Dec 14 2009
Tales of GOOD customer service
I complain a lot — I do realize — so thought I’d share a couple of tales of good customer service.
Tale the first
A couple of months ago, I bought Mr. 2 a TONKA garbage truck. I very rarely pay full-price for toys, but did for this one, because I’d been looking for a garbage truck for him for some time. (Mr. 2 is obsessesed with garbage trucks, and plays with trucks in general for hours straight every day, so it was definitely going to be used.) And I figured that a Tonka would last.
Well, this truck was unfortunately not particularly well-designed. Within a couple of weeks, the track that carries the little garbage can up to dump out in the top broke, and wouldn’t go up anymore. The doors in front only opened partway and really weren’t big enough that you could get the little garbage guys that came with it in there, so their arms kept breaking off as Mr. 2 tried to jam them in to “drive” anyway.
So I went on the Tonka site and emailed their customer service to express how disappointed I was with the Mighty Motorized Garbage Truck. They referred me to Funrise Toys, who had manufactured the product. So, I emailed Funrise Toys — who sent me out a replacement truck, for free!
The replacement truck appears to be a recycling truck, and resolves all the issues with Truck number one. The doors open wider, and instead of a small more breakable track with garbage can, it includes a larger dumpster that seems much more sturdy. I gave it to Mr. 2 for the first night of Chanukah, and he’s over the moon.
So: Funrise Toys for the win — I’d highly recommend their products, and am so pleased with their customer service.
Tale the second
A while back I received some coupons for the Bounce Dryer bar from Vocalpoint. Picked up a free bar from Target, had no problems, and liked it enough to buy some more. Oops.
Bar number two came unstuck from the dryer after about four uses, banged around in there, and cracked in pieces, rendering it unusable. Bar number three came unstuck from the dryer after about two uses, and wouldn’t restick no matter what I did.
I poked around online and found other stories from people dissatisfied with their dryer bars. So, I contacted Proctor & Gamble from their website and explained what had happened. The other day I received coupons for two free Bounce products in the mail. Guess I’m going back to dryer sheets! Yay, P&G.
End result
Positive customer service experiences = loyal customers. Instead of remaining in the “I’ll never buy another Tonka truck” space, I’m now in the “What a great company Funrise is” space. Instead of the “Bounce bites” space, I’m now in the “Well, the new product didn’t work out, but I’ll go back to the old one” space. And I’m in a space where I wanted to share those experiences with you.
8 Responses to “Tales of GOOD customer service”
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Those are encouraging stories! Before I started couponing I never thought to contact manufacturers with problems. If something broke or didn’t work the way I thought it should, I just told myself “buyer beware” and put the company on my black list. Since I started couponing 2 years ago, though, I’ve contacted companies with problems maybe 5 times and I’ve never had one tell me “Tough, that’s your problem.” It isn’t always resolved exactly the way I would prefer, but the companies have always tried to do something to make it right.
My best story is Hasbro. My 5 year old worked so hard to save up his own money to buy the Transformer Superion. It was a limited edition toy that cost about $30 and was only available at Target. He finally had enough and we found one of the last ones available around here. He had had it for less than 24 hours and one of the plastic joints broke, so it couldn’t be transformed anymore and he was heart-broken. My first reaction was, “Transformers are junk. I don’t care how much he likes them we won’t be buying any more.” But my husband called Hasbro. They were extremely apologetic and said that it breaking was unacceptable. Since we were unable to find a replacement (Target had sold out), they sent us a postage label to return the entire thing. We mailed it off and within a couple of weeks we had a check for $36 (which more than covered what he’d paid). And because it was such a positive experience, I had no problem letting him use his money to buy another Transformer, which happens to be made much better than the last one.
I am calling Bounce today too. Ours came unstuck after a week. I really liked the product too!
Rachel, when you contact them, do you let them know you’re a blogger? i.e. “I have a lot of people who follow my website and listen to my opinion….”
