Erieversible

I’d like to be notified, wherever I am, when the power fails at our house.  I’d like to be notified when the level in the sump reaches a certain height.  I’d like not to pay a fortune for that service.

There are a number of devices that will detect those events.  Some are ‘local’ and just emit a loud noise.  Some will call you up by phone.  Those sounded like they’d be perfect.  Except that we have a digital phone service and that won’t work without power.

So I’ll throw a UPS backup device into the mix, to support the cable modem/phone box.  Except that the digital phone service still won’t work.  At least, according to the “customer service” people at Time Warner Cable.  Unfortunately I don’t believe them.  Why not?  Well, they can’t explain why it won’t work, and they all appear to be quoting from standard question responses.  In other words, they haven’t got a clue and are just parroting pre-prepared answers to common questions, picking the answer that seems to best suit my question.  That is fast becoming the dictionary definition for “customer service”.

If I can’t be phoned with the alerts, how about an email?  What I really need is a device that networks and acts on these triggers.  Technology has moved on from phones being the pinnacle.  These devices should perform the same basic function but use up to date communication methods.  However, it seems no-one else thinks so, as such devices are nowhere to be found.

I think I’ll try the UPS route anyway.  Or can anyone out there tell me why that wouldn’t work?  Why does the cable modem/phone box care where the local power comes from?  It’s all way beyond my simple mind.

Update:  After battling past the first-level “customer service”, through the second-level supervisor and then management, I finally, at the 4th time of asking, received a believable answer from one of their technicians.  The answer?  A UPS will indeed be sufficient to keep the digital phone working for local (i.e. not affecting Time Warner themselves) outages.  But why was it such a battle, and what about the poor average customer who believes the first (or second, or third) answer given?  I guess it is back to the new fangled concept of “customer service” meaning “read from the script”.

Yesterday Raymour & Flanigan delivered 41 pieces.  Well, that’s their tally, but they count all the pieces that tables, for instance, come in.  By the time they’d built some of the items there weren’t 41 new pieces of furniture.  Unfortunately one of the pieces is damaged.  Now we discover that their quick delivery time is not exactly matched by their reaction time for such matters - it will be 2 weeks before one of their “technicians” can drop round to examine the item.  And that might just be the start of the saga to get it sorted.  Not impressed.

By contrast, Crawfords also delivered some items yesterday.  They delivered one item with apologies.  It was marked.  They didn’t have a replacement available so would we mind using this one for now and they’ll get a replacement and switch them over as soon as possible?  To be honest, the mark they refer to is probably less obvious than the damage to the Raymour & Flanigan piece. 

So, marks out of 10 for each store on Customer Service?  Clearly 10 out of 10 for Crawfords.  Right now I’m not inclined to offer Raymour & Flanigan even a single mark.  I’ve said this before…things go wrong, and the mark of an organization or individual is not that they make mistakes but how they react to that mistake.  The Raymour & Flanigan reaction so far is best described as lethargic.

We need more furniture.  Lots more!  Where will we go to look for it?  Certainly not to a company that takes your money, delivers fast and then makes you wait at least 2 weeks before you can hope to use the piece.  No, we’ll head to Crawfords.

The British are reknowned for their queuing abilities.  Retailers in the US have mixed success.

Method 1 (aka The Macy’s Method)

• Have a separate queue for each register
• Encourage clerks to flog Macy’s cards, even if this means extra time for the customer to apply, time to void the sale and time to re-register the sale on the Macy’s card
• Keep customers waiting as long as possible before they are allowed to come into contact with the staff under the rather ironic “Customer Service” sign

Method 2 (aka The JC Penney Method)

• Have several registers servicing a single queue
• Keep customers moving even if one register needs a lot of time to process a particular customer

No prizes for guessing in which store I eventually abandoned my stack of purchases-to-be on the nearest shelf.  No prizes for guessing which store got my business.

Yes, Saturdays are busy times at Millcreek Mall but stores should (a) be prepared, especially when they are advertising a sale - okay, that’s every day and (b) understand how queues are best processed.  As economic pressures get worse then customer service is a great differentiator, and costs very little.