Question of the Day...........

QOD: What is so darn hard about customer service that many businesses get it all wrong?

Take 2 examples in my current life - one great experience had by me, overshadowed by a crappy one experienced by Mike.

Me? Well, I bought a sparkly crystal earring at a salon fundraiser back in the fall. I kept the card of the jewelrey designer because I happened to like her style. I broke one of the earrings and lost a teardrop sparkly piece in the process. One quick email to Janae of J.Jems and she was offering to fix my earring for FREE! What a great business owner - smart. Two weeks later, I've gotten an email that says my earrings are on their way back to me. Wow! I am one delighted customer.

Now read this email discourse between Mike and PartSTRAIN.......Never, never, NEVER, patronize this online part supply store...... here's why.

---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Mike<>>Date: Jul 11, 2007 4:05 PM
Subject: Re: Customer's Feedback on Partstrain
To: Winston Valdez <winston@usautoparts.com>

My experience with this was a complete pain in the xxx, compounded by the
terrible customer service experience. If you are indeed monitoring your calls for
quality purposes, feel free to listen to the conversation I had with Janet. She needs
to find a different line of work.

Then there's the issue of being on HOLD....

Then there's the issue of being misled: either Janet was lying about the order still being
processed nearly two full days later, or your system reply is wrong on BOTH sides of the
equation. The online system stated "in stock", and then I received a message that it was
out of stock after I cancelled the order.

In any event, I received the part from Kragen today with a cheerful smile and a better price.
It wasn't in stock, but was delivered to my local store the next day. The BS about this part
going by GROUND only was exactly that: BS. This part came in a box the size of a shoebox,
and didn't weigh 10 pounds.

Don't bother with the whopping 10% discount (that I'd have to call you personally to get, probably
after being put on hold) as I will NEVER buy from you and neither will anyone else that hears how
I was treated at partSTRAIN.

On 7/11/07, Winston Valdez < winston@usautoparts.com> wrote:

Dear Mr. Mike ,We regret that we were not able to process your order for overnightshipping which was indicated in our website. We are aware of the problem and we are currently working on our website www.partstrain.comin order to better indicate which items can be overnighted and which are not. Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience that this has caused you.In this regard, we are giving you a 10% discount on parts on your nextorder should you decide to give us a chance to serve you again. Please let me know by email when you have placed another order so that we can honor the discount.Furthermore, please be informed that your previous order has beencancelled and the refund processed.Thank you and have a nice day.
Winston Valdez
Sales & Customer Service Department
US Auto Parts Network
winston@usautoparts.com
800-541-2521 ext 109

-----Original Message-----From: PartsTrain [mailto: feedback@partstrain.com ]Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 5:56 PMSubject: Customer's Feedback on Partstrain
URLhttp://www.partstrain.com/
PAGE COMMENTS Comment Category : Other related feedback Comments :

I ordered an AC compressor and paid extra for the overnightshipping....and then found out late the next day that not only had it still not shipped, but that they could only send it GROUND. I could expect it in 7-10 business days!Janet in customer service was surly at best, while Jason the salessupervisor was apologetic....but unable to help. I found the same part at my local Kragen for a net lower price. QUESTIONSDid you accomplish what you wanted to do on this page? NoIf you did not accomplish what you wanted, please tell us why. Would you recommend this site to a friend? NoIf you would like a response, please enter your email address