I was watching an episode of COPS the other night and the police officer was explaining his philosophy when pulling a suspicious vehicle over. He said “I always give the suspect the opportunity to tell the truth”
Well, for me, tomorrow will be the day of truth with a company I am doing business with.
April 4th, I ordered an LCD Projector bulb. If you’ve ever had the fortune of having to do this, you’ll know that these suckers aren’t cheap! In fact, at $400.00 this little guy costs more than what pay for my monthly auto payment.. I suffered through the process of searching for the “best deal” when making my purchase. Locally the price would have been over $500.
I ended up at The Projector Lamp Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Their website offered free shipping – 7 Day Ground on any bulb over $200.00 and based on what I saw, that’s pretty much every bulb they sell. April 4th was a Friday. I looked at the calendar and counted 7 business days beginning on Monday April 7th and ended on Wednesday April 15th. I need the bulb in my hot little hands by tomorrow, April 25th. Even if it didn’t show for another couple days past the 15th, I still had time!
So when Tuesday the 22nd rolled around and I still had NO BULB… I called. I began to feel this knot in my stomach as the phone rang and immediately went into a loop hold message spaced by about 5 seconds of elevator music.
The message went like this… “music…..” – “We appreciate your patience and assure you that assistance is only a moment away” – “music…..” – “Please let us know how we may serve you. Our staff is working hard to take your call next.” - ”music…..” REPEAT
Subliminal messages may work on some people, but in your face (ear) messages like this one that repeats over and OVER AND OVER again… well, it’s just annoying.
After about 5 minutes a young gentleman answers the phone. He is chewing something… I thought anyway…. as he talks to me. I guess that’s my fault for calling during his lunch hour.. frankly he could have let the message rotate one more time and swallowed…
I remembered the episode of COPS.. Give them a chance to tell the truth, I told myself.
I gave the young lad my name and order number and asked him to check on the status of my order. “Please Hold”.. NOOOOOOOOOOOO Not the Hold Music/Message again!!!!!!! About 3 minutes later another young man picks up my call and answers just like I was calling in for the first time… “Oh Great” I thought… I have to start over… Calm place… calm place… I gave my name and order number again and asked for an update on my order. I can hear my new friend yell across a room “I got the call you lost”…… Thank goodness..
“Please hold, I’ll check on your order”…. SLOW MY BREATHING…. THINK HAPPY THOUGHTS….. A few minutes later my friend comes back on the line.. “That bulb is on back order. We expect a shipment in sometime next week.” No “I’m sorry”… No “We should have let you know your order was on back order”… No acknowledgement that they dropped the ball.
My first question at this point was “What can we do to get a bulb delivered to me by Friday”. The answer began to appear from the rambling by the young man. We can see if one can be shipped direct from the warehouse… we would need to charge the additional shipping to your credit card. I’m still very calm on the outside as I tell him that this is not acceptable. I ordered the bulb within plenty of time for arrival and wasn’t told that it was on back order. It’s time to speak to a supervisor. I can only imagine that this kid really wished that he hadn’t picked up the phone from his co-worker. “PLEASE HOLD”… UGH…. Music… …we appreciate your patience…”.. NO YOU DON’T I said into the phone! Now I’m talking to the hold music…
Suddenly (I’m using that word with sarcasm now) the phone comes alive again.. “This is Chris, I’m a supervisor, how can I help you?” – my name… my order number… been on hold… bulb backordered.. nobody alerted me… NEED MY BULB FRIDAY… “PLEASE HOLD”… ARRGGHHHHHH!!!!! 4 minutes and 18 rounds of the hold music/message later Chris returns to the phone. “I called the warehouse and I can have one shipped direct for delivery by Friday.” Then the magic words… “..at no extra charge to you”.
I thanked Chris for his help and solution to my dilemma. He told me that I would receive an email with the tracking number later that day.
I did.
It’s now Thursday night.
Tomorrow is the day. I gave them the opportunity to tell me the truth. Let’s see how this ends Friday.
*********UPDATE***************
I just received an email update from UPS Tracking my package.
I think that I can send Chris a message from Projector Lamp Center in Atlanta Georgia and thank him.
They came through as they promised. By tomorrow I will see a UPS truck pull up to my office and I should have my replacement bulb in hand by tomorrow. JUST in time!
I’m thinking that the police officer in the episode of COPS would be proud of Chris. By tomorrow morning, I’m sure that I will be.
