We can all agree that the period since September 2008 has been rough for everyone. Yes, it can be difficult to put your best foot forward when you’re going through hard times. But seriously, folks.
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Since the recession began, one or another of our family members has gotten married, bought and furnished a home, had a baby, sent a child off to college, started a new business, and experienced major storm damage to the roof of a home. As a result we’ve dealt with lots of different retail stores, service providers, contractors, suppliers, and the like. In those dealings, we’ve noticed a peculiar pattern. Our customer experience has frequently been bad. Unusually bad. As in: the worst since your humble columnists first became adult consumers some 30 years ago. These experiences were not merely disappointing and frustrating, but surprising — given that this is when you might think companies would gladly go the extra mile to secure scarce revenues.
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What exactly do we mean by bad?
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— How about the carpet store that never returned the six calls we made? The message we left each time was: We’d like to place our $5,000 order now.
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— The home improvement store that refused to let us take home a second tile sample within a 7-day period? We had bought $3,000 worth of tile after taking home the first sample.
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— The 1:40 delivery time — a full 60 minutes beyond the promised delivery time — from our (formerly) favorite pizza chain? This experience was enhanced by our being told every 20 minutes that the driver had left the store 15 minutes ago and should be there any minute. The delivery driver’s explanation when he finally arrived: Well, we’re busy tonight.
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— The brochure printer who said it was just too hard to accurately match the colors in…