What ever happened to caring about your customers? Why is it that once a company starts to grow and become successful, their customer service falls apart? Really big companies give the absolute worst customer service, and will often tell you in not so few words: “We are too big to care about one customer.”
Case in point: my recent order and dealings with Penn State industries. I’ll start off by saying that until now, they were my absolute favorite mail order company, hands down favorite, no questions asked.
But now, that has all changed. I placed an order this past Monday (Sept. 26 and it was actually 2am Sunday night), and since I could wait a few days before I really needed it, but didn’t want to wait for their “standard shipping”, I went priority, which I figured would be four days, five at most. I live in Maine, which isn’t far from Pennsylvania, and I’ve had things shipped from them in 3 days via priority in the past. So I felt 4-5 days was giving myself plenty of time to get the order shipped. Or so I thought.
And then I found out just how wrong I was.
To start off, I noticed on Wednesday my card had yet to be charged. Strange, but I wasn’t too worried yet. Figured it may just be taking a bit to update.The next day, I check my order status and find it still has yet to ship. Ok, now I’m starting to panic a bit, as I need this stuff by Saturday at latest.
I call customer service, and they tell me my order shipped a bit earlier that day (Thursday) and the woman tells me since it was priority, I should have it tomorrow, Saturday at the latest. Ok, that’s a load of my mind!
So today, Saturday, I check my order status to be sure it’s on it’s way to be delivered to me. And this is when I about had a heart attack: “EXPECTED DELIVERY DATE: Monday, October 3, 2011!” Houston, we have a problem!!!
The issue now, is I am scheduled to attend a fair from Sunday, Oct. 2 through the following Sunday, and I am to be selling my stuff there and had items coming from Penn State that I was planning to bring!
So, I call Penn State, and this is where my whole attitude towards them changed, and let me tell you, this was a real eye-opener!
I get a woman at customer service and I explain the situation to her, and then I ask why my order took so long to ship when it states on their site that ground shipping takes 1-4 days to ship and all expedited services ship same or next day. And this is when her attitude starts in. She rudely states that “Priority is the same as ground and is no more money and is no faster”. That’s funny, I paid more for priority shipping? I explain that isn’t how it’s stated on the site, and she replies “Well if you needed it so soon, why didn’t you order it second or next day? It states plainly that ground shipping takes 5-7 business days.” I try to explain that I didn’t choose the “ground shipping” option, that I chose “priority”, which is faster from every place I have ever ordered from and also more money. I also asked why, if I ordered so early on Monday, that my order wasn’t shipped until Thursday? She snaps back “We get 2,000 orders a day, this is the busy season and things take longer to ship. Again, if you needed it so soon, why did you not chose next day or second day shipping?”
So now, as I’m getting aggravated that this woman is giving me such an attitude when I have, what I feel, is a legitimate issue that I’m trying to resolve, I reply “Because I don’t think it should be necessary for me to spend $20 to ship 2lbs worth of stuff and have you actually care about when I receive it. You should give my order just as much attention as any other order that comes through, and if you can ship a second day order same day, why should it take FOUR days to ship my priority package? In my experience, PRIORITY means IMPORTANT and to be dealt with in an efficient fashion, not ‘give it the same treatment as standard shipping’. What ever happened to caring about the customer and every customer and every order being an important order?”
And her reply, my friends, says it ALL about Penn State and how they feel about those who spend their hard earned money with them and actually support their business: “When we have 2,000 orders a day to fill, we’re not concerned with when you thought you would receive you order, it gets shipped when it gets shipped. If you don’t like it, than don’t order from us.”
That had me completely floored! So I reply “Well OK then, I just want to let you know that I won’t be returning to do business with you again.”
And again, how much your business means to Penn State really shines through: “That’s fine with me sir. That’s your prerogative. If you don’t want to order from us, than you don’t have to. We have 2,000 orders a day to keep us going, one order won’t be missed.”
Well OK then! I’m glad my support of your company is so appreciated!
VisionsCustomCreations.com will be sure to let everyone it can know that “our one order won’t be missed”.
Kenny
VisionsCustomCreations.com
As a final note:
I am FURIOUS with Penn State Industries and determined to let as many others know about how much they care about their customers.
Spread the word and don’t give your hard earned money to ANYONE who doesn’t appreciate your business!
We have the choice to make a company fail or succeed! If you want a company to care about you and the service they provide, don’t do business with those who blatantly state they DO NOT CARE! It will come back to bite you when you really do need their help on an order that has come in incorrectly or isn’t shipped in a timely manner, as they won’t be there for you!
How would YOU feel if this is the way YOU were treated? I am curious to hear from others and their feelings about this. I know I’ve never been made to feel so used by a company before. I’ve always supported them with my money, and now when my income depends on them shipping my items in a reasonably efficient manner, they openly state they do not care about me or my order.
And trust me, I understand they are busy, but I would understand a LOT more if they posted on their site that they are so busy and that shipping is running very slow, that way I would have known about this before it was too late.