Customer Service

I just had lunch with a friend. He is also a youth pastor, so we consider our time together a "business meeting," which is why I am writing about it here.

There were two similar stories exchanged during our meal, both dealing with a particularly disturbing trend. The death of good customer service. Companies are spending millions of advertising dollars competing for the image of the best in customer service, yet from the mom and pop, to giant corporation we see it all the time. Bad service.

This friend of mine needs a written document showing that he is in good financial standings, for an adoption. He thought it would make sense for him to visit his bank. Unfortunately, it is the banks policy not to give out the forms he needs. In this case, the "customer care" group specifically stated they could not help in this matter. In order for my friend to get what he needs, he would actually have to take all of his money out of his account, transfer it to another bank, just to get a form. They would give him cash, but not a worthless peice of paper.

Yesterday, I called customer care to schedule a parts replacement for our church bus. The car manufacturer sent us a letter informing us of a parts recall, so I called our local dealership who politely informed me they could not perform this service. They gave me another number to call instead.

This led to 6 more phone calls and 2 transfers before I got a hold of a person who said they could do this for me. I was estatic. Unfortunately, when I asked where they were located it was in another state.

Do you have a customer service nightmare?