It seems that customer horror stories are more commonplace than ever before. For example a CEO with a large clothing chain with 750 domestic stores and another 200 outside the USA was quoted saying his stores do not sell pants for women larger than a size 10. He went on to say the company really only wants “thin and beautiful people” shopping there, and that many just don’t belong in their clothes, adding that, yes that absolutely makes them exclusionary. Oh by the way this company’s stock has fallen in value 47% over a four month period of time this year, while the overall market has risen 9% during that same timeframe.
To bring it closer to home, here’s one that just happened to Bonnie and me around the fourth of July. I won’t give the War and Peace version about our property, but nearly seven years ago we purchased a cabin in the north Georgia mountains. We poured thousands of dollars into enlarging and upgrading it from a cabin into a mountain home, as the plan was to make it our sole residence at our full retirement. Well, we began to get cold feet about moving away from the grandkids, and then a family tragedy last summer really caused us to rethink; and so this June we put that property up for sale.
Amazingly, the first family that looked at it fell in love with it and made us a solid offer that we accepted. The real estate closing was scheduled for July 15, so I contacted our electric provider and the cable company, requesting that both those services be terminated on that closing date.
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During the short time leading up to closing, our family members came and went like shift workers, all wanting their “last hurrah” on beautiful Walnut Mountain. We had a houseful coming for the week of July 4th, so Bonnie and I rolled up with two grands at about 6pm on Thursday the 30th. Something didn’t feel right. Our place seemed darker than normal, and as soon as we walked through the door we realized why; there was no electricity. We quickly discovered our nearby neighbors had power, so it dawned on me, that for the love of Pete, our electricity had already been cut off…way before we requested. Bonnie went straight to the fridge, and upon opening it realized that they didn’t just shut it off that day.
I called the electric co-op emergency number and of course got the after-hours recording. I left a message and got a return call about 15 minutes later. I told her my dilemma, and she quickly pulled up my account on her system and said, “Well Mr. Robinson, you submitted a cutoff request to us.” Exasperated, I responded by asking her to tell me the cutoff date requested. All she said was, “Uh, looks like somebody jumped the gun, the power was shut off this past Monday the 27th.” I asked how quickly that could be reversed, as I had two small grandchildren with me and a grumpy wife. I followed that with asking her to imagine the condition of my refrigerator and freezer, four days after a shutoff.
HERE’S THE THING: This employee never even apologized nor did she fall on her sword as she should have when she realized it was her company’s mistake. It wouldn’t have cost her or her company ANYTHING to say and act like she was sorry, at least while I was on the phone with her. But she was quick to inject that it wasn’t her fault, and never even acknowledged the refrigerator debacle. All she said was that she would track down an on-call employee to come and turn the electric back on, but that it would be at least an hour.
We ended up being very fortunate when a contractor, not an employee of the electric co-op, heard the call on his radio on his way home, and relayed that he was close to my community and would swing by and get us powered up. A few minutes later he arrived and saved the day (the night), as my grands and I gave him a round of applause.
Four days prior to the real estate closing, just to be safe I called the electric co-op again to verify my cutoff request was still in effect, following the customer service nightmare ten days earlier. I immediately related I wasn’t calling to fuss at her but quickly shared what happened. Additionally I needed to verify that the electricity wouldn’t be cut off until the buyers completed their final walk through the morning of the 15th. Even after hearing all this, she never acknowledged, showed empathy or apologized, but she did quickly tell me the error wasn’t her fault. Since both employees I spoke with denied personal culpability, that technique must be part of their customer service training program.
She immediately told me she couldn’t guarantee the electricity wouldn’t be terminated during the morning before they arrived and went on to describe how service techs picked up work orders for each day. I then asked her advice and she said I would need to extend power for one more day. I said OK and then she said the next day was a Saturday so I would actually need to extend it until the following Monday to which I surrendered and said Monday would be great. She then used her customer service acumen to remind me my June bill was due in a few days. If she had glanced at her screen she would have noticed I had been paying my bill on or prior to due dates for 7 years, so was I going to try to duck out on this last one? I assured her it was in transit via the same bank bill pay service I always use.
I doubt there is an alternative utility to this electric co-op in Ellijay, Ga., but if there were, I would certainly recommend giving it a shot.
Next time in Part II I’ll thrill you with my customer service saga in dealing with the cable company in that same town, and then wind up by sharing why I committed two posts to these ridiculous faux pas.
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