Good customer service

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biker
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Post by biker »

Last night due to my negligence in not locking the car my cell phone was stolen from the glove compartment. I rarely use the cell and it is there primarily for emergencies and the odd call when travelling by car to book a room etc.

The phone was new since my provider Rogers gave it to me free when they recently discontinued service on my 10 year old relic.

I phoned to have the service blocked. When this was done I asked the agent who did the blocking what happens now . He indicated that Rogers would sell me a similar phone for $100 . I indicated that I wanted to cancel my account and I would shop around. He immedialtey transferred me to a customer service rep who after listening to my tale offered to ship a free replacement phone and cut my monthly plan costs by 50%.

Not sure if this is an example of good customer service when I had to threaten to get a free phone but the new price per month was unsolicited so I guess that part was good service.
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Post by steves »

I believe this is the standard ploy you should use whenever you think your cell phone is out of date or lacks certain features. Phone your provider and say your dog ate your phone, and you are so PO-ed with things that you are thinking of just cancelling your contract.

One free new phone coming up!
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Post by svt »

I tried that ploy with Bell Mobility, they didn't seem too concerned to lose me, I wasn't too concerned to leave. I might just try pay-as-you-go with PC.

We have home/auto insurance through TD MelocheMonnex in AB. We were in an accident a couple of years ago and were recently served papers for a lawsuit from the accident. MM has been nothing but friendly and helpful in discussing issues with myself and my wife. They always seem to be interested in keeping us appraised of issues. I can feel my loyalty meter rising throughout this experience. This is an interesting juxtaposition with out Bell Mobility experience.
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Post by worthy »

Home Hardware? You got to be kidding. I bought a steel lintel for $54 this spring. It didn't fit. The customer lost the original receipt but I showed HH my Visa bill. They insisted they never stocked that lintel and it wasn't theirs. "Tough luck, Bud." They're strictly a desperation resource.

By contrast, I ordered plumbing fixtures for a home from RONA. Two toilets were back ordered and unavailable till after the customers were to move in. Unprompted, RONA provided "loaner" toilets at no cost.

HD? They're too busy funding hundreds of millions of dollars to incompetent execs to bother with the nobodies shopping there. At least, that's been my experience.
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Post by brucecohen »

worthy wrote:Home Hardware? You got to be kidding. I bought a steel lintel for $54 this spring. It didn't fit. The customer lost the original receipt but I showed HH my Visa bill. They insisted they never stocked that lintel and it wasn't theirs. "Tough luck, Bud." They're strictly a desperation resource.

By contrast, I ordered plumbing fixtures for a home from RONA. Two toilets were back ordered and unavailable till after the customers were to move in. Unprompted, RONA provided "loaner" toilets at no cost.

HD? They're too busy funding hundreds of millions of dollars to incompetent execs to bother with the nobodies shopping there. At least, that's been my experience.
Home Hardwares vary widely in quality because it's more of a buying consortium franchise than a centrally controlled franchise. For example, the HH in Sunderland is fantastic while the one in Uxbridge is marginal at best.

I've heard good things about Rona but have had nothing but negative experiences because the two Rona stores in my region were previously Cashway. Both are poorly stocked and staffed by employees who generally don't give a damn. Most annoying is the lack of shelf signs indicating the price of an item. Even when there are signs, they are rarely near the products to which they apply. Rona is not a franchise, so I hope that over the coming years head office will crack down as the company absorbs all the stores it acquired in its shopping spree over the past two years.
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Post by AltaRed »

brucecohen wrote:I've heard good things about Rona but have had nothing but negative experiences because the two Rona stores in my region were previously Cashway.
Don't know what my local Rona was in its previous life, but similarly, I have not had good experiences there either. Indifferent staff, and a poorly maintained and organized store. I've learned to drive further to a Totem... or even further to a new Home Depot.

One of the best (if not the best) stores for customer service for me is the local Staples store. I have been always been asked if I need help by cheerful and helpful staff. They really are on top of it.... in Calgary even! They are price competitive and have been getting all of my business (including computing and office furniture).
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Post by Peculiar_Investor »

A shout out to Lexar. I've got a Multi-Card Reader that recently decided that it should only run at USB 1.1 speed, not USB 2.0. Tried changing the cable, and tried it on another computer, same result.

