Customer Service FAIL

WOW!  I’m almost speechless.  Simply WOW!  I should be getting to bed but  I just had a horrendous experience with a company online, and it is such a case study in customer service FAIL!!

Earlier today I ordered some mini-garbage pails that I plan to use in a marketing campaign for a business I have.  I’d been searching a number of sites for the best price, and came across a company that had both the best price and did not have a minimum order like all of the others.

So I ordered 20 pails, went through their check out process to see that shipping was going to be almost one hundred buck!  yikes!  But I figured to myself, well, this is why their price is the cheapest…they get you on the shipping, and since I didn’t want 100 (the minimum on another site) this was still the least expensive way to go.

A little while late I thought, well, if shipping is that much anyway, maybe I can add some to the order and save myself from that crazy shipping price a month from now when I’ll likely reorder.

So back to their site I discover that shipping this time is coming up as $15.62…a far cry from the $99 previously quoted.  So I sent a note to the company asking about the shipping cost.  I wasn’t expecting a refund since I had placed the order knowing full well what I was ordering, but some sort of explanation would be nice.  Here is my initial email:

I placed an order today (#506681314803429) and just realized that the Ground Shipped amount charged was $99.  That seems rather high.

I  had gone back to your site to see about possibly ordering additional
items and the shipping cost the second time was appearing as $15.32 for the same items.

Can you please explain the high shipping amount.

Thank you,
Melissa

Here is their response:

You chose a third party processor, Google.  You were on their website using their application.

When you were on our website you were given the opportunity to check the shipping cost simply by typing in your zip code and apparently you opted out of that.

So to answer your question, YOU are solely responsible for all charges
because YOU made all the choices and yes the shipping charge was excessive, obviously excessive, but YOU paid it.  YOU paid a shipped charge calculated by a third party that you picked and went to THEIR website and paid 5 times more than you would have been charged had you chosen PayPal or our own payment processing.  So you should be asking yourself how did you let that happen?

The point of all of this is that you are asking us about something that was
done by another company as if you don’t have a clue to the fact that you
were on another company’s website.

If we hadn’t already processed your order and shipped it we would just
cancel it and let you go on your way.  We certainly don’t want a client like
you.  But since we have already processed and shipped your order we will now have to spend many more man hours than your order is worth fixing the problems that YOU cause yourself.

We will fix this but we will never accept any future orders from you.

Customer Service

I have never received such a rude response before.  How do these people stay in business treating a customer like this.  Being the outspoken person I am, I replied:

Wow.  What a completely rude response.  I asked a simple question in a respectful manner but received back a disrespectful response.  I did not blame your company for the charge, but rather inquired as to the shipping charge discrepancy.  A simple explanation was all that was needed.

I do not have a paypal account, and given the option between having complete a customer profile or use the google option your site provides where my data is already stored, I chose the faster method.  There is no indication on your site that shipping costs would be different from one method or another, and from a customer service standpoint, it is illogical to offer a different payment method but fail to note that there may be a difference in shipping costs.  But again, my inquiry was not an attempt to blame your company.  I was simply looking for an explanation.

I was pleased to find your mini garbage pails at a reasonable price, without the high minimums required by other sites.  I would have been a repeat customer for that item about once a month, but you can be sure that with your customer service skills, I have no desire to use your company again.

I hope you are simply having a bad day and that the manner in which you handled this is not a pattern for how you treat your customers.

Respectfully,

Melissa Amaya

And their oh so nuanced response:

We don’t want your business.

We will not answer or reply to any more emails.

Your email address has been added to our spam filter.

They did refund the difference in shipping (it took them far less than the HOURS they claimed they would be spending to fix the problems that I caused).

All of that hostility over a misunderstanding.  All it required was an explanation and I would have done a face slap to myself and said, ‘stupid.’  I’ll gladly take that refund, but what I was looking for was a simple answer.  What a shame.

