It seems like hardly a week goes by that I don't see an example of poor customer service. Sometimes poor customer service is a result of poor training. Sometimes it’s as a result of a bad employee with a bad attitude. And other times yet poor customer service as a result of bad policies by the company. The question we have to answer is when is it worth the fight to try to get a refund or some other relief for the poor customer service?
For example, you order some fast food from a restaurant that is 5 miles away from your home. When you get home you discover that the order was wrong. So, you call the restaurant and tell them about the mistake, and an employee probably well meaning, tells you if you come on back we'll be glad to give you the right item. So, let's say that the right food just happens to be an order of French fries they forgot to put in the bag. Are you going to drive 5 miles back to the restaurant to get a dollars’ worth of French fries? Probably not! Why? Because it's not worth the trouble.
I have found that when we have that issue occasionally the restaurant will be glad to honor or fix the mistake the next time you come in. Most of the time I would say that would be an agreeable solution. People can make mistakes, we all do. As a consumer, we have to recognize that it might have been an innocent mistake for whatever reason and even though it irritated us, it would not be worth a big battle to get resolution.
Now recently I had a problem with a local newspaper. I was paying $4.99 per month for online access to their website. Last month I was suddenly charged $16.99 for my subscription instead of the $4.99. I called the number for the subscription department I told them that I was not happy with that charge and to cancel my subscription and I would like a refund because I did not authorize the charge for $16.99. The lady I spoke to said she was sorry that I was cancelling my service, and of course she tried to talk me into not cancelling. I don't recall whether she commented or not about a possible refund. Now at that time, the representative did not say anything to me about the price going up because this was the end of a trial period, for example.
So, this month I was once again charged $16.99. Obviously, I wasn't very happy about that. This time I emailed the customer service department of the paper, explained the situation, explained that I had not authorized a charge on my card for $16.99, and demanded a refund, and to make sure my subscription was cancelled.
I get a reply back from the paper saying that the reason the price went up was because it was a 26-week trial that I had signed up for and it was time for the price to go up. I was also told that there was no refunds per their terms and conditions on page A-2 and on their online website for online subscriptions. Now from a customer service standpoint I think you can see that there are two problems with the reply that I received.
1st, it is possible I signed up for this special price for a limited period of time. I don't remember that. That doesn't mean that i'm right or they're wrong or vice versa. But had the paper taken one little step which is very easily done with technology, the whole problem could have been resolved before it even happened.
What is that step?
Had I simply received an e-mail prior to the date for the price to go up, in other words before the increased charge, I could have chosen to cancel at that time before they charged me, or I could have said OK I'll pay the higher price. I received no such notice: No notice of increased price; No notice of trial period expiring; Nothing.
Now the second problem is really much bigger, and they are definitely wrong in their actions and their reply. What really irritated me was when they charged my account a second month for the higher price. I told them to cancel my service so that charge should have never happened! I had pretty much decided that it wasn’t worth a big battle to get the first charge refunded. But when they charged me the second time that changed the whole ball game. The reason being is I might have been wrong in not recognizing the end of a trial period and higher price for the first charge, but I definitely did not authorize a second charge at that price! The representative that replied to me, apparently didn't bother to actually read my complaint and take the time to understand it. Either that or that representative was so glued to their robotic policies that they don't take time to think and say hey there is a problem here. Had the reply been “yes, I see that you canceled, and we should not have charged you the 2nd time, we will issue that refund,” the battle would have ended right there. Now the situation rose to a new level. I contacted my bank, disputed both charges, and have received a credit to my account.
The final resolution may change. There are many twerks with credit card and debit card charges and disputes that go along with them. But the bigger damage, as far as this company is concerned, is that I will probably never do business with them again. That will probably include any possible advertising I might have done for my business in the future.
Employers have a difficult time hiring good people, or sometimes even finding anybody to work. Good customer service must be trained, and it must be a part of a company’s culture. Sadly, some companies look at a situation like the two examples above and are willing to gamble that most consumers won’t bother to fight for a small refund or to solve a small problem. Even if they do not push to get the refund, a business must consider how much collateral damage might be done by having a rightfully dissatisfied customer who is now telling everyone else about their dissatisfaction.
If you would like to know that your staff is providing customer service as good as you think it is, or discover if there are some issues that need to be fixed to improve your customer service, click this link to schedule a meeting with me to see if we can make your business better.