Had an on-line chat today with Lexar support. They determined the device was likely defective. Although I thought that it was a gift from Christmas 2006 I did not have proof of purchase.

To their credit, they have decided to honour the 2 year warranty and will replace the device under warranty. :D
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Post by Jo Anne »

Good customer service in Prince Edward County:

Yesterday KOS (Kingston Online) had a system-wide outage. Not an issue, except that I happened to be online when it happened, and I got into one of my "what happens if you do X" moods. I clicked on my network connection icon, fiddled around a bit, and proceeded to accidentally turn off my connection. Oh Shit.

So I called KOS tech support this morning, knowing full well that my problem had nothing to do with them. But guess what? They fixed it! The guy sounded a tad pissed, to be sure, and he reminded me at least three times that it wasn't KOS's problem, but he told me how to fix it.

Any time I can get my computer issue fixed in less than 2 minutes I'm a happy camper.
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Post by biker »

Just back from a week of "opening the cottage".One problem=== due to tremendous winds on sunday night was a large tree had fallen on the Hydro Line behind us but had not brought down the line as yet. Called Hydro office which is around 50 to 60 km away and reported the problem and mentioned that we are "water access" only. Call was made at 8.30 am yesterday and the Hydro boat arrived at my dock at 11.30 am and and the tree cut down in 10 minutes.Great service !
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Post by Serdic »

Jo Anne wrote:KOS (Kingston Online)
I used to have them when I was living at home, back in the days of dialup. This was around the time I discovered online gaming, and lord did I chew through the hours.

A lot of hours.

Back when they billed for the extra hours.

Anyways, being faced with a 400 dollar internet bill (was usually only 120 for three months), I went in to pay (no sob story/bitching/moaning). Without me me even asking, they upgraded my account retroactively and turned my $400 bill into a $240 dollar.

They're still my home page because they're one of the best indications I have of my internet being up.
End Transmission.
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Post by millergd »

I started the bad customer service thread based on my wretched experience with CIBC, so I thought I ought to at least give a token of appreciation to the local branch manager of the TD Canada Trust on Pretoria Avenue. She was courteous enough to call this afternoon and confirm that my TD Waterhouse discount brokerage forms were processed and good to go.

I feel, for the first time in ages, that I haven't been forgotten about in an offshore caller's queue. That was a refreshing change.

~millergd~
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Post by zinfit »

Passport Canada. Was I ever surprised when we went to their office to get new passports. Seemed like it was a Toyota production system. The face to face contact was 1st class. I am generally a critic when it comes to the public sector. In this case somebody has done a great job in getting this agency to become top notch.
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Post by Jaunty »

Somebody must have been working on the Federal agencies as Rev. Canada over the last 2 years and CPP have been first rate over the several calls I've made to finish up my dad's estate. And even with my significantly reduced hearing, the English spoken is much clearer than 10 years ago. Only once was it heavily accented (and by one of Canada's official languages), so we did our business (mostly) in French.
I felt I should send congrats to my MP, but he's busy taking credit for everything under the sun for the Tories (which is OK if they did it) and blaming any and every problem on the Liberals. This improvement is some mandarins doings over the course of a number of years.
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Post by brucecohen »

The last two posts about Passport Canada, CPP and Canada Revenue reminded me that I should give a tip of the hat to Environment Canada. To help determine whether heating with wood this winter was worth the effort, I wanted to determine how much colder this winter was/wasn't than last winter. I found data on their website but wasn't certain about how to use it. I sent an enquiry at night through the website and figured I'd be lucky to get a form response in 3 months. The next morning I got an e-mail from a weather forecaster who provided a link to the right daily/monthly data -- I had the wrong page -- and explained how to do the calculation I wanted.
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Post by WishingWealth »

/Impersonating Ron Paul:

Now now, if they have become efficient and user-friendly this only proves that the governments have become way too big.
Pray tell us how we should beat up on 'em if they're good.