Terri, I absolutely do not. However, if I blog about my experience later, I sometimes send them the link.
Speaking as a former Quality Manager from a manufacturing company, we absolutely want to know when something is wrong/right with our products! Most responsible companies will try to make it right, and you are helping them to improve their products for other customers. It’s really a win-win situation, even if it makes you uncomfortable to voice a complaint. Just remember to be polite!
Another thing to remember is to provide them with as much information as possible. If it’s a food product, give them the information off the bag or box. This would include expiration dates and any information contained on the line with the expiration date. If it has a USDA seal on it, somewhere on the package would be an Establishment code which would help them narrow the production down to a specific manufacturing location. Also helpful, is the location where you purchased your product.
I love being able to contact the company because it really has changed my opinion a number of times. For example, a couple of months ago I went to Payless to buy some shoes for my son. They were having their BOGO sale and I found some really cute boys shoes that had a $10 sticker on them (so $15 for two pairs). Well, the one box had the sticker on it, but the other box (which the girl had to find for me because I couldn’t find the size I was looking for, just the bigger size) did not. I figured that since it was hidden up on the shelf above that’s probably why it didn’t have the sticker on it. My son was getting restless so my husband offered to pay for the shoes while I took him to the car. When we got home my husband tells me that the girl at the counter said the $10 sticker was on there by mistake from last week’s sale and that the current price for both pairs was $24, which he paid. As you can imagine I was pretty upset. I was expecting $15 for two pairs, or at least $10 for one pair (as I really only needed the one pair but was going to buy the second pair in a bigger size just because of the sale). What really made me mad was knowing that if I had just come in last week I would have been able to just buy the one pair I needed for $10, instead of having to buy 2 pairs this week for $12 each! So I e-mailed the company and let them know that I was very dissatisfied. I did not ask for a coupon or anything, I just let them know what happened, and I let them know that all they needed to have done was to give me the one pair for $10 and I would have been happy and left, since it was their mistake at leaving the wrong price on it, but that instead I would be returning both pairs of shoes and taking my business elsewhere. Well, a couple weeks later I got a $10 gift certificate in the mail for Payless. While I had already taken the shoes back, I had been so upset that I had sworn not to go back to Payless (I even passed up a really good coupon, just on principle!), but when I saw that gift certificate, I decided that maybe it was just one bad experience and I am now willing to go back and give them another shot. It pays to complain sometimes, and it made me feel better to know that my complaints were heard.
Thanks for sharing, Rachel. On that note, I will share two customer service stories with you all. For the former, I will refrain from naming the store at which I shopped; you’ll understand why in a moment.
When I went to the check-out counter to pay for my goods, I asked the cashier if there were any current coupons available to apply towards my purchase (this was not a grocery store). She pointed to the one on the counter and said, “I’m sorry, but this one is only good after the holidays.” I smiled and said, “Oh, that’s okay; no biggie.” Then we continued to make small-talk and at the end of my transaction as I took my bag from her hands she said, “I gave you my employee discount–30 percent!” Wow!
Eureka rocks! I bought a Eureka Smart Vac (based on Consumer Reports ratings) 5 years ago and since that time, I have had to replace the pedal and hose one time. Needing another pedal and hose, I wrote the customer service a very nice email explaining my situation and they sent me both parts for free; no shipping costs either.
Thanks for sharing. I have 2 more companies to add.
1) I had bought a couple bottles of Madhava Agave nectar. My sister noticed that her bottle, which was unopened had some black floaties, and mine, which had been opened, had it too. I emailed the company to see if maybe that was normal. They emailed me back within a half hour with an explanation of what had happened to that batch and FedEx’ed me 2 new bottles.
2) Feld Inc. (the company that does Ringling Brothers circus). We had gone to the circus and bought a light up wand for our daughter. A few days later, it was broken. I remembered the lady that sold it telling us about a 2 year warranty. I didn’t know what that warranty covered, but figured it didn’t hurt to send an email. They sent us out a brand new wand wihtin a few days!