Where has customer service gone these days? I'm quite shocked at the level of service I've been getting recently in an economy that's hurting as much as ours is. You would think that people would be knocking each other down to one-up their competitors, to treat each customer like the king or queen of the world, to appreciate any business that is coming their way. But my recent experiences have shown me quite a different story. Even in today's world, some businesses seem to think that quality customer service isn't necessary. Either I'm crazy for expecting good customer service or they're crazy for expecting that we don't care.
When it comes to customer service, I am a very easy person to please. At least I think so, maybe you can tell me if I'm wrong. I really only expect two main things from a business: good manners and honesty. And I feel like if you can't hit those two things, then it is my right as the customer to take my money elsewhere.
I bring this up because last week my car was keyed. My nine-month-old baby, the first car I've ever bought with my own money, the thing that allows me to have an active and fun life, was vandalized. Ugh. I know it's just a car, and I'm very happy that whoever decided to harm my car didn't decide to harm me. But come on. I would never in my life consider destroying someone else's property because of a grudge or for fun or whatever. We're all just trying to survive in this economy and the fact that someone felt like it was acceptable for them to key my car just pisses!me!off! And why this had to happen with my new car versus any of my previous cars (the 1987 Pontiac Sunbird that used to overheat, the 1991 Mitsubishi Galant that had to be driven with both feet so it didn't idle out, or the 2002 Volkswagen Jetta that had so many problems I just had to put her to rest) is beyond me. Why did the universe chose NOW for this to happen?
Well, clearly I have to deal with it whether I want to or not. It happened, get on board, Stephanie. I decided I wanted to take Zelda (she hasn't been named officially, but I'm trying out a few options here) to a auto body shop to get fixed properly rather than try to do some at-home spray job. She's so new and I'd to have to see a botched paint job for the next five (I'm guessing) or so years. However, after visiting two shops so far, I have already encountered terrible customer service and an outrageous estimate. Both shops were recommended to me by friends. I really only like to go to auto body shops, dentists, and doctors based off of recommendations. You never know what you're going to get if not!
The first place in downtown Baltimore seemed fine until I stood at the counter waiting for the receptionist to get off her blue tooth. She talked about everything under the sun--what she needed from the grocery store, who was coming into work high--but did she talk to me? Of course not. So I stood there looking at her like an idiot while she completely ignored me until finally (probably five minutes later), I gave up. I would rather not give my money to a company who's people think it's OK to ignore their customers. I'd rather not encourage that type of behavior. And instead of telling her never mind, in typical Stephanie passive aggressive fashion, I just turned around, ripped up my information form, and walked back out the front door. Never mind, lady. Clearly you don't need my money! I'm sure your bosses would be happy to know that you're behavior is loosing customers. Ugh.
The second place was much more professional. They were very prompt in receiving me, sending someone over to walk out to my car, and printing out an estimate. However, said estimate was just shy of $1000. $971 to fix a scratch? Good lord. The car isn't worth enough for me to justify spending a cool grand on cosmetic surgery. I would have loved to have given them my business, and that still may happen depending on what I encounter with my next adventure, but for now, I'm saying no to those guys.
So the saga of fixing the damage that was done to my car, not that was the result of an accident or error, but that was done to my car. I just can't even wrap my brain around that mentality. As I said before, it could be a lot worse, but I just don't see the silver lining quite yet. And in the meantime, I sit here contemplating whether or not I was right to storm out of the auto body shop yesterday without getting a quote. When I retold the story to my coworker, she seemed shocked that I would leave because of "one thing." But to me, that one thing--good manners--is really important.
Was I too rash with my decision to leave? Is anyone else reminded of "Doc Hollywood" when they see that picture? Here's hoping they don't hand me a box of "extra" parts when I do find a place to take Zelda!
Love,
Stephanie Marie
Photo courtesy of pinterest.
No comments:
Post a Comment