Am I delirious?  I’m still in a bit of shock that a company actually responded in this manner.  My business profs would surely have given them an F (well, more like a C since everything was graded on a curve).

YIKES.

Oh, and in case you want to avoid dealing with these people, the website is:

http://galvanizedpail.com/

 

 

MUST SEE DOCUMENTARY

We have a modern day holocaust going on in our country under the guise of ‘choice’.  I cannot recommend enough this 30-minute documentary.  For my pro-choice friends, please watch.  I am very interested to hear your opinions after watching.

 

 

No one is immune

We are all imitators.  It’s not a question of whether we imitate, but rather what we imitate.

I’ve had a vivid reminder of this lately with my 2-year-old son.  Part of our daily routine usually includes Go Fish Guys videos on youtube.  It didn’t take long before he began to mimic the fella in the way they sang the songs, danced or played their instruments.  It cracks me up watching him praise the Lord so enthusiastically due to these videos.  In this case, he is imitating good things, holy things, pure things.

Fireproof has become a favorite movie for my kids lately.  They all like the firefighter action, my son especially.  He has begun quoting the movie, ‘never leave your partner behind, ‘specially in fires.’  Well, he does his best.  And mimicking Caleb.

I have a small garbage pail outside our front door to house the ‘stinky diapers’ because I grew tired of our house and then our garage always smelling wretched.  One day as we were getting ready to go somewhere, he was outside throwing the garbage pail against the wall, and then picking up the diapers and putting them back in.  I corrected him, letting him know that was not okay.  It took a few times of this happening before my daughter explained that he was copying Caleb.  Ah, that makes perfect sense.  But uh-oh, he had picked up that behavior too.

Both of these stories have showed me how my children can be so easily influenced by what they see and hear, but it isn’t just kids.

How many of us adults think that we are free from being influenced by the culture?  That we are so spiritual to think that outside stimuli do not effect us?  I would like to believe this, but I know better.

My husband is a restaurant cook, so when Hell’s Kitchen came out a few years ago, he couldn’t wait to tune in each week.  Gordon Ramsey was entertaining, to say the least, and it was neat to watch the action of the kitchen, so I would often tune in with him.  But a few weeks later I noticed I was growing more impatient with my kids.  I realized that I had adopted a few of the mannerisms of Gordon Ramsey.  For anyone familiar with him or the show, that isn’t really a good thing.  More than once I barked at them like Ramsey did on the show, except these weren’t contestants, they were my children, little gifts from God.  I wish I was above being so influenced, but I am not, so I have chosen to tune-out from this particular show.

We are either growing more like Christ or growing away from Him.  We are either imitating our Heavenly Father or Satan.  There really is no middle ground.  There are plenty of outside influences that we simply cannot avoid each and every day. Unwholesome billboards that we have to drive by, cursing coworkers who talk about  their latest sexually immoral fling, etc.  As Christians we are to guard our minds.  We are to renew our minds.  Not with the latest sitcom, but with the Word of Christ.  We are to dwell on that Word richly.

So my brothers and sisters, by what are you being most influenced today?  Who are what are you most imitating today?  Is it your Savior, or something else?

 

Learning to say “YES”

So often we women try to conquer the world and say ‘yes’ to every request brought to us.  As a result we over commit and stress out.  Creating healthy boundaries and learning to say ‘no’ to things without feeling guilty is an important lesson for us of all.  In the past few weeks, however, I have realized that I need to learn to say ‘yes’ more often…’yes’ to my kids.

Just as ‘yes’ can become the default answer to requests of my time, ‘no’ has become my default answer to my kids.  Saying ‘no’ is simply easier than actually giving the request some thought.

“Mom, can I…”    without even thinking, ‘no’ just rolls off my lips.

If I just say no, then I don’t have to think.  If I just say no, then there will likely be less to clean up later.  No is easier.  But not always right.

There will come a time when my children realize that it is easier to ask forgiveness than ask permission.  There will come a time when they realize that mom is often to busy to actually listen to their simple requests, too busy (read: too selfish) to consider their desires.  I do not want to reach that point.

