My Worst Customer Service Experience

My worst customer service experience happened recently when I bought a round, 10-foot, solid wood, vintage Herman Miller table from eBay. It normally retails for $2,000-3,000, but I was able to get it for a lot less. The sale was contingent on my picking up the table, but the seller agreed that if I arranged for shipping, he’d be there when movers came.

I immediately called a freight broker, FreightCenter.com, who said they could arrange shipping for $780. They took my credit card information, and said it would probably take a couple of weeks to contract it out, due to the table’s large size and unusual nature, unlike most of their business.

After two weeks of not hearing anything, I called FreightCenter.com. They said a mover would contact me within two weeks. After two weeks without word, I called them to cancel the order. They agreed, subject to a 20% re-stocking fee, which I thought was excessive. Ten minutes later, a mover called to schedule pickup. I assumed that my table was in transit, but after ten days, I called to ask where the table was. I was told the moving company had no online tracking service and was closed for the day, but that they’d find my table and call me back.

After three days of not hearing anything, I called FreightCenter.com, who gave me the name of the mover. When I called them, the mover said they were unable to pick up my table because the seller failed to show. I spent a week trying to contact the seller, to no avail. When I called eBay to cancel the transaction, I found that I had exceeded by one day the 40–day complaint filing limit.

Since an eBay customer service phone number was not available, I found their obscure online chat feature and after an hour, I was told to call a phone number that would expire if not dialed within ten minutes. After talking for three hours, my request was declined and I was told to file a Paypal complaint. Paypal, owned by eBay, has the same 40-day limit, and its customer service representative hung up on me.

I then cancelled FreightCenter.com’s shipping order, citing their failure to inform me of any of the steps of the pickup and delivery process. FreightCenter.com denied informing responsibility, and I had to fight this one out.

It took six weeks to get my refund, because I refused to pay the restocking fee. Afterward, I contacted another company, Hernia Movers, whose representatives helped contact the seller, picked up and shipped the table. I received it in 5 days –after an infuriating three-month delay.

I am no longer a fan of eBay or Paypal, and will not use FreightCenter.com ever again, mostly because none of them have any kind of plan for extenuating circumstances.

These firms have become successful by streamlining their processes for normal, uncomplicated, high-volume transactions with fast turnover, which is fine 99% of the time. But they don’t plan for exceptions, nor invest resources in processes for handling them.

This becomes a problem when the customer has an exception, (e.g., cannot pick up furniture, has an unusual item to ship or personalized information expectations). But if they don’t learn to deal with these exceptions, they’ll soon earn a reputation for poor customer service, whether it’s warranted or not.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 7 Rules Of Success On eBay! (marketersdaily.com)