I've just got back to my desk from visiting OfficeMax, and had to have a long sit down and take deep breaths... Last week, we moved offices and after a week of not being able to print, got a geek to help us sort the printer (there's that 'call in the experts thing again, really should take my own advice more often!). Unfortunately he sorted it within 10 mins but we couldn't print as there was no ink. *Doh*. So I toddled down to OfficeMax, ordered a cartridge and it turned up two days later. Not bad I thought. It was the wrong one. So I rang them.
"Sure we can help, what's your customer number?"
"I don't know. I have an order number?"
"No, we need a customer number."
"What for?"
"So we can track the purchase."
"Well, I don't have one. Can you track it from the order number?"
"Maybe." "No that's not showing in the system. Do you have an invoice number?"
"No, there's no invoice in the box and I paid cash."
"There should be an invoice in the box."
"Well, there isn't."
"Well, there should be"
And so on and so on. Eventually I just asked for the thing to be picked up and I would go to the shop to credit my bank account sometime soon. Nope, couldn't happen. I would have to pay a courier to have it collected. So I get the darn thing to the shop finally, and we go through the whole "You haven't got a customer number, we really need one, where's your customer number" for about twenty minutes until finally I got my money back.
I watched the woman faff about with her online stock control system, tutting and sighing and worrying and checking with her manager for ages. It pretty much cost me more to return the thing than to buy it.
Customers want service, not systems. Deal with the customer, then make your systems work later.
Got my ink from ComputerLink in Petone (cheaper and smilier and you don't need a customer number!)
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