Archive for the ‘customer service’ Category

Here in Canada, Rogers is a huge communications conglomerate that includes cable TV, DVD rental, cell phone, magazines, radio, and high-speed Internet services. Most people, including me, have some interaction with Rogers. To be quite frank, I try to keep mine as limited as possible. Our Internet at home? Rogers. Our home phone is Rogers too. My ancient and loathed work Treo, soon to be replaced by a Blackberry — Rogers. For now, we still have rabbit-ears on the TV at home, so we don’t pay ANYone for TV, and the DVDs we rent are from a local independent video store.

I have a knee-jerk negative reaction to Rogers. But then again, I also have a negative reaction to Bell. That might be because of their INCREDIBLY stupid “ER” campaign.

But man, oh man, I got something today at my house that just drove me to the computer.

When I arrived home, a piece of advertising was rolled up in my door handle. From Rogers. Here it is.


Let’s see if I can ennumerate the ways in which this piece of marketing collateral left me gaping in slack-jawed astonishment.

1. I’ve lived in my house and this neighbourhood since 2000. I know my neighbours. Some of them come to my house concerts. So why would you (a) give me a piece of mail saying “the previous account holder at this address has requested that the Rogers Cable services be disconnected.” (b) and THEN SCRATCH IT OUT.
2. Why would you change the terms of the offer by hand? Can I write up my own terms? Do I get to choose too? Is this legally binding?
3. On the first image, it appears that FREE as in installation is scratched out. On the second image, something is written over the word FREE in FREE INSTALLATION. Does that mean it’s not free, or does it signify an initialing, as in Tech # 0285 is endorsing the free installation?
4. I’m ALREADY A ROGERS CUSTOMER! Why not treat me like one?
5. Is this a better offer than anything I can get from Rogers online or elsewhere?

UPDATED: I’ve taken out the name and number of the rep in question at her request. I don’t think we need to single her out on this one.

I’ve gotten a ton of direct mail from Rogers over the years. We used to joke that we were the white pin in the sea of red, as non-cable-TV people. But I’ve never seen something as obtuse as this.

Ciao,
Bob.

Would you believe that less than an hour after my blog post today about the lack of a light bulb for my desk lamp, a mysterious package arrived from Catalina Lighting with not one, but THREE bulbs that fit my lamp?

Don’t know who you are, Reshma Ramsarran of Catalina Lighting, but I SALUTE YOU!

UPDATE: I got a phone call this morning from Grand & Toy’s director of customer care, ensuring that I had received the bulbs and apologizing for the hassle. Apparently they had also had some difficulty finding the bulbs and in the end went to the manufacturer. This has led to them looking at better sourcing for bulbs for those products. Good on him for calling me and for getting me the bulbs. Hopefully when I burn through these ones there will be a regular supply in stock.

Ciao,
Bob.

UPDATED June 16 2008: I’m starting to feel like Captain Ahab, chasing the great white light of a 20-watt bulb. I e-mailed Grand & Toy’s customer service e-mail on June 5 with this problem. I e-mailed on JUne 6, not having received a response.

On June 10 at 4:03, I got the following e-mail.

On June 11, I received another response:

“Hi Bob,

I love how I’m supposed to tell them whether the bulb that THEY sell will work with the lamp that THEY sell.

I responded:

“I’m afraid that bulb doesn’t appear compatible. I require simply the small glass 20-watt bulb, not a bulb with an assembly. I don’t know what the product number of the bulb would be. On the lamp, it says:

USE MAX 20W / 12V JC TYPE G4 bulb.

Hopefully that will help.”

So now we’re at:

• Two weeks
• Four e-mails
• One live support chat
• One blog post (which keeps receiving visitors from “Nexus.grandandtoy.com”)

Since I tried to get a bulb for my lamp.

By the way, this post is now number 4 if you google “Grand and Toy customer service”. I’m not sure they want this that high in the results.

I’ll go back to shaking my head in sad disbelief now and reading their statement of what they offer their customers:

• Complete selection of office supplies, business furniture and technology products
• Expert cost-saving strategies and assistance
• Exceptional Customer Service customized to your business needs

Perhaps someone at Apex Public Relations, Grand & Toy’s PR firm, might read this and want to help out. Or maybe not. I’ll just sit here in the dark for another two weeks.

Bob.

Okay. This is a small thing in the grand scheme of things. Insignificant really. But I’m going to moan about it anyway.

When I joined Thornley Fallis, I was pleased to see I had a light switch that allwed me to shut off the fluorescent lights in my office. I hate those lights. The light sucks energy out of my soul.

So I got Kirsty, our trusty Director of First Impressions, to order me a floor lamp and a couple of desk lamps, since I don’t have any other light source.

I found some funky lamps at Grand & Toy, our local stationery retailer. They’re red, made by a company called Tensor, they have a gooseneck, they’re pretty cheap, and they’re halogen. I like that. So I got two.

The bulb burned out of one of those lamps a couple of weeks ago. Does Grand & Toy sell light bulbs? YES. Do they sell the bulb for this lamp? NO!

