Bob Pringle

I think that good service from a parts supplier should be recognized.

I ordered two cassettes from Excel Sports on Feb. 6. When they hadn't arrived by Feb. 22, I called Excel and explained the problem. I was promised prompt resolution. On Sunday afternoon (!), Feb. 24, I received an email explaining that my cassettes had mistakenly been combined with another customer's order, and that two new cassettes would be shipped to me the following day via overnight service. Sure enough, by noon on Tuesday, Feb. 26, the cassettes were on my doorstep. Needless to say I'm very pleased with their customer service!

Regards,
Bob P.

bcart1991

Good on them.

Coyote2

Good customer service means, to me, that I make an order and a short time later my merchandise arrives on my doorstep without hassles and delays. You had to contact them and wait almost three weeks for a simple order to arrive.

HAMMER MAN

I have ordered from excel for years and never any problems,and yes their C.S. is outstanding.

Bobby Lex

Oh c'mon.

Everybody is human. Good customer service doesn't require that a company be perfect. It simply means that customer concerns are dealt with courteously, attentively, quickly, and to the customer's reasonable satisfaction.

In my experience Excel's customer service has always been great!

Bob

Coyote2

That's been my experience, too. But I think it is a sad state of affairs when they are praised for "good customer service" after shipping this guy's parts to the wrong customer. If that's good customer service, then I wonder what you would consider to be "bad" customer service?

Hobartlemagne 

NO- he waited 3 weeks, and THEN contacted them.

j0e_bik3

I disagree,......

famous nordstroms customer service story:
an old man (over 80) walked into nordstroms and asked to speak to the returns department manager.
once the customer service manager met the old man, the old man told the manager that he had purchased 80,000 mile radial tires from nordstroms, and that he had only 40,000 miles on them, and the threads were showing,...without batting an eyelash, the returns manager, told the customer that the situation would be taken care of,
the customer was driven home, and the tires were replaced with new ones at no cost to the customer, and then the vehicle was delivered back to the customer with a sincere apology.

Nordstrom's does NOT sell tires.
but rather than upset a nice old (albeit confused) man, the "customer service manager" decided to do just that, give the customer some service.

nordstroms is so proud of this true story, they have it in the new employee handbook (wife used to work for them)

GOOD customer service is exactly what the OP described,...what you described is order and timely delivery, which takes ORGANIZATION, but it could be done with nearly NO human input,.......and thats not service. (imo)

Cyclist0383

Bad customer service would be telling him they'd look into it, getting back to him a few days later, and sending out the parts ground.

Wordbiker

It's also apparently a famous Home Depot story, and Nordstrom's has historically denied and reclaimed the story back and forth, and told it in so many variations without any real confirmation that it's true.

https://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/nordstrom.asp

I wonder if the person that received the extra cassettes called Excel to complain...

Coyote2

Yes, I too find the Nordstrom's story pretty hard to believe, and there seems to be some question of its validity. If it is true, I find it laughable -- not some example of good customer service -- to be good customer service, the old man would have to actually be a customer. If I were the service manager's supervisor we would be having quite a discussion about giving refunds to people who've not purchased the items in our store.

This all reminds me of the kudos heaped on John Neugent (owner of Neuvation wheels) over at the Road Forum, where people praise his great customer service. Many of his customers report significant (and sometimes catastrophic) failures with his wheels, sometimes multiple problems, and they all praise his service because he cheerfully and quickly sends out new parts and/or new wheels. But unless Neugent will pick me up on the roadside when my Neuvation wheel self-destructs (yep, happened to me three times), I'm not too impressed with him. I AM impressed with stores that promptly and competently deliver products which function properly.

masiman

I hope to have Coyote2 as the company rep I have to speak with next time I have a problem with a product .

Coyote2

Why would you worry? My assertion is that (1) I would not refund money to someone who had not purchased anything from me, and (2) I think good customer service starts with selling a good product and delivering it to the paying customer rather than to a random non-payer.

What objections can possibly be raised?

Wordbiker

I can't think of any business model that could be sustained when no warranty or issue is ever refused, even if the customer didn't purchase anything.

Barabaika

Do you know if Costco still has 1-year return policy on everything?

People abuse it.
Once my friend returned there an older model DVD-player in working condition in order to get a newer one that was cheaper.

masiman

Exactly the point, nothing about satisfying the customer after a problem arises. And I think that is the point others were trying to make about what defines customer service. Any schmo can sell a product to someone, heck they even have machines that do that, literally .

Everything you have written points to a bean counter. At the end of the day bean counting keeps the business running but I suspect you would need a front person in your operations. Someone to put a nice face on that storefront. Someone with charisma and personality. I'm not saying that there are not customers out there that would like your manner. It's just that there are very few markets I know where standoffish attitudes are good for sales.

I think if I had you on the other end, I would have less chance of getting satisfaction. To the customer, that is all that matters.