A Year's Hiatus From METRO And This Is What I Return To...

Something tells me that even with a devastating earthquake, the Japanese trains are keeping better time than WMATA these days. And then there's the renowned WMATA escalators. Always a source of amusement, they have become rather dangerous as of late. Witness my latest in a series of rants to METRO HQ:

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Dear WMATA:

More than likely, you have all missed my letters as of late. After a year hiatus, I'm back to riding your subways again. While I'm not thrilled with the higher prices and diminishing service, can you please do me one little favor?

CAN YOU PLEASE FIX THE LOWER LEVEL, EAST SIDE ESCALATOR AT ROSSLYN? Twice in one week I have been walking down this apparatus and one of the risers collapsed inward on me, much like the recent accident at Foggy Bottom.

Want to save some money? How about avoiding law suits resulting from someone falling through the escalator and keep up with the maintenance, huh?

Your friend,

Captain Diplomacy

Buy.com "Customer Service"

Apropos of the Mad Martian's first post (how'd your first time feel?) ;)

I recently ordered some server equipment from buy.com.  (A server rack, a caster/wheel set for it, cage nuts, and mounting screws.)  Four items total.  The first item weighs around 110 pounds, so must be shipped via ground.  Okay, no problem.  That particular item was also backordered on Amazon for "three to four weeks" so I took a shot and ordered it on Buy because it was (allegedly) both available and $75 cheaper than Amazon, even with Amazon having free shipping and Buy charging $21 for shipping.

BIG MISTAKE.

All four items supposedly shipped on 2/24.  Red flag number one:  Only the 1 lb "cage nuts" received a tracking number.  They said "large, bulky items may not receive a tracking number."  Oooookay.  I received one email for the cage nuts saying they'd shipped, and one email for the other three components (about 2 hours apart) saying they'd shipped.  I thought - GREAT, I should be able to put it all together this weekend.

Here we sit on March 5th.  I've received... the cage nuts.  Three days ago.  Which, incidentally, does me a whole lot of good without the other three items!  I contacted Buy's "Customer Service" on 3/3 at 8AM, using the "Where is my shipment?" option.  They claim it will take 24 hours to respond and investigate normally, but up to 48 in the cases of missing shipments.  And that only includes business days, of course.  I love when you contact a company and the answer to every question is "we will have to investigate."  Let's see... it says it shipped.  What carrier did you use to ship it?  When is the estimated delivery date?  Why isn't there a tracking number?  The fact of the matter is I've ordered things from all over this fine country of ours, and even if it was shipping from the northwest corner of Washington state, it should be here by now if it shipped on the 24th.  Our country is great, and large, but it's not Siberia we're talking about here.  

So, Buy... you're on notice.  The clock is ticking for you to make this right and make me happy.  And you better believe I'll be on the phone with you at 9AM on Monday if I don't have a response by then, with my wrath at the ready if necessary.  I've always erred on the side of being nice with the customer service reps, but as I learned in many an epic battle with Comcast - sometimes, you have to use the hammer!

On the bright side, since they shipped separately, I have a nice neat line item on my credit card for the other three items to dispute with my credit card company if they don't make this right.  And at this rate, I should have just ordered it from Amazon.  Even waiting two weeks it probably would have been here "Buy" now!

The Hunt for good customer service...

Let’s say you make an appointment with your local dealership to have an issue fixed on your car and they say due to the type of issue you don’t need to schedule an appointment just bring it in immediately to have it fixed. The issue was a tire leak. It simply wasn’t holding air for more than 12 hours at a time.

Okay – so I get to the dealer and they take the car in right away, but they don’t talk to me for another 20 minutes about the car. I see this as normal behavior, but as I mentioned to the lot boy who processed in my car that I have a hard stop time two hours from this point. The service manager who spoke to me said he would do his best to meet this requirement. I reiterated to him that this wasn’t a negotiable item as I had to pick up my daughter from daycare before they closed. At this point he stated that he understood the situation and would insure that it got done on time.

An hour passed and word came from the service area that my wheel was cracked and needed replacement. This was within 30 minutes of the hard stop time and the technician working on this said it would take only another 10-15 minutes to get it done and out the door. The service manager concurred with the time assessment. I gave them the green light to replace the wheel and expected my car in said time.

Okay, now 30 minutes has passed. I’m at my hard limit and I’m walking to the service manager to determine where my car is and why it is taking longer than stated. He had no clear explanation for me, but said he would check on it. He didn’t leave his seat for 20 minutes and didn’t make any calls in this time frame either. So now, I’m livid. I start to look for a “higher up” manager, I didn’t care who I just wanted someone who could light a fire to get me out the door. By the time I locate the appropriate manager, ~ 10 minutes I see my service manager trying to get my attention. He says that my car is done and that he was going to walk me over to the cashier to expedite the process. Bear in mind that I’m now over my hard stop time by 45 minutes and my patience is completed gone and now I’m just memorizing all of the events so I can explain the situation to the appropriate people at a later time. I’m worried that I won’t get to my girl in time and now I’m going to incur additional expenses because I’m late getting my girl.

Everyone and I do mean everyone at the dealership oversold their capabilities! This type of behavior is utterly unacceptable and should be reprimanded with a thousand lashes. Nothing is more important to me than someone’s word. If you state that you can deliver on a promise you damn well better make good on your word. Otherwise, you are simply a liar and someone who can’t be trusted further.

Bottom line – customer service is at an all-time low and I’m experiencing this at an alarming rate. Note to all those in the service industry – GET YOUR FUCKING SHIT IN LINE! I’m tired of the excuses.