Disgruntled Customer-Large Pet Store Customer Service

[lasweetswan]

I woke up this morning very irritated at the level of service provided by one of the large pet store chains. I wrote them a letter. It's in the mailbox. Don't know if it will even be read, but figured it was worth a shot.


To Whom it May (Not) Concern or to the Director of Consumer Relations,


I would like to take another moment out of my busy day to express my extreme level of dissatisfaction towards your company and the "customer service" that I received from your "corporate" level staff at 888-824-PALS.

Not only are your staff completely and utterly incompetent, they just do NOT want to help when someone asks for help. Unfortunately, I did not keep call records to list how many times I had to call and how many minutes (into hours) I had to waste, YES, waste, to repeat myself time and time again, only to not even receive a resolution for my issue. I have a few ideas for your call center that would help improve customer satisfaction and the overall shopping experience.

1. When a customer calls and presents an issue, employ agents that WANT to do something. Maybe if you hire people who actually care about pets, you would have employees that are willing to do a bit more for their customers.
2. Hire a training staff to teach your call center agents some basic phone etiquette & call center skills.
A. Active LISTENING - There is no (seriously, zero) reason that someone should have to repeat facts that they have previously provided ten (or more) times.
B. Call Notes - This is self explanatory. Notate the reason why your customer has called. Document the request for help and the details that the customer provides. ACT on it. If the agent is unsure what to notate, maybe they should go back to point A. Active Listening.
C. Tell your customer what you CAN do, instead of what you CAN'T DO. Certainly a can-do attitude goes a much longer way.
D. Provide a Customer Friendly/Satisfactory Resolution- When your employees promise someone that they are going to do something, teach them to do good by it. When a phone call is promised, they should make the call. When a resolution is promised, they should assure resolve. Should there be any doubts on how to resolve a simple customer request, it's very possible that they should review steps A & B.

See, very simple. You'd think. However, when it comes to your call center, it definitely is not that simple. Unfortunately, nothing was done to assist me. (Point C) I was put through the ringer for an entire week due to failure to LISTEN to my problem (A), NOTE the details of my call (B)(purchase date, item that was purchased, reason that I needed proof of purchase), blatant LIES about what CAN and CAN'T be done (C), and extreme failure on on all four points, including RESOLUTION (D). I will not go into the details of my issue any further than this, simply because I AM tired of repeating myself and it's very obvious that everything falls on deaf ears anyhow. I would very much appreciate that this email be forwarded to someone who (Point 1) WANTS to do something and can employ some (Point A) active listening (or in this case, reading) skills. Please know that your staff has fallen very, very short of providing what we call customer service. Had I been calling in regard to something needed for my dog, I'd definitely say that you dropped his ball! I find it very frustrating that your company has failed to help. Not only have you lost my business (and 3 snakes, 1 dog), you have lost my boyfriend's business (1 dog, 4 mice). In addition, you have now lost our neighbors business (1 dog) (neighbor who lives to the right of our house), our other neighbor, (who lives to the left) and their pets (2 dogs, 2 geckos, 2 other lizards, 1 opossum & fish). On top of that, my boyfriend's parents have vowed to no longer shop with you due to me sharing my unsatisfactory (preventable) experience with them (1 dog), my parents (3 dogs). And finally, anyone else that I have the opportunity to share this with, including, but not limited to my social networks and my activities committee at work (which coincidentally is in the process of having a food/donation drive for the animal shelters in Joplin, MO due to the upset caused by the devastating storms).

Although you may not care about providing quality customer service, one thing that all companies care about is profit. Due to your hired help's unwillingness to provide simple customer service, your company has lost $53473.00 profit, at a minimum in the next fifteen years (based on food costs alone for the above listed animals). This calculation does not include the cost to feed the neighbors fish or lizards or opossum, simply because I am unsure of those costs.



PET YEARLY FOOD COST AVERAGE LIFESPAN LIFETIME FOOD COST
Mine and Boyfriends Dogs (2 Small) $520.00 (1 $10 12-Pack Canned Food, Weekly) 13 years $6760.00
Our Mice $84.00 2 years $168.00
3 Snakes $1087.00 (1 rat each weekly, rat priced at $6.97) 15-20 years $16305.00
Boyfriends Parents Dog $480.00 (1 $40 bag of food monthly) 10 years $4800.00
My Parents Dogs (2 Small Dogs) $480.00 (1 $40 bag of food monthly) 13 years $6240.00
My Parents Dog (Large) $480.00 (1 $40 bag of food monthly) 10 years $4800.00
Neighbor’s Dog $480.00 (1 $40 bag of food monthly) 10 years $4800.00
Neighbor’s Dog $480.00 (1 $40 bag of food monthly) 10 years $4800.00
Neighbor’s Dog $480.00 (1 $40 bag of food monthly) 10 years $4800.00
TOTAL 53473.00

Your terrible customer service has caused your company to miss out on a bare minimum of $53473.00!!! Add into that the costs of dog toys, bedding for the mice, bedding for the snakes, etc. It’s an absurd amount of money.

It is nice to know that you will not make this profit from me. That is the only satisfaction that I have walked away from this experience with. Again, please pass this on to someone who intends to take the criticism and act on it to make a difference in your company.

On a positive note, I would like to commend Dan, the Store Manager at the West Melbourne, Florida store location #1515 for his efforts to assist me. He, as one person, was able to provide a resolution for me in 1 day, while all 5 of your corporate employees that I spoke with turned in a continuous circle attempting to locate their hind-quarters for an entire week. Bravo, Dan! I suggest you all take a lesson from him.