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Post by uhoh »

brucecohen wrote:The last two posts about Passport Canada, CPP and Canada Revenue reminded me that I should give a tip of the hat to Environment Canada. To help determine whether heating with wood this winter was worth the effort, I wanted to determine how much colder this winter was/wasn't than last winter. I found data on their website but wasn't certain about how to use it. I sent an enquiry at night through the website and figured I'd be lucky to get a form response in 3 months. The next morning I got an e-mail from a weather forecaster who provided a link to the right daily/monthly data -- I had the wrong page -- and explained how to do the calculation I wanted.
...and was it worth the effort? I'm thinking of putting a woodstove in as backup...(i guess i should have posted this is the hot air section)
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Post by brucecohen »

uhoh wrote:
brucecohen wrote:The last two posts about Passport Canada, CPP and Canada Revenue reminded me that I should give a tip of the hat to Environment Canada. To help determine whether heating with wood this winter was worth the effort, I wanted to determine how much colder this winter was/wasn't than last winter. I found data on their website but wasn't certain about how to use it. I sent an enquiry at night through the website and figured I'd be lucky to get a form response in 3 months. The next morning I got an e-mail from a weather forecaster who provided a link to the right daily/monthly data -- I had the wrong page -- and explained how to do the calculation I wanted.
...and was it worth the effort? I'm thinking of putting a woodstove in as backup...(i guess i should have posted this is the hot air section)
Not really, but the jury is still out. This winter was 3.2% colder than last winter. Last winter we heated entirely with oil. This winter we used both oil and wood. I increased last year's fuel consumption by 3.2% and applied this year's much lower average price. I then compared that to the combined cost of oil and wood this year. The combo actually cost $121 more than the adjusted oil-only cost but:
-- I paid too much for firewood; and
-- This year's oil price was probably abnormally low since the oil price collapsed in Q4 of 2008.

Also, we used wood in the evening and it produced much nicer, more cozy heat that we really enjoyed while watching TV.
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Post by Peculiar_Investor »

brucecohen wrote:Also, we used wood in the evening and it produced much nicer, more cozy heat that we really enjoyed while watching TV.
In the words of the MasterCard ad, PRICELESS!
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Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Just got back from filling up my car at Safeway. Fuel light was on all day. Car takes premium gas. Thanks to Safeway's Club Card Savings Program here is the damage.

Gas Premium Unleaded: 57.107L @ 0.009

Total Bill: $0.51. Paid with 2 quarters and a penny. :D
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Post by Arby »

Dell's customer service for their new orders is superb. After ordering a Dell monitor on Tuesday, I've received 3 automated emails from Dell providing the status of the order. Today I received an automated phone message with the courier company tracking number and delivery date. Time from the order entry to delivery (from the USA) is 1 week.
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Post by Arby »

Arby wrote:Dell's customer service for their new orders is superb. After ordering a Dell monitor on Tuesday, I've received 3 automated emails from Dell providing the status of the order. Today I received an automated phone message with the courier company tracking number and delivery date. Time from the order entry to delivery (from the USA) is 1 week.
I take it all back about Dell - their order serving is screwed up. The automated voice message said the item would be delivered between 9AM-5PM today. This morning I called Purolator to getan approximate delivery time, and Purolater said the item had not left the USA yet, and would be delivered in 2 days. I asked why the automated message told me it would be delivered today, and Purolator said the message came from Dell and was incorrect. I then called Dell, and expressed my displeasure to the Dell rep, as I had reorganized my day to be available for the delivery. Dell apologized profusely and confirmed that the item would be delivered in 2 days. I was surprised a few minutes later, when Purolator arrived at my door with the package. The Purolator guy said the monitor was shipped from Toronto, not the USA. (Now I'm hoping Dell really screwed up, and they are shipping me a second montitor from the USA. :twisted: )
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Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Tip of the hat to Hyundai Canada. Barb Pitblado, public relations manager for Hyundai Canada, says when her company saw the footage, it decided to "execute a random act of kindness and give a happy ending to a very unlucky story.", Victim in viral bad parking video gets new car free from Hyundai
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Post by Nemo2 »

Peculiar_Investor wrote:Tip of the hat to Hyundai Canada. Barb Pitblado, public relations manager for Hyundai Canada, says when her company saw the footage, it decided to "execute a random act of kindness and give a happy ending to a very unlucky story.", Victim in viral bad parking video gets new car free from Hyundai
Great & effective advertising for less than 1/10th of what it would otherwise cost. (less than 1/100th?)
Exit, pursued by a bear.
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Post by Shakespeare »

Is it ?
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
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Shakespeare wrote:Is it ?
Yup.
Exit, pursued by a bear.
William Shakespeare, Stage direction in "The Winter's Tale"
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