Customer Service

USA is considered one of the best in customer service. But the customer service here has deteriorated compared to 10 years ago. But still it is better than many countries in the world. The high level executives are more interested in top notch customer service than the actual customer service rep. Here is what happened:

On December 6 I went to a famous electronic retail store and made arrangements for a home theater installation in my home. They gave a due date of December 15 between 8 to 12 PM. I asked them to give me an earlier date if there was any cancellation. They said they would if there was a cancellation.

On December 9 evening I got a call from that store and said they have rescheduled the appointment for tomorrow (December 10) between 12 to 4 PM. On December 10, no installer came. And, no telephone calls. Therefore at 7 PM I called the store. The customer service rep did not give any satisfactory answer. He said he does not know why the installer did not show up and he would write an email the next day to the dispatcher and get a new installation date. I asked if the installer missed the due date is it not his responsibility to come the next day. He said he does not know.

After I hung up, I was so mad at the poor customer service. I wanted to do something. I could have approached the local store manager and fixed the problem. But since I was very mad, I wanted to take it to their Headquarters. I browsed through the corporate headquarters web page of that electronic store. There was a list of names of CEO. President, Executive Vice President, CFO, and other Vice Presidents. But there was no email address. Then I looked at the business card the sales rep gave me on December 6 when I first went to make arrangements for the installation. It had his email address. It is like this. firstname.lastname@storename.com. Suddenly I had this idea.

I wrote an email explaining the situation. I selected the Executive Vice President’s name at random. For his email address I put hisfirstname.hislastname@storename.com. I took a chance and sent that email. I thought it would come back as “mail undeliverable”. I waited for 10 minutes. It did not come back as undeliverable. Now I was glad I was able to correctly guess his email address.

I was not 100% sure if I would get any help. There are many reasons. First, if my email goes to his “spam”, he or his secretary would delete it. Second, if he is on vacation or tour, he may not have time to read my email. Then I went to bed.

That store’s headquarters is located in the East Coast whose time is ahead by 3 hours. On December 11 I got a call at 7 AM from that store’s Director of Executive Complaint Resolution. That Executive Vice President must have told the Complaint Resolution Director to take care of this problem. She profusely apologized for the inconvenience. She said she has contacted their installation manager for California and asked him to send an installer to my home immediately. She then gave her personal cell number and asked me to call her if no one contacted me by 4 PM California Time.

From 9 AM I started receiving several phone calls from several people apologizing for the inconvenience and every one promising me that they will send an installer today to my home. Finally the installer showed up at 2 PM and installed my home theater.

Here is the best part I like. That Electronic Store waived all the charges. Installation was done for free at no cost for me.

Poor Judgement

His name is Larry. An Anglo Saxon White guy. He was working in our company as a junior level manager. He was a bachelor, never married. He lived with his aged mother. He was not heterosexual. Unlike some others, he never advertised his sexual orientation as a gay person. But his mother and friends knew this and accepted that fact. Of course, he had a lover. His name is Charles.

I knew him well. But he was not a close friend of mine. We have been to his house one or two times. He, his mother, and his lover have come to our house once.

Larry loved his mother to death. He took care of her daily needs with love and affection. He would cook for her every day. Made sure she had her medications every day. Daily, Larry would take her mother for walking exercise. He took her on exotic vacation twice a year. In short, he took care of his mother as if he would take care of his own newborn baby.

He never drank. He never smoked.

One day, the fate struck. His doctor diagnosed he has AIDS. He was devastated. His mother was even more devastated. As months went by, his health deteriorated. Larry weighed 200 lbs. And, after 9 months he weighed only 130 lbs. He could not go to work. Therefore, he went on medical disability. He was unable to drive his car. His lover, Charles and another close friend, Sam (a straight guy) took care of the daily needs of Larry and his mother.

Larry was becoming depressed more and more every day. One day, he took several sleeping pills in order to commit suicide. However, Charles saw this and rushed him to the hospital in an ambulance. Doctors saved his life.

