This is not a political blog. We take no sides in the current election, although in our self-appointed role of consumer advocates we are watching both candidates for ideas and initiatives that will benefit consumers.
Barack Obama’s acceptance speech Thursday night contained references to a theme that is important to consumers, Read More »
Customers are usually very forgiving. Make a mistake and they will probably forgive and forget - or at least forgive and give a business a second chance. But this forgiveness is much more likely when the business convincingly utters the magic words - “I’m sorry.” As in “I’m sorry we didn’t meet your expectations.” Or “I’m sorry our technician didn’t show up after you waited all afternoon. He should have called you. It will never happen again.” Most customers will accept a sincere apology and move on.
So why is it so rare to hear an apology from a business that has in some way dropped the ball? Read More »
Some posts highlight great businesses or acts of outstanding service by employees of companies I or my readers have dealt with. Some, like this one, will accurately describe what in my opinion is completely unacceptable service by a Realtor I recently had to deal with. Read More »
A ConsumerConnection.com member (OK, it was my wife but she is a member) told me of a situation that occurred to her today that illustrates the type of service we should receive from companies. We bought a house last year that came with a Miele dishwasher. Unfortunately, the dishwasher recently stopped draining correctly and essentially would not operate. My wife Anne is the mechanically inclined person in our family. She contacted Miele’s customer service department by phone using their 800 number. After she described the problem they immediately emailed us a copy of the owner’s manual. Read More »
People have become numb to terrible service from businesses today. And why wouldn’t we be numb? The airline ticket agent tells us our flight will be delayed several hours without the least concern for the disruption it causes, and an apology is out of the question. Household subcontractors give us a 4 hour window when the will arrive -and then often fail to show. The surly waiter, the physician that expects us to wait over an hour to see him and then spends a few precious moments with us without fully explaining the illness and the treatment options, the unresponsive clerk at the store - we are so used to these examples of inexcusable service that we just accept it and move on to the next version. Numb? We’re catatonic. Read More »
