I’m pretty sure I heard it all in terms of excuses on Saturday.
I’m also pretty sure we lost faith in humanity.
Our camper needed to be serviced, for a brand new one, that’s not a good thing–but we dropped it off August 15.
Since then we’ve wondered what’s been going on—the slides were not going in with a push of a button—was there another issue? What was happening?
There were days we thought to call—but it was closing time. There were days we should have called, but time got away. And there were days we assumed, we thought, we hoped this business (who had a lot of our money) would call.
Sam finally got tired of it and called.
Our camper had been ready for pick up since August 22. And it took the fella on the phone about 5 minutes to say that—after stuttering and stammering (because that’s unacceptable to have not called) he said it was ready.
To say we were ticked was an understatement.
When we arrived to pick up our camper there was little to no apology for the trouble, confusion, or lack of communication—until we didn’t say “hi” to a man on our way out.
When the man said, “how are you folks?” We both said (at the same time), “We’ve been better.”
And then he said, “well you didn’t say hi, so. What’s going on?”
Clearly this man had interest in this business.
So, I told him how our new, 2018 camper was a great joy on vacation, but we had a technical issue. We had it serviced, no one thought to pick up a phone and call when it was finished—from August 22.
No one also returned a call to us when we were in Salina, Kansas when the slides stopped working (and Sam called to get insight on this issue).
I went on to mention it was a holiday weekend and we could have been camping. He just looked at me.
I also went on to say that this was not great customer service. He might have said sorry. Or we were a bad statistic, I can’t remember.
And that man said, “I’m the owner.”
Well whoopie-do! I own a camper.
I think he said sorry one time. Then proceeded to tell us that we should have used Facebook.
I’m sorry? Facebook? He implied it was easier to send a Facebook message instead of call. That his employees simply are overwhelmed by a device that rings and they have to answer—because they are busy.
The Facebook messages go directly to him.
And customers are suppose to know that? Because in the buying process, we weren’t told that. And what about people who don’t have Facebook? How does that work!
The Facebook messages go directly to him, he’s got people to answer the phone now.
I’m not so sure that’s working.
He didn’t hear what we were saying, he instead went on to tell us not to be mean because he has feelings, that we were just a bad statistic (because no one called and they have Facebook, obvi.), and that he cares.
I beg to differ. He didn’t seem to care about the customer at all.
And with that, I smiled through gritted teeth and said “we won’t be back.” Somehow, that didn’t bother him.
You’d think for someone who is about the customer, someone who “sells 55-75 campers a month,” could keep up with a telephone.
Nope.
When the camper was dropped off Sam was told they were “busy.” The fair was coming up and there would be Hunting and Fishing days, so they weren’t sure when it could be serviced.
This business must not own a calendar or appointment book.
The day just progressed with more difficult and odd occurrences with people.
Sam suggested we go home, and not get out for the rest of the day—but with the unexpected camper pick up, that wasn’t in the cards.
So, after a long Saturday with people who think they are just better than others, people taking advantage of good, kindhearted people, people who were rude, and maybe even a little hateful, we had our fill.
When a business prides themselves on being customer friendly and is not—that’s kind of shady.
When a business says they will do something, and they do not, that’s when I’m done.
Customer service goes a long way. Facebook has not replaced phones, but I believe it has replaced the way people, businesses perform. And that–that my friends–that is very sad.
I’m pretty sure the right decision would have been to call when our camper was ready on August 22. I’m positive the wrong decision was to say it was ready this past week when the boss was standing close by.