Long time lurker, occasional commenter, but this will be my first post.
I just had to post about this case. This has some suck on the customer's part, and quite a bit of complaint about our computer systems at work.
Now I don't work customer service directly, but in the department that oversees the actual customer service agents, who are outsourced. As part of my duties I am now answering the charge backs from our credit card processor. A little while ago I got a charge back for a customer wanting a refund for some returned product...
Along time ago (November 2010) in a sucky customer's house far far away SC placed three orders through our web site for some accessories. Each order was for three different accessories but in different mixes of quantities so each order was distinct and a slightly different price. SC decided that they only wanted one of the orders so they called our customer service group to have two of the orders cancelled...
Now our system is a mis-mash of programs that makes a Rube Goldberg device look sensible, but it works for the most part. Today the system was apparently humming right along and as a consequence the warehouse already had all three orders picked and in the process for shipping. So the orders could not be canceled.
Our valiant customer service agents recognized where this was heading and informed the customer that the orders could not be canceled. They offered to set up the Return Authorizations for the customer and to even provide pre-paid return labels through FedEx...
Now I've used these return labels before for returns with a different company. What the customer gets is an email with the RA number, a return address, a serial number for the return label, directions to three FedEx locations that can process the return label and an attached PDF document with all that information and a bar code that the FedEx worker can scan to set up the label in their system. The only thing the customer does not get is an actual shipping label, and pick-up, and a box to ship the item(s) in.
Due to how wonky our system is the agents had to set up three RAs, one for each type of item to be returned, even though the customer only had two orders they wanted to return. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, and no we can't change it or make it work a different way. Well we [I]could[I] but if everything doesn't go exactly right, the whole RA is thrown into worse disarray than doing it this way.
Well of course that was unacceptable to the customer. First off they had trouble opening the attached PDF documents and complained that we should not use PDF , that we should send such documents in Microsoft Word DOC format since that is what they are used to using. Also, it was too much work for the customer to have to take the items they wanted to return to a FedEx location to be shipped to our Return Center. We should schedule FedEx to come to their location to pick up the packages. And why should they have to have three RAs when they wanted to return two orders. No that was all too much work and bad customer service.
So what does the customer do instead? Why they use their Google-Fu to look up the Corporate telephone number and address (which is on our web site, and the box of the item they bought the accessories for) and shipped their items to Corporate. That is right, even after being given the address to send their items to for a refund and complaining about the time and money of taking their items to a FedEx location to ship their items back to us at our expense the SC went to the Post Office and paid to ship their items to our Corporate HQ.
I do not work at our Corporate HQ. HQ sent the box to our facility, also not the Return Center either and not the call center. Remember the orders were placed in November 2010. The SC shipped their items to HQ in early December 2010. I do not get wind of this until April 2011.
I know some of what the customer was thinking of our customer service and how complicated the RA process is because they wrote a letter to the CEO about it, including a print out of their Google search for the Corporate HQ address and phone number. Included in their complaint are the usual complaint about outsourcing, but also a complaint about how much paper we wasted. That is the SC printed out all of the emails for the Order Confirmations, Order shipments, and Billing statements, and the emails back and forth with customer service and the emails with the Return Authorization information AND copies of the packing slips from each of the three orders. But we are the ones wasting paper
If the SC wanted to prove that our customer service agents provided bad customer service and that our return process is too difficult, then don't provide written documentation that our agents followed policy (some of which was set the folks at HQ) and then go out of your way to ship the items you want a refund for to the WRONG LOCATION. If you want to complain, go ahead and send your letter and half a tree of paper to HQ, but if you are going to go out of your way to ship your items somewhere might as well ship them to the Return Center whose address you have at in at least six places (emails, return label forms, the outside of the box the orders came in, our website...)
So now four (4) months after this totally bogus journey began the SC will be getting a refund. My boss said, and i give in, that since we do have his stuff we will OK the refund.
Oh and to top it all off, thanks to our Rube-Goldberg order processing system, the customer has only been charged for one of the three orders. And since that is the amount the SC is contesting, that is what they are getting back.
