Tag: customer service

Mood Matches the Weather

by eileentroemel, posted in Life

Exhaustion doesn’t cover how I felt after the move for my daughter.  It was a lot of driving, stress, and drama.  However, she’s in her apartment and working on getting settled.

Unfortunately for me, the drama doesn’t stop.  We paid Home Depot for them to install new doors.  Ten days ago we went in but hadn’t heard from them when they told us in a few days we’d get a call.  I called them on Monday night and finally yesterday I got a call to schedule an appointment yesterday.  The woman on the phone acted as though she was doing me a favor.  Apparently the money I spent at Home Depot was enough to get polite customer service.

My brand new scooter has been giving me grief.  I turn it on and the light flashes.  I’ve already been in touch once with the people and they sent me a new battery and charger.  However, it is still doing the same thing.  The scooter is supposed to be able to freewheel – as in you can push it along as needed – and it doesn’t.  I put in a complaint and got a call at 7:30 last night.  It was the same guy who I talked to earlier.  He was condescending again.  His response was basically I’m doing things wrong.  His tone and demeanor on the phone were unpleasant – like I was wasting his time.  I wasn’t able to get to my scooter when he called so I’ll be calling him again today.

It’s only Wednesday – hopefully nothing else goes wrong.  I’m thinking of building a comfy fort at home and giving up being an adult for a while.  I keep telling myself the weekend is coming and for a change – I don’t have anything planned for the weekend.  My biggest plan is to work on publishing stuff and some crochet projects.  Aside from those things, I plan to sleep a lot and do as little as possible.  That’s the plan and for now, I’m going with the illusion that all my plans work out.

Asking for Money?

by eileentroemel, posted in Life
If you are calling me to ask for money, you should at the very least have all your information together.  I got a call from a university to make a donation.  I told the person three times I had no funds for donating.  She said they weren’t asking for a donation but a gift.  If it is a gift, I’ll be happy to crochet a few things for you to do what you want with.  Those are the types of gifts I give. 
In addition to not having her information correct, she was very unprofessional.  She said um more than she said anything else.  She asked me three or four times if I was still there.  Yet the conversation was such that she didn’t require a response from me. 
It is early in the semester and I’m trying to be patient with this person, hoping it is her first night of work.  (It was as I called to chat with the people in charge.) At the same time, I’m feeling like she is taking no interest in what I’m saying to her. 
Tips for those who call me to ask for money.  Take an interest, don’t say um more than anything else, and when I say no be aware that I mean it.  

Yarn and Customer Service

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting

I’ve waxed poetic about yarn and how much I enjoy working with it.  I recently bought a skein of yarn to make an order fit a minimum to get free shipping.  I looked at it online and said well that looks interesting and it isn’t too expensive. 

When my order came in and I got the yarn in my hot little hands I was pleased with the texture and the feel of the yarn.  One small skein I used to experiment.  I have been playing with making lace by the inch.  I picked out one of the patterns from the book I got on Amazon and started making it.  It was a thicker yarn so the pattern was going to work up into a scarf. 

Loved the pattern, worked up quickly and easily, I could mindlessly work on it while watching tv.  Unfortunately, I got several rows in and discovered a break in the yarn.  Here was another end – generally for a skein you have two and this one had more than that.  I ended up cutting off a large length of yarn as it was frayed and joining. 

One skein scarves – particularly lacy designs – don’t always work up nicely to have joined material in them.  Too often you can see where the yarn was joined and it is a blemish in the scarf.  Fortunately I was able to hide the join fairly well.  

In talking to my daughter, I told her to remind me not to buy the yarn again.  She told me to complain to the company.  I did but thought nothing will come of it.  After all we are talking about yarn which can and often does break and has flaws.  

I was surprised when I contacted the company and got a very prompt response.  They had questions which I shot off answers to as soon as I saw the email.  Within an hour or two of contacting Lion Brand company (http://www.lionbrand.com/) they put in an order for a new skein.  

This good customer service is surprising – not because I’ve had bad experiences with the company but just because I feel good customer service is declining in general.  The promptness of their response and their willingness to address the issue has made me willing to go back and try more of their yarn.  

Good job Lion Brand Company and thank you for all you do.