Similar to the 10-minute rule I’ve recently implemented to combat the same tendency, I’m also [slowly] learning to pause for a few seconds before answer their little requests.  I am trying to give myself enough time to actually HEAR them and to actually consider what they are asking.

Just this morning I heard, ‘Mom, can I play with your flashlight.’

‘No’ flew out of my mouth so quickly.  What about the battery she’ll be wasting? (as if I can’t just get new batteries when needed).  What about the fight that may ensue as the others want a flashlight too? (what an opportunity to teach all of them about sharing, and about coveting.  Another opportunity to preach the Gospel to them).

So after I said no, I reconsidered.  I asked her what she wanted my flashlight for.   She simply wanted to play with it.  No harm there and I’m sure it was fun.

 

A glimpse into the future

I think I may have just gotten a glimpse into the future, 15-years or so down the road.

My 3 older are playing outside.  Two are coloring on the easel and my oldest is driving around in her little fisher-price buggy.  She came up to the screen door, her poofy pink purse on her arm, to let me know that she is ‘heading out to Costco to order her tires.’ With a smile and a wave she said, ‘bye mom, I’ll be back later.’

15 years from now, when she is driving around in a real car, I may experience some déjà vu.  This time she may be really taking that car to Costco.  And I will think back, ‘I remember when she said that to me in our backyard with her toy car…boy, does time fly.’

 

Growing them to be adults – apologies (part 2)

continued from Tuesday.

It starts with Mama modeling it.  With me kneeling before them after I’ve lost my temper and yelled, saying, ‘I am sorry.  I lost my temper with you and that is not okay.  Will you forgive me?’  I have had to do that more than once.

The great thing about kids is that they are so ready to forgive.  I have never had my child say no to that request.  In fact, they are so quick to say yes, I sometimes don’t even finish my apology.

The next thing is helping them realize their own guilt in conflict.  When one while intentionally offends another, they need to recognize that as wrong.  When one brother wallops his sister, he needs to recognize that as wrong.  We all have that God-given conscience inside of us, and a child’s conscience is often very tender.  Our job is to keep it tender.  To keep them in-tune with that ‘alert system’ that tells them when they have sinned.  Unless they can recognize that hitting is wrong or being mean is wrong, any attempt as an apology is pointless.

Once they can recognize that, I will again walk them through.  My end goal isn’t that they will mimic what Mommy says all the time.  My goal is that they will eventually take the initiative to reconcile with brothers and sisters, and mom and dad, and others, without prompting. But while they are young, and while they are being training, I need to help them know what to say.  They have full license to change the words to their own, as long as the meaning is the same.

So, brother wallops sister on the head with a car — true scenario.  Here is how that conversation might go.

Me to brother: “Alexander, your job as the big brother is to protect your sister, not to hurt her.  Right?”

Alexander: ‘yes. I protect her.’  (his actual words 😉

Me: ‘were you protecting her or hurting her when you hit her?’

Alexander: ‘i protect her.’  (I then give him the right answer and remind him that hitting his sister is not protecting).

Me: ‘hitting your sister is not kind.  God wants us to be kind. What do you need to say to her?’

Alexander: in his ever so sweet voice “I sorry Annabella”

Me: ‘What else do you need to say to her?’

Alexander: ‘will you forgive me?’  If he doesn’t remember this second part, I will remind him.

Me – to Annabella: ‘what do you say?’

Annabella to Alexander: ‘I forgive you.’

It’s important for both sides to be there.  The humbled offender seeking forgiveness, and the humble offended granting forgiveness.

It doesn’t always go this smoothly.  Rarely does the offended refuse to extend forgiveness.  More likely, it is the offender whose heart is still hard not wanting to apologize.  I don’t make them.  I may later decide I’m wrong on this, but I remember being forced to ‘say you’re sorry’ when I really wasn’t sorry.  With a long term view in mind, the goal isn’t getting them to say the words in that moment.  The goal is that 10 years down the road they will say those words without prompting when they realize they have offended someone.