This is right up there with the lack of communications between the carmakers and the windshield washer manufacturers. Why not standardize the washer tank and the size of the jug? Or the battery manufacturers, who sell four-packs, and the electronics companies who use 4.5 volts (or three batteries).

I thought I’d ask why, so I tried out Grand & Toy’s live-chat customer service. Here’s what I got.

Please wait…connecting to a Grand & Toy Customer Service Rep. Hello, You are now Chatting with ‘Patrick’, how may I help you? you: hi there. I have bought Tensor desk lamps from you folks, and I love them. However, you don’t sell replacement bulbs for them. Why is that? Patrick: Unfortunately I would not be able to provide with the “Why” as I would not have that information. Patrick: You will have to contact your account rep to get that information unfortunately you: is there a way i can suggest that G&T stock these bulbs? Patrick: Again that would have to go through the rep as we have no control of that on our end you: okay. can you tell me who my rep is? Patrick: Account number please you: sorry, i’m not the one with that information. I’m the end user of the product. Patrick: I will need that info in order to find out the rep Patrick: You can contact he person who places your orders and I’m sure they will have that info you: you can’t look up by company name? Patrick: Whats the company name? you: thornley fallis communications Patrick: Nothing comes up with that name you: okay. I’ll follow up on my end. Patrick: Is there another name you are registered with you: you could try 76design Patrick: Sorry nothing with that either you: okay. thanks anyway. Patrick: You’re welcome, Thanks for using Live Chat and Have A Nice Day.

I’ve asked Kirsty to bring this up with our rep.

Grand & Toy, if you’re out there, please sell bulbs for the lamps you sell. Because now I’m really annoyed. You should also give your live chat operators a little more power to get information or convey that information. Because that was a singularly unhelpful conversation.

Ciao,
Bob.

Typically great post from Seth Godin this afternoon slugged The Pope is coming.

I had an immediate flash association hit me to one of my favorite movies, “Big Night“, in which Louis Prima stands in for the pope.

A clip:

Seth’s argument is admirably simple. When someone special is coming, you do things up right. Why not just do that?

I love that guy. And I love that movie, too.

Ciao,
Bob.

Hi all:

Here’s the script to my column as aired this morning on “The Business Network“:

In May 2008, the federal government is going to hold an auction. But you and I won’t be bidding on the goods. The auction is for what they call “wireless spectrum”. That means the frequencies that can be used for things like mobile phones and devices like Blackberries and Treos. Valuable stuff.

The interesting wrinkle in this auction is that Industry Canada, the department in charge, has set aside almost half of the spectrum available for new entrants.

If you’re carrying around a RazR or you’re a crackberry addict, you likely already know that Canada’s wireless market is made up of three big players – Rogers, Bell, and Telus.

But while phones and PDAs may seem ubiquitous, we Canadians are behind the curve. In fact, of the 30 countries in the OECD, we are 29th in mobile phone adoption. Countries like Finland or the UK, for example, are way ahead.

Why? Critics of the mobile marketplace suggest that wireless companies in Canada charge way too much for data use in particular, and that there’s no competitive incentive to drop those prices.

Others point to the fact that the Apple iPhone, the mobile holy grail, is not even scheduled to be introduced in Canada yet. Even worse, under current plans, Canadians would pay about $300 per month for the data-hungry iPhone, compared to $50 in the US.

Canada wants to be a technology leader. We invented the blackberry. But we’re laggards in its everyday use. And while revolutionary Google is getting into the wireless market in the US, our entrants are likely to be not nearly so exciting.

So as the auction approaches, brace yourself for a major PR battle.

The big three are going to deploy cute little animals to tell you their networks are the biggest, fastest, friendliest. The problem? At least two of those companies — Bell and Rogers — both have TERRIBLE reputations for customer service. They’re companies that we love to hate.

But while sentiment may be against the big three, more cuddly branding from new companies isn’t going to turn the tide. The new entrants are going to have to match their PR attacks against the establishment with the substance and service to make people want to desert the devil they know.

I’m hoping to expand the post later today with some more ideas about the future of wireless in Canada.

Ciao,
Bob.

I picked up a used effects pedal (GEEK alert: Digitech RP-80) for my guitar (again, GEEK alert: Ibanez AFS77T) last night.

Great pedal, lots of fun — except for one thing. It’s only operating off batteries right now because the seller didn’t have a power supply.

So… this morning, I e-mailed the manufacturer to ask how I get a new AC adapter. Auto-reply telling me that there’s a Canadian distributor and that I need to ping them.

The Canadian distributor is Erikson Music, a division of Jam Industries. As the bagel toasts at 7:04, I e-mail them. At 7:11, I get a response from a real person name Linda, asking where I am so she can route me to the right person. At 7:16, I respond with “Ottawa”. At 7:18, an e-mail’s gone to the person responsible for this region.

I’m gobsmacked.

Well done, Erikson / Jam. Well done. They’re going to make my next house concert much better. (Of course, if they could improve my guitar playing, that would be an even MORE effective tactic…)

Ciao,
Bob.