Service, oh Customer Service

Did anyone ever tell you that I happen to like Kwon Sang Woo? It's my MSN nick. This am at breakfast, I told D about KSW's recent spate of bad luck. He seemed to be paying attention and then said, 'Do you think I care?'. This after I keep reminding him that this man is his rival for my affections. MAN!

Enough trivial stuff. Thought I'd like to introduce a fun Korean versus the tirade I am going to be launching into over the SAMSUNG TV. In my post on Sat, I mentioned that my LCD had died. So it was a tv-less weekend, which is ok. The Customer Service folks at Samsung said that the techies would get here between 10am - 2pm. Already a wide window but it shouldn't get worse than that. Or so I thought. At 1:30pm, they still hadn't shown up. So I called the hotline, told to wait for an eternity before I was told, ah, we'll call you back. 30 mins later, someone calls me back and says the techies'll make it to my house between 4pm to 7pm today! I mean, couldn't someone in the least have called me earlier when they realised that they couldn'[t make the time stipulated?

Don't get me wrong, I sure don't want to get no customer service staff or the technician in trouble; they are all earning a living and like the rest of us, need a job for whatever reasons. In this case, I'd like to blame the system - somewhere in the big scheme of things, something got messed up. Heard of Spandau Ballet's song 'Communication', there's a line in there that says, 'communication let me down'. This is one good case. Just a phonecall man, don't care who does the calling but at least let the customer know, don't keep us waiting and if you must, don't let us be the ones to call you.

Now case in good service, 2 examples from yesterday.

1) Giordano Ladies, Paragon
No clothing label (other than Pure Earth) has made more money off me in the past 2 years as Gio Ladies since it opened in Dec 04. Hey, I'm Privilege Card holder No.12 for crying out loud. I know most of the older staff (those who have been there since they opened) at both outlets. Last week I sent in a pair of jeans I'd gotten some months back for length alteration. Alteration is complimentary, even after a few months. Mel, the Assistant Store Manager called me Sat to say they had to give me a new pair of jeans as the seamstress had made a mistake in the alterations. Last nite, she called and apologised profusely and told me that they could not get the same pair of jeans as I had. Instead, she had kept aside a new pair for me from this season's collection and if I didn't like it, they'd let me choose a pair of dress pants instead. She told me the seamstress felt so bad about the mistake that she'd wanted to pay for the new pair. I hope she doesnt have to. That is service and why I keep going back to Gio Ladies , even if prices are slightly higher than most places.

2) Island and Archipelago, Holland Village Shopping Centre
I used to buy select items from I & A when they had 2 units within the mall, one selling pashminas and bgas and the other, home decor items. They have just one unit left (the other unit, like many places at the Hive and elsewhere, has become a mani and pedi joint) and besides selling a selection of accessories, now carried clothing from Korea (mostly), Taiwan and HK. I bought a pretty embroidered spaghetti strapped bloused some months back and washed it on Sat. I did remember being told that I didn't need to handwash it. The red bled on the white portion so I took it back to the shop yesterday. Boy was I relieved to find out that another customer, who had bought the only other piece, faced the same problems. No questions asked, I have been offered a refund, once we figure out how much I paid for the blouse. Love the service from Angela and Seri! Keep it up gals! Oh yes, they have also a new outlet, ISLA on level 3 (I think) of Bukit Timah Plaza (level above Popular)

Customer service has been big on my list, not just coz I was involved in it when I was at the job before this, but started when I went to get my wireless router last Saturday. But that's another service story.


Post Note: It's 3:50pm. The Samsung techies came at 3:25pm and fixed the TV. Took them only 10 minutes to fix the problem. Couldn't it have been done this AM? Thanks gentlemen, you were nice, And don;t worry, neither Sonic nor I bit them!