Comments on Thoughts by Chris W. Rea [UL]: Future Shop, Get A Clue!

I think the worst part is that the organization ha...

2007-11-08T17:48:00.000-05:00

I think the worst part is that the organization has refused to learn (or to indicate that it will try to learn) from the ordeal.

I think that's the key to good customer service--actually taking the time to learn.

Those are some good points, and I agree on the gru...

2007-10-10T09:44:00.000-04:00

Those are some good points, and I agree on the grunt & rule book point. In an ideal world, customer service people *should* be more empowered to satisfy customers, and to put anybody with zero decision making ability on the phone to deal with customer *problems* is idiocy.

My main issue is with the policies themselves, in terms of how rigid they are and how little they make sense. Somebody else in the organization consciously made a decision that "our order fulfillment must behave such-and-such", and that made it into the grunt's rule-book. The person who *wrote* the rule needs a clue the most.

In all fairness, as a former manager of a retail s...

2007-10-08T16:59:00.000-04:00

In all fairness, as a former manager of a retail store, I feel I should point out a couple of things you should at least acknowledge:

Firstly, more than likely, your "Customer Service representative" was just a grunt, with a rule book as her guide that lets her know what she is allowed to authorized, which is, in all honesty, probably very little. When answering a question, the first instruction of an employee is to quote procedure, and to be aware that 85% of customers will grumble, but take it. Were you making an angry customer of yourself, demanding to speak to a manager, or calling a head office, trust me, there would have been a much quicker result, that would have probably been in your favour. But only managers have the power to override policy, and the drones are told never to use independent decision making.

Secondly, there is an innate lack of logic in assuming that options are available to you that are not expressly shown. Obviously, you did not look into all available options when you ordered, and if you did, you would have been aware of your limitations, and made an informed decision. To hold the store responsible for your lack of thoroughness is a little ridiculous, and unrealistic.

In today's society, we've been hammered over the head with the caveat "The customer is always right", which, in a practical sense, is bullshit. The uninformed are never the correct ones, and really, the only axiom we should attribute to this antiquated idea is that the customer always deserves respect and politeness, but rewriting a rulebook for each situation is impractical.

And if this was bad business sense, then obviously places like Future Shop and BestBuy would be in danger of going out of business.

Somehow, I don't think they're worried.

That being said, I hope you get your stuff!