I recently had my car served. When I looked at the bill, it showed a charge for a front end alignment. It just so happened that the week prior to this routine oil change, I accidentally ran over a curb and took the car into the same car service business for a front-end alignment. When I asked for an explanation of the charge, the service person said, “We always do a front-end alignment when we do a routine oil change.” When I mentioned they had done an alignment just the week before, he advised me: “You should have told us that when you brought your car in for an oil change!”
We ordered an emergency alert for my then 95-year-old mother to put around her neck that would enable her to call 911 should she fall since she lived alone at the time. The sales person was wonderful. However, on the very day the alert arrived, my mother’s physician suggested we put her in an assisted living facility. She would obviously not need the alert and we cancelled the account. When we called to get instructions for returning the still unopened box, we ran into merchandise return hell.
We were told by the service department to wait for a special mailing label to be mailed which had to be attached in a certain way. No emailed PDF label like most companies. But, here is the trying part. Everyday someone from sales called to find out when we were planning to activate the alert. After over three weeks and numerous calls to their service department, we finally received the special return label. We suspected they were hoping we would just give up so they could bill for the superfluous equipment
Many customers are struggling with very tight financial circumstances. They expect service providers to be fair in their dealings and customer-centered in their fees, charges and return policies. And, when they get “stiffed” by a “rules ‘r us” employee more interested in the size of the bottom line than the source of the bottom line, they quickly exit for more fair-minded deal. Are you trying to get your customers to insure their swimming pools against theft?