message, Another extension number and still no answer. Leave a message. My third and last extension number and you guessed it. Leave a message. On top of this their message said they would get back to us within 24 hours. Now for some strange reason the Micro Manager thinks that if you phone back and leave another message there might be a reply. So she went through all the numbers again and left messages again.

     So after this run around we're a little testy.

     The next morning the manager phoned. To put it mildly, she was a jerk. She had no idea how to print out the statement we wanted. Further more she was perturbed that we were telling her what to do. She said she'd have to phone to find out what to do and would do it later and that next week she was on holidays so we wouldn't get an answer for a week. The Micro Manager pressed harder for the statement to be printed that day. The manager actually grew testy. There was no other way to do the process according to her.

    Well the Micro Manager went down to the bank at 2:00 Pm as she had told the manager she'd be there and the statement better be ready.

    As the MM was standing in the bank an employee asked her if she could help. The MM explained what she wanted. The employee said , I'll see what I can do. Five minutes later the statement was printed.

    So what was the problem with the snooty bank manager. The manager could have solved the problem in less than half the time she spent talking to us. She only had to look for five minutes!

    Customer service? First: Answer your damn phone. Second: learn some manners on how to deal with people.

    I was a little bent out of shape after this incident.

28 comments:

  1. What a mess! I have been in similar situations before and I understand your frustrations! I have gotten to the point that I will not leave a message unless there is absolutely no other way to handle it. I will try calling at different times of the day or even on the next day. I've had bad luck with leaving messages. It also seems like it is sure difficult to get a "live" person on the phone these days too!

    Good luck with your taxes Red. I hope this was the last item you needed so you can get it done. We still have to get our taxes done as well. Have a good weekend!

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    1. I don't like leaving messages as you are under their control. They can phone when they want.

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  2. Well, that was certainly worth of losing your cool! Good on the MM for appearing in person at the bank. But...what is the point of mailing you a tax document that does not contain the necessary information in the first place. Good grief!

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    1. It doesn't make a lot of sense. You really are confused when they don't have the common decency to tell you that the information is missing.

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  3. Probably the manager didn't know what to do or how to do it but the employees did. I hate managers with bad attitudes. There seem to be a lot of them.

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    1. Obviously she didn't know and was too vain to ask her staff.

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  4. I have had nothing but headaches with banks lately. We need to revolt!!

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    1. A revolt might do it. we just need better customer service.

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  5. They put the dis in service!
    You don't deserve that kind of behaviour. I feel for you.
    I need to do our taxes, but haven't quite faced it yet! I always get a new T5 a few days after I send it off electronically, and have to do a paper trail. sigh.

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    1. Well, nobody deserves such shoddy service.

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  6. I agree with everything Linda Reeder just said in her comment. I would have been bent out of shape too. Glad it all worked out though.

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    1. The worst of this episode is that I don't think the bank learned anything about customer service.

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  7. that is why I use a family owned bank and it is very personal

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    1. Family owned bank???We don't have those here.

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  8. I have to have my taxes done within the next few days. I had one document outstanding that needed to be sent to me, from the feds, but they sent it off to my previous address. There was no way the previous landlord would have forwarded it to me- he doesn't know where I live, and I want to keep it that way. I called their department and got a replacement within a week.

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    1. Well, that kind of good service from CRA is surprising.

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  9. Ugh -- I agree. Some people act like doing their jobs is just the hardest thing in the world. But bravo to you both for persevering and getting what you needed!

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    1. Somehow, I don't think these people learned anything.

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  10. Some people are just difficult to deal with. And no matter how mild mannered you may be, it can get to you sometimes! Glad it all worked out eventually.

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    1. Difficult people usually don't end up as bankers.

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  11. Customer service has become an oxymoron in most establishments. It has become so rare that we remark on it when it's correctly done. It's one thing about the fifties and sixties (and prior) that I would bring back if I could :)

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    1. The only thing I would like from the 60's is my age!!!

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  12. You never quite know who you deal with sometimes. Always a few bad apples

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  13. You were right to complain in this situation, kind sir.

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  14. A little bent out of shape -- made me laugh! I was glad to see in the comments that you called the complaint line but I was sure you were going to say you had to leave a message!

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  15. I got aggravated just reading this because yes... we've all encountered this sort of thing at some time. We had a run around at our bank and I wrote a complaint letter. The person wasn't bad, just made some bad mistakes. Interestingly, I haven't seen her there since.

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  16. I don't blame you in the slightest Red. I probably would not have been as nice as you guys were. It is so refreshing to get great customer service these days. It is also a surprise when it does happen. If I detect an attitude I let it go on for just a bit and usually say "are a jerk all the time, or just when you are at work?" The word jerk can be replaced with "moron" or other words as appropriate. My wife knows when it's going to happen and usually gives me a look before I say anything. I know what the look means, but I just forge ahead anyway. I can forgive most customer service shortcomings, but never a bad attitude!

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  17. Hi Red, I sure hear you on this. Wow, bad customer service at a bank. That might be enough to make me change banks. I like Pat Tillett's comment!

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