Making it right
Customer service is seriously lacking these days, in almost any industry.
Recently, I’ve experienced the lack of care from the airline industry, which I wrote about here, here and had to include their credit card offer here (Midwest Express is currently staffed with boneheads, to put it lightly). Then we had the telemarketers who call after hours, and finally, the infamous glasses experience, to top it all off.
The glasses experience did get resolved, although I still harbor some negative thoughts from that experience, so imagine how horrified I was when Little Dude managed to break the frames to my glasses.
The good side: I have a one-year warranty on the frames.
The bad side: I was off to deal with Shopko Optical again.
Originally I went to back to the same Shopko Optical from where I had first purchased my glasses. The customer service was lacking, to put it lightly, and they insisted the frames weren’t broken, the one screw was just stripped.
They inserted a new screw. A much larger new screw, which didn’t fit in the hinge of the frames. In fact it offered a nice new sharp edge to the frames, which I felt so comfortable putting near my eyes (or just having on my glasses, where I know it could scratch Little Dude when he gave me a hug).
I didn’t know what to say. This is what they thought would make it all right? I just left the store, shaking my head.
Finally, when the Hubby mentioned Shopko Optical had put the wrong prescription into his glasses (they used his two-year-old prescription, not the current one, which he found out about when he kept getting headaches on the days he would wear his glasses), I followed him with my glasses to another Shopko Optical location.
We were met by a single employee, obviously on duty alone and overwhelmed, but she still apologized, and spent a lot of time fixing things. And she apologized some more. She called my previous Shopko Optical location and got all of the information needed to order brand-new, replacement frames. She mentioned that my old frames were obviously broken and couldn’t believe the other store had let me leave with that “fix.”
She went over the Hubby’s prescription several times with him, and was dismayed at how we had been treated and everything that had occurred.
I left feeling hopeful. And she didn’t even have to offer me any freebies or a discount. This was true customer service. She invested of herself in our issues, and made certain we were satisfied with where things were left before we exited the store.
I’m happy to say I have the new frames and that the exchange went well. The Hubby still needs to pick-up his fixed prescription, but I’m hopeful all will be well. And I’m happy to have something nice to say for a change.
I will go out of my way and even pay more when it comes to customer service. I know we shouldn’t have to, but in this day and age C.S. seems to be disappearing.
That’s so nice. One of the reasons I never minded working in the call center was the opportunity to help people like that, to go that one step further to show a customer that I cared. That’s also why I loved working the front desk at a hotel.
Yay for being treated well!
just when you thought all was lost. nice to read a good story with a happy ending.
That’s a nice change!
Yes. An apology goes a long way – even when the apologist wasn’t the source of the problem.
Hooray for good customer service.
So few and far between…. And such a relief when you run across it!!!
Good customer service does seem to be rare these days. It’s frustrating. Glad you had a positive experience.
It’s a shame to be happy when customer service goes well, because it always *should*. There is no more “the customer is always right”!
It appears the Hubby’s glasses are corrected! Yay! (And yes, pretty sad that good customer service seems to be so hard to find.)