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Derik Whittaker

Thoughts on Software Development, .Net, OOP, Design Patterns and all things cool



Customer Service Fail - A eye opening experience

Recently my wife, my son and I went into a local store (not going to mention which) to pickup an order that had been placed a few weeks back.  When we walked in we were asked to put our name on a 'waiting list' because they were so busy.  We went ahead and put our name on the list and were about 4th from being next. 

After about a 15 minute wait, it was our turn to be helped and a friendly sales associate started to help us.  He asked us what we needed and I told him we were there to pickup an order that had arrived early that day.  He promptly went into the back to grab our merchandise and brought it out.  He then proceeded to finalized the order.  However at this point he abruptly stopped and excused himself to go speak with another employee.

When he came back he simply told us that he could not finish processing our order, that another associate would have to do so.  But what sucked was that other associate was busy with another customer at the time so we had to wait... again.

Fast forward 25 minutes (and 4-5 other people getting helped) and we had still not been helped.  At this point in time my wife asked our original sales associate why he could not help us (when he handed us off the first time he did not indicate why).  He then proceeded to tell us this

The sales person that placed your order was not working today and only one person in the store was allowed to fulfil his orders.

At this point my wife and I went nuts.  We asked that associate why this was.  He said 'we get paid on commission and the original associate needed to get credit for the sale'.

So we proceeded to wait another 10 minutes until the ONLY sales associate that could help us finished up with his customers.

So, you may be asking yourself, where is the fail in this scenario.... Oh let me tell you.

What kind of company setups their system so that customer MUST wait 1 hour to pickup an order that has already been paid for simply because the associate that placed the order was not working that day.

Needless to say we will NOT be returning back to that store ever again (unless it is absolutely necessary) and we have already logged an official complaint with the company.

Till next time,

[----- Remember to check out DimeCasts.Net -----]


Published Aug 03 2008, 02:06 PM by Derik Whittaker
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Comments

Christopher Bennage said:

I'm glad that you took the time to file a complaint, despite my intentions I often forget to follow something like this through.

# August 3, 2008 5:14 PM

Derik Whittaker said:

@AJ,

I can neither confirm nor deny that it was AT&T, but I was getting an iPhone :)

# August 3, 2008 5:47 PM

Nick Berardi said:

You know Verizon reworked it's model so instead of having to fight off customer service reps with a bat that wanted to make a sale, now you have to put your name on a list and wait an hour just to get service. I actually prefer the old method of the eager salesman, over the new method of take a number and wait.
# August 4, 2008 10:04 AM

Dave Schinkel said:

Ok, so great story but what about the company name.  That's the least you can do so that I know to stay away from this place as well.

# August 5, 2008 12:27 AM

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About Derik Whittaker

Derik is a .Net Developer/Architect specializing in WinForms working out the northern suburbs of Chicago. He is also believer and advocate for Agile development including SCRUM, TDD, CI, etc.

When Derik is not writing code he can be found spending time with his wife and young son, climbing on his bouldering wall, watching sports (mostly baseball), and generally vegging out. Check out Devlicio.us!

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