Christmas Customer Service

OK, it's Christmas shopping time and like many people, I've opted for the on-line options, as an ICT teacher it sort of makes sense anyway.

Now the majority of the presents have been ordered without any hassle and assuming that the companies all keep to their word, they should arrive in time. I had to ensure that I stayed away from the rather big company that let me down last year. February is no time for company to still be delivering Christmas presents!

All the presents, with one exception have been pretty standard this year with the online equivalent of high street shops stocking them all. The exception was a frame and mount for some tea-cards / cigarette cards that formed part of a bigger present. The frame and the mount would need to be ordered from a specialist. Not a problem, the internet would do the trick again here, and so it did. A quick search came up with what looked like a good professional company. It was late, so a phone call the next day would sort it out.

Monday came and I phone up. The order done by Christmas would be difficult, but not necessarily impossible. I should e-mail the details of what I needed and they would give me a quote back. Fine, again not a problem, e-mail sent. Next day, no contact, so I phone, again. Apparently I'd get a call the next day as the chap who does the quotes was coming in late and would have something sorted by the next day. By now I'm starting to get a little twitchy. We're looking at Wednesday before I even get a quote, and two days earlier was 'difficult' for Christmas.

Wednesday came and went and still nothing. Thursday I'm phoning up again and this time there's no reply. Even though it's office hours the phone isn't being answered. This is not good.

So here's my issue. These people know I'm looking for something in time for Christmas and yet they are willing to let me wait and wait and wait, with the likelihood that it would lead to the present being spoilt by the fact a main part of it won't be delivered in time. A simple call to say it wouldn't be possible to do the work in time would give me enough time to see if other companies would be able to. I appreciate that it's a competitive world out there, but especially at this time of year, some sense of generosity of spirit would be appreciated.

Additionally, in this day and age of the blog and electronic media, the company is shooting itself in the foot somewhat by acting so badly towards its customers. Maybe they feel that they have so many orders they can get away with treating potential customers badly. I for one won't be using them and won't be recommending them to anyone else. And if they e-mail me with a quote, well...

The good news at the end of this story is that later on the Thursday I managed to get in contact with another supplier and the frame and mount had arrived by Saturday! That's the sort of customer service that should be provided.