And just a postscript: for a long time, in my mind apologizing was really a chance to justify what I did.  ‘I’m sorry I called you a jerk, but you did….’  And really I was just justifying my sinful behavior.   That is not what I’m writing about here.  A true apology that seeks forgiveness is an owning up to ones sinful actions.  Taking responsibility.  Calling it what it is, specifically.  A proud heart seeks to justify.  A humble heart seeks forgiveness.  And we know that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

 

Growing them to be adults – apologies

Last week I wrote about how I am trying to teach my kids to handle conflict .  It was something that I never quite learned, and am not trying to learn as a 30-year-old mother of 4.  Yet, conflict is something we all deal with.

Part of conflict is learning how to make a proper apology.  Again, this is something I am just now learning, and boy oh boy, does my pride get in the way here!  To say the words, ‘I was wrong.  I am sorry. Will you forgive me?’ makes me quake in my boots (if I wore boots).  It is a vulnerable position to be in.  I am now at the mercy of that person.  My pride is stripped away, and I am left bare.

No wonder so few people know how to effectively offer an apology.

But, in order to keep short accounts with people, in order to have the deepest and closest relationships, we MUST learn to do this.

We have the silly notion that we should all just ‘forgive and forget’ everything.  Often the one claiming this is the offender who wants to be off the hook for any responsibility for his or her actions.  In my experience, ‘forgive and forget’ means, ‘let’s not address the issue.  Let’s just pretend nothing happened.’

True forgiveness is when the offense if addressed, the offender repents and THEN the offended extends forgiveness.  That doesn’t mean they just forget that it happened, it means they no longer hold onto the incident.  They don’t use it as ammunition in the next conflict.  They don’t treat the offender with an attitude.  It is releasing the offender.

Now, my 5, 4, 2 year olds won’t understand all of that until they are older.  But, they can learn the mechanics of offering and receiving apologies.

It starts with Mama modeling it.  With me kneeling before them after I’ve lost my temper and yelled, saying, ‘I am sorry.  I lost my temper with you and that is not okay.  Will you forgive me?’  I have had to do that more than once.

The great thing about kids is that they are so ready to forgive.  I have never had my child say no to that request.  In fact, they are so quick to say yes, I sometimes don’t even finish my apology.

stayed tuned for part 2.

 

Growing them to be adults – dealing with conflict

In the day to day battle of motherhood, it can often be difficult to keep that long term perspective that we all know we should have.  We see each battle in front of us and forget that it’s the overall war (so to speak) that is at stake.  It’s the person they will become in 10, 15, 20 years, not just the monster we see in front of us at that particular moment.

Being a mommy is HARD WORK.

And no matter how hard we try, we all have gaps in our parenting.  Blind spots that will surely appear later in life when they undergo counseling to fix all the things we messed up.

For me, it seems that I often focus the most on the areas in which I personally feel the weakest.   One of those areas is in dealing with conflict.

To say that I do a poor job of dealing with conflict is an understatement.  More accurately, I run from conflict.  I don’t like confrontation.  And on the flip side, if I am pushed into confrontation, it usually gets ugly.

As a result of my own dysfunction is this area, I have been very intentional in trying to walk my children through things like, how to disagree with a sibling (or even with mom and dad) respectfully, how to properly apologize and then [gasp] ask for forgiveness, how to be graceful when others are unkind to you and you really wanna sock ’em one.

All of these things are hard.  The idea of saying, ‘I am sorry.  I was wrong. Would you forgive me?’ was foreign to me up till a few years ago.  We never said that in my family growing up.  The best I ever recall doing in this arena was a snarky, “I’m sorry” simply to fulfill the requirements set by one of my folks.  But just because I said the words, it didn’t mean I was sincere.

So with my kids, I will often walk them through their conflicts, re-playing what happened, and showing each of them what they could have done differently.

