Customer Dis-service
What the hell is up with customer service these days? I'm not talking about established headaches like the cable or power companies. Those guys have actually vastly simplified my life by moving a lot of support online.
No, I'm talking about things as basic as McDonald's. We stopped at Mickey Dee's last weekend on the way up to camping. I ordered three breakfast meals. Pretty basic stuff. Yet the staff managed to fuck up three times on one order.
First, the cashier entered one item incorrectly, which I didn't discover until our order came up. Then, she punched in the wrong amount of cash I gave her so the till told her she owed me $1,000.15. I was cool with that, but she insisted on getting her manager. Then, when our order was ready, they called out the wrong number so my food sat there rapidly cooling while they tried to figure out why nobody was picking it up.
I have also lost complete faith in the dude at my local GameStop. This boner has given me incorrect information several times and basically proven that he knows less about games and the industry than I do. The final straw was when I went to return my Nintendo DS Lite because of a dead pixel. I read in some online forums that Target and EB were happily taking back machines with bum pixels, but this guy said GameStop wouldn't do that and I would have to call Nintendo directly. Now, maybe Gamestop does have a no-return policy on that stuff, but I find that hard to believe since they own EB, which was apparently doing exchanges. So it makes me think this guy was just being lazy.
Then, I go into Target to find a game that the GameSpot loser told me no longer existed. They had several copies, of course. But when I went to get a carrying case for the DS Lite, they had zero accessories. This is mind-boggling. the DS Lite is the hottest and most highly anticipated piece of gaming hardware since the Xbox 360 was released last November. The idea that Target wouldn't stock a robust selection of accessories -- from cases to new styluses to screen protectors -- not only shows a complete ignorance of the market but also leaves money on the table. I ended up getting my case at a Virgin Megastore, which had lots of accessories but hardly any games.
Perhaps not surprisingly, my best customer service experience came with Nintendo today when I called them to ask about exchanging the DS. They immediately set me up with a replacement DS, saying they will first ship it to me and when I get it, I put the current one in the box and send it back. So I don't even lose any playing time. The whole thing took about 5 mintues from the time I picked up the phone.
That's customer service.
No, I'm talking about things as basic as McDonald's. We stopped at Mickey Dee's last weekend on the way up to camping. I ordered three breakfast meals. Pretty basic stuff. Yet the staff managed to fuck up three times on one order.
First, the cashier entered one item incorrectly, which I didn't discover until our order came up. Then, she punched in the wrong amount of cash I gave her so the till told her she owed me $1,000.15. I was cool with that, but she insisted on getting her manager. Then, when our order was ready, they called out the wrong number so my food sat there rapidly cooling while they tried to figure out why nobody was picking it up.
I have also lost complete faith in the dude at my local GameStop. This boner has given me incorrect information several times and basically proven that he knows less about games and the industry than I do. The final straw was when I went to return my Nintendo DS Lite because of a dead pixel. I read in some online forums that Target and EB were happily taking back machines with bum pixels, but this guy said GameStop wouldn't do that and I would have to call Nintendo directly. Now, maybe Gamestop does have a no-return policy on that stuff, but I find that hard to believe since they own EB, which was apparently doing exchanges. So it makes me think this guy was just being lazy.
Then, I go into Target to find a game that the GameSpot loser told me no longer existed. They had several copies, of course. But when I went to get a carrying case for the DS Lite, they had zero accessories. This is mind-boggling. the DS Lite is the hottest and most highly anticipated piece of gaming hardware since the Xbox 360 was released last November. The idea that Target wouldn't stock a robust selection of accessories -- from cases to new styluses to screen protectors -- not only shows a complete ignorance of the market but also leaves money on the table. I ended up getting my case at a Virgin Megastore, which had lots of accessories but hardly any games.
Perhaps not surprisingly, my best customer service experience came with Nintendo today when I called them to ask about exchanging the DS. They immediately set me up with a replacement DS, saying they will first ship it to me and when I get it, I put the current one in the box and send it back. So I don't even lose any playing time. The whole thing took about 5 mintues from the time I picked up the phone.
That's customer service.
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