I need a drink.
I just had to post about this case. This has some suck on the customer's part, and quite a bit of complaint about our computer systems at work.
Now I don't work customer service directly, but in the department that oversees the actual customer service agents, who are outsourced. As part of my duties I am now answering the charge backs from our credit card processor. A little while ago I got a charge back for a customer wanting a refund for some returned product...
Along time ago (November 2010) in a sucky customer's house far far away SC placed three orders through our web site for some accessories. Each order was for three different accessories but in different mixes of quantities so each order was distinct and a slightly different price. SC decided that they only wanted one of the orders so they called our customer service group to have two of the orders cancelled...
Now our system is a mis-mash of programs that makes a Rube Goldberg device look sensible, but it works for the most part. Today the system was apparently humming right along and as a consequence the warehouse already had all three orders picked and in the process for shipping. So the orders could not be canceled.
Our valiant customer service agents recognized where this was heading and informed the customer that the orders could not be canceled. They offered to set up the Return Authorizations for the customer and to even provide pre-paid return labels through FedEx...
Now I've used these return labels before for returns with a different company. What the customer gets is an email with the RA number, a return address, a serial number for the return label, directions to three FedEx locations that can process the return label and an attached PDF document with all that information and a bar code that the FedEx worker can scan to set up the label in their system. The only thing the customer does not get is an actual shipping label, and pick-up, and a box to ship the item(s) in.
Due to how wonky our system is the agents had to set up three RAs, one for each type of item to be returned, even though the customer only had two orders they wanted to return. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense, and no we can't change it or make it work a different way. Well we [I]could[I] but if everything doesn't go exactly right, the whole RA is thrown into worse disarray than doing it this way.
Well of course that was unacceptable to the customer. First off they had trouble opening the attached PDF documents and complained that we should not use PDF , that we should send such documents in Microsoft Word DOC format since that is what they are used to using. Also, it was too much work for the customer to have to take the items they wanted to return to a FedEx location to be shipped to our Return Center. We should schedule FedEx to come to their location to pick up the packages. And why should they have to have three RAs when they wanted to return two orders. No that was all too much work and bad customer service.
So what does the customer do instead? Why they use their Google-Fu to look up the Corporate telephone number and address (which is on our web site, and the box of the item they bought the accessories for) and shipped their items to Corporate. That is right, even after being given the address to send their items to for a refund and complaining about the time and money of taking their items to a FedEx location to ship their items back to us at our expense the SC went to the Post Office and paid to ship their items to our Corporate HQ.
I do not work at our Corporate HQ. HQ sent the box to our facility, also not the Return Center either and not the call center. Remember the orders were placed in November 2010. The SC shipped their items to HQ in early December 2010. I do not get wind of this until April 2011.
I know some of what the customer was thinking of our customer service and how complicated the RA process is because they wrote a letter to the CEO about it, including a print out of their Google search for the Corporate HQ address and phone number. Included in their complaint are the usual complaint about outsourcing, but also a complaint about how much paper we wasted. That is the SC printed out all of the emails for the Order Confirmations, Order shipments, and Billing statements, and the emails back and forth with customer service and the emails with the Return Authorization information AND copies of the packing slips from each of the three orders. But we are the ones wasting paper
If the SC wanted to prove that our customer service agents provided bad customer service and that our return process is too difficult, then don't provide written documentation that our agents followed policy (some of which was set the folks at HQ) and then go out of your way to ship the items you want a refund for to the WRONG LOCATION. If you want to complain, go ahead and send your letter and half a tree of paper to HQ, but if you are going to go out of your way to ship your items somewhere might as well ship them to the Return Center whose address you have at in at least six places (emails, return label forms, the outside of the box the orders came in, our website...)
So now four (4) months after this totally bogus journey began the SC will be getting a refund. My boss said, and i give in, that since we do have his stuff we will OK the refund.
Oh and to top it all off, thanks to our Rube-Goldberg order processing system, the customer has only been charged for one of the three orders. And since that is the amount the SC is contesting, that is what they are getting back.
I need a drink.
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