[Jessica Loesch]

I want to know the juicy details of what happened

Well written!!!!! Hope they send you some coupons ... like $20 off x 5. Lol.

[The Hedgehog]

*This is constructive criticism*

If I was the one who received this letter, and saw this as the second sentence:

"Not only are your staff completely and utterly incompetent, they just do NOT want to help when someone asks for help."

I would have deleted the email/thrown out the letter right there. As angry with them as you are, when you start off a letter by insulting someone, the first thing that person is going to do is NOT want to help you. Corporate or not.

That's just my 2 cents. The rest of the letter is written pretty well however.

[Geckos-by-Pam]

I'd also like to say sometimes people want more help then anyone can ever give them! I too would not want to respond to your letter. First you insult people who maybe were trying to help you. Maybe your impossible to make happy. Second you never even wrote in the letter what the problem was instead you act like the company should beg you to tell them and they proceed to say your to tired to tell the story to them again.... but have told the story to your entire state and social networking sites and will in the future tell anyone willing to listen.
----- Sorry I get so fed up with customer that no matter what you do will just never be happy or want you to do something you have stated 500000 times you can not do but they for some reason think you still should!

[jason_ladouceur]

I want to know the juicy details of what happened

Well written!!!!! Hope they send you some coupons ... like $20 off x 5. Lol.

at $7 a rat unless those are rabbit sized rats they would have to offer me alot more than $100 off to get my buisness in the first place.

[Jessica Loesch]

Was just kidding around

[lasweetswan]

*This is constructive criticism*

If I was the one who received this letter, and saw this as the second sentence:

"Not only are your staff completely and utterly incompetent, they just do NOT want to help when someone asks for help."

I would have deleted the email/thrown out the letter right there. As angry with them as you are, when you start off a letter by insulting someone, the first thing that person is going to do is NOT want to help you. Corporate or not.

That's just my 2 cents. The rest of the letter is written pretty well however.

Thanks for your thoughts. However, how insulting is it to a consumer that spends thousands of dollars in a store to be neglected when a simple request is made? It does not matter that they do not want to help now. The issue has been resolved. I sent the letter so that they could hear an opinion. My opinion was that the staff is incompetent, insult or not. They were hired to do a job and chose not to do it.

[lasweetswan]

I'd also like to say sometimes people want more help then anyone can ever give them! I too would not want to respond to your letter. First you insult people who maybe were trying to help you. Maybe your impossible to make happy. Second you never even wrote in the letter what the problem was instead you act like the company should beg you to tell them and they proceed to say your to tired to tell the story to them again.... but have told the story to your entire state and social networking sites and will in the future tell anyone willing to listen.
----- Sorry I get so fed up with customer that no matter what you do will just never be happy or want you to do something you have stated 500000 times you can not do but they for some reason think you still should!

The reason for writing the letter is due to the fact that it was obvious that they did not want to help, which is why I stressed that point. I did not include in the letter what the problem was as it is supposedly documented in the company's system under the reference number that was included with my personal information that was omitted from the bottom.

I can assure you that I am not impossible to make happy. I made a simple request for my purchase history. My frustrations stemmed from the fact that the first agent that I spoke with advised she located the history and the specific transaction that I was looking for and would send it to me. They requested that I fax them my driver's license and an authorization to release information. I went out of my way to provide them what they requested. Three days later, I had received no response after being advised 24 for hours for the history to be received via email. I called back, they said they were unable to locate the history. Sent me to the store location. Store location was unable to locate, referred me back to corporate. Corporate was to research it and have it resolved in 24 hours. I called back two days later, after receiving no reply, the customer service agent advised he would work on it immediately and send it to me via email within 1 hour and that if I did not receive it to call back. I asked how late they were open and he said 24 hours. I received nothing so called back 3 hours later, and they were closed. I called the next day. They again could not locate it. The entire time, they could not get the details straight. I provided them numerous times the date of the transaction, the amount and the items purchased.

It was a very simple request that through employee error turned into a molehole and wasted a week's worth of my time. The situation would have frustrated anyone, a patient person or not. I deal with pain in the butt people all day at my work, and I was more than patient with them.

[lasweetswan]

The reason for writing the letter is due to the fact that it was obvious that they did not want to help, which is why I stressed that point. I did not include in the letter what the problem was as it is supposedly documented in the company's system under the reference number that was included with my personal information that was omitted from the bottom.

I can assure you that I am not impossible to make happy. I made a simple request for my purchase history. My frustrations stemmed from the fact that the first agent that I spoke with advised she located the history and the specific transaction that I was looking for and would send it to me. They requested that I fax them my driver's license and an authorization to release information. I went out of my way to provide them what they requested. Three days later, I had received no response after being advised 24 for hours for the history to be received via email. I called back, they said they were unable to locate the history. Sent me to the store location. Store location was unable to locate, referred me back to corporate. Corporate was to research it and have it resolved in 24 hours. I called back two days later, after receiving no reply, the customer service agent advised he would work on it immediately and send it to me via email within 1 hour and that if I did not receive it to call back. I asked how late they were open and he said 24 hours. I received nothing so called back 3 hours later, and they were closed. I called the next day. They again could not locate it. The entire time, they could not get the details straight. I provided them numerous times the date of the transaction, the amount and the items purchased.

It was a very simple request that through employee error turned into a molehole and wasted a week's worth of my time. The situation would have frustrated anyone, a patient person or not. I deal with pain in the butt people all day at my work, and I was more than patient with them.

*a molehill into a mountain