customer service
23 August 2010
Hello,
I’m writing to relate to you a fairly dismal experience I’ve had with CEVA recently. I ordered a couch from Walmart.com, which uses CEVA for oversized item delivery. I had no problems with the delivery, but needed to return the item as quickly as possible because it turned out to be covered in mold. The mold is not related to CEVA’s delivery service, but it did create the instance of needing to use CEVA again for the pick-up.
Unfortunately, I cannot say that the pick-up has gone nearly as well as the delivery. In addition to the frustration and anger I’ve already experienced with the walmart.com customer service, I’ve had to deal with a separate poor customer service experience with CEVA. I’m writing this because I’ve taken off time from work to be home and wait for this pick-up to happen and really, I’m so upset I can’t even concentrate on anything else.
The original delivery window was Saturday, 11-5. This is by far the biggest pick-up or delivery window I’ve ever encountered with a similar service, and that is NOT a compliment. I can’t imagine why a service that focuses solely on transporting goods can’t narrow down the delivery time estimate. I understand there is an element of unpredictability involved in the nature of this kind of thing, but do you not take pride at being efficient at the one and only thing you do? 6 hours is a lot of time for a person to lose from their day, especially if it has to be in the middle of a working day or a weekend.
In any case, I realized there was a street fair occurring on my block that Saturday. I decided to call CEVA to warn the driver ahead of time that they would need to park around the corner from my apartment instead of right in front. They decided that this meant they had to change the pick-up date. Apparently for a couch, the truck has to be precisely outside the apartment and there is no dolly or other piece of equipment that can be used if this is not the case (hmmm, wait, I thought this was a goods transportation service…?). This was incredibly frustrating because I had already arranged my plans for waiting for the pick-up on Saturday and now I needed to take time off of a weekday to get this couch picked up. Recall that there is mold on the couch and it has been sitting in my apartment for nearly two weeks already. I verified that there was a note made to call me on Monday before the driver got to my apartment so that I could make sure to be in the apartment at that time.
Now, here I am on Monday. I needed to do some errands, but they were close by and I had verified on two separate occasions/phone calls that the driver would be calling me before his arrival. So, I went to do my errands. I came back and it was getting close to the end of the delivery window, so I called just to check if the driver was still coming.
I found out that the driver had been here, but no one answered so he left.
He left.
The representative asked him if he called the phone number (I could hear him talking to her in the background), and he said no.
No one called.
I was then told that while I had insisted twice already that there be a note made to call me prior to arrival at my apartment that “it hadn’t been entered onto the driver’s sheet” which is a “totally different thing”. I have to call bullshit on this because I could hear him repeat the phone number to the representative when he was on the phone. He didn’t call because he “didn’t know if it was China or something” (due to a not common area code) again, I must call bullshit. If a driver gets to an apartment and no one answers, but there is a phone number on the sheet, he or she should attempt to call that number, (even if he thinks it is an international number—doesn’t CEVA pride itself on international service?) just in case. He could have even verified the address and delivery time and phone number by calling his dispatcher or contact at the company. I can’t imagine what kind of thinking leads to ignoring a request to call ahead of time and then ignoring the fact that a contact number exists and then ignoring all alternate possibilities; my only conclusion can be that no thinking exists.
I was then told that “he would try” to get back to me at the end of his route to pick it up.
He would “try”?
As Yoda says, there is no try, there is only do. I know that he has another route to attend to and that other frustrated people are waiting for pick-ups and deliveries. However, if CEVA is responsible at all, then you MUST amend your errors, not just attempt to. As a customer, I do not feel reassured at ALL that this couch is going to be picked up. I have to give 3 more hours of my time, stuck in my apartment, twiddling my thumbs waiting for CEVA to TRY to remedy its own error. I don’t understand the mentality or rationale behind saying ‘maybe’ to a customer who has already scheduled this pick-up time twice and can’t take off any more work time and is also leaving on a trip in a few days who doesn’t have an extra weekend to wait around for another pick-up window of over six hours.
I’m sure there is a lot of politicking and hierarchy at CEVA that is probably nigh impossible to navigate. I have no idea who will end up reading this (if anyone) but if you are, then thank you for taking the time to hear someone out. I know I haven’t done a particularly good job of keeping a bitter tone out of this note, and I hope that despite that failing, this complaint is taken into serious consideration and that I’ve given you something to think about. I would like to suggest having any customer service representative or anyone at CEVA at all read Danny Meyer’s book, Setting the Table. I think it might do wonders for keeping your clients happy, and I hope that no matter who the person is you never underestimate the power, implications or results of either ruining a person’s day or making that person’s day a good one.
Thanks again,
Shannon
*update*
The driver never came back and it would seem never tried to due to “complications in his route”. I would call a 3rd bullshit on that one. I had to call again and I ended up speaking with a very harsh-toned representative who talked over me and constantly cut me off, never letting me fully explain my reasons for calling. I am now assured 100% that a driver will be here between 8am and 8:30am tomorrow morning barring “an act of God”.
I told her I wouldn’t put it past him.
Posted in makes me angry! | 1 Comment