It happened again. I called a company this morning to request a refund and spent considerable time justifying why I wanted one in the first place. “It’s because I haven’t received the service I was promised, so I want a credit on my charge card,” I explained when asked.
Now I understand company employees are probably instructed to inquire if there is anything they can do to change my mind. I realize that today’s work world is pretty much about selling and not so much about serving.
But it’s a pet peeve that I have to justify my decision. Not only that, the service representative transferred me to another, presumably higher up, representative who wanted to know if there was some other service I’d like instead.
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “I haven’t gotten good value so far, so I’m skeptical that ordering some other product is the answer. I’d prefer to know when my card will be credited.”
Pet Peeve Number Two: In this day and age, credits and debits are transacted quickly via the Internet and gateway systems and credit card processing organizations. It doesn’t take an envelope and a stamp to send the request from customer service to billing. But I was told my credit wouldn’t apply for several days.
There was obviously no point in arguing with Sheldon, the representative, since he didn’t make the rules. In fact, I’m not sure who does. All I know is that it’s more and more difficult to find a company that doesn’t seem to put obstacles in the way of communicating with customers.
For the record, I believe you can tell how service oriented a company is by how many menus and buttons you have to push before you get to Sheldon in the first place. Perhaps that’s my greatest pet peeve. Or maybe it’s the one where the automated voice suggests I go to the appropriate website for answers and bypass a human altogether.
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