Old Town Terrible Customer service

[monstahfish]

Just some context here to consider, and I definitely have no stake in old town. At my company, during the shutdown we lost half our customer service staff and they didn't come back. On top of this, we also lost a bunch of people in production some of whom were very experienced and we can't make product fast enough because everyone is buying outdoor products like crazy right now. Now they are overwhelmed and everyone in the engineering team is having to step in and help with customer service calls and none of us have been authorized to do any replacements or anything like that, we have to send instructions back to the overworked customer service staff.
Point being, things are hard for everyone right now and we've gotten way too used to things being easy. With cases spiking again, expect things to get worse before they get better.

[Harry Hill]

Originally Posted by monstahfish

Just some context here to consider, and I definitely have no stake in old town. At my company, during the shutdown we lost half our customer service staff and they didn't come back. On top of this, we also lost a bunch of people in production some of whom were very experienced and we can't make product fast enough because everyone is buying outdoor products like crazy right now. Now they are overwhelmed and everyone in the engineering team is having to step in and help with customer service calls and none of us have been authorized to do any replacements or anything like that, we have to send instructions back to the overworked customer service staff.
Point being, things are hard for everyone right now and we've gotten way too used to things being easy. With cases spiking again, expect things to get worse before they get better.

Just excuses to me, the first person that was contacted, a young lady named Chasity would not respond to phone or e-mail, when I contacted a young man named Ken, he not only answered the phone but also forwarded everything to a manager, which prompted Chasity to finally respond. It took her three weeks to finally offer a resolution. Chasity might want to remember that there are a lot of people out of work who would be more than willing to do her job in a prompt and courteous manner. Product might be slower getting out but customer service should always be first and formost on a companies mind. I never accepted excuses from my employees when it came to keeping our customers satisfied.

[Hunters Pa]

Originally Posted by Harry Hill

Just excuses to me, the first person that was contacted, a young lady named Chasity would not respond to phone or e-mail, when I contacted a young man named Ken, he not only answered the phone but also forwarded everything to a manager, which prompted Chasity to finally respond. It took her three weeks to finally offer a resolution. Chasity might want to remember that there are a lot of people out of work who would be more than willing to do her job in a prompt and courteous manner. Product might be slower getting out but customer service should always be first and formost on a companies mind. I never accepted excuses from my employees when it came to keeping our customers satisfied.

I had the same issue with Traeger last year. Doesn't matter how great a product is, crappy customer service and unwillingness to support once a sale is made just sours the marketplace. Conversely, a good but not great product that comes with awesome support and customer service gains in the court of public opinion.

[domtesta27]

Originally Posted by monstahfish

Just some context here to consider, and I definitely have no stake in old town. At my company, during the shutdown we lost half our customer service staff and they didn't come back. On top of this, we also lost a bunch of people in production some of whom were very experienced and we can't make product fast enough because everyone is buying outdoor products like crazy right now. Now they are overwhelmed and everyone in the engineering team is having to step in and help with customer service calls and none of us have been authorized to do any replacements or anything like that, we have to send instructions back to the overworked customer service staff.
Point being, things are hard for everyone right now and we've gotten way too used to things being easy. With cases spiking again, expect things to get worse before they get better.

PREACH!!!!!!!!! As someone who has to deal with the public and with customer service this is spot on. I will also say that you catch far more flies with honey than vinegar, and when someone who is calm, collected, and polite needs help I will bend over backwards to do everything I can do to get a resolution. When you take the "vinegar" approach, I'm more than likely gonna drag my feet a little, and probably feed you a very corporate friendly line about our service level agreement, give you the max estimate on time, and then send ya on your merry way!

[Harry Hill]

Originally Posted by domtesta27

PREACH!!!!!!!!! As someone who has to deal with the public and with customer service this is spot on. I will also say that you catch far more flies with honey than vinegar, and when someone who is calm, collected, and polite needs help I will bend over backwards to do everything I can do to get a resolution. When you take the "vinegar" approach, I'm more than likely gonna drag my feet a little, and probably feed you a very corporate friendly line about our service level agreement, give you the max estimate on time, and then send ya on your merry way!

A good business is based on word of mouth reputation. If you take care of your customers they will come back and tell others about their experience with you. On the same hand bad customer service will eventually come back to haunt you. I managed an equipment rental yard for seven years and ran it like I owned it. If a customer had a problem I took care of it immediately and if I couldn't they didn't pay and got use of the equipment they needed as soon as their problem was taken care of without being charged. If I ever caught an employee ignoring customers they were looking for another job the next day. We either took care of our customers or our competitors would.

[Hunters Pa]

Originally Posted by domtesta27

PREACH!!!!!!!!! As someone who has to deal with the public and with customer service this is spot on. I will also say that you catch far more flies with honey than vinegar, and when someone who is calm, collected, and polite needs help I will bend over backwards to do everything I can do to get a resolution. When you take the "vinegar" approach, I'm more than likely gonna drag my feet a little, and probably feed you a very corporate friendly line about our service level agreement, give you the max estimate on time, and then send ya on your merry way!

Catching more flies with honey than with vinegar also goes for the companies trying to catch more customers. When the customer has paid in full and not received what is promised, given the run-around and had to spend too much time on the phone with a dozen people, AND had to burn vacation days for deliveries that don't happen when promised, AND customer has stayed civil the entire time then the company is flinging a lot more vinegar than honey. This was my experience with Traeger.


Sounds like Harry Hill tried to get resolution and was served up a plate of vinegar.

[jruiz]

I think what alot of people are facing are folk's working from home with little to no oversight from their bosses. Some folks hold their end of the bargain while others are taking advantage of the situation or are unable to perform at the same capacity because of the lack of available child care. My sister in law is an appointment clerk with a hospital. Folks that are performing at the same level are allowed to work from home indefinitely, underperformers are told to come back to the office. My 2 cents

ps-is that the same Chastity from the DMV? I kid

[SoCalEDC]

Originally Posted by jruiz

I think what alot of people are facing are folk's working from home with little to no oversight from their bosses. Some folks hold their end of the bargain while others are taking advantage of the situation or are unable to perform at the same capacity because of the lack of available child care. My sister in law is an appointment clerk with a hospital. Folks that are performing at the same level are allowed to work from home indefinitely, underperformers are told to come back to the office. My 2 cents

ps-is that the same Chastity from the DMV? I kid

This is a good observation and reflects some of the problems I have had with my vendors now that the majority of them are working from home. I have had to go directly to a sales manager or outside sales rep to get things done that should have been handled by inside sales people on numerous occasions.

[Harry Hill]

My wife finally got her replacement kayak yesterday. It all looks good. Not so much as a howdy or how is it from Old Town customer service. No, here is something for your trouble. Just another reason you should only deal with your local dealer and don't expect Old Town customer service to help you out much. It's a shame because on their website the tout how good their customer service is, obviously the bosses aren't watching their employees.