For example, (hypothetically of course), child #1 simultaneously grabs her coloring book out of #2 hands saying, ‘HEY. THAT’S MINE.’  #2 responds by holding onto the book.  A tug of war ensues.

I will replay the scenario with them.   First, I address that #2 should not have taken the book without first asking permission.  Then we go back: when #1 sees the book, instead of grabbing I have her say, ‘That is my book, can I please have it?’  I then have #2 respond by saying, ‘here you go’ and nicely hand it to the sibling.

It doesn’t always go so smoothly, but sometimes it does.  Sometimes I have to make #2 pick up the book, and try again to hand it nicely.  Sometimes the words come out with  hint of attitude.  But overall, it has worked well.

I do the same things when the offense requires an, ‘I am sorry.  Will you forgive me.’

My kids are far from perfect, just like their sinful mama.  But, by God’s grace, I am seeing some amazing things in them and between them.  I am seeing spontaneous apologizes.  I am seeing times when they handle the conflict the right way.  I am seeing a tenderness between all of them that is so sweet and warms my soul.

I do not know where my blind spots are as a parent.  When my kids have kids, those blind spots may become more evident.  But I am grateful to God for the inadequacies that I do see in myself, and for His grace in hopefully not passing those on to my precious children.

 

Humor is powerful

Who doesn’t appreciate a good sense of humor?  Who doesn’t enjoy a good, hearty laugh.  Who doesn’t envy (at least just a little bit) the guy or gal who has that quick wit?  I know I do.

Humor is powerful.  Humor is a gift from God.  Humor can be amazingly effective it diffuse tense situations – especially as a mom.

I am (slowly) learning to effectively implement humor in ways that bring correction without escalating the situation.

Just a few minutes ago at lunch today my girls were sitting next to each other.  Annabella whines, “Abigail just wiped spit on me.”  I looked at Abigail and could tell she was guilty of something, but it isn’t like her to wipe spit – Annabella would be more likely the culprit of that crime.  Abigail confirmed that she did not wipe spit on her sister, it was sauce.  [ahh, much better.  sauce]

What to do?  It was all in good fun, kind of.  Abigail knows better.  No one is hurt.  No one is crying.  Abigail was unkind, Annabella is prone to get upset easily and could quickly turn to crying.  The offense does need to be addressed, but how?

“That’s so she can eat you later when your sleeping.”

Smiles all around.  Annabella – the offended – laughs.  Abigail’s guilty/scared face fades away as she sees that Mama isn’t going to berate her, and she smiles.  Even the 2-year-old thought it was quite funny.

With everyone laughing, I’m able to remind Abigail that she wasn’t kind (which she already knows).  She is able to hear and receive the correction without her pride getting in the way.  A melt-down is averted (always a good thing), and I get to pretend I’m so witty for a few moments.

Problem solved.

 

 

 

Weekend retreat…kind of

For the first time in over 5 years I will have more than a few hours to myself…well, mostly to myself. Our youngest (4 months) will be with me, but even still, I’m excited.  A good friend from my Penn days is getting married this weekend, and I will be flying down to NC (along with 4-month-old Austin) to be there for the event.  I am super-duper excited for her wedding, and for my time away.

Initially it was going to be a lovely romantic getaway for hubby and me, but he was not able to get off of work, so I’ll have to settle for a weekend away with the other man in my life.

As the days draw near my excitement grows.  I love my kids.  I love being home with them, watching them do their silly things, teaching them, playing with them, etc.  But I am very much looking forward to some time away, and thanks for a wonderful and brave friend who loves my children, and will be taking them for the weekend, I will have that time away.

3 days.  3 full days.  Enough time to catch my breath from the demands of being a mama, and probably enough time to be missing them like crazy, eager to get home.

At first there was a hint of guilt at the thought of leaving them behind…but I’m over that. I am hopeful that my mini-retreat will bring back a renewed and refreshed mama.