Good Customer Service: Staying on the line with your customer for 20 minutes to make sure all of the information is correct and verified.
Bad Customer Service: Disconnecting a call after the caller has been on hold for 10 minutes, making them call back, making them hold an additional 10 minutes, and then telling the customer that the office closes in four minutes and therefore the customer would have to call back in the morning.
(One was a telecom company; one was a credit card company. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which one was which.)
Bad Customer Service: Disconnecting a call after the caller has been on hold for 10 minutes, making them call back, making them hold an additional 10 minutes, and then telling the customer that the office closes in four minutes and therefore the customer would have to call back in the morning.
(One was a telecom company; one was a credit card company. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out which one was which.)
This morning, I saw three guys advertising Men's Wearhouse's National Suit Drive. And how were they advertising this? By standing on the corner of State St. and Broad St. in boxers, shoes, and ties. As I said to them as I passed, this weather (it's currently 82 F with an anticipated high of 86) is at least conducive to this type of advertising. Much better than December, one of the guys agreed.
As my lunch break today, I went out to run errands. One of those errands took me to the JP Licks in Coolidge Corner. I placed my order, and while my items were being put together, I went to pay. The total came to a bit more than $9, so I gave the clerk a $20 bill, and she gave me back a couple of coins and shut her drawer.
Now, having just come from the bank, all I had in my wallet was two $20 bills.
I told her that I had given her a $20 bill, and she said, "Oh. I have to get my manager." She came back with the assistant manager, who explained to me that the procedure now required the clerk to cash out her drawer, a process that would take about 5 or so minutes. Once the clerk cashed out her drawer, she reported a number to the assistant manager (note: the cashout was done totally out of my sight). The assistant manager then told me that there was a $1.07 discrepancy between what the clerk said there was in the drawer and what the computer said there should be in the drawer, and if I truly had given her a $20, there would be a $11.07 discrepancy. I explained to the assistant manager that that might be true, but I was positive that I had given a $20 to the clerk.
"The only thing I can do is have you talk to my manager. If I give you $10, we will be short $10 at the end of the night."
The assistant manager went and got the manager, and he said the same thing. He could not give me the money that is rightfully mine because the computer told him that there was only an extra $1.07 in the drawer. He could not help me, and so I left.
Now, if the cashing out had been done by computer and not a human, I would have had no problem with this. But there's such room for human error in the cashing-out process that I can see a miscount of $10. And, anyway, there's such a thing as customer service. The Tips jar had quite a lot of cash in it, and $10 could have been gotten from there to give me back the cash I was owed. Instead, they are left with an irate customer. I would love to never go back there again, but since they are the only hechshered (kosher certified) ice cream shop in my area, I am stuck.
I therefore say to all people who go to the JP Licks in Coolidge Corner, double-check what bill you are handing the clerk, and make sure you count your change.
Now, having just come from the bank, all I had in my wallet was two $20 bills.
I told her that I had given her a $20 bill, and she said, "Oh. I have to get my manager." She came back with the assistant manager, who explained to me that the procedure now required the clerk to cash out her drawer, a process that would take about 5 or so minutes. Once the clerk cashed out her drawer, she reported a number to the assistant manager (note: the cashout was done totally out of my sight). The assistant manager then told me that there was a $1.07 discrepancy between what the clerk said there was in the drawer and what the computer said there should be in the drawer, and if I truly had given her a $20, there would be a $11.07 discrepancy. I explained to the assistant manager that that might be true, but I was positive that I had given a $20 to the clerk.
"The only thing I can do is have you talk to my manager. If I give you $10, we will be short $10 at the end of the night."
The assistant manager went and got the manager, and he said the same thing. He could not give me the money that is rightfully mine because the computer told him that there was only an extra $1.07 in the drawer. He could not help me, and so I left.
Now, if the cashing out had been done by computer and not a human, I would have had no problem with this. But there's such room for human error in the cashing-out process that I can see a miscount of $10. And, anyway, there's such a thing as customer service. The Tips jar had quite a lot of cash in it, and $10 could have been gotten from there to give me back the cash I was owed. Instead, they are left with an irate customer. I would love to never go back there again, but since they are the only hechshered (kosher certified) ice cream shop in my area, I am stuck.
I therefore say to all people who go to the JP Licks in Coolidge Corner, double-check what bill you are handing the clerk, and make sure you count your change.
Gift Suggestions?
Aug. 28th, 2008 09:45 am![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lcmlc and Abba are going to a Bat Mitzvah on Monday for a girl they don't know all that well (she's the granddaughter of two of lc/lc's dear friends). And lcmlc is unsure of what to get as a gift. So... I appeal to you, the all-knowing friends list. What is a good gift for a girl of whom all I know is the following:-- She's 12 years old
-- She attends a pluralistic Jewish day school
So, yeah. What does one get for such a child? Any thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.
As I mentioned some time last week, my earbuds (the ones I use with my iPod) were flaking. Specifically, the right ear was not playing any noise at all unless I contorted the cord into bizarre positions (and even then it didn't consistently stay). The earbuds in particular were Bose In-Ear Headphones, which I had purchased in September 2007. Now, these were somewhat pricey headphones, so I was more than a little annoyed that they'd flaked out so quickly. mabfan recommended we go out to the Bose store (which is near my parents'), so off we went.
When we got there, I explained to the guy at the store what the issue was and I told him that I hadn't bought them that long ago but that I didn't have the receipt with me. Since I'd bought them at that particular store, however, he was able to look in the computer and find the exact date on which I had purchased them. Since the purchase had happened less than a year ago, he just took the broken set and gave me a brand-new set. His one request was that I leave him the box in which the new ones came so that he'd have something in which to ship them back to Bose.
mabfan and I asked what the store could have done for me had the headphones been older than a year, and the guy explained that they'd charge a small repair fee and give me a new set of headphones. Had the device in question been larger or more expensive, they'd actually send it back for repair and return them to me, but since the headphones are small and relatively inexpensive in the realm of Bose products, they don't find it worthwhile to fix these headphones and simply replace them instead.
mabfan recommended we go out to the Bose store (which is near my parents'), so off we went.When we got there, I explained to the guy at the store what the issue was and I told him that I hadn't bought them that long ago but that I didn't have the receipt with me. Since I'd bought them at that particular store, however, he was able to look in the computer and find the exact date on which I had purchased them. Since the purchase had happened less than a year ago, he just took the broken set and gave me a brand-new set. His one request was that I leave him the box in which the new ones came so that he'd have something in which to ship them back to Bose.
mabfan and I asked what the store could have done for me had the headphones been older than a year, and the guy explained that they'd charge a small repair fee and give me a new set of headphones. Had the device in question been larger or more expensive, they'd actually send it back for repair and return them to me, but since the headphones are small and relatively inexpensive in the realm of Bose products, they don't find it worthwhile to fix these headphones and simply replace them instead.Here's the scenario: you go into a store and pick an item off a rack. The rack has a large sign that says "Sale: $29.99." In small print, the sign says "For items orignally marked $50." None of the items on the rack have an original price of $50. In fact, all of them are original price $80, and at the register they come up at a price of $49.99.
So... should you be paying $29.99 or $49.99?
So... should you be paying $29.99 or $49.99?