Many visitors came to see him at the hospital. All of them (except Sam) were unanimous in their scolding to Larry. “Why did you do this stupid thing? Your mother is very old. Who is going to take care of her if you die? If you die, your aged mother will become an orphan. Your mother is having health problems. You are going to aggravate her condition by committing suicide.”

Larry was discharged from the hospital 3 days later. Since Larry cannot take care of himself, Sam and Larry’s mother decided to admit him in a Care Home. Care Home is a home where they take care of sick people for a fee. He was there for a week. His mother was lonely at home. Sam went there every day to see how she was doing. She knew that her son was dying of AIDS. She decided to take Larry back home. Since Larry had suicidal tendencies, Sam was opposed to this idea. Sam and Larry’s mother approached the doctor in that Care Home. The doctor refused to talk to Sam. It is the law that doctors are supposed to talk only to family members, if the patient has one.

Larry and her mother talked to the Care Home doctor. No one knew the conversation. The doctor decided to release him from the Care Home and let Larry go home with his mother.

On a Thursday evening Larry called Sam about his car insurance. Sam said he will do the needful. On Friday evening Sam called Larry at his home. The phone was ringing and there was no answer. Sam decided to go to Larry’s house on Saturday. Larry’s neighbor called Sam on Saturday morning at 10 am. He said he knocked Larry’s door and there was no answer. The newspapers have not been picked up from the patio.

Since the neighbor had the extra key to Larry’s house, Sam asked him to open the door. After 10 minutes Larry’s neighbor called Sam and informed him that Larry and his mother are dead. There is blood all over the house. Sam asked the neighbor to call the police and rushed there.

To end this post, this is what happened. The visitors who came to see him in the hospital were scolding him as to what would happen to his aged mother if he committed suicide. This was a very poor judgement on the part of the visitors. Since Larry was already depressed and loved his mother, he was worried so much about the fate of his mother in case he should die naturally or commit suicide. He finally decided to kill his own mother, before taking his life, so that she would not suffer or become a helpless orphan after his death. So on Friday he took a claw hammer (a sharp V shaped at the end) and hit his mother forcefully in the back of her head several times. Blood was forced out of her head. There were blood marks on the ceiling, on the window screen, and on the side lamp shade. She died.

Larry then went to his room. Took a blade and cut the veins in his hands, legs, and neck. He also died 20 minutes later.

This is not a fiction. This is a true story. Larry and Sam worked in our Company. I have changed the real names to protect their privacy. Couple of days later Sam came to see me and told me the whole story. I said Larry made the wrong decision to kill his mother. Even if it was right in his mind, I told Sam, he could have put a bullet into her head as opposed to beating her forcefully in the back of her head several times. Sam just wept.

The lesson: When we visit someone who is very sick, we should say some encouraging words. We should not depress more a person who is already depressed.

Fair Play

Last Saturday, December 5, there was a soccer match in Italy. It was an Italian Second Division match, Ascoli vs Reggina. Reggina's Carlos Valdez pulled a muscle and attempted to kick the ball out of play so he could receive treatment. Apparently, it is a time honored tradition that the opposite team will let the ball go out of play in that situation. However, in this match, a player from Ascoli intercepted the ball and passed it to another player in his team who scored a goal.

Immediately, there were protests and fights between the players. Once order was restored and the match resumed, the Ascoli players stood still and allowed Reggina to score an uncontested goal in order to be "fair". After the match, the Ascoli Manager said that the decision to allow Reggina to score an uncontested goal was a unanimous collective decision by the players. After the match, they had to hide in the changing room for more than 2 hours to avoid facing the protest from Ascoli fans.

Now Italian soccer officials have started an investigation whether Reggina's free goal constitutes a fair play or breach of soccer rules. They are also investigating whether the original goal by Ascoli is legal or not because the referee should have stopped Ascoli from scoring that goal.

A gesture of kindness has become a controversy.

Ascoli's good gesture did not bring them any luck. Reggina won the match